Mangrove mulching on Tauranga harbour is taking three times longer than expected, forcing Environment BOP to seek an extension to its resource consent.
The conditions of the consent require Environment BOP to cease mangrove removal between August and January to avoid impacts on nesting birds, but the regional council now wants to continue mangrove removal into August.

The mangrove mulcher.

The extension will give the contractor time to mulch all but the largest and last mangrove site this year, leaving the 11 hectare Morton Prestige to be mulched from January 2011. This is expected to take 5-7 weeks to mulch.

Environment BOP was told about the delays at a recent committee meeting.
The mangrove mulching machinery took about 10 hours to clear one hectare of mangroves, compared with the three hours originally estimated by the contractor.
"To date we've removed approximately 40 hectares of mangroves, which is just more than half the total area to be removed," says estuary care officer Baden Rowson.
"This means with the current rate of progress we hope to get all but one of our 11 sites finished before the end of the year, but it will be tight."
Mechanical mangrove removal seems to be causing little or no effect beyond the management site itself and these effects continue to be contained three months after the work has been completed, says Baden.
The mulch is remaining onsite even during heavy rain, allaying concerns it might have rafted up, smothering parts of the estuary.

Environment BOP has resource consent to mechanically remove up to 92 hectares of mangroves from Tauranga harbour. The mechanical removal is for areas that are already consented for removal by the 10 estuary care groups across Tauranga.
"Overall we're extremely impressed with how the removal has been carried out," says Environment BOP Chairman John Cronin.
"We've had similar feedback from the community which has also pleased us."
A set of criteria will be developed to assist in identifying additional areas where mangrove removal might take place under existing rules.