Kauri dieback is at critical levels and one environmentalist is predicting the species will vanish within our lifetimes.
It's more than just a tree that's at stake - it's an important part of our history which could be missing from our future.
The fungus-like disease known as kauri dieback is spreading faster and there's still no cure.
In the Waitakere Ranges, disease rates more than doubles over five years while in places like Piha, 60 percent of trees are infected.
A few hundred years ago, it's estimated there were a million hectares of kauri in Aotearoa. There's now just 1 percent of that.
Currently the Ministry for Primary Industries is spending $26 million to stop the spread of dieback, which often happens when contaminated soil is carried on shoes, tyres, and equipment.
But environmentalist Dr Mels Barton told Three's The Project it may not be enough.
"It's pretty simple maths if you look at the spread of the infection in the Waitakere Ranges alone, and since MPI don't actually monitor the rest of the country, they've got no idea what the infection rate is like there," she said.
"I'd say [the kauri will be gone] within our lifetime easily, or maybe within 20 years."
Dr Barton isn't sympathetic to MPI's claims that there's not enough money being invested in the kauri.
"Poor MPI, they've only had $26 million to do this with," she said sarcastically.
"I really don't take that as an excuse. They don't know how to talk to communities, they don't know how to engage with people.
"If they were doing such a good job, how come we're seeing the spread increase so much?"
Kauri are important as a "keystone species", with a number of other species depending on them for their own survival, Dr Barton said. If the kauri go, the others are put at risk.
"We nearly lost these trees once before by logging, and we're killing by walking this disease around on feet," Dr Barton said.
"We need to own that we are spreading this disease. We are doing this."
Dr Barton wants people to pay attention when walking in bush and make sure they clean their feet and shoes frequently.
Her other solution to the spread of die-back is to get rid of MPI, which she says is "missing in action".
"New Zealanders, do you want to kill kauri? I don't want to kill kauri."
Newshub.
