Please support our legal fight to save hundreds of trees at Otahuhu Mt Richmond.

$10,342 of $45,000 goal
Given by 44 generous donors in 4 weeks

We are a grassroots community group fighting to stop the felling of nearly 300 exotic trees at our local Maunga.

Otahuhu, Auckland

Our community group is fighting to stop ratepayer-funded Tupuna Maunga Authority from reinstating a resource consent to fell nearly 300 trees at our local Maunga (volcanic cone) just because they're non-native. In 2023, local woman Shirley Waru crowd-funded a judicial review that cancelled the Authority's resource-consent but they are playing hard-ball and are appealing the decision. The Authority wants to rid Auckland's Maunga of all exotic trees so winning the court battle will help set a precedent for other Maunga.

Otahuhu has Auckland's lowest level of tree cover so we need every tree! We are ordinary everyday people who don't have deep pockets, so need your help to fight the appeal, which is being heard in the Court of Appeal in Wellington on 15 April.

In all we are hoping to raise $45000.00 to cover the costs.

Every dollar counts so please donate to help Shirley save these beautiful trees.

Previous page https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/savethetreesatmtrichmondotahuhu

Use of funds

Legal fees to fund a Court of Appeal claim initiated by Tupuna Maunga Authority, to overturn the High Court's decision which quashed the resource consent to fell 278 trees.

Any surplus funds donated will be used for a similar environmental cause.

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Latest update

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First invoice for our Legal costs received.  2 April 2026

Hi all, we received our first invoice this week for legal costs towards our Court of Appeal hearing on 15 April, 2 weeks away. The invoice is $8,100.00 which is part payment of the expected overall cost of $45000.00

I applied to Givealittle for an early payment to enable us to pay the invoice immediately. Our request was approved very quickly, thank you to the finance team at Givealittle for responding so fast! As soon as the funds land in our account the invoice will be paid immediately. Many thanks to our treasurer Karen McCraw for handling all of our legal payments to our barrister.

Thank you to all who have donated since I launched our Court of Appeal crowdfund a couple of weeks ago. We couldn't have made this payment without your generous donations.

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On average, fundraisers pay just 2% to use Givealittle. This is one of the lowest effective fees in New Zealand fundraising. We charge a 5% platform fee to cover the cost of running the platform. Because most donors choose to top up their donation to cover this fee, the effective cost paid by fundraisers is about 2%. That means around 98 cents of every dollar raised goes to the cause. Learn More

Latest donations

Pip
Pip 3 days ago
$10
Forrest
Forrest 3 days ago
Mt Richmond and its established green spaces are a jewel in this area and should be preserved for people to enjoy. Huge respect to the community here for continuing to support preservation of this wonderful asset.
$200
Helen
Helen 4 days ago
Private
Fiona
Fiona 4 days ago
Private
Rose
Rose 5 days ago
Yes save all the maunga trees!
$49.98

Who's involved?

Respect Mount Richmond Otahuhu's avatar
Created by, and paying to a verified bank account of, Respect Mount Richmond Otahuhu (Group)
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This campaign started on 16 Mar 2026 and ends on 16 Mar 2027.