Auckland's One Tree Hill will have a tree on its peak again - 15 years after the old pine was removed.
The announcement was made by Auckland Council at 1pm today on One Tree Hill.
The 125-year-old Monterey pine was removed in 2000 after it became unsafe following chainsaw attacks in 1994 and 1999.
Local iwi had blocked plans to replace the tree until they reached a Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Crown.
In 1994, Maori activist Mike Smith took a chainsaw to the lone pine out of frustration over the Government limiting Maori Treaty settlements to $1 billion.
He was arrested for "interfering with a tree without resource consent" and convicted and sentenced to nine month's periodic detention.
Relatives of Smith's then attacked the tree with a chainsaw in 1999.
The chainsaw used in the first attack was put up for sale on auction site Trade Me in 2007, but later withdrawn after complaints.
The first native tree planted on the 182m volcanic peak was cut down by settlers in the 1850s. Sir John Logan Campbell replanted a totara and pine trees but only one pine survived.
