Conservationists are considering taking legal action to stop landowners planting Douglas fir plantations on the Lammermoor Range.
The plantations for carbon credits are on a private farm at the site of Meridian Energy’s planned Project Hayes wind farm which was cancelled after the Environment Court ruled the area was a nationally important landscape.
Wilding trees – mostly pines and firs – are a significant problem in several areas of the South Island high country and the conservationists’ concern is understandable. But if plantations are surrounded by a buffer zone of other trees and grazing land there should be little risk of seeds blowing on to conservation areas.
The landowners have already gone through years in limbo waiting for the lengthy process which preceded the decision to can plans for the wind farm. Now they might face more expense and delays through court action.
But at least these conservationists are proposing to take the legal way and not talking about vigilante tactics as others concerned about Douglas Firs did last month.
If we value our open grasslands as a landscape then any further introduction of any of the “wilding pines” is a disaster.
Any talk of buffer zones is bovine excrement.
Unless the planters accept ANY transmission of seed as their responsibility then they shoudn’t plant.
When the whahine storm battered this country in the latter half of last century, c 1968, that event and its seasonal timing dumped corsican pine, douglas fir, contorta and radiata pine seed from autumn opening cones in the Hanmer forest along the Amuri Range some 10/20 kms to the south east.
My family farm has remained clear of the invading trees due to exceptional hard work eliminating seedlings before they set and release seed. It is the only property on the range that includes a dozen holdings that remains largely clear.
The government has never accepted any responsibility for the invasion and now with the ETS rort the properties that are choked with trees can now generate “carbon credits” for the otherwise uneconomic land infested with otherwise useless weeds that completely choke the land for ANY other use.
Just take a look at Mt Cook Station and you will see what the rest of the Mckenzie Basin will be in another 100 years as the scattered plantations spread.
If reforestation of our iconic tussock grasslands is acceptable then plant the weeds but please accept the risk is not if but when and dont promulgate the falsehood that “buffer zones” implies.
Had an interesting address from a Mr Hamilton when we attended a NZMCA rally at Arrowtown for the annual autumn festival and he informed us of the battle being waged to keep what I see as a major part of the lakes district hill landscape free of invading wilding pines.The country he was referring to ran from Coronet round behind Arrowtown to the north.
I say an emphatic no to planting Douglas Fir or any other of the Wilding Pines anywhere in our SI high-country.
I vowed not to comment here, but Gravedodger is right!~ How can I not support his finest hour?
This is proof that almost everyone has some common ground.
When people who usually have opposing views agree, it pays to take what they say seriously.
I have claimed before Robert, we have more in common than our dueling might suggest. Probably about process more than outcomes.
Thanks for making the effort to support my view, ta
Good to know you are OK, your absence had me wondering, as I had a major run in with flue recently that had me wondering if the Dr or the man in the morning suit was next to call.
I was glad that the doc won out. Havn’t been that crook since Leptospirosis some 20 years ago.
Cheers Murray.