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Taming the spread of wilding pine
Pest Trapping
PROJECT DE-VINE
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You might have noticed the wilding pines on slopes of properties adjoining the boundaries of Abel Tasman (ATNP)and Kahurangi National Parks (KNP). Well, you are not the only one. Kim Jamieson, a teacher at Collingwood Area School, has been teaching her class about the environmental problems caused by the exotic trees. "I now see wilding pines everywhere I look, as I had no idea how widespread they were," says Kim. Her students recently went on a field trip to look at a block of ex-pine plantation land in Ligar Bay being cleared of wilding seedlings in order to allow native trees to take over. The trip was run by Chris Rowse from Project De-Vine Environmental Trust (PDVET) and Richard Struthers from Friends of East Mohua, who pointed out how little other vegetation grows under the fast-growing wilding pines. The students were also shown the dead pines at Clifton, a result of last year’s drilling and poisoning control work. Following the trip, members of the class are currently making a video about what they saw, while others are creating a brochure to help educate others.
PDVET is just starting a second year of drilling control aimed at creating a wilding pine-free escarpment from Birds Road to Rameka, and on the western side of the Tākaka valley. On the eastern side, in ATNP, Project Janszoon have cleared or drilled all the wilding pines in the park.
As was explained to the students, PDVET analysed satellite images of the halo areas of ATNP and KNP in Golden Bay to plan their control work. Over 9,000 pines were identified on 198 properties throughout the Bay and covering 14,500ha. The PDVET team contacted landowners inside the project area between Tukurua and Wainui, and worked with some of them.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of future government funding, the current work is the last for the time being so PDVET will be looking for other sources of funding. Some landowners, however, have co-shared the cost of the control work or are dealing with the seedlings themselves.
