News
21
21
FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – October 3, 2022
Aerial view opens eyes to wilding scale Joanna Grigg
NEWS
Forestry
A
N AMBITIOUS field trip was the centrepiece of the Wilding Pines Conference, held in Marlborough recently, when helicopters took delegates including politicians and government policy makers into what is considered one of the worst wilding pine invasions in New Zealand – the BranchLeatham. This upper Wairau Valley infestation is far from roadside traffic and farm activity but, like the Lord of the Rings’ Mordor, is the epicentre of trouble.
It was a big surprise to find Contorta here and highlighted the risk – seeds can fly an exceptional distance, up to 30km. Steve Satterthwaite South Marlborough Landscape Restoration Trust What were initially government erosion-control trials, with planting starting in the 1950s, have become a 52,000ha source of coning. Downwind is the upper Awatere Valley, including Molesworth. Trees have climbed to a height similar to the neighbouring Rainbow ski-field, covering indigenous alpine rock lands and smothering bush. Steve Satterthwaite of Muller Station, and a trustee of the South Marlborough Landscape
Restoration Trust, said the flowon effects of the infestation are huge, as the wind funnel effects take seed as far afield as Kaikōura. Over 80,000ha of pastoral land in the Awatere Valley has had to be controlled for scattered Radiata pine, including 30 sites of Contorta pines. This was managed by the trust. Satterthwaite said more than $12 million had been spent in Molesworth over three years. “It was a big surprise to find Contorta here and highlighted the risk – seeds can fly an exceptional distance, up to 30km, and this puts the whole inland Kaikōura at risk.” “We fear that the good control work will be undone.” Stuart Smith, MP for Marlborough, took the 15-minute flight at the field day, and said the view was sobering. “It did shock me. It’s a huge job.” Johnny Oswald, chair of the trust, which spearheads wilding work in Marlborough, said the site has not had government funding but the trust did secure funding of $450,000 from the Rata Foundation and $100,00 from the Department of Conservation (DOC), from the sale of harvested logs. He said the Branch-Leatham is a 50-year project and the stop-start nature of the three-year funding cycle is far too short term. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) “suggests we are 70% through the national infestations programme, but the Branch-Leatham is not even on it, and it’s far worse, it’s steep and inaccessible and has the worst type of conifer. To not have it on the programme seems hard to understand.”
HERE COMES THE CHOPPER: A helicopter trip over the epicentre of NZ’s wilding problem was the centrepiece of the Wilding Pines Conference in Marlborough in late September. DOC, MPI and councils have put it in the too-hard basket for 50 years, he said. He said the $450,000 will be used by the trust to tackle scattered infestations on the western side and they hope to pull it back by 10,000ha. “This is one ridge away from Nelson National Park.” Volunteers have been working on the site. Oswald said they have done an amazing job in the Lost Basin, considering it’s an eight-
hour walk-in and only has one tiny bivvy. “There are very few alpine basins in Marlborough and we want to protect these stunningly beautiful spots.” He said that people from other wilding-infested areas who toured the site got out of the helicopters saying they have seen nothing like it. Government funding in Marlborough has been focused in the Awatere and, more recently,
the coastal indigenous bush and farmland around The Ned/Te Hau. Landowners also funded the work. The Ned was a conference field trip location, as was the Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough Sounds.
MORE:
A link to the Wilding Pines Conference helicopter tour of the Branch/Leatham, is available at WPN conference 2022 Google Drive
No carrot, no stick in regs
PINE GAP: At the Wilding Pines Conference, consultant Tamsin Page outlined gaps in forest management regulations.
THE suitability of the Wilding Pine Calculator and the regulations controlling its use are being reviewed by Te Uru Rakau/NZ Forest Service. The findings were shared at the Wilding Pines Conference and included a call to build climate change effects into the calculator and to bring in peer review when risks are at the cusp of being too high. Alongside the government review, The Wilding Pines Network has taken its own wider look at regulations governing forestry. This was to see if the regulation framework is good enough to stop new spread and protect the control already done. The verdict is that it’s not. Tamsin Page, the consultant/ planner contracted to do the review, said there is one obvious gap in the regulations: when forests are replanted, there is
no requirement that the risk for wilding be assessed using the Wilding Pine Calculator. This is despite the fact that forestry is inter-generational and land use may have changed next door, making it now vulnerable to wildings, she said. The calculator in its current form is also an ineffective tool for permitting activities, she said. The Biosecurity Act and Resource Management Act are the two frameworks and neither requires nor authorises source tree owners to undertake control on another person’s property, she said. “While private agreements are possible, they are not incentivised.” When it comes to planting, a precautionary approach is required, she said. She argued that resource consent at the time of planting ensures a robust assessment of potential effects and
mitigations required, rather than having it as a standard permitted activity. “There is little incentive for forestry owners to do wilding control unless resource consent tells them to.” Another gap is that the National Environmental Standards don’t include permanent carbon forestry, as it’s not to be harvested. “We are creating a dual system here which raises possibilities that foresters can be selective as to the path they choose,” she said. It was the first public presentation of the findings. Richard Bowman, chair of the Wilding Pines Network, said his view is that regulation is too much in forestry’s favour and it needs to be rebalanced. “We have a forestry representative on our group and the industry is receptive to a rebalance, I believe.”