Botanists warn against conifers taking over the high country back in 1982
Date: 5th February 2025
A recent timely find from one of our tireless campaigners having a clean out of his mother’s treasures was an article from May 1982 in The Press acknowledging the success of high-country forestry but identifying that in some places these are a mixed blessing. A group of scientists from the Botany Division of the then D.S.I.R at Lincoln sounded a note of caution.
They expressed concern that because of the demonstrated ability of exotic conifers to colonise New Zealand’s mountain lands up to and beyond the limits of natural forests, there is a real danger to large areas of New Zealand’s landscapes and to some of the most rare native plants and plant communities.
The cited areas such as the central North Island and the Amuri Range, in North Canterbury, where escaped conifers are causing serious problems for pastoral land users, as demonstrating the need to take great care with conifers.
They acknowledged the value of conifers in commercial forestry but stated that there is strong evidence that they have no place in mountain erosion control or in our mountain landscape as they both impact on our unique landscapes and threaten native plant communities.
They stated that the evidence in support of tree plantings in eroded mountain land is fragile and that there is no reliable evidence that any downstream benefits can be obtained from revegetation. They noted that the Crown has the major responsibility – most of the revegetation plantings have been made on Crown land under the control of the Department of Lands and Survey and the Forest Service.
Particular concern was expressed about Pinus contorta plantings in places such as the Kaweka Ranges in the North Island “the widespread aerial seeding and planting of Pinus contorta makes it doubtful whether anything can now be done to prevent the species from becoming a permanent part of this mountain landscape”. The head of the Waihopai valley in Marlborough was also identified as a problem area where seeding from the planting of pines was invading a kanuka community considered important by botanists. Another area identified was the Patriarch Range again in Marlborough which is the boundary between the distribution areas of a large number of native species where large numbers of unique communities of smaller native plants had replaced an area burnt in ancient times.
Patriarch range – Marlborough Patriarch – Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
The recent proposal by the government to plant low value conservation land, much of this in high country with either pines or natives (we don’t mind the latter so much) does not appear to take the lessons of the past and the costly impact of wilding pine management in these areas into account.
Wildings at Pukaki – Dave Hansford
Pines and tussock don’t mix – we already have a massive challenge in the MacKenzie which is wilding ground zero where ecological and landscape values are derived from tussock. Let’s not exacerbate it. This is smartly articulated in a recent article in Farmers weekly
Posted in: News