18 FEATURE SUPPLEMENT
Thursday, June 29, 2023 Wairarapa Times-Age
FEATURE SUPPLEMENT 19
www.age.co.nz Thursday, June 29, 2023
FORESTRY IN WAIRARAPA
Mystery Creek Fieldays Welcomes the Forestry Hub For the second year the combined Forestry Hub has been a great success for the forest sector at the national Fieldays. Thousands of visitors came through the hub over the 4 days, completing forestry quizzes, visiting with the 20 businesses that participated, and taking home free books, wooden toys, or venison sausages o˜ the Red Stag BBQ. A new part of the Hub activities this year were speaking sessions held with many listening to a debate between Beef + Lamb NZ CEO Sam McIvor and Forest Owners Association Promotions Manager, Don Caron on the merits of carbon farming and the ETS. Another crowd favourite was the Farm Forestry debate “Exotic vs Indigenous plantings”, with a panel discussion of farm foresters
Farm Foresters Sick of Negative ETS signals Farm foresters are asking the government how it plans to get enough exotic trees planted to store su˛ cient atmospheric carbon for New Zealand to achieve its greenhouse gas targets.
providing hilarious views on both sides. The ÿ nal answer seemed to be you can have both. Native seedlings were part of the giveaways to visitors, and these were much appreciated with many New Zealanders looking to incorporate native trees into both urban and rural environments. The Hub has proven to be a useful outlet to provide the correct information to members of the public around the beneÿ ts of commercial forestry for our economy and uses of wood in our everyday lives. Many people did not believe you needed pine trees at all, until it was pointed out that they live in a wooden house and use wood every day in their packaging, toilet paper and fencing. Sometimes, you can’t see the wood for the trees! Discover Forestry is a new forest education provider that launched at Fieldays and provides careers information and hands on forestry
New Zealand Farm Forestry Association president, Neil Cullen, says the government has stated at least another 0.9 million hectares of forest will need to be planted out to meet its current reduction settings.
“Though there does seem to be such a target at the moment, we have no idea whether the government really intends to stick to it, and what the planting timetable is between now and the zero-carbon date of 2050.”
ABOVE: Forestry Minister Peeni Henere and Wood Council CEO’s launch Discover Forestry.
“There are currently about 300,000 hectares of exotic plantation trees on farms. But I can’t see how that is going to increase much, if at all, when the government continues to send negative messages about forestry in the Emissions Trading Scheme,” Neil Cullen says.
school experiences for students across New Zealand. Funded by industry and linked by the eight Wood Councils, this new organisation will be expanding their team in the coming year and linking local companies with schools and students to provide inspiration for the next generation of foresters.
Besides carbon o˜ sets, Neil says there is an urgent need to plant
about a million hectares of steep North Island hill country in trees to protect against erosion when intense storms strike.
“About 100 million tonnes of soil slid o˜ the hills along the East Coast when Cyclone Gabrielle struck in February. Without a continuous canopy this will happen again in the most erodible areas.” “If the carbon credits dry up then this steep country is not likely to be planted at all, either in quick growing pines or in native trees.”
Neil Cullen says it is far better for the government to support a˜ orestation in New Zealand, rather than be forced to buy billions of dollars in overseas carbon credits to stop New Zealand missing its 2030 reduction target. “There are thousands of hill country farmers who want to do the right thing by the environment by planting trees. We all beneÿ t if that happens. We all lose if they don’t.” NZFFA President, Neil Cullen cullen@farmside.co.nz
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