Jenny Campbell 

A keen, enthusiastic and committed group of 28 people from across Southland, Otago, the North Island and even from around the world used a lot of energy to remove wilding pine seedlings from a large face at the top of Mid Dome in northern Southland on Saturday. 

Environment Southland biosecurity officer and organiser for the day Adam Brown said the problem arose when non-native species were planted to try to prevent erosion in the high country, such as at Mid Dome, with the wildings resulting and taking over the native tussock grasslands. 

Mid Dome Wilding Trees Charitable Trust chair Ali Timms Ballentine told the participants that the Trust was formed in 2006 after the risks from wildings to farmland, fire danger and the loss of water through the trees were recognised and responded to. 

“Over the years, with about 30 volunteers at each of two working bees a year, they have removed millions of seedlings and trees which is invaluable and vital for the Trust’s work,” she said. 

“Wildings are a great problem across the country, often not recognised. 

“Costs this year are $1735 per hectare, so with help from volunteers, more efficient chemicals and techniques, they all make the dollars go further.” 

Boffa Miskell project manager Marcus Girvan said he managed all operational activities for the Trust, including aerial boom spraying, aerial basal bark application and ground control teams mostly using chainsaws plus volunteers using hand-tools. 

“I have been in this position for five years with over a million-dollar budget in the past two years thanks to funding partners of Department of Conservation, ES and Land Information New Zealand,” he said. 

“We are making good progress with aerial spraying and ground crews with the aim to get seedlings before the 4-year-old stage when they start forming cones and seeding, which will destroy all the good work we have done to date.” 

Timms Ballentine said the Trust had a multi-million dollar application in to the National Wilding Conifer Control Programme administered by Ministry for Primary Industries it was hoping would be successful. 

“Thank you to the Environment Southland and Department of Conservation staff who have spent this time on their weekend to work with the energetic volunteers to make this such an effective working bee in these ideal mild, calm and overcast conditions.” 

Source: Stuff.co.nz

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LINZ Biosecurity Manager Dave Mole, along with 30 other volunteers spent the day removing an estimated 6,000 young wilding pines at Mid Dome in Southland recently. 

LINZ has had a long association with Mid Dome, and the volunteer days held each year support a much larger on-going eradication programme of both aerial and ground control work. 

Dave says the volunteer days play an important and cost-effective role, to reduce the threat of spread in existing low-affected areas by removing the young trees before they start producing cones. The wildings eradication programme is led by the Mid Dome Charitable Trust, in conjunction with Environment Southland, the Department of Conservation and LINZ. 

Dave sits on the operational board of the trust which aims, by 2024, to eradicate wilding pines from the Mid Dome project area to the point where any re-growth can be managed by landholders. 

Aerial spraying is happening around Christmas on high density seed-source areas, and the site the volunteers worked on will be revisited again in four years time. 

About Mid Dome 

Led by the Mid Dome Charitable Trust, a programme is in place to eradicate the seed source wilding trees at Mid Dome by 2024. The programme is funded through annual contributions from LINZ, Department of Conservation and Environment Southland, along with other sources such as lotteries grants etc. 

The Mid Dome project area encompasses an area of 68,602ha approximately mid-way between Invercargill and Queenstown. It features extensive alpine tussock, interspersed with pastoral farmland and remnant beech forest, and has high scenic value, and high importance for pastoral farming. 

Lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta) were planted on 250 ha of Mid Dome between the 1950s and 1980s for erosion control. Strong prevailing north westerly winds make Mid Dome a perfect take-off point for the up to 1.5 million seeds these wildings produce per hectare every year. Seeds have been found 40km downwind of Mid Dome and up to altitudes of 1400m. The shade wilding pines produce eliminate most other plants beneath them. As a result, 475 ha of Mid Dome is now totally covered by wildings and another 13,000 ha downwind are seriously infested. 

Source: LINZ

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