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Stanton Park

Howard Moore's blog
Thursday, November 28, 2019

Since 1979 the Wellington Branch of the Association has had access to a 5 ha area of forest land called Stanton Park.  In the 1970s the Wellington City Water Board (later the Wellington Regional Council) employed Geoff Stanton as a forester.  When they acquired Valley View Station in the hills west of Upper Hutt, Geoff persuaded them that it was an ideal spot for a small Forestry demonstration block showing tree selection and different silvicultural practices.

An initially informal agreement between the Board and the Wellington Branch became a 20 year forestry license in 1997.  The Branch planted the land to the east of the access road in Radiata pine with two different thinning regimes.  To the west of the road in an area with a higher water table, we trialed varieties of Cypress and later, varieties of Eucalyptus.  These are now showing interesting results.

The Radiata grew well and was harvested with the Council forests in 2012.  The proceeds were divided 50% between the Council and the Branch, and the area replanted with Coastal Redwoods.  Our plan is to observe which type has the best growth and form and at what age they will be a harvestable size.  Perhaps in about 40 years the trees will be an impressive and potentially rich resource, if they can be felled and marketed. 

There are smaller areas of Lusitanica and different types of Macrocarpa cypresses.  These are now more resilient to cypress canker, enjoy the colder climate, and are showing much promise. 

We have renewed the forestry license with the Regional Council and continue to manage the block, with periodic working bees to release the young trees from buddleia, blackberry, gorse and manuka.  However things change, and on renewing the license the Council designated the wetter, western part of the block as an official wetland.  This means we have to carefully remove the exotics and transition to full indigenous cover with appropriate species for the area.  Happily our Kahikatea are doing well, and while this work will be hard, it should be spiritually rewarding. 

Redwoods being pruned

50 Shades of Green protest march - Why trees?

Howard Moore's blog
Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Three of us counter-protestors took our pro-forest placards, marched with the 50 Shades protest and stayed for the speeches on the grounds of Parliament.  There were no scuffles or harsh words.  There were a lot of good natured people there and no conflicts.  Although one or two surly ones said we were at the wrong protest, and one or two others tried to convince us that climate change was not man-made, a few actually liked our placards in favour of trees (or maybe they didn’t understand them).  Bearing in mind these were possibly not your average farmers but self-selected activists, my impressions from the day were:

  • They deny outright that they contribute to GHG emissions
  • They are largely in denial about causing any environmental damage
  • They think they can solve the freshwater ‘problem’ themselves and should be left to deal with it without Farm Plans (as if their track record gives anyone confidence they would)
  • They are against pines but not against trees on farms
  • They really have little idea about the ETS, how it is set up and what It does
  • They are angry about losing farmland to foreign investment
  • They are happy to invent and spread misinformation to defend their way of life and business as usual.

So, there is still a lot of crap being said by farmers about farmers.  Nothing new there, really.  But although they gave their opinions and we gave ours, no-one got hurt and it was a fine day.  The three of us then we went for a beer.

Disclaimer: Personal views expressed in this blog are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the NZ Farm Forestry Association.

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