Successful spraying season at Mid Dome

A further 113 hectares of dense wilding pine trees have been sprayed in the latest work on the Mid Dome wilding pines project.

The aerial spraying is part of a 12 year, $8 million project to eradicate the trees from the Mid Dome area of northern Southland after they were planted in the 1940s and 50s to control erosion. While only 250 hectares were originally planted, they went on to spread to cover nearly 8,000 hectares.

Mid Dome Wilding Trees Charitable Trust Chairman Ali Timms says the removal of the wilding pines is eliminating a significant long term threat to an extensive area of land, helping protect the ecological, economic, landscape and recreational values of this iconic part of Southland.

“The Mid Dome Trust is very pleased to have the aerial boom spraying aspect of this year’s programme completed,” says Ms Timms.

Getting the right weather conditions for the spraying is critical and this season the weather has provided a number of challenges.

New project manager Marcus Girvan (of Boffa Miskell) says the cold, wet spring meant the trees were slow to grow and the cloudy, windy summer has provided a short window of opportunity for spraying to be carried out, as the weather needs to be warm, dry and relatively windless.

The Trust uses a variety of methods to eradicate the wilding pines. Contractors do the some of the work using ground spraying and chainsaws, and every year volunteers also remove thousands of seedlings by hand during community work days.

Ms Timms says she is really pleased with how the programme is progressing, especially given Mid Dome will always be a challenging environment to work in.

The Trust, representing the Department of Conservation, Environment Southland, Land Information New Zealand and local landowners, is halfway through its programme.

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