Where Will the Trees Go?
Many city politicians are promising to solve climate change with trees without understanding that forests can’t just be
established anywhere in the landscape.
It’s easy to talk this up, but we shouldn’t make the same mistakes of the past (e.g. dairy conversions) of changing the
land use to something the ecosystem can’t handle. Farmers are ready and willing to do the right thing and plant their
marginal land in trees. But timber forests require harvesting and the associated roading and landings can create
sediment and debris flows in steep lands. Incentives around afforestation need to be carefully planned. Many woodlots
that were located in a steep gulley at the back of the farm are an economic disaster and occasionally an environmental
disaster as well. While permanent carbon forests are more adaptable and less demanding in terms of site, it means that
land is lost from production and generally doesn’t appeal to farmers drive for production or maximum economic return.
Many have called for the planting of 1 million hectares to meet the Paris Climate Change Agreement. What city
politicians simply don’t get is that the suitable land for forestry is in private ownership, i.e. farmers and iwi. There
is little suitable crown land left, unless they plant up Land Corp. So like the tax debate, where is the detail around
the feasibility of these promises? I think tax payers, land owners and their advisors would like to know
Contact Graham West, ForestX on 0274410353. Graham is a registered forestry consultant and farm forester (read Graham’s profile)
ForestX is the universal, easily accessed place for buying and selling forests. It provides transparency in terms of the
range of lots that are available and how a transaction for any one lot will take place.
ends