A fantastic turn out to a very special place

On Saturday 16 November, 43 excited volunteers gathered to cut down young wilding pines on the QEII covenant at Ōhau Downs Station, near Ōhau village. We don’t usually hold volunteer days on private land, however the ecological and landscape values of the QEII covenant are of such importance that this location is a very high priority site for the National Wilding Conifer Control Programme (NWCCP). On par with the areas of public conservation land usually worked on by Wilding Free Mackenzie, it contains a rich diversity of wet and dryland plant communities, and the native fauna naturally associated with these. The site has been under the protection of a QEII Trust Open Space Covenant since 1997 and the benefits of this are clear to see. It is a place of stunning natural beauty!

Alongside the 43 volunteers several supporting agencies and organisations were also present with representatives from QEII Trust, Department of Conservation, Environment Canterbury, Mainland Vector Contracting and the recently established Mackenzie Basin Catchment Collective – a Trust dedicated to enhancing environmental, social and economic outcomes and ensuring a resilient community for future generations of the Mackenzie Basin.

The wilding pine problem

Wilding pines pose a significant threat to New Zealand’s natural landscapes and economy with negative impacts across primary production, tourism, water yield, wildfire hazard, biodiversity and cultural heritage estimated to the tune of $3.8B over the next 50 years if they are not eliminated from our landscapes now. In 2020, Covid relief funding and the government’s Jobs for Nature initiative saw a much needed $100M investment in the NWCCP over the following four years. This allowed significant progress in dealing with the problem, however this funding has now come to an end.

Not enough funding to fix the problem

The ongoing commitment from the government is a mere $10M annually. This figure is approximately two thirds short of the amount required to continue the momentum of 2020 to 2024, meaning two thirds of the wilding pine control required to protect the earlier investment is now having to be deferred, and much of our precious Mackenzie landscape WILL be reinfested with wilding pines.

Volunteers help make the money stretch further

While Wilding Free Mackenzie Trustees and representatives from other wilding pine groups around the country work hard lobbying government and other potential funders for a long-term solution, the efforts of volunteers go some way toward making the very limited NWCCP budget stretch as far as possible. With volunteers helping to keep our more accessible front country sites wilding-free, more can be spent on keeping remote and technical sites clear using skilled contractor staff. For example, the 552 hours contributed by volunteers last season equated to $35,990 of contractor costs. This figure could then be used to keep contractors working in more technical and remote locations across the Mackenzie.

Incredible generosity from hosts in response to community contribution

In appreciation of the time and effort contributed by volunteers Wilding Free Mackenzie always provides a BBQ lunch at volunteer days, however last weekend’s lunch was made extra special with several generous contributions by landowners Kees Zeestraaten and Kathryn Ryan of Ōhau Downs Station. Volunteers were treated to Wagyu sausages, burgers and steak-tasting courtesy of Kees and Kathryn’s Lake Ōhau Wagyu business, as well as complimentary bottles of wine from another business they previously owned, AND locally eco-sourced, homegrown kōwhai trees cultivated by Kathryn in her home nursery. Such generosity was warmly appreciated by all who attended and was a well-earned reward for the 58ha of land cleared of wilding pines on the day.

• For more on wilding pines, including our volunteer days, visit www.mackenziewildingtrust.org/
• For more on QEII covenants visit www.qeiinationaltrust.org.nz/
• For the Mackenzie Basin Catchment Collective visit www.mackenziebasincatchmentcollective.com/
• To try some delicious Lake Ohau Wagyu visit www.neatmeatstore.com/