microsoft word - 12.27.08 the social life of trees in new zealand

The Social Life of Trees in New Zealand

Frank Buddingh’

Dissertation MSc in Holistic Science Schumacher College December 2008

Frank Buddingh’, ‘The Social Life of Trees’, Dissertation MSc Holistic Science, Schumacher College – University of Plymouth - 1 -

Preface

The final work of my studies at Schumacher College the writing of this dissertation took place in New Zealand. During the late seventies I had moved there and made it my ‘second’ home country, lured by its beauty and space to raise a family. The past ten years however, I lived on the East Coast of the USA, under the smoke of New York. Still residing in the USA I made my way to Schumacher College. The issues raised during the course with respect to the well being of our planet made me decide to return to New Zealand and look with fresh eyes at its beauty that captivated me at the time. Whereas the East Coast of the USA is extremely well treed, New Zealand’s landscape is the opposite. Realizing the importance of trees in terms of global climate management I decided that I would like to write about the relationship between trees and people and look at the historic development of people’s attitude towards trees. However, the more I read in aid of my search for the ‘social life of trees’ in New Zealand, the more I discovered that trees were very much at the losing end as a social partner at the expense of thoughtless human action. At the same time I realised that writing this dissertation was not a crown on my current study, but merely a start for further investigation. Writing this paper has also confirmed for me that the path I decided to walk, with trees as a life career, has been a good choice. After fourty years of working with trees, my time I took out at Schumacher College to study has rekindled my interest to continue to observe and learn from these fascinating plants. It also made me realize how much we actually have and still are taking trees for granted. They do deserve better because they will play a key role in our prospects for survival in a world that day by day is turning into more turmoil economically as well as inching towards a climax in terms of global energy provision, and climate change. The days that we destroy trees for the wrong reasons need to stop, at the same time we need to invest a lot of time and committed research to understand trees better. It appears to me that to date our relationship to trees is still unequal and not very emancipated. Trees are in my opinion still the stepchildren of society. I like to quote a poem from William Heyen, an American poet from Brooklyn New York:


Emancipation Proclamation

Whereas it minds its own business & lives in its one place so faithfully & its trunk supports us when we lean against it & its branches remind us of how we think Whereas it keeps no bank account but hoards carbon & does not discriminate between starlings and robins & provides free housing for insects & squirrels & lifts its heartwood grave into the air Whereas it holds our firmament in place & writes underground gospel with its roots & whispers us oxygen with its leaves & may not survive its new climate of ultraviolet We the people for ourselves & our children necessarily proclaim this tree free from commerce & belonging to itself as long as it & we shall live.

This paper is seeing the light of day in my sixtieth birth year and symbolizes for me the start of phase II in my life to study trees further and become more effective in helping to manage and preserve that what is essential in the lives of all beings. I like to give a general vote of thanks to all my teachers and fellow students at Schumacher College who encouraged me to see the world with different eyes. I like to give a special vote of thanks to all who encouraged me to start this degree and bring it to this stage: Hiske Buddingh’ for telling me about Schumacher College and her continued support in person and per telephone. Collin Trier for being my supervisor and his encouragement along the way. Nina Arron, my dear wife, for making it possible and giving me the space to be a full time student, ask me critical questions when writing and being an editor, assisted by my daughter Tansy in the latter task. The Trees, that gave me the inspiration for this project and who continue to embellish my pathway in this life. 30 December 2008, Lawrence New Zealand


Introduction

Open any book that describes the social or cultural development of just about any tribe or population group on our planet and somewhere trees are mentioned.

In effect if trees had not existed, all animal life including humans, which are dependent upon atmospheric oxygen, would not have developed and without the continuation of trees the world population could not survive.

Trees in all their different forms, whether as a live plant or compressed into the form of coal or oil are perpetual faithful servants to humanity.

It stands to reason thus that trees appeal to the imagination of people and that they are strongly intertwined culturally and socially since the early existence of human tribes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore more in depth the role trees played in Maori society during the time that New Zealand - Aotearoa, “Land of the Long White Cloud” was not colonised yet by Europeans, the effect of European colonialisation on this role, the current views of trees in New Zealand and the future directions of the social role of trees.

What can we learn from our past? Are there benefits to relate to trees and nature as part of the whole? We need to discover again that in effect we are ‘kin’ with nature. A kinship that reveals the relationship between all living beings that share a genealogical, biological, cultural, or historical origin.

When the first humans arrived in New Zealand they found a heavily wooded country with unique ecosystems. The trees of New Zealand form a collection of woody plants that are not found elsewhere in the world and provide food and shelter for an equally unique collection of smaller animal and plant forms.

The formation of New Zealand is thought to date back 250 million years when it was part of the super continent Pangaea, around the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras at a time that continental drift was yet to take place.

The name Pangaea was introduced by Alfred Wegener, a German scientist and geologist, in his book Die Enstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane – The Origins of Continents and Oceans, published in 1920. He presented in that book a hypothesis that the continents were slowly drifting around the earth and by the 1950s other scientists were concurring with Wegener’s findings.


Pangaea, source: Wikipedia Commons, en:user:Kieff

When the super continent Pangaea drifted apart, it first formed two large land masses: Laurasia that drifted towards the Northern Hemisphere and Gondwanaland that included Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia-New Guinea and New Zealand.

Laurasia, 200 million years ago. Source Wikipedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License

The term ‘Gondwanan’ is often used when talking about the biogeography that refers to patterns of the distribution of living organisms, especially when these organisms were unique for the separating regions that were once part of Gondwanaland. A number of tree species in the Gondwana distribution ended up in and are unique to New Zealand.


Source: http://www.bugbog.com/images/maps/new-zealand-map.jpg

New Zealand today:

According to the population census of 2006, there are 4,200,000 people living in New Zealand, of which 565,000 are Maori


Since New Zealand trees will be central to this paper, a tree portrait follows of some of the more remarkable trees in this country:

Kauri – Agathis australis

Agathis australis tree 'Te Matua Ngahere' -2000 years old

Kauri is in my mind the most impressive tree of New Zealand, growing to some 50 meters height and 6 meters diameter. Kauri forests belong to the oldest forests in the world and ancestors of this tree appeared in the Jurassic Period between 190 and 135 million years ago. Of the initial 1.2 million hectares of Kauri forest, only 142 hectares remain (J.T.Salmon, p96, 1980) as result of milling and forest fires during the last 150 years.


The tree provides resin gum as well that amongst other things was used by the Maori as an ingredient for Moko, the practice of scarring and marking the skin to reflect the whakapapa (genealogy) of the wearer.

Maori Moko, scanned from John Rutherford: The White Chief (pre-1923)

wikimedia commons

Kahikatea – White Pine, Podocarpus (Dacrycarpus) dacryoides

'KAHIKATEA or WHITE PINE', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. www.TeAra.govt.nz/1966/K/KahikateaOrWhitePine/en


Just as with Kauri, this conifer dates back to the Jurassic period. J.T.Salmon, p50, 1980, describes this tree as 50 meters tall with some remnants of forest stands to be found on the West Coast of New Zealand. Rimu or Red Pine - Dacrydium cupressinum belongs to the same family. Red pine was a very common tree and in many older houses today rimu timbers and panelling can still be found.

Cordyline australis – Cabbage tree

Source: mooseyscountrygarden.com

The cabbage tree is one of the iconic trees of this country, multi headed with large ribbon like leaves. During spring they are adorned with sprays of tiny white flowers that give a distinct scent. You can see them often as solitary trees in the landscape. They are rapid growers and germinate easily from seed. Incidentally, although the cabbage tree in daily life is viewed as a tree, it is in fact a monocot (J.T.Salmon, p.347, 1980); they arise or germinate from a single seed leaf such as the family of grasses, rather than a double seed leaf such as a species of tree. It is therefore more closely related to the grasses and crops like sugar cane in anatomical structure. I mention sugar cane, because cabbage trees also are high in sugar content. Maori used this tree to make sugar.


Pohutukawa or Christmas Tree - Pohutukawa. Metrosideros excelsa

wikimedia commons

Pohutakawa are broad spreading trees, related the myrtle family, with brilliant red flowers that bloom around Christmas time. Pohutukawa grows mainly in the North Island, whilst Metrosideros umbellata, the Southern Rata is prevailing in the South Island. One of my favourite places to go is the Catlins, where the Rata grow right on the edge of the beach providing a beautiful contrast with yellow beach sands and the blue sea water.

Section One: Trees and the Maori

In most literature that describes the historical past of New Zealand and its dwellers, trees are merely described or mentioned as a ‘natural’ part of the landscape. But in a landscape experience, trees play an important role; after all trees are the largest plant forms in nature and are distinct from other plant forms because of their extraordinary size and the great age trees can reach.

As will be seen later on, trees played an important role in the beliefs of the Maori with respect to the creation of the world and life in general.

When looking at the early Maori history and even earlier history of the peoples living in New Zealand prior to the Maori arriving in Aotearoa, we rely basically upon a rich oral history that has gradually become a mixture of myth and reality. Maori history started to be recorded in writing when the early discovery voyages of Tasman and Cook took place and became more detailed when the Europeans started to colonize this country.


German philosopher Friedrich Max Müller (December 6, 1823 – October 28, 1900) characterizes very much the approach I will take in writing this dissertation:

“What is of immense importance in all scientific discussions is the spirit of truth. To

make light of a fact that has been established, to ignore intentionally an argument which we cannot refute, to throw out guesses which we know we cannot prove – nay,

which we do not even attempt to prove – is simply wrong, and poisons the air in which

true science can breathe and live.”

I think the above quote is important in view of the fact that whilst the Maori considered themselves very much a part of all that lives in nature, the Europeans introduced a very reductionist approach to science contributing to very different approaches to land and indeed tree management.

Trees in Maori Myth

Despite the dramatic changes that took place in the New Zealand landscape over the course of a few centuries, there are still many places where the feel and the richness of nature that belonged to the inhabitants of the Land of the Long White Cloud can be tasted from a time long before the Europeans set foot here.

There is evidence that settlement of these lands dates back well before first settlement of the Maoris some 2000 BC on account of the findings of archaeological artefacts that give proof of this earlier settlement. These finds however are too scattered and incidental to give a fairly complete impression of who these people were and how they lived. Brailsford in his book ‘Song of Waitaha’ records the history of the Waitaha Nation, which he believes preceded Maori settlement by a good 1000 years. Evidence of settlement of these earlier tribes is deducted by combining different scientific disciplines such as geology and botany. But within the scientific world opinions differ: Michael King, in The Penguin History of New Zealand Illustrated takes the view that there is no solid evidence to support the idea that New Zealand was settled earlier than 800 years ago [by the Maori]. Pawson and Brooking in Environmental Histories of New Zealand do take into account views of other historians as well as early archaeological finds that seem to indicate settlement by tribes pre-dating Maori settlement, but then they err on the safe side (Pawson and Brooking, p25) by adopting a scientific and historic certainty according to the ”short” pre-history model concluding that the founding population of New Zealand was quite large, possibly in the few hundreds and that they arrived in different groups by canoe and landed at different places. At any rate, the above differing points of view clearly illustrate that in main stream science there is confusion about New Zealand’s early inhabitants and a tendency to err on the side of established thinking that Maori were the first settlers. This limited thinking raises the question that if historians take the easy road of going with established beliefs without digging in ‘the spirit of truth’ as Müller puts it, then how much are we missing about New Zealand’s landscape, its early and contemporary inhabitants or a holistic approach in relationship to people and trees?


So, if we want to try to understand anything about the relationship between people and trees, we need to go beyond reductionism and find a way that can give deeper insight in this relationship. One way to do this is by is looking at tree myths.

What is Myth?

‘A usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the worldview of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon’ (Merriam Webster Online 2008)

According to Maori myth, trees played a major role in the story of creation:

Tane was known as the creator of Life and the son of Rangi, the Sky and Papa, the Earth. Tane was born in darkness. In order to create daylight he placed himself between his parents and tried to keep them apart with his shoulders, but failed to do so. He then lay upon Mother Earth and pushed his legs upwards to successfully separate Rangi and Papa. Tane’s legs symbolize the trees that connect the earth and the heavens.

Once the sky was pushed up, Tane created the cycle of the sun and the moon and placed the stars in the skies. Then he set out to find female deities with whom he produced children. These children became the plants and the birds. Amongst the various plant and tree children he parented were Totara [tree] with Mumuwhango and Rata [tree] with Rere-noa.

Tane also wanted to have children with a human female, but could not find her, so he finally fashioned from the soils in Hawaiki a female figure, dressed her with garments and then breathed life into her mouth upon which she came to life. Tane took her as his wife and their offspring were human beings.

“Tane” stands for ‘male, lover, and husband’. He represents the fertile energy that creates life. And because he was the life giving energy to all beings created, it is believed that all natural beings share this life energy and become sacred entities in their own right. Trees, rocks, plants, mountains and human beings can take on the name of Tane since they are all protected by the same life giving force. All natural beings are of the same ancestry and thus related to each other.

Because Maori believed all beings were of a ‘godly’ origin, then they were also always protected. Therefore, if the humans wanted to take another being for their own use, then certain rituals had to be performed and the ‘Tapu’ or godly protection had to be removed before use.

In an area known as the Ureweras a man would fast for three days in front of a tree he intended to take down. With a ceremonial axe he would take a chip and take this chip deeper into the forest where he burned it, reciting a ‘Karakia’ – ceremonial song, to appease the Spirits of the Forest. Then, when more chips were taken from the tree, these would be


burned at its base in order to remove the Tapu from the tree so that Tane could not spill out his anger over the workman causing him harm during the process of take down. Once the tree fell, more rituals took place and finally the ceremonies were concluded by covering the stump of the tree with ferns. Orbell, 1985, p 167

It appears to me that ‘in the beginning’ when few Maori were living in a country that was extremely well endowed with trees, plants and wildlife that formed a setting for survival with plentiful supplies, daily life was performed with rituals and customs that were carried out with reverence and dignity. Maori were known as ‘war tribes’, but that does not exclude the notion that when lives were taken, whether human, tree or animal, it was preceded by ritual and customs that held high regard for the godly origin that all things had in common.

In the order of things, some trees were never taken; they had such special qualities of reverence that the Tapu was never lifted. The trees in question were literally shrines.

In the pristine forests of the Urewera, in the North Island, there was a famous old Hinau – Elaeocarpus dentatus. This tree was locally famous because it appeared to have the magic power of making a woman conceive. This was deducted from the fact that the tree bore so many fruits. A Tohunga [matakite] – foreteller of the future, would give directions to a young blindfolded woman to approach and embrace the tree. If she walked to the east side of the tree she would have a son. If she walked towards the west side of the tree, she would give birth to a daughter. Orbell 1985, p169.


Hinau - Elaeocarpus Dentatus

If a tree was suspected to be inhabited by a spirit, passers by would pick up a twig or a fern frond and place this at the base of the tree as an offering. Failing to give an offering to the tree could mean that it would start to rain. When the offer was placed, this would generally go with a Karakia or prayer:

Ka ū ki Mata-nuku, ka ū ki Mata-rangi,

Ka ū ki tēnei whenua, hei whenua.

He kai māu, te ate o te tauhou

I come to Point-of-earth, I come to Point-of-sky,

I come to this land for it to be my land.

The stranger’s heart is food for you.

(Orbell,1985,p169)


Trees played also a strong role not only at birth but also at death:

If there was a mystical relationship between a person and a tree, when for example after the birth of a Chief’s son the umbilical cord was buried and a tree planted over it, then the future growth and development of the tree would foretell the development of the child. If the tree prospered and showed strong signs of vitality, then a bright future lay ahead for the child. If on the other hand the tree failed to take and developed poorly or was easily attacked by disease and became stunted in its growth, then there was no bright future for the child.

When a person died, the body was often placed in a hollow Puriri tree – Vitex lucens

Puriri – Vitex lucens Daniel Mackenzie 1768-1771, The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations

and leaves of the puriri tree were worn during mourning Orbell 1985, p170

Trees, as noted above, featured in the story of creation as part of the Maori beliefs and were not only solidly embedded in real life at birth and death but also featured in symbolism around marriage or rather failure thereof: a woman left behind by her partner would compare herself to a tree in a lamenting song:


Kei whea ko te tau i whāia e au?

Ra ka tuku atu kit e kiri e kakara –

Nāu, e hine, I took kia mamao!

Waiho kit e tinana ko te kōiki kāpara

E tū ki te ngahere o Te Tipi kei tua.

Where is the lover I pursued?

There he goes, to the body that smells sweet –

It was you, girl, who took him far away!

My body is left like the burnt heartwood

That stands over there in the Te Pipi forest.

(Orbell, 2005 p.171)

If a man was childless, the going expression was that he was ‘a branchless man’. Orbell, 1985, p170. If one is a ‘branchless’ man, then there is no off-spring and thus no ‘family tree’.

Forest and tribe were very closely interlinked and people and all beings of the forest were considered [far related] relatives. Some trees had a special status, especially the trees producing large quantities of fruit or berries, because they were frequented by birds and birds were an important food source for the Maori. (Best, 1942, p112). These trees were protected as food source trees. In these trees snares were set to catch birds, but they were only taken after a ceremonial performance. The ‘occupation’ of Fowler was important. The fowler had to be fit and able to scale often large trees such as Karaka and Rata. Tree climbing and tree climbing techniques were fairly advanced. (Best, 1942, p216).


Pigeon spearing, White 1887-1991

Ropes and rope ladders of various types were used to access trees as well as a footlocking system. One could argue that the early Maori were the forerunners of today’s arborist. The trees had often camouflaged spaces to hide in and long spears or snares were used to catch birds. The ‘bird-food’ trees were often in the middle of the forest, a forest that in its totality had a Tapu or sacrosanct put on it.

One of these was a grove of Totara – Podocarpus totara near Rotorua

Totara - Podocarpus totara by Kahuroa


The grove was known as Nga Hokowhitu a Te Rangitawhia. It was considered as a Mauri (the energy which binds and animates all things in the physical world) from earlier times and some trees had carvings on them. The tree enjoyed protection as result of a rite performed by an expert, maybe a local Tohunga. When the expert placed a charm on the tree, a hau would be taken: a part of the tree that would represent its vitality or character, that would become a Talisman or Mauri. This Mauri would then be buried near the tree. The tree was then protected from damage and guaranteed to continue to produce fruit in abundance, so the birds would not avoid the tree. If somebody was to try to fell the tree, he would fail in health or die an untimely death.

The Mauri that was placed over or in a forest could be a hidden stone that had special powers or a lizard released in the forest at the same time as an essential deed for the well-being of this forest and all the beings living therein. It was in effect a way to protect the eco system. It would ensure that the trees would continue to produce in abundance, and also it gave the forest its Mana or power. (Elsdon1942, p8). The Mana of the forest is what you can experience when you enter it and gradually become absorbed with its surroundings and feel the force of all that you can visually observe, combined with all that you can sense…..

Elsdon (192,p8) records an old Maori charm that was spoken out over the hidden Mauri of the forest, to ‘endow it with the desired powers’ that were not only responsible for retention of the fertility of the forest, but also an appeal to attract wild life towards the forest:

“E Papa e takoto nei! E Rangi e tu nei!

Homai te toto kai tanagata kia rurukatia, kia herea;

Kia mau te mauri. Te mauri o wai? Te mauri of Tane,

Tane-tuturi, Tane-pepeke, whakamutua ki a Tumatauenga.

Whakamutua ki a Paia nana I took te rangi;

Na Tumatauenga I here te ka.”

Herein the Mauri of Tane is empowered

by means of a direct appeal to Papa and Rangi,

the Earth Mother and Sky Father,

the parents of Tane of the forest and ultimate parents of mankind.

(Elsdon,1942,p10,11)


Tane Mahuta

Kauri – Agathis australis, photo by Inkybutton ‘Tanemahuta’ – Lord of the Forest

Tāne Mahuta is the largest kauri known to stand today. It is 51 metres (169 feet) in height, and has a circumference of 13.8 metres (45 feet). There is no proof of the tree's age, but it is estimated to be between 1250 and 2500 years old. (Notable Trees Register, Notable Trees New Zealand)

‘Tane Mahuta’ is without any doubt one of New Zealand’s most famous native trees and is one of the most revered and sacred trees in the country. At 2500 years old it has been a witness of the oldest tribes and first people settling in New Zealand.

The picture above shows an impressive tree that inspires awe when standing at its base, but at the same time it evokes a tremendous feeling of sadness because this tree is one of only a few that escaped the fate of millions of other kauris that were cut down.


Kauri was revered, ceremonially taken by Maori and converted into richly adorned sea worthy canoes as form of transport to other shores, being it for peaceful or warring activities.

Artist: Douglas Ferris Title: He Waka Taua Image size in millimeters: 315 x 445 (paper) Open Edition. Fine Art Print. New Zealand Artist

Whilst the Maori would take down large specimen kauri trees for their needs, this took place at a time that there were many trees around and they all were part of their ‘holistic philosophy’ and thus trees were taken down with [godly] permission.

While godly permission was required to take down individual large trees, historical data also mentions the Maori practice of burning large tracts of land. The purpose for this seems to have been three fold. Some areas were burned to flush out birds such as the moa and the kiwi which were eaten and the feathers used for clothing and adornment; encouraging the growth of bracken-fern, a valuable food source; and to provide land for cropping firstly tropical root crops such as yams, taro and kumara (sweet potato), and then expanded to include potatoes introduced by Europeans. According to John Hutton, Ngati Whare historian, the majority of large scale burning took place between 1200 – 1400 and it was only after the extinction of some important sources of protein such as the moa, that Maori took a conservationist approach to preserving forests and native animals. Are we perhaps looking at a repetition of history with pakeha (white settlers) having seen the abundance on first arriving, destroying much of what was here and now needing to consider ways to live sustainably?


Section Two: Trees and the European Settlers

The changes that the New Zealand landscape underwent as result of early human population and more recent European colonialisation are considered the most dramatic in the world (Pawson and Brooking, 2002). European contact with New Zealand is reported to have begun in 1642 with the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Captain Tasman left Batavia with support of the Dutch East India Company on an exploration expedition with two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen and arrived within sight of New Zealand in August 1642. In December of that year he and his crew moored in Golden Bay at the top of the South Island and had a first encounter with a Maori tribe. The encounter was not too friendly and Tasman lost four members of his crew. He hastily left the tree clad shore of Golden Bay and named the place ‘Murderers’ Bay. Tasman sailed on, sighting various places in the North Island, but actually never setting foot on land again. In 1769 the British sent Captain Cook on a voyage accompanied by astronomer Charles Green and botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. (Dench, p12, 2005). They set foot at the East Coast in the North Island at a time that New Zealand was densely covered in trees. The forest cover was by then 85%, down from almost complete forest cover pre Polynesian settlement. When European settlement started in earnest in the early 1800’s, deforestation really started to transform the landscape and reduced the forest cover to today’s levels of 29%.

The botanists did various land explorations and they started to describe their botanical finds. At the same time they were on the lookout for suitable timber to repair their ships that had been battered at sea by storms and rough seas. Interestingly enough, during these first botanical explorations they did not record anything about the kauri trees, but they were soon to be found in great numbers during further reconnaissance efforts that in fact meant an irreversible turning point for the future of the kauri.


Source: McGlone (1989), New Zealand Map Service 262 (DOSLI)

I can only imagine how the very first Pakeha contacts with the Maori tribes were startling for the Maori seeing these white people who had ‘canoes’ of a size never seen before and not only that but they had large poles attached to it with huge pieces of cloth that pushed the boat fast forward in the wind.

Little could the Maori have imagined that this encounter with Cook and his men would change their land forever and they could not in the remotest sense have had any idea what these changes would entail for their landscape, what the impact would be upon their well being and the resulting decline in their population.

Cook and his men felt they had arrived in heaven, a densely forested portion of the North Island with an abundance of diversity in flora and fauna and they quickly understood what enormous monetary value and wealth this would give their home country. Exploration voyages were part of European life, driven by the need for natural resources such as timber necessary for an ever growing population whose own resources were fast


running out. Timber was needed for housing, fleet building, mining shafts and other needed items. The challenge then, was to try and communicate with these ‘savage’ people. First of all to extract some food out of them to replenish the ship’s pantry but also to carry out desperately needed ship repairs. Masts had been broken during storms at sea and tall spars were needed to replace these. In order to find these, Cook and his men had to communicate with the natives because it seemed dangerous to venture into the densely forested land; it would be easy to get lost or even be attacked by these strange people.

For the kauri, many of them a few thousand years old, this need for masts was the start of one of the biggest mass murders of a tree species in the world, so much so that in today’s world we are left with only a few Chieftan trees and a tiny fraction of what once formed large tracts of Kauri. And today’s Kauri is now infected with a form of phytophtora, akin to the sudden oak death disease in the USA which will undoubtedly lead to a further loss.

A.H.Reed’s book ‘The Story of the Kauri’ 1953, is an extensive account of the demise of the Kauri forests. He opens the book in his first chapter as follows:

“The Monarch of the New Zealand Forest is a tree of most ancient lineage – older than history, older than tradition, immemorially older than man. If the period of mankind’s existence upon the earth is counted in thousands of years that of the Kauri must be computed in millions….”

When news got out in Europe that these shores were full of riches, it became time to negotiate with local Chiefs and tribes to make agreements of settlement or to ‘purchase’ land for European settlement. This would then finally unlock the fruits of the land for economic use. Robert Carrick in A Romance of Lake Wakatipu talks of the purchase of Otago, a New Zealand province, in 1844.

The effect of that sale was to cede possession of the remainder of the land now forming the Provincial District of Otago in favour of the Crown, besides disposing of a large tract of the adjoining Province of Canterbury. Writing to the Home authorities, the Governor, Sir G. Grey, remarks that “it would be a source of satisfaction to find that so large an extent of country of the most fertile description had been unrestrictedly opened to British enterprise”.

Once the Europeans had a point of settlement, it became easier to undertake further exploration of the land whether this took place with permission or under resistance of native tribes.

Maori and British lived now together and British claimed or negotiated more and more Maori land for their exploitation. At various points these land negotiations lead to friction till in 1840 the treaty of Waitangi was drawn up. It was signed by William Hobson as representative of the British Crown and over five hundred Maori Chiefs. “The British considered


that from now on they had acquired sovereignty over New Zealand, but to Maori people the treaty had a very different significance” Claudia Orange, Treaty of Waitangi,1987.

One copy of The Treaty of Waitangi - there were several produced, including Maori language versions like this one. It lay buried in a forgotten, damp, storeroom at Parliament House, water-damaged and eaten by rats, until being accidentally discovered sometime in 1908.

Source: http://home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/xtr209663/page71Treaty.html

Ever since the signing of the treaty, Maori and British have disagreed about the interpretation of the treaty particularly whether Maori ceded sovereignty to the British crown. The differences in the English and Maori versions of the Treaty, whether accidentally through poor translation or deliberately on the part of the English to make greater gains than Maori would have been willing to cede is open to debate. In addition to the sovereignty issue, Maori believe that all natural objects such as trees, rocks and water contain a spiritual essence or power while the British took


the view that natural objects were subordinate to humans. Failure to discuss and incorporate such differences in beliefs about land and its ownership made it unsurprising that differences in interpretation are still being worked out through the Waitangi Tribunal.

And what did the Treaty mean for the trees of New Zealand? For the Europeans ‘ownership of the land’ meant ownership of the forests. Huge tracts were cleared either to harvest the timber or simply clear felling and burning to make land available for farming.

There are a few “Chieftan” kauri now protected by modern conservation laws. When I visited some of these old kauri in the North Island I was not only awed by their imposing appearance, but at the same time be filled by a deep, deep sadness that these trees are relics, lone ‘soldiers’ that survived the past slaughter of their kin. And ‘kin’ it was, certainly in the worldview of the Maori. A tree that was revered by them was turned into an economic unit by the settlers and the bulk of kauri forests were felled within a single century and exported mainly to Europe and the USA. Many houses in San Francisco were timber framed and clad with Kauri. Sadly the Kauri trees were doubly lost when large numbers of the houses were destroyed during the great earthquake of 1906 and the subsequent fire.

The Kauri were felled, the forests were lost and it is unlikely they will ever regenerate even if the people of New Zealand were to find the will to attempt replanting on a large scale. I believe that the transformation that this country has undergone in the name of [Western] progress is not only unprecedented but also irreversible.

I started out to look at the role of trees in that respect, just trying to determine what real social life the trees of New Zealand enjoyed and I must conclude that their social life has been abysmal. Under the banner of progress (and that banner is a pure Western view) European settlement has overshadowed in every aspect everything that was originally in this country.

Before the English had come to the point of signing the Treaty of Waitangi with the Maori, they spent some seventy years, through sporadic settlement and introduction of western values such as Christianity and providing a supply of weapons in order to create division and confusion. There was a bounty that needed to be roped in by whatever means. And it all went hand in hand with the crude harvest of the land: the search for non renewable resources such as gold, oil, metals etc. and in the process the land needed to be cleared from everything that was on it, most notably the trees.

For the trees it was an appalling experience: nothing was left of the social life and the right to live undisturbed that they had enjoyed over hundreds of thousands of years as well as their ancestors coming straight forth from the ‘Old Times’ and the ‘Old Continent’, Gondwana Land. The arrival and settlement of the British put a stop to that forever. And along with the


consumption of non-renewable resources, mentioned above, the trees became in fact a runner up non-renewable resource.

The ferociousness with which trees were either crudely sold out wholesale – the Massacre of the Kauri is an outstanding and painful example – or simply burned, elevated a renewable source into a ‘non-renewable source’ and changed the landscape forever and beyond recognition: where once stood trees, we now have endless grasslands – tamed landscape that scrapes by to provide enough revenue in a world that has globalised its economic thinking.

Geoff Park, in his book New Zealand, Theatre Country makes some interesting observations in a lecture he gave for the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects in 1983, where he observes that historically we have ended up in this country with two landscapes: the landscape that was ‘development’ agricultural land - initially mainly grassland for sheep farming - and ‘scenic landscape’ that was preserved for recreational purposes and ‘to please the eye of the traveller’.

In the late 1800’s the government of the time did make laws that resulted in the protection of ‘scenic’ landscape. Interestingly enough there were amongst the settlers people who looked with alarm at the rate of burning of ‘scrub and bush’ – read ‘trees’ - in order to develop agricultural land. The ashes of these burned trees formed in fact the fertilizer for the grass that was sown on which the sheep were then farmed.

openlearn.open.ac.uk/.../1285/T172_1_I002.jpg

Land in development show numerous burned tree stumps that often were to be seen in the landscape for thirty to fourty years before they either fell over or were removed in a second cleanup round. The burning of [native] trees happened at such a vast rate that a total cleanup was impossible: there was not enough labour at hand to deal with the aftermath of


burning practices. And only a minority of the timber volume that was removed from the landscape was actually used for timbers.

So, in the ‘last minute’ some of that landscape was preserved inclusive some of the grandest and oldest Kauri and other special or grand trees long before trees [or landscapes] enjoyed protection under English law. They were the trees revered by the Maori and carried a Tapu (‘holy protection). You could argue that these were the trees that survived from the period that they were treated as a personality, had a social status born forth from the holistic view of the Maori of the landscape and all the creatures, plants and trees that were part thereof.

Since the Europeans did not view the landscape in a holistic sense – they had long since lived further apart from nature; they came from a more developed and sophisticated society and found in New Zealand a rich and varied landscape that no doubt had valuable [hidden] resources worth extracting and thus worth considering for permanent settlement. It also appeared to be a wild and mysterious country with Natives that were not developed by European standards and were as unpredictable in their actions as the landscape in its wildness, something that had to be fought.

Many Europeans took the approach that it was necessary to fight their way into the landscape in order to eek a living out of it. Trees as such did not provide enough sustenance in terms of food. After all, these islands are not situated in the tropics and although many native trees, shrubs and plants are ‘evergreen’ there is not the abundance of tropical fruit producing trees. Therefore other crops need to be grown like potatoes – the native sweet potato was also too different to European traditional tastes - and therefore once the Europeans settled in larger numbers land needed to be cleared for space to live on and live from. The cursive ‘on’ and ‘from’ are small words but harbour in my opinion the essential difference in cultural and social mentality between the European settlers and the native Maori. The latter lived in the landscape and with all creatures like one large family and the use of these creatures, being it trees, birds or fish etc. were taken or caught for personal use following a strict set of rules as not to upset the spirits and the gods. In other words here was a notion of reverence for all living things including the trees. Europeans felt a need to ‘harness’ the landscape and then ‘mould’ it according to their standards. And the more people settled here, the more moulding needed to take place in order to provide food and safe havens for its inhabitants.

It is this landscape transformation process that took an enormous toll not only on the trees in the landscape but also hastened a diminishing native population from some 100 to 200,000 Maori, around 1770(King, 1989, p20) to 80,000 in a time span of 100 years of settlement as result of newly introduced diseases and trappings of Western society such as alcohol, tobacco etc. With the diminishing native population, their traditional customs were also at risk of being lost for ever. It is thanks to the ability of Maori to adapt to Western life styles and a strong will to retain their own identity and customs as well as a richly recorded history


since western settlement of this country that we still have a cultural native heritage resource to draw upon and learn from.

With the ‘re-building’ of the landscape by the Europeans different values to the landscape emerged and a whole host of new trees, plants and animals were introduced that created a major impact upon the ecological balance of the land. Trees, like hawthorn and shrubby trees like gorse were introduced by the Europeans to use as live fencing. The English were using these plants to keep stock confined in England and the seed initially sold for astronomical prices as settlers tried to recreate their old country in the new. Some of the introduced species, particularly gorse and broom ran out of hand and spread like wildfire over the hills of New Zealand. Today many hills are covered in the yellow flowering shrubs, rendering the land unsuitable for grazing. In addition introduced animals have wrecked havoc on New Zealand’s remaining forests. One of the worst offenders according to the Department of Conservation is the possum, introduced in 1837 to establish a fur trade. The possum, like gorse and broom found an environment that favoured it more than its natural habitat, so much so that it has been known to breed twice in a single year. It prefers tender young vegetation, in some areas eating whole canopies of native trees while competing with native birds for habitat. Thus, the early settlers have damaged the forests twice over. Once by destroying trees directly for timber and land clearance and secondly by introducing animals that continue to wage war on the remaining trees.

Possum damaged tree fern

Having cleared large tracts of land, the Europeans then began to establish formalised, managed forestry. To do this new tree species were introduced, most notably Pinus radiata. With the introduction of foreign tree species the Maori lost further connection with their traditional trees and thus another aspect of their identity.

In a landscape that was initially populated by indigenous people and their trees, mountains wetlands and all living creatures that were considered kin and thus had their individual social status, the landscape became, under governance of the Europeans, something that needed to be controlled and was ruled by economic motive only, where there was no room for intrinsic values such as a social status of a tree. All those notions were considered folklore and myth of a native people who were assigned second rate status.


The social life of [native] trees and their place in a holistic environment has been reduced to and pushed back into the quarters of conservation. And the social life of introduced trees is virtually non-existent bar those introduced tree species that are planted for general embellishment or as a memorial tree [Notable Trees New Zealand]. Otherwise today’s trees in the [economic] landscape are coniferous plants introduced and hybridized into economic units to produce a second grade timber and mostly wood chips that initially were simply exported. All of these activities are based upon an economic world of an ‘old paradigm’: In the eyes of some [Western] beholders, New Zealand has undergone one of the most successful and dramatic changes such as few other countries have experienced.

In all its awkwardness of European settlement it has managed to retain its indigenous population and it has provided and gained wealth and has been a ‘leading’ and innovative country in the fields of agricultural and forestry. But all of this is measured in the light of the current economic worldview.

Section Three: Trees in New Zealand today.

In today’s terms we are labelled as belonging to the developed, economically successful world, but this world is in turmoil. Global population is rising out of the pan and non-renewable resources are either reaching their peak or running out. The global climate is, as result of human non-sustainable actions, changing. So this leads me to the question of how trees are faring in New Zealand today. With all the discussion of global warming, carbon credits and the terrible toll taken on New Zealand’s trees since the first humans arrived it would seem logical that we would be treating trees with more respect. In fact, looking at today’s views through a search of newspaper articles and policy documents of New Zealand political parties, we seem to be almost schizophrenic in our relationship to trees.

Below is a snapshot of the current mood and attitudes towards trees starting with some recent headlines in New Zealand’s press.

1. Greenpeace protesters held up Carter Holt Harvey's tree felling operation near Tokoroa on Wednesday as members bolted themselves to the company's equipment. Greenpeace says the protest was part of its campaign against deforestation, which it claims is killing the climate. The environmental organisation says Carter Holt Harvey plans to convert 25,000 hectares of forest to dairy pastures. Copyright © 2008 Radio New Zealand Updated at 6:14am on 30 October 2008

Protest actions seem to increase the tension between parties for change in awareness attitudes regarding landscape and climate and parties that, in this case, carry out tree management as part of pure economic activity without necessarily taking account of the long term impact of their economic activities.


2. A camphor tree, originating from a tree that survived the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, is to be planted by Mayor Kerry Prendergast near the Peace Garden in the Wellington Botanic Garden. 17 June, 2005 from website Wellington City NZ.

Planting a sapling that is a direct descendant of a tree that survived the 1945 nuclear bombing of Nagasaki in a Peace Garden in Wellington shows very much an emotional connection between a historical event where a tree is the conduit between the event and an expression of hope for the future.

3. Honda Tree Fund Nationally, the Honda TreeFund has distributed $1.7 million in funds, paying for the planting of 370,000 native trees throughout New Zealand”. Otago Daily Times, December 5, 2008

Companies are getting more and more concerned about the well being of our planet and are making an effort to offset their economic activity and CO2 footprint by making substantial contributions to tree plantings.

4. TREE-mendous bill

It's taken a costly High Court battle for a Remuera couple to finally say, `timber', reports Joseph Barratt Meet the $40,000 tree. That's what the owner estimates it cost him to have this Himalayan cedar removed from his Remuera home. The Aucklander, news paper December 5, 2008

Private tree owners who are these days often subject to local bylaws with respect to tree removal. They do go sometimes to extra-ordinary length to achieve their goals and sometimes the bylaws lack the flexibility to make commonsense decisions.

5. Organisers of the V8 Supercar race in Hamilton are prepared to spend $100,000 to replant a tree blocking one of the best views of the event. Copyright © 2008 Radio New Zealand, 16 October 2008

Car racing is not particularly an activity with a small carbon footprint. This organization is determined to have a tree removed and pay money for planting trees elsewhere as long as it does not affect their spectators….

6. A labour of love that has salvaged a rare native New Zealand tree species is now ready to blossom into a fully-fledged re-planting project. Website: Tasman District Council

A major effort to avoid extinction of a tree species in a local district…..

7. Waimate tree planting


A 2.5ha totara forest will be planted within the Bushtown Heritage Park at Waimate. Bushtown Waimate is establishing the park as a tourist attraction, based on the Waimate district's pioneer timber industry. Otago Daily Times, 16.8.2008

Local community gets together to restore a landscape with a tree species that historically belongs in the district and was the major tree species providing timbers….

8. Felling shocks ‘tree man'

Tears welled in the eyes of Jolyon Manning outside Alexandra Primary School when he looked at what was left of a huge snow gum tree that stood at one of the main entrances to the school Otago Daily Times 15 May 2008

A local citizen raises concerns that we remove an apparently healthy tree on a school property. What does that indeed send for message in today’s periled world that is so short of trees….

9. Wilding Pines Otago Daily Times Sat, 12 Jul 2008 Opposition to the removal of wilding pine trees at Bannockburn has been expressed, with a neighbouring resident fearing the move will displace bird populations in the area. Hall Rd resident Ross MacFadgen said the Department of Conservation's felling of wilding pines in the Bannockburn Sluicings Historic Reserve was a "crime against ecology". Doc Central Otago area manager Mike Tubbs said …Wilding pines are a threat to the historic heritage [and] without a regular control programme wilding conifers spread rapidly and can quickly take over an area. They are among the most invasive weeds in New Zealand

Wilding pines are posing the biggest threat ever seen to the South Island's high country, say Central Otago farmers and land owners. "Do we have to get an urban guerrilla group to go out there with hand drills and Napisan to kill the bloody things, or is the board going to make sure something is done about it?”

Trees fighting back….. The ‘wilding pines’ issue in Central Otago is interesting: A ‘run-a-way’ commercial exotic tree species manages to take hold of an absolutely barren landscape. Opinion about how the landscape became barren differs. According to the Royal Society of New Zealand, Central Otago was forested first with conifers and then with beech and was then burnt by Maori resulting in a barren dry tussock land before the arrival of the early settlers. Te Ara: The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand contradicts this


stating that “Forest covered about 80% of New Zealand before humans arrived. The semi-arid areas of the Mackenzie Country and Central Otago were the only large tracts not covered in forest.” Whatever the case, Central Otago is now known for its open, arid landscapes.

Central Otago Source www.otago.ac.nz

It is finally an exotic, non native pine that is hardy enough to establish itself under these near desert conditions. One would think that this wilding social act of a tree species that decides to re-forest the land would be welcome…..

I see in the above random collection of tree-news clippings different levels of attachment of all persons involved in these tree stories. The stories were born as result of their conscious or subconscious attitude towards trees. Their individual attachments or estrangement to trees permeates into their respective world view. In my opinion all expressed views in the above press examples show local relationships with trees that have a different heart-mind connection.

This is carried through from the individual level to that of political parties. Probably the most unfriendly party to the environment is ACT. ACT is sceptical that global warming is occurring and its comment on CO2 is “carbon dioxide is a vital and necessary greenhouse gas crucial for plant growth and human survival” and states that the signing of the Kyoto agreement was “reckless” on the part of the New Zealand labour government. ACT does not have an environment policy, nor a Forestry Policy. At the other end of the scale is the Green Party which states “Alongside the economic values of forests, forests are important for ecological, environmental, recreational, spiritual, social, medicinal and cultural reasons.” Green Party Aotearoa Forestry Policy (2008). Under New Zealand’s proportional representation voting system ACT won 3.72% of the vote and has 4.09% of the seats in parliament and the Green Party


won 6.4% of the vote and has 6.56% of the seats (Dan Hirstich New-Zealand-election-2008-presentation). ACT is part of the new coalition government with the National and Maori Parties and the Green Party forms part of the opposition. These results and opinions again show a schizophrenic split in views country wide.

But what do these views mean on a more personal day to day level for all of us living on this planet and interacting at some level with trees on a daily basis, even if it is simply walking past a street tree on the way to work, or cleaning leaves from our guttering.

I recently received two messages on the same day. One was from a colleague who works with [amenity] trees for his daily bread. His personal life presents itself with a number of challenges and various issues were coming to a head so he needed to take out some time to think. As it turned out he travelled to a place in the desert in Arizona. Here in this treeless environment he realized that all the things he does in his life are sort of separated: his personal life is one segment and his professional tree work is one segment. In other words his life was divided into several completely separate worlds. When in the desert he suddenly missed something that he dearly loves: the trees. The trees, he realized, were part of his heart and soul: the more difficult other aspects in his life became, the more and almost fanatically he would throw himself in his work to be amongst the trees. This at least would give him some sense of rest and time out. Now, being in the desert there were no trees to go to and thus he could no longer avoid the other issues in his life…… This made him realize that all undertakings in life need a degree of integration; in other words there needs to be a heart-mind connection in order to be able to be in balance with oneself and the rest of the world. And the trees were in this case the catalyst of his insights.

The other message was the sad news of a good friend who suddenly passed away. She lived in Mexico having moved there from the USA. In a predominantly Mexican Colonia or neighbourhood, that is near to a large tourist resort, she found a house that needed a lot of repairs. The small courtyard was mainly occupied by a huge fig tree that towered out above the house and it was this tree that was the decisive factor in buying the house and restoring it. In this case the tree seemed to make the connection from the heart to the mind in terms of purchasing the house……

That also makes me think back to why trees are so important in my life. What is my heart connection to trees and when did it start? I recall my earliest intensive relationship with a tree in the garden where I grew up. It was a large copper beech, I estimate some 70 years old, twenty five meters in height. I was all of 6. Branches of the tree started close to the ground and invited me to start climbing it. It was around my birthday in May and the leaves had unfolded themselves fully….. Climbing on its branches felt safe….surrounded by the fresh foliage, branch for branch I climbed maybe some four meters up and no further. I sat in a fork and looked around me for some time to acquaint myself with my new position off the ground. It was exciting to be so far up and when I looked down the


main stem you could see how the rain of the previous days had travelled downwards to the base of the stem and root flares where it left tiny mini ponds of water. Were these the water basins for the gnomes living in the tree? A fleeting thought from even younger years and tales my parents read to me: trees are the domains of the gnomes……. The sheer thoughts that little critters would live in this tree was indeed an exciting prospect…..

Returning from my day dream I clambered down, taking all the care not loose my balance and hold tightly to the strong and smooth branches of the tree. Back on the ground I looked up and saw a finch much higher up the tree than I had been. I decided that I would make it to the top bit by bit. After this first climb I went inside, my mother had called me for afternoon tea. What stayed with me though was that I had gained a new and very special friend. During the following days I climbed the tree as soon as I was home from school and in the time span of a week or so I had confidently climbed up to the very top and it was the very top: branches were fairly thin to hold on to and when I stood upright I could see the water tower of the next village where my school was and the swimming pool where I used to swim. This particular tree was my favourite hangout and I spent hours there. When I think back to this it remained with me not as an event but indeed as an intimate relationship I had. I did not climb an object, no I had become one with the tree: I climbed it, the tree allowed it to happen. It had become a ‘whole experience’ we both were ‘in it with heart and soul’. There seemed to be mutual respect. Last year I visited the garden of my childhood. The beech is still there, grown larger, but now with a stem that had lost its natural colour: not the clean vibrant grey of the beech bark, but covered under an equally thin green layer of algae. All trees in Holland seem to be subjected to this. A result of acid rain?

This connection with nature in which the beech played an important role has stayed with me all my life. In effect it has helped arouse my continuous interest in nature. Thanks to the fact that I grew up in a garden with large trees the ‘contact with the land’ was set. It ultimately led the path to become an arborist and be involved with trees with ‘mind and heart’.

It is clear to me that one’s connection to trees is directly linked to the degree of exposure to trees one had and under what circumstances.

Walking in an old growth forest or visiting an old historic tree invokes quite a different reaction than passing a straggly tree that has been planted in a hapless bleak brick and concrete city environment. For some people nuisance factors such as leaves that fall in rain gutters or shade casting of a tree outweigh the beneficial factors of trees.

The daily reality is however that the majority of us live in an urbanized environment. It is here that young children have their first encounters with ‘nature’. Mostly a sanitized nature that exists out of plants and trees that have been artificially introduced, being it plants of endemic or exotic origins. It is this landscape that we people use and abuse as we see fit:


we pollute with all sorts of chemical substances that are foreign to nature, such as plastics that are broken down into smaller particles but not absorbed into the natural eco system. Or the amount of herbicides used along road, mountain sides, general green spaces and in our own gardens. Trees suffer from this not only as a result of direct feeder root die-back but also because of loss of soil organisms that live in symbiosis with trees.

The general tendency of mono-culture tree planting [pine forests] reduces diversity of tree associated organisms being it above or underground. Trees are becoming isolated entities that are loosing their vitality exponentially when reaching maturity. When trees are maturing they also have become a higher safety risk, often helped by indiscriminate pruning or severe soil disturbance as result of the urbanization process at large.

Through a lack of understanding of the needs of trees they are becoming often a hindrance of our developed landscape. They are thrown into untimely death as result of a complex pattern human interference. Not only in our manicured landscape do I see wholesale removal of wind shelter belts in order to accommodate ever larger mobile overhead irrigation system, but also last remnants of native trees that escaped agriculture practices are now pushed with ‘more sophisticated’ land clearing equipment into the folds of the grassy rolling hills that dominate the landscape. Cities and urban settlements suffer from a greying tree population: in other words we lose more trees than we plant turning these places ever closer to hostile living environments. We should have even more respect for trees in cities that survive the continuing infringement upon their attempts to grow. Poor soils, root disturbance, indiscriminate pruning, vandalism, traffic damage all reduce the life span of many trees in the city, especially street trees. The American Forestry Association surveyed twenty large cities in the USA finding that the average lifespan of a city tree is approximately 13 years. In a natural setting the same trees would reach ages between 100 and 400 years on average. And the annual decline of living trees is steadily rising as result of a reduction in tree maintenance standards. I wonder if there is a possible relationship between average tree survival rate and our limited knowledge about tree growth requirements in urban environments. Trees often have little growing space, are subject to a high degree of heat reflection from buildings and road surfaces and have to contend seriously with polluted air result of human industrial activity and traffic.

But with fewer trees in our daily living environment we make life harsher. A.Bernatsky, in Tree Ecology and Preservation, p132, 1979 notes that heat radiation as result of too few trees in the city causes real temperature rises of up to 10 degrees Celsius. Ian MacGregor-Fors, describes in his article ‘Relation between habitat attributes and bird richness in a western Mexico suburb’, 2007 that there is a direct relationship between tree habitat and bird population. Fewer trees, less birds. This raises also the issue of tree maintenance of mature trees to ensure safety standards. Most trees are being ‘over pruned’ resulting in unbalanced trees canopies that not only jeopardizes the health but at the same time reduces shelter and cover for birds. In past years I also applied a pruning regime that included the removal of all dead wood but I noticed


that this was detrimental to the birds. Birds need dead branches that stick out above the green leaf mass as perch branches. A lack of these can be enough for birds to move on and find more suitable trees elsewhere…..

If trees are to make a maximum contribution to the environment in which they grow, they need to be treated by us in a holistic manner. The trees are in that respect directly reliant upon people. Often they had no say in where they grow –we planted them- and then we dictate what the future growth conditions will be. If these conditions are poor then the tree’s development will be in direct relationship to that, thus also its overall health and age.

Section Four: Trees and the Future of New Zealand

It is clear that we are on a dead end course if we do not drastically re-invent ourselves. New Zealand has [for better and in my view mostly worse] managed to re-invent itself in the past and I believe we can do it again and this time for the better. We need to move away from the basic assumptions we have become accustomed to and shift the paradigm of our thinking to more sustainable ways to develop ways of living that are in harmony with nature without exhausting its resources. New Zealand has become a multi-national country and with these multi nationalities we have also at hand a multitude of skills and potentially inventive brain power. We will need to retain that brain power. New policies need to be put in place to avoid people moving on to other countries. The world today is a transient place and recent immigration and emigration figures show that we are loosing more people than we are gaining. The average age of the population is swinging upward…..

So, what are the opportunities? In my opinion these are enormous. Every country that is able to manage their tree reserve in a sustainable manner is one step ahead of countries where these resources already have been exhausted. Rapid expansion of our future tree resources will help us as we are moving towards a world stage where global non-renewable energy sources are fast diminishing. We are for the moment an exporting country of agricultural, horticultural and forestry products that reach their destinations at considerable cost and are transported on the basis of non renewable energy [mostly imported]. Before we have reached global peak and post peak oil within some twenty years from now we need to have new systems in place to survive as a nation. That means unifying all our intellectual resources and developing a sustainable and holistic way of doing business.

It is in my mind clear that in the process of re-thinking our society, community and environment, trees will play an important role, not only as a supply source of fuel and building material – the ‘fluctuating tree pool’ but also as a resource for landscape restoration and climate managers – ‘the perpetual tree pool’. Both groups of trees are prominent ingredients


for the future of all who live in New Zealand and as our contribution to the rest of the world.

Parks raises the notion that because of the western historical approach to the landscape we are lacking what he calls a ‘middle’ landscape. We have areas of natural beauty which hold a nature protection status, dating mainly from in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. These form the bulk of the nation’s nature conservancy, and are designed primarily for the purpose of keeping visitors out or with only minimal recreational use. Then, on the other hand we have land that was given over for development, primarily agriculture and urban development. What we don’t have, according to Parks is anything in between, land that is developed both for use and for beauty. Interestingly Parks argues that even as far back as the 1890s the drive was to retain the wilderness areas because of its tourism value so in effect even our wilderness had to be given a monetary value before it could be considered worthy of saving.

In a future model of New Zealand, I think that development of this middle landscape is essential for our survival. Middle landscape is the place where the fluctuating and perpetual tree pool will live hand in hand with humans and where a social dignity of the trees is restored. A middle landscape will form the bridge between human day to day habitat and scenic reserve creating a whole landscape that not only incorporates the entire New Zealand landmass but also embraces its internal and surrounding water mass and all that live in it.

Alienation of people from their landscape is in my opinion one of the fundamental errors we make if we are serious about the creation of a healthy living environment for the future. Parks’ middle landscape will play a pivotal role. This is the place we aspire to, a place that embraces both human activity and the natural surroundings in perpetuity. This is the landscape where we will live on a daily basis and that will provide us with tangible –economic- and intangible benefits – health and well being.

A holistic approach to maintaining the landscape requires an intimate connection with all that live and grow in that landscape and in particular with trees, that are the subject of this paper. Deep understanding of the needs and uses of trees arise when we are connected to its lore, incorporate research and management approaches that take into account the tree as an object that produces timber or fruit, and have an intimate understanding about their growth preferences and the influence the tree has upon its surroundings, being it above or under ground. To apply all of these principles, I think that the recently developed Transition Town model is an interesting platform to develop and will refer to this later on in more detail.

With global climate changes and CO2 over production, carbon sequestering of trees will no doubt be one of their most important social roles for the future. In order to increase the carbon sequestering pool more trees need to be planted and it is here that the social aspect of the tree shakes hands with the people.


In view of global initiatives to regulate CO2 emissions New Zealand’s trees, native and exotic can become a CO2 sequestering bank providing a new source of income for the country. New Zealand society produces annually 77 million tonnes of CO2. The Department of Conservation has calculated that by expanding the national forest estate by only 1 %, we will absorb these 77 million tonnes and equal out our carbon emissions to a zero carbon footprint. World wide between countries there exists a carbon credit point exchange. With planting more trees, and the permanent forest reserve we already have, we will soon have an excess of ‘carbon points’. These can be traded off with other countries that do not have a zero carbon footprint, thus we add a new economic activity with our national tree asset. According to Save the Planet’s website, New Zealand has already funded some wind generation projects from the money gained from selling carbon credits.

Changes in policies of land management and also a review of current agricultural practices will set us on the path of a renewed relationship between people and trees that not only benefits us nationally, but also globally.

We can build on past observations and a perspective such as is outlined in the following description of the Kaikoura [land] Purchase that took place in 1840, but still reverberates today:

Kaikoura History - Changing Landscapes

“The dispossession of land that followed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and the Kaikōura Purchase had a profound effect on the spiritual, cultural and mahinga kai relationship between Ngāti Kuri and the environment. With settlement and agriculture came land clearance, habitat loss, drainage and diversions of natural waterways, and the introduction of exotic species.

As the physical landscape changed, so did the ability of Ngāti Kuri to access or manage resources on which they were dependent.

Customary management practices, based on the principle of kaitiakitanga, once allowed tangata whenua to sustainably harvest and conserve natural resources. Over time, external management structures marginalised tangata whenua from decision-making processes pertaining to the lands and waters of Te Waipounamu.

Despite the changes in land ownership, and the ability of Ngāi Tahu to express traditional relationships and exercise kaitiaki responsibilities, the history and identity of Ngāti Kuri remains on the landscape. Wāhi ingoa (place names) and other


culturally important landscape features are tangible reminders of the extent of customary land use and occupancy, and to the degree to which tangata whenua understood and interacted with the landscape. The knowledge and stories that have been passed on through generations keep ancestral connections with significant places strong”.

Ref: Te Runanga o Kaikōura (2005). TE POHA O TOHU RAUMATI: Te Mahere Whakahaere Taiao o Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura 2005/Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura Environmental Management Plan 2005.

Source: www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz/.../The%20Negotiators

Note that the Maori perspective focuses on the total landscape changes. It is a landscape that not only contains all physical features [inclusive trees] but also the human connection to that landscape from the past to the present. Despite all of the changes that took place in this country in the past the holistic view referred to earlier in this paper stayed alive and is still very much part of the dialogue between Maori and Europeans with respect to the interpretation of the content of the Treaty of Waitangi. With recognition of the Maori holistic view such as described in the Kaikoura purchase we gain valuable insight in practices that we need to incorporate in order to proceed forward towards sustainability. This view ties in closely with Park’s Middle Landscape where ecosystems are the unit of measure, not the individual trees, plants, natural and or human made features.

From the Resonance of the Past towards a new pathway for the future. In the previous part of this paper I have tried to sketch some historic perspectives of the relationship between trees and humans in this country. The incredible transformation of New Zealand’s landscape, especially over the last 150 years is a painful reminder of how we as humans have dealt with our daily environment where as far as I am concerned there are no ‘winners’. We have been enticed to play a game of earning our living on an individual and global level that is based upon depletion. When I ponder over the past of this country and let thereby the fate of trees like the Kauri and the forests at large resonate through me then it becomes clear that we must strive for a future management of our environment that makes a clean break with the ‘business as usual’ attitude that is dominated by a great deal of short sightedness, quick gain and lack of long term planning. Business of the future has to be based upon a holistic and sustainable management that makes us true partners with our environment. Trees will play their role as well as they have since mythical times when they were not only not only effective providers for housing, shelter, fuel, tools etc. but also the connectors between the earth and the heavens as depicted in the story of Tane.


Today Tane is in serious trouble. Trees, as sentient beings have been hugely diminished as a result of taking or removing them from this holistic environment based upon purely economic value and alienated from any heart-mind or esoteric points of view. We now run the risk that Rangi and Papa will re-unite themselves permanently because there are no longer enough trees to separate the sky from the earth which will inevitably result in a return to a state of permanent darkness. Renewal of our relationship with trees I believe that as individuals we need not only redesign but also renew our relationship with trees. It is unbelievable that despite the onslaught on trees that still takes place here and elsewhere in the world they make a continued effort to grow and to serve us in many ways. Amongst all of the tree population it is the old trees however that resonate and connect us with the past. These old trees form the silent physical markers of our past. It is the group of trees that are safeguarded, honoured, revered that have become places of pilgrimage. Pilgrimages are undertaken by individuals to places where they can find solace or are seeking to receive answers to questions or problems that feature in their lives. People who make these pilgrimages to these sacred tree places have not lost the skill to communicate with heart and mind with the trees. The people who still carry this wisdom to holistically connect with trees and nature will become invaluable teachers for the future. People who live in places where trees have lost their presence all together, such as inner cities are the most alienated from nature and are most vulnerable when it comes to basic survival skills. It is especially the children that grow up in the urban environment who are not able to make basic connections with nature for example that milk is not a factory made product but is produced by a cow. Or they cannot conceive that cotton is a plant product. These children rarely if ever put their hands in the soil and grow a plant or a tree. I know of children who have never lit or made a fire. This is a generation that is growing up with television, computers and cellular phones. What they do is ‘virtual’ and does not require direct interaction with nature. This is a generation that relies completely on corporations, companies and government agencies for their housing, heating and food. If these services get interrupted, these people will perish because of a lack of survival skills. A great deal of education and change in the urban environment is needed if these people are to have a basic understanding of the interconnectedness of all living beings on this earth. Without this understanding there is little likelihood that future leaders will make good decisions regarding our long term viability as a species. Edward O.Wilson an entomologist, wrote a book ‘Biophilia Hypothesis’ in which he looked at the relationship of people with nature and refers to ‘human’s love of living things’, our innate connection with nature. He defines biophilia as the "innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes and quotes:


“I have argued in this book that we are human in good part because of the particular way we affiliate with other organisms. They are the matrix in which the human mind originated and is permanently rooted, and they offer the challenge and freedom innately sought. To the extent that each person can feel like a naturalist, the old excitement of the untrammeled world will be regained. I offer this as a formula of re-enchantment to invigorate poetry and myth: mysterious and little known organisms live within walking distance of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions”. Edward O. Wilson,1984, p. 139

Howard Frumkin, professor and chair of environmental and occupational health in the School of Public Health took Wilson’s ideas at heart and observes in an article he wrote for the 2001 April issue of American

Journal of Preventive Medicine:

“Unfortunately, the idea that exposure to nature can be restorative is almost invisible or nonexistent in health care. Our standard clinical paradigm involves medications more than non-medical approaches, treatment more than prevention. But many people are intuitively drawn to this idea. They feel restored and healthier in a beautiful landscape, for example. And on the other side, many environmentalists work to preserve nature for a range of very good environmental reasons, but forget that one of the major benefits may be human health.”

So, if we humans are inclined to reference our actions inherently to our ‘love for living things’ how come that we so often are such bad listeners to what nature tries to tell us of all that nature has to offers us and as result to our personal health? I think it is most likely due to the alienation as outlined above, due to our failure to promote and live in the ‘middle landscape’. Wilson’s notion that ‘Splendor awaits in minute proportions’ appeals to me, because that implies that one has to be very observant in order to find this splendor. If we want to reconnect with our trees we have to start with ourselves. We need to extend our hand to sign a new pact with the trees and build upon the splendor we have around us. It is us that have to become the eyes and ears on behalf of the trees before Tane indeed looses his strength and darkness sets in. If we start the process of reconnecting with trees and our environment within, then the first action starts at the level of the heart: we ‘listen’ with our heart if the action we are about to start feels good or feels bad. Recognising the good signal and amplifying this in our thoughts will be displayed in our action. This visible action will resonate further and


influence our surroundings. In other words the seed of our thought, tested by the heart is the start of a cause and effect process that takes place like throwing a tiny stone in a pond causing a ripple effect in the water. As mentioned before I believe that this country has all the ingredients at hand to re-evaluate what assets it has and develop a new model of living in harmony with nature and with setting itself apart and ahead of many other countries in the world that battle with a worse situation in terms of sustainability. Tree Treaty I propose to write a new type of treaty to redefine the relationship between trees and its people. Why trees? Because trees are the largest and most influential plants in the landscape in terms of climate regulation. They are primary oxygen suppliers, erosion controllers, and intermediaries in the earth soil eco life because of their symbiotic relationship with many soil organisms. Historically they have a long standing practical, mythical and mystical relationship with humans. Trees form the backbone of human existence. They have made the inhabitants of this country rich and their future role in view of worsening global climatologically conditions such as gradual temperature increase and excessive CO2 production highlights a vital role in terms of human survival, health and well being. Trees ignore political and ideological boundaries and as such are part of the common good of all people in the country. I see two main stake holders to this treaty: 1. Trees: Indigenous trees Exotic trees Amenity trees Notable and Historic trees Timber trees Cropping trees This group of stake holders carries a whole host of visible and invisible stake holders ranging from birds to micro-organisms 2. Guardians – Kaitiaki: Indigenous people – Maori (Ancestors and subsequent descendants) All other people – Pakeha (Maori word for early settlers of European descent), Asian, Pacific Islanders etc. and their descendants, i.e. the people that, after the initial European settlers, have chosen New Zealand as their home. This treaty will form the basis for a future of a holistic New Zealand and will be known as:


The Treety of Aotearoa – New Zealand This treaty will give an inherent right to all living trees to grow. Trees will provide an ongoing source for the well being of all people. The Guardians will act in every justifiable manner to aid the trees in their functions and goals. Guardians will manage trees wisely, with respect based upon sound ecological principles to heal the land and its people and all other living beings.

O~O~O~O~O

I have set out a number of proposals for implementation of the Treety. To achieve this, a multitude of different disciplines will be affected. It also requires a great deal of political will. The current climate of the newly elected government is fairly right wing and therefore it is not likely that a major impetus from central government can be expected. I think that adoption of the Treety will have to start from the bottom up, for example it can be adopted as a goal within the Transition Towns initiatives. On the other hand, interestingly enough, the current structure of ministries and ministerial agencies is such that working towards this Treety is quite achievable. I have outlined eleven points that can act as a starting point to a road map for the Treety Guardians. 1. Redefine tree legislation. 2. Change focus of National Arbor Day. 3. Incorporate historic trees under NZ Historic Places Trust Act. 4. Redefine forestry management.

5. Create a new Ministry of Sustainability 6. Redesign education programmes for forestry, arboriculture and farming education. 7. Implement a compulsory civil ecological land management service. 8. Foster and action urban ecological and Transition Town planning. 9. Redefine national road side management.

10. Develop sustainable work methods. 11. Tree Nurseries and Botanic Gardens.


1. Redefine tree legislation.

This legislation will give various degrees of protection to all trees as part of eco-management principles.

Currently, legal tree protection in New Zealand is mostly governed by bylaws created within the framework of the Resource Management Act (1991). Under this act large tracts of mostly Crown land are protected as a whole that includes all unique features of the landscape inclusive of trees. In the private sector land protection covenants are administered by the Queen Elizabeth II Trust. This trust administers some 106,000 ha of private land. The Resource Management Act also regulates the procedures for resource management consents for planned activities in the landscape, such as mining, road construction, urban housing etc. Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry list 6.2 million hectares of native forest and 1.8 million hectares of pine forests, together taking up approximately 30% of the total land surface. The majority of the native forests enjoy complete protection. All trees growing in the remaining 70% of the land are dependant on local authority protection. Before the implementation of the Resource Management Act (RMA) various local authorities made tree bylaws where trees over a certain size enjoyed protection. When the RMA became law the local councils changed the tree protection rules to a system where only listed trees (with permission of the owner) are protected. This has resulted in the majority of the trees in the urban and rural areas being unprotected. Sometimes tree disputes end up in the environmental courts and the outcome of judgments is often not in favour of the tree(s). In an eco or holistic landscape management approach, trees play a role from the seedling stage onwards. Our haphazard tree protection laws ignore trees of small size with as result that we, especially in urbanised centres see marked proportional imbalance in the tree generations. A healthy tree population should look very similar to a human population pyramid, like this:


Source: www.ewgovt.nz Environment Waikato Although I do not have full statistics of urban tree populations, based upon observation I believe a population pyramid would show a squat diamond, rather than a pyramid. In order to maintain a continued growth in the tree population, intensive planting programs of new trees must be implemented to make up for losses down the track. Removal of trees of any age should only be considered if this in the interest of the overall eco or holistic management plan. For example removal of saplings will distort a generational flow of new trees or it will distort the eco system in the tree under story.

2. Change focus of National Arbor Day.

National Arbor Day will become a national tree day for all people of New Zealand. On this day all people in the country will be engaged with trees: planting, maintenance, educational workshop activities will be organized in communities, schools and in the work place. In many countries around the world annual Arbor Day tree planting events are organized. New Zealand’s first Arbor Day planting took place in Greymounth in 1890. In 1892 the first national Arbor Day event was held in Wellington. It was as a result of the efforts of the botanist Cockayne that Arbor Day celebrations were observed in schools in order to plant native trees.


Currently the Department of Conservation is the driving force behind Arbor Day celebrations and the day is set for the 5th of June, coinciding with World Conservation Day and Arbor Day plantings are still mainly organized as part of primary school activity. However, with increasing climate challenges that lay more urgency upon restoration of land through re-forestation Arbor Day, celebrations can be taken as a good opportunity to raise tree awareness not only in the schools but throughout the nation. We may well be handsomely rewarded in the longer term if we sacrifice a work day to dedicate to a hands on environmental activity such as planting trees and organizing and workshops about the benefits and multitude of useful applications of trees. Arbor Day should not only pay attention to native trees, but also to introduced species, introduced by early settlers that now have placed their unique signature especially within the urban and sub-urban environment. Another focus is planting cropping trees that have a dual function: amenity and fruit or nut production. This as part of a food sustainable effort to bring fruit and nut sources closer to the community, thus reducing costs of transport and also to let the community have something back for the effort they make in planting trees. Dedicated Arbor Day events involving all of the population provides an excellent platform for people to grow closer to nature and make them aware that they are actually an intrinsic part of the environment. Living in harmony with trees and reaping their benefits by far outweighs living in a treeless degraded environment. Some added events for Arbor Day can be community involvement in park plantings, Memorial tree planting: birth, death, jubilees etc. and the establishment of community tree nurseries that obtain its seeds from locally grown trees to ensure optimum establishment.

Storytelling can also be incorporated as an Arbor Day activity: tree myth and lore. The story telling gives an excellent opportunity to integrate tree lore from all different races that now reside in New Zealand. Celebration of Arbor Day across the country with a large community input can also become the starting point for ongoing tree planting community projects.

3. Incorporate historic trees under NZ Historic Places Trust Act.

Notable Trees New Zealand will be given equal legislative status as the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in order to fund the preservation of our cultural and historic heritage buildings and trees. Notable and Historic trees hold a special place in the overall tree population. These old trees link us to our past. Often such historic trees have been planted as part of the original landscape of historic buildings and sites, yet there is no link between legislation for the retention and restoration of historic buildings and the related historic trees.


The New Zealand Historic Places Trust was established by parliamentary act to protect and restore our heritage. We do have in New Zealand the Notable Trees New Zealand Trust. This is a recent body that has been established under auspices of two private organizations: The Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture and the New Zealand Arboricultural Association. Notable Trees New Zealand maintains an extensive register of heritage trees but I do not know of a Notable and Historic Trees legislation that provides for restoration of trees that are part of a historic site. Let me give an example of how the incorporation of trees in the preservation work of a historic place can work. The Totara Estate near Oamaru, Otago is the place where during the late 1800’s the first frozen shipment of lambs meat was prepared for export to Great Britain. This historic farm is now one of the flagship properties of the NZ Historic Places Trust and it underwent major restoration during the early 1980’s. On the property, adjacent to the farm buildings was a row of Cupressus macrocarpa - macrocarpa trees that were planted when the farm was built. They served as a wind break in this otherwise barren land. The trees, some ten in total had grown to large impressive specimens but the decision had been made to remove them while restoring the buildings. A concern was voiced that the trees may be unsafe or could fall on the buildings and after all they were just ordinary macrocarpas. Shelterbelt trees are in general not valued as specimen trees. Yet the trees added to the overall ambience of the place and were the last survivors of the original plantings around this farm. With input of an engineer who was involved with the restoration and myself, we came up with a restoration plan and managed to convince the Historic Places Trust to include these trees in the restoration budget. Now, some twenty five years later, the trees are still part of the overall historic asset and are still an intrinsic part of the estate as can be seen on the picture below. The trees still do not carry a protective covenant, but the fact that the Historic Places Trust invested money in the trees has made that they are staying on the restoration/maintenance budget. Retention of the trees contributed to continued shelter for visitors to have a picnic on the site, the trees add an interesting flavour to the overall ambiance of the place and it provides the visitor with some sense of what attention was given to the landscape building at the time of the establishment of the estate.

Source: NZ Historic Places Trust


4. Redefine forestry management.

Forestry management for native and exotic trees will be exclusively based upon ecological management principles. Most of the native forest resource in the country is already managed on a sustainable, eco or holistic management basis. A national program will be set up to make GPS maps of all land that is currently classified as ‘waste land’ like gorse clad hills. According to Richard Hill in his article about biological control of Gorse, Ulex europaeus, notes that some 700 000 hectares or 5% of the total land area is covered with this introduced plant. The early settlers imported seeds of the plant for live fencing. Little did they realize that the climate conditions were far more conducive here than in Britain and the plant wilded at phenomenal rate, rendering hills useless for native plants and or any form of agriculture. The gorse continues to be sprayed with weed killers with the aid of planes but this is neither sustainable nor effective. Efforts to introduce measures of biological control are taking place so far with mixed results. When gorse grows ‘old’ after some ten or twelve years of age called ‘old men’s gorse’, it ‘hollows’ out underneath and can become a nursing environment for tree seeds and plants. Most of the gorse is located in the agricultural landscape that could then form part of the Middle Landscape Geoff Parks says we lack. With the help of GPS mapping these areas could easily be identified and a program set up to progressively turn these areas into native forest. Five percent of native forest extension into the landscape will mean a major transformation to the landscape in terms of outlook or experience and form important contributions to wild life corridors and bird habitat. Terra Nature New Zealand provides a glimpse into the terrestrial bird species decline over the last 700 years: 47%! The State of the Birds report 2007 from the New Zealand Ornithological association notes that just about all the endemic bird species are in decline due predominantly to a loss of native tree habitat and increase of predators like rats and feral cats. As part of sustainable eco-forestry and harvesting I think that we need to develop forest production policies for short, medium, long, multi generational and perpetual harvest cycles:


A. Short Up to twenty year cycle through the establishment of coppice forestry.

Coppicing: high bio diversity Twenty year oak coppice

Photographer: Brian Lockhart, USDA Forest Service, United States Coppice forestry is virtually not known in New Zealand. Depending upon the tree species used for coppicing, harvest cycles can vary from three – for willow to twenty years for oak species. Coppice forestry is practiced frequently throughout Europe and Britain. Once trees are planted, they are cut back to near ground level and then re-sprout. The sprouts are generally very straight and can be harvested to various thicknesses for fuel, posts, furniture manufacturing etc. Once the sticks are harvested, the root systems will again generate a new crop. Coppice fields become excellent biotopes for wild life and as such become an eco system in their own right. It would be interesting to experiment with native tree species to set up coppice forestry blocks. Coppice blocks can also be easily incorporated in urban forestry practices, because planting of coppice stools can be done on very small pockets of land. Coppice fields are ideal to incorporate in communal land in urbanised areas as providers for fuel and raw materials for tool handles, posts, furniture and basketry production.


B. Medium Thirty to sixty year cycle for the various exotic pine forests. This category of forestry is very well established. Pinus radiata forest blocks are widely established throughout the country. The trees have a harvest cycle of thirty to fourty years. Since the common practice is to clear fell pine tree blocks all undergrowth is destroyed. Large scale clear felling techniques do in my opinion not belong in an eco or holistic management plan. To break the mono culture of pinus radiata plantings which makes this crop a high risk category for insect diseases, I suggest to expand diversification with other conifer species such as douglas fir, macrocarpa and larch and planting in smaller blocks that will allow for harvesting different trees species at different time intervals. This avoids clear felling and associated issues of erosion. C. Long Sixty to hundred year harvest cycles for combined exotic and native timbers. Because of our fairly short term outlook in life looking for relatively quick monetary returns combined with the increasing scarcity and clear felling harvest restrictions of native forests, the timber production of native forests has become insignificant and is carried out on incidental felling of trees. In an eco or holistic management style forestry model however there has to be room for sustainable harvest. Therefore we should develop well defined parameters for native timber harvest over a sixty to hundred year period. What today is no longer considered economic because of limitations to clear fell, will in my opinion become once more profitable as the world timber reserves continue to decline as result of unsustainable harvesting methods. D. Multigenerational Hundred to five hundred year harvest cycles for incidental logging of specimen exotic and native timbers. There is merit in planning for timber harvest with a hundred to five hundred year harvest cycles, so we actually plan varied habitat for future generations. In this category I also include introduced or exotic timber other than pine and think of durable timbers introduced by the early Settlers such as oak, ash European beech etc. These tree species are already in decline in Europe as a result of excessive air pollution and acid rain. These issues do not play a prominent role in New Zealand due to the low rate of industrialization. This particular harvest cycle of trees is also a major


contributor to the permanent carbon sink reserve as I propose in the next category. E. Perpetual Conservation cycle as a perpetual global carbon sink reserve. This category of trees contain all the native forest we currently already have protected and that is set aside as nature reserve in perpetuity. This will gradually be expanded by adding tracts of old forest that is still not protected as result of limited logging operations. This category of trees has a Noah’s Ark quality. Forest that can be described as ‘The Jewel in the Crown’, forests that will have World Nature Reserve and Heritage status, belonging to the last of the undisturbed ecosystems. Despite all landscape and tree destruction that took place in this country, we do still have tracts of land that fall under this category. The eco management plans for these forests should be focused on keeping them free of ‘foreign invaders’ that being exotic plants, trees or wildlife.

5 Create a new Ministry of Sustainability

Establish a new ministry that will be known as the Ministry of Sustainability. The Ministry of Environment has developed a website called Sustainability.govt.nz that provides tips how to live more sustainably. I contend that we should actually create a Ministry of Sustainability. This new ministry will be established by merging the following bodies:

The Sustainability Council of New Zealand (private not for profit organization) Sustainability.govt.nz (residing under the Ministry of Environment Ministry of Research and Technology

The ministry of sustainability will have two main functions: - Development and implementation of sustainable policies and directives. - Provide funding for sustainable research and development.

The ministry will become an umbrella for sustainable affairs for the following existing ministries:

Environment Culture and Heritage Agriculture and Forestry Fisheries


and the following departments: Conservation (residing under Environment) Biosecurity (residing under Agriculture and Forestry)

The Ministry of Sustainability will have a core management that is composed out of specialists who already focus on sustainability in one of the bodies out of which the new ministry has been established and as well as sustainability specialists from third party industries within New Zealand or abroad. The new ministry will provide an umbrella function for other ministries and departments such as those mentioned above. The new ministry will be unique in its multi-disciplinary composition and become a concentration point for sustainable affairs for all other government bodies that traditionally are involved in economic activities that directly influence the management of our land. The Ministry of Research and Technology published in August of this year a report “Business Expenditure on Research and Development in New Zealand – future potential and future industries” that contends that New Zealand rates poorly in terms of reinvestment of capital for research. Only .51% of our gross domestic production is used for research and development. Compare this with a few other countries such as: Korea 2.76%, USA 1.79% and UK 1.36% By restructuring our goals for research and development in terms of sustainability we can become world leaders in this field: from ecological land and tree management to the manufacturing of a vast array of products where we follow cradle to cradle design principles as defined by designers like Michael Braungart: ‘A design paradigm that models human industry on natural processes, creating safe and healthy prosperity’.

6. Change forestry, arboriculture and farming education.

Rural and urban forestry, arboriculture, farming, and conservation disciplines need to be combined in new education curricula to develop effective eco land managers.These schools also need to [re] introduce the apprentice system that currently has faded as part of the education restructuring that took place ten to fifteen years ago. It can also be expected that eco-land management will require more labour because of its more intensive nature. That should fit in well with the expected increase in unemployment we are facing as a result of the current global economic crisis. These new eco land managers will have better skills to farm and forest in a sustainable manner that does not deplete or degrade our resources.


7. Implement a compulsory civil ecological land management service.

Establish a national compulsory civil ecological land management service of one year for all students leaving high school on tree regeneration projects. New Zealand does not have compulsory military service but in aid of the new ecological land management models I propose that we implement a compulsory ecological land management for a period of one year for all students, male and female, to help the country change course. Project participation can be chosen in the national perpetual forest reserve, agriculture, forestry and urban projects. Such a contribution could be offset in reduced tertiary study fees. We could develop for this purpose an internship program along the lines of the ‘The French International Internship Programme’ and modify this to New Zealand requirements. This will provide flexibility for participants in the scheme to serve New Zealand companies overseas as well. The compulsory eco land management service can be administered by the Ministry of Sustainability.

8. Urban Ecological and Transition Town planning.

Urban planning will focus on Eco-city living communities where amenity greening will become part of the urban eco-forestry and eco horti-/ agriculture plan. Sustainable living in cities is still in its infancy. A number of local authorities have implemented recycling systems for cardboard, glass and metal, tyres etc. The most recent Government effort is the implementation of the waste minimisation act that came into force in September 2008. It allows for stewardship programs to devise waste recycling systems. A company needs to be accredited and will be funded upon a levy system. No eco cities are currently being designed in New Zealand, but Waitakere City has declared itself the first eco-city of the country. The Waitakere City Council has made a strong commitment to becoming eco friendly and has a strong development policy. Part of this policy is planting 80 000 trees per year within their city limits.

Transitioning

In recent years there is a new movement arising that interestingly found its roots in the UK. In that country a faction of the population is realizing that we need to develop new values to operate society: the way we work and live will have to reduce and minimise the footprint we leave behind upon the environment. Global changes in our climate speak volumes about the way we are going about abusing the environment we live in and there are indicative signs towards serious hardship for human existence in those areas of the world that are worst affected by climate change.


Ordinary citizens are grouping together all over the world to look at ways to live sustainably on their lands. Transition Towns (TT) is an initiative for holistic, sustainable living and well being that is gaining popularity. Throughout the world there are TT initiatives coming off the ground. In New Zealand there are some 50 cities and communities active for the moment. Five cities/towns that have formally agreed to be a transition town and fourty four communities have groups that actively are meeting to discuss ways to make changes in living patterns to become sustainable. This has taken place in a time span of about one year. If this growth rate of TT activities continues, we will be in a few years from now Transition New Zealand and with that reaching a first in the world: a Transition Country. As part of the Transition Country concept, supported by a proposed ministry of sustainability, we should give preference to moving from a forest – timber producer to a forest manager/guardian model, thereby gradually phasing out the planting of exotic trees as they are being harvested and replacing them with native perpetual forest cover. These forests will start earning carbon credits as a world resource for sinking and, on a limited and strictly renewable basis, native timber production. Alongside that more research should be carried out to find out how we can harvest products from native trees without destroying them: edible fruits, harvest of foliage, prunings etc. that provide compounds for medication. Large scale native re-forestation should go hand in hand and be part of a nationwide coherent strategy for urban planning and landscape restoration that are all focused on reduction of our carbon footprint and development of new forms of economic activities that are enhancing our living conditions.

9. Redefine national road side management.

National road side management will become more tree friendly. Transit New Zealand recently renamed the New Zealand Transport Authority has developed planting guidelines for its 10893 km (as per 2007) long network of highways. These current guidelines do incorporate tree plantings. Interestingly the guidelines spend little attention to the application of different tree species such as road guidance and no mention is made about any form of cropping revenue, such as timber and or fruit bearing trees around parking spaces and picnic spots. If I conservatively incorporate a 25 meter wide road verge into the equation, then there is potentially 2.7 million hectares of roadside verge or ‘long acres’ available for tree planting. The actual long acre surface is most likely close to double this, but there is already some necessary planting carried out. Still, more tree planting will reduce annual grass mowing maintenance and reduce weed spraying. Mixing tree planting with permanent shrubbery would make a substantial added contribution to the carbon sequestering pool of trees. High density plantings like coppice fields becomes at the same time crash barriers for traffic that strays from the road. Any form of tree harvesting will be more economic because access to the tree plots will be easy. Another side effect of tree or tree coppice plantings is that in shaded areas a natural under story growth will develop of herbaceous plants and shrubs that reduce the need for weed


spraying, allowing the soil food web balance to restore itself. The national road net work becomes an important source of added biodiversity in the landscape. Since the winters are generally mild in this country, snow and ice conditions on roads are generally addressed with either sand or fine gravel, which means that there is little set back of plant growth as result of salt spraying.

10. Develop sustainable work methods

With the development of an eco-oriented management plan labour will most likely increase as result of a more intensive land management system. I think of intensified tree planting schemes and as petrol products increase it may become more cost effective to reduce mechanized maintenance and carry out more manual labour. This would fit in well with a national effort to reduce the carbon foot print.

11. Tree Nurseries and Botanic Gardens

If we are to expand trees in all categories at a large scale, we need more tree production units. The largest nurseries we have are producing pine trees for exotic pine forests. The Nurserymen’s organization has regrouped itself and their focus is mainly directed at the gardening industry. Tree croppers are organized in the NZ Tree Crops Association. It is amazing to see that in such a small country of roughly 4 million citizens, the various tree interest groups are relatively insulated from each other. In an eco land management model all these different interest groups need to reach out to each other and combine resources. Expansion of nurseries for tree production also will require a larger labour force in this sector. The existing Botanic gardens network around the country will need to expand and/or establish regional tree collections of native and exotic tree species that will form the basis for tree seed banks. These banks hold important genetic material and can become a supply source for local and regional nurseries. Their geographical locations are interesting in this respect as New Zealand has a huge variation in micro climates and some tree species are location bound in terms of their growth. Botanic gardens can link in with regional private plant and tree collections to become the safe keepers of this tree seed resource. Upon conclusion Looking back at the historical ties of humans to the landscape and their relationship to trees we have followed a pattern as in many other parts of the world. We have viewed trees as an inexhaustible resource, which it could be with the right attitudes and policies. Unfortunately way when tree stocks were exhausted in Europe, we explored beyond our boundaries looking for new ‘inexhaustible’ resources.


Thus the trees in New Zealand underwent the same fate as in Europe, again viewed as inexhaustible until most were lost in our haste to make money from the land. It seems that this is a not so desirable human trait, this ‘using up, don’t worry’ attitude. Maori were not quite free of that either. In order to fill their dinner plates with the now extinct weird and wonderful birds unique to this country, they burned and slashed large tracts of forests till such point that they realized that further destruction of trees and their environment would also lead to destruction of themselves. Whether this realisation was what brought them to a more conservation, spiritual based approach, or whether this was already developed and helped them shift to a more inclusive sustainable view is not clear. What is clear is that an inclusive less abusive relationship with the landscape was in place by the time European settlers arrived. Instead of using resources, it is urgently time that we become resourceful. Merriam Webster online dictionary defines ‘resourceful’ as follows: ‘capable of devising ways and means’. ‘Devising ways and means’ does in my opinion not imply ‘using up’, but rather making your ways and means with the renewable resources you have. Managing the resources in such a way that it continues to provide more on a sustainable basis. Planting and growing trees and using them as a sustainable source is something we can do. It is a realistic goal to make a renewed pact with the trees. We can seize the opportunity to create a unique position that can become a role model in a world that is in a state of vast climatological change. Farmers and foresters, arboriculturists and conservationists all need to build in their professional role elements of guardianship. A renewed connection with trees will also kindle new areas of research and may well lead to the discovery of new compounds in and application of trees that can be useful in our efforts to reduce our carbon foot print. If New Zealand becomes an eco-managed country we soon will lead the world in sustainable land management and set a global example for other countries. Our educational institutions will see an increase in overseas students who come here to learn our eco land management practices and adapt these to the environmental circumstances in their respective home countries helping transition our world to a sustainable middle landscape model that will have all the hallmarks to elevate to a level that really improves our chances of survival as a species and in true partnership with our trees.


Appendix One

Extract from “A Romance of Lake Wakatipu” by Robert Carrick, 1092, Wellington

Sourced from the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre

Title: A Romance of Lake Wakatipu

Author: Robert Carrick

Publication details: George Didsbury, 1892, Wellington

Part of: Nineteenth-Century Novels Collection

Note 1.—Otago.

Under enactment of the Imperial Parliament, passed in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled "An Act to grant Representative Institutions to the Islands of New Zealand," the colony was divided into six political centres—Auckland, New Plymouth, and Wellington in the North; Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago in the South. With the spread of settlement, some of these proved too large, and outlying districts became too remotely situated from their seats of Government. In the year 1857 a new Act was passed, by which a further subdivision took place and three additional political centres were added to the list. Under that readjustment Otago, in the year 1860, lost that area afterwards known as Southland. Ten years later they were reunited. Each province was worked on the basis of a representative institution; so that when provincialism was at its height nine, if not ten, separate Legislatures were in operation. As things now exist, such political provision would be deemed a superabundance of government—a plethora of legislation. The state of affairs, however, was very different then from now. Little or no provision existed for intercommunication, and what passed in that way between the different centres went, for the most part, by sea in the sailing-craft. Having absolutely no inter-commercial relations to provide for and few or no interests in common, they were as much isolated as if they had been separate kingdoms lying widely apart. Therefore local and quasi-local administrations were rendered, in a measure, imperative. In process of time communication became more perfect. A through system of roads, with postal and telegraphic communication, was provided, and more recently a railway system established. The different centres were thus brought more and more into contact, and fewer occasions was felt for local administration in its legislative capacity. An Act of the General Assembly of New Zealand passed in 1876 abolished the provinces


altogether, and vested legislative control entirely in the hands of the Central Government. Apt as we now are to look upon these Old-World institutions as remnants of the barbarous past, they nevertheless served their day and generation, and did it to good advantage. They planted a class of settlers on the soil who for thrift and enterprise compare favourably with their successors, and otherwise promoted the work of colonisation on a sound and substantial basis.

In 1843 the Otago settlement was first projected. A remnant of the Church of Scotland disruptionists was dissatisfied with the measure of liberty in ecclesiastical affairs secured to them in that memorable event. The idea was that, by founding an entirely new colony, they would be enabled to establish a Church on purely Free Kirk principles. This exclusive policy, however, does not seem to have been insisted upon. A few years later the object was announced to be a careful selection of emigrants, independent altogether of creed, and to provide for their religious and ecclesiastical wants at the outset. That manifesto is dated 30th June, 1851. Meantime, the association became incorporated with the New Zealand Company, a body already in operation at and around Wellington. In furtherance of this joint scheme, an exploring party left Nelson on the 31st March, 1844. Reporting on the land selected, Dr. Monro, one of the explorers, says, inter alia, "The block has a coast-line of from fifty to sixty miles in length, lying between the mouth of Otago Harbour and a headland called the Noggetts [Nuggets], about three miles south-west of the Clutha River. It extends to an average distance inland of seven miles. The southernmost portion is watered by the rivers Puerua, Koan, and Clutha. The two last named are navigable for vessels of considerable tonnage. Connected with one another, and with the Clutha, by navigable streams are the shallow lagoons of Kaitangata and Rangitoto [Tuakitoto], one and six miles long respectively. Their fertile shores will furnish an admirable series of sections, the only drawback to which is the scarcity, not the absence, of wood. The Waihola and Rangitoto are about twelve miles apart. The plain of the Taieri is swampy, but, on the whole, will be a valuable district. The river of the same name flows into the sea about twenty or thirty miles south of Otago. Wild hogs are said to abound in all parts of the district, quail are in abundance all over the grassy plains, and wild-fowl in the rivers and lagoons. Weka, or wood-hen, is also common. In the mineral kingdom, the existence of coal in great profusion is also remarkable. Its appearance on the coast at Coal Point is conspicuous."

The settlement as first projected comprised 144,600 acres, divided into 2,400 properties. Each property consisted of sixty and a quarter acres, divided into three allotments, viz.: town, one-quarter acre; suburban, ten acres; and rural, fifty acres. The appropriation of these was as follows: 2,000 properties, or 120,500 acres, to private individuals; 100 properties, or 6,025 acres, to be purchased by the local municipal government; 100 properties, or 6,025 acres, for religious and educational purposes; and 200 properties, or 12,050 acres, for the New Zealand Company.

That is what is known as the Otago purchase. The original deed of sale, as between the Native owners and the Government, bears date the 31st July, 1844, the purchase-price being £2,400. It comprised a total of 400,000


acres, being all that area extending from the mouth of Otago Harbour to the Mataura River and inland to the Maungaatua (Maungatua) and Kaihiku Ranges. Of this 150,000 acres were reserved for the Otago settlement. Seven years later Captain Stokes, R.N., commissioned by the Imperial Government to make a survey of the coast, reported in his despatch to the then Governor, now Sir George Grey, "The Maoris, both in Foveaux Strait and at Otago, express a desire to sell all the land from Otago to the western coast, and probably £2,000 would be accepted as purchase-money." That despatch is dated 1st September, 1850. The next heard of the affair is that a gentleman—the Hon. Mr. Mantell—is appointed Commissioner to treat for the purchase. Mr. Mantell's negotiations were brought to a close on the 17th August, 1853, when a deed of conveyance was executed by the Native owners of all that vast territory, extending from Milford Sound to the Mataura, including adjacent islands, except the Ruapuke Group, together with all lands, anchorages, landing-places, rivers, lakes, woods, and bush, the purchase-price, as Captain Stokes surmised, being £2,000. Stewart Island, which at this date seems to have been treated as part of the Ruapuke Group, exempted from the previous sale, came under offer during Governor Gore Browne's term of office. John Topi, one of the island chiefs, offers by letter to sell that portion of land westward of the 68th degree of longitude. The proposal was relegated to the Superintendent of Southland, by whom the purchase of the entire island was effected in 1864, the price being £6,000. Meantime what is known as the Ngaitahu Block was brought under negotiation, and, by deed dated 12th June, 1848, its sale was accomplished, the price paid being £2,000. The area is described as comprising all that Native territorial possession lying along the shores of the sea, commencing at Kaiapoi (Canterbury); thence to Otakou (Otago), and on till it joins the boundary of the Otago purchase; running from thence to the Kaihiku Mountains, and onwards till it reaches the sea at Whakatipu Waitai (Milford Sound). From thence, as defined on the plan annexed to the deed, by the sea along the west coast to a point corresponding in a direct line with the mouth of the Kaiapoi River on the east coast. The effect of that sale was to cede possession of the remainder of the land now forming the Provincial District of Otago in favour of the Crown, besides disposing of a large tract of the adjoining Province of Canterbury. Writing to the Home authorities, the Governor, Sir G. Grey, remarks that it would be a source of satisfaction to find that so large an extent of country of the most fertile description had been unrestrictedly opened to British enterprise without the possibility of any of those embarrassing questions arising in relation to it which had been the source of so much perplexity to the settlers of the North Island.


Appendix Two – Treaty of Waitangi

The following version of the Treaty is taken from the first schedule to the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.

The Text in English Preamble

HER MAJESTY VICTORIA Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland regarding with Her Royal favour the Native Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and anxious to protect their just Rights and Property and to secure to them the enjoyment of Peace and Good Order has deemed it necessary in consequence of the great number of Her Majesty's Subjects who have already settled in New Zealand and the rapid extension of Emigration both from Europe and Australia which is still in progress to constitute and appoint a functionary properly authorised to treat with the Aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty's Sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands - Her Majesty therefore being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government with a view to avert the evil consequences which must result from the absence of the necessary Laws and Institutions alike to the native population and to Her subjects has been graciously pleased to empower and to authorise me William Hobson a Captain in Her Majesty's Royal Navy Consul and Lieutenant Governor of such parts of New Zealand as may be or hereafter shall be ceded to her Majesty to invite the confederated and independent Chiefs of New Zealand to concur in the following Articles and Conditions.

Article the First

The Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand and the separate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of the Confederation cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which the said Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over their respective Territories as the sole Sovereigns thereof.

Article the Second

Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and to the respective families and individuals thereof the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession; but the Chiefs of the United Tribes and the individual Chiefs yield to Her Majesty the exclusive right of Preemption over such lands as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to alienate at


such prices as may be agreed upon between the respective Proprietors and persons appointed by Her Majesty to treat with them in that behalf.

Article the Third

In consideration thereof Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her royal protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects.

W HOBSON Lieutenant Governor.

Now therefore We the Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand being assembled in Congress at Victoria in Waitangi and We the Separate and Independent Chiefs of New Zealand claiming authority over the Tribes and Territories which are specified after our respective names, having been made fully to understand the Provisions of the foregoing Treaty, accept and enter into the same in the full spirit and meaning thereof: in witness of which we have attached our signatures or marks at the places and the dates respectively specified.

Done at Waitangi this Sixth day of February in the year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.

[Here follow signatures, dates, etc.]


Appendix Three – 2008 Newspaper Articles 1. Greenpeace protesters held up Carter Holt Harvey's tree felling operation near Tokoroa on Wednesday as members bolted themselves to the company's equipment. Tokoroa police and a fire appliance from Taupo were called to the scene to remove four people from a bulldozer and grapple digger in Kinleigth forest in Atiamuri. Acting Senior Sergeant, Graeme Hill says police and fire services cut free two protesters, while two others voluntarily released themselves about 10am. Greenpeace says the protest was part of its campaign against deforestation, which it claims is killing the climate. The environmental organisation says Carter Holt Harvey plans to convert 25,000 hectares of forest to dairy pastures. The protesters have been charged with trespass. Carter Holt Harvey was unavailable for comment. Copyright © 2008 Radio New Zealand Updated at 6:14am on 30 October 2008

2. A camphor tree, originating from a tree that survived the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, is to be planted by Mayor Kerry Prendergast near the Peace Garden in the Wellington Botanic Garden.

The parent tree, like most others, was burned to the ground in the bombing of the Japanese sea port of Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945. However, the tree re-grew and is revered in Japan as a symbol of hope and new beginnings. It sits on the site of a shrine that was almost totally destroyed in the blast.

"The camphor tree is a survivor. It is a testament to the hope that peace can triumph over war and will be an important addition to the Peace Garden which marks this city's proud stance for peace and nuclear disarmament," says Mayor Prendergast.

17 June, 2005 from website Wellington City NZ.

3. Honda Tree Fund

“Nationally, the Honda TreeFund has distributed $1.7 million in funds, paying for the planting of 370,000 native trees throughout New Zealand”.

Otago Daily Times, December 5,2008

4. TREE-mendous bill

It's taken a costly High Court battle for a Remuera couple to finally say, `timber', reports Joseph Barratt Meet the $40,000 tree. That's what the owner estimates it cost him to have this Himalayan cedar removed from his Remuera home. A case of being environmentally aware, or bull-headedness and inefficiency? You be the judge. John Woolley and Susan Christmas breathed a sigh of relief when the large Himalayan cedar tree on their narrow front yard on Upland Rd was finally removed. It was a frustrating battle that went on for 18 months, and ended up in the Auckland High Court with the council calling in Simpson and Grierson to act on its behalf. “Don't get us wrong. We like trees, but this one had been hacked around and was not even a native. It is absolutely ridiculous the whole affair was taken this far,' says Mr Woolley. It cost the couple over $60,000 and resulted in the council's appeal being rejected and the tree being removed earlier in the year. A recent decision by Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook awarded $17,229 in costs to the couple and in his decision he made some scathing remarks about the council's case. That included criticisms such as: “Inexpert nature of the evidence, which fell well below the standard one would expect of a council in a case such as this.' The length of prepared evidence and amount of cross-examination undertaken in a relatively minor case.' “The evidence provided by the council in relation to the issue of needle drop and gutter cleaning was also inadequate.' Justice Newhook further added that the council attempted to run the same unsuccessful argument it had run in a previous case. The battle was all over a 15m-tall tree that was just 3m from the front of the couple's house. They'd decided to remove it for health and economic reasons: to let sunlight into their house and to stop the tree's needles frequently clogging stormwater pipes.


After their initial application to remove the tree was denied, they appealed to the Environment Court. “We had figured it would end up in the Environment Court but I never thought they would take it to the High Court. It was ridiculous,' says Mr Woolley. General counsel and general manager of legal services for Auckland City Council Carl Rowling says the council accepts the judge's decision. “We admit that there were shortcomings in the evidence produced by some of our witnesses.' He adds that a case can succeed if based partly on a previously unsuccessful case. “It is not at all unusual to argue against previously decided cases where there are concerns as regards some aspects of that earlier decision. “It's worth noting that the decision was not a unanimous decision. It was 2-1 with one of the court members finding in the council's favour. “Sometimes it is important for the council to run what can seem expensive cases in order to test important issues of principle - this leads to better and more efficient decision-making in the future even if the council is ultimately unsuccessful in its legal arguments.' The Aucklander, news paper December 5, 2008

5. Organisers of the V8 Supercar race in Hamilton are prepared to spend $100,000 to replant a tree blocking one of the best views of the event.The 23-metre-high tree prevents fans in a specially-built grandstand from viewing the start line.Race organiser Stephen Vuleta says replanting the plane tree is the most expensive option.He says it was the biggest source of complaints from racegoers last time.Mr Vuleta says they offered to fell the tree and donate $100,000 so many other trees could be planted. But the offer was turned down by the tree protection trust.

Copyright © 2008 Radio New Zealand, 16 October 2008

6. A labour of love that has salvaged a rare native New Zealand tree species is now ready to blossom into a fully-fledged re-planting project. A few years ago only five of the narrow-leaved maire tree (Nestegis montana) remained in Tasman District. One specimen of the tree on a roadside in Brightwater is one of the southernmost in the world. It wasn’t until 2001 that these trees, which had rarely flowered in the previous 20 years, began blooming again. The owners of one old maire tree near the Wai-iti Bridge contacted a local horticulturist, Martin Conway, who discovered the tree to be male. The critical search for a female tree began, and by a lucky break one was found flowering on a scarp over one kilometre away. Because there was no chance of natural pollination due to the distance between trees, nature was given a helping hand. Martin, who is a trustee of the Tasman Environmental Trust, with the help of Lawrie Metcalfe, took flowering branches from a male tree and tied them high up in the female tree so that pollination could take place. It was a success. The seed set then eventually ripened and was collected in a net around the base of the tree. Two nurseries, which specialise in growing New Zealand native trees sowed the seed in 2002, and although germination was slow the strike rate was high. And now, three years later, several hundred seedlings have been distributed and planted out across the Tasman District. For more information on the project you can contact Council’s Environmental Education Officer, Claire Webster, on 03 543 8484. Website: Tasman District Council

7. Waimate tree planting By Sally Rae on Sat, 16 Aug 2008 A 2.5ha totara forest will be planted within the Bushtown Heritage Park at Waimate. Bushtown Waimate is establishing the park as a tourist attraction, based on the Waimate district's pioneer timber industry. Totara was a target species for the sawmillers who settled in Waimate in the 1800s. James Bruce established the first steam-driven mill in 1866 at which time the totara forest harvest began in earnest. The totara lumber sourced from Waimate gained a reputation for quality and was often shipped to many parts of New Zealand as well as internationally. The Bushtown heritage forest project aimed to recreate the totara forests that once adorned the Waimate district's landscape. Individuals, families, groups or companies could participate by planting totara seedlings on designated areas within the park. Each tree will be permanently marked with a plaque and located by GPS co-ordinates. There will be about 750 totara planting sites allocated. An additional 20,000 native colonising and podocarp species will also be planted to provide protection screening and microclimate for the totara forest. Otago Daily Times, 16.8.2008


8. Felling shocks ‘tree man'

Otago Daily Times By Lee Jamieson on Thu, 15 May 2008

Jolyon Manning is furious about the tree that has been cut down at one of the entrances to Alexandra Primary School. Tears welled in the eyes of Jolyon Manning outside Alexandra Primary School when he looked at what was left of a huge snow gum tree that stood at one of the main entrances to the school. ‘‘I'm furious about this. There must be a lot of people that are anti-tree in Alexandra,'' Mr Manning said. ‘‘They don't seem to realise their worth but this is one of the places in New Zealand we should be celebrating trees.'' Mr and Mrs Manning had been driving along their familiar route when they saw the tree that grew on the school grounds alongside the footpath on Bringans St had been cut down. ‘‘We passed that tree every day and every time we've gone past we've admired it. ‘‘What a shocking example for primary school kids.'' The tree would have been about 50 years old, he said. ‘‘There's a walnut tree [also on school grounds] we've registered our concern over because they're going to build a kindergarten in the Alexandra Primary School,'' he said. Mr Manning is a former member of the New Zealand Forestry Council and is a former national vice-president of the NZ Institute of Forestry. He proudly admits to being ‘‘a tree man''. On his woollen jersey, he wore a Men of the Trees New Zealand pin - an organisation of which he was a past president. A bone carving around his neck had been given to him for tree care by the New Zealand Arboricultural Association. Alexandra Primary School board chairman Shane Crawford said parents of children at the school, in conjunction with an arborist from Asplundh, had recently chopped down the tree. The board rang the council before cutting down the tree, Mr Crawford said. ‘‘It [the tree] doesn't have a heritage protection order or anything placed upon it by the council. ‘‘The board made the decision to take it out for for health and safety reasons. ‘‘It was chopped down because of the damage it was doing to our plumbing and pavement and things. ‘‘The roots were damaging the drains we had to work on,'' he said. Some of the children at the school had tripped over the roots which were raising the pavement and forcing it up, he said. There were no intentions to plant anything in its place. Mr Manning disagreed that there was any damage to the footpath caused by the tree's roots, as only a small crack was visible on the pavement. Council community facility manager Grahame Smail said legislation was ‘‘pretty loose'' on trees in Central Otago. ‘‘If somebody's got a tree on their private property they're pretty much within their own rights unless it's a protected tree by the district plan,'' he said. Central Otago District Council planning team leader Ann Rodgers said trees could be protected if they were considered to have significant value. Some had been listed for protection on the district plan, one of which was on the Alexandra School grounds on the Dunorling St frontage, she said. Anyone could write to the council and make an application to have a tree protected, she said. Mr Manning and his wife Enny own a 6ha property called Jolendale Park. The park was officially handed over to the QEII National Trust in 2003, giving the land and the trees, which the couple have gathered from throughout the world, protection. In two years' time, the park, which would then have been cared for by the Mannings for about 50 years, will be given to the community.


9. Wilding Pines By Rosie Manins on Sat, 12 Jul 2008

Doc biodiversity threats ranger Dan Tuohy takes a break during felling of pine trees at the Bannockburn Sluicings Historic Reserve yesterday. Photo by Rosie Manins. Opposition to the removal of wilding pine trees at Bannockburn has been expressed, with a neighbouring resident fearing the move will displace bird populations in the area. Hall Rd resident Ross MacFadgen said the Department of Conservation's felling of wilding pines in the Bannockburn Sluicings Historic Reserve was a "crime against ecology". Mr MacFadgen claims to have seen kakariki at the reserve, where wilding pines and native shrubs have become established over a period of about 70 years. "There were so few birds in the area when we first came here [about 1972], and now we have waxeyes, silvereyes, bellbirds, tui, kakariki, pigeons, grey warblers and fantails. My feeling is it wouldn't hurt to leave a small area of trees for the birds," Mr MacFadgen said. Doc Central Otago area manager Mike Tubbs said the department, which manages the 134ha Crown-owned reserve, had been felling pine trees in the reserve boundary for more than 15 years. Doc staff also sprayed broom and gorse, but they left any native shrubs which had grown in the area, he said. "Work like this requires constant follow-up to remove larger species and regenerating seedlings. Wilding pines are a threat to the historic heritage the site protects and is managed for. They obscure and displace water races, gold diggings, tailings, and house sites," Mr Tubbs said. Doc staff had discovered a stone hut on the site, complete with pots and pans. Mr Tubbs said no-one, other than Mr MacFadgen, had seen or heard of kakariki in the reserve. "We are not aware of any significant bird values attached to the pine trees. It would be most unusual to find kakariki in Central Otago, as they prefer forests of native podocarp and beech," he said. Mr Tubbs said the latest felling operation, which began on July 3, would complete the removal of the bulk of wilding pines in the reserve. Some neighbouring property owners also asked Doc to fell pine trees on their sections, to which the department agreed. "Without a regular control programme wilding conifers spread rapidly and can quickly take over an area. They are among the most invasive weeds in New Zealand," he said. Doc permits wood merchants to use fallen trees for fire wood, and all inaccessible trees are left to rot. Wilding Pines By Rosie Manins on Tue, 2 Dec 2008

Wilding pines are posing the biggest threat ever seen to the South Island's high country, say Central Otago farmers and land owners. About 20 people voiced their concerns to the Otago Conservation Board at its meeting at Kyeburn Diggings on Friday. The most passionate arguments concerned the rampant spread of wilding pines in naturally pine-free areas within Central Otago and the wider region. Ranfurly resident and former Maniototo farmer David McAtamney told the board wilding pines would make the spread of rabbits in Otago look insignificant. "Wilding pines are going to be your biggest issue and rabbit populations won't even compare," he said. Artist Grahame Sydney, who lives near Cambrian, said a proactive approach needed to be taken against wilding pines, unless the board


wanted to see Alexandra resemble Naseby. "Do we have to get an urban guerrilla group to go out there with hand drills and Napisan to kill the bloody things, or is the board going to make sure something is done about it? We don't want Central Otago to become a forest, which it soon will if you don't start getting rid of wilding pines now," he said. Department of Conservation Otago conservator Jeff Connell said the Government had provided Doc with millions of dollars to get rid of wilding pines throughout New Zealand, including some in Central Otago. He said the department had had "good success" getting rid of wilding pines in the district, although others at the meeting disagreed. "Wilding pines haven't even popped their heads out of the tussock yet, but don't think they are not there," Mr McAtamney said.


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Dissertation photo cover: www.woostercollective.com/.../04/plantatree.jpg


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microsoft word - 12.27.08 the social life of trees in new zealand

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