On this page
- The problem and the threat
- What MPI and the Government are doing about them
- What farmers and forest owners can do about them
- Who is helping the fight
- Find out more
The problem
It's estimated 20% of New Zealand will be covered in unwanted wilding conifers within 20 years if their spread isn't stopped. Wilding conifers already cover more than 1.8 million hectares of New Zealand. Despite control efforts, they have been spreading at about 5% a year. That's about 90,000 more hectares a year.
A major threat
Planted in the right place conifer trees can provide timber, store carbon, decrease erosion, filter soil nutrients, improve water quality, and provide shelter and shade for stock.
In the wrong place, they are a major threat to our ecosystems, land and farms. They compete with native plants and animals for sunlight and water, and can severely alter natural landscapes.
Wilding conifers are a significant problem in New Zealand because they:
- produce cones instead of flowers
- are not native to New Zealand
- begin growing through natural spread – seeds are self-sown by the wind
- live outside managed conifer plantations – such as pine and fir forests.
Controlling the spread of wilding conifers is important if we're to protect our ecosystems, iconic landscapes and farms. Controls will also help with water conservation.
What we're doing about them
The National Wilding Conifer Control Programme aims to prevent the spread of this tree pest and to progressively remove them from much of the land already invaded.
The Right Tree in the Right Place: The New Zealand Wilding Conifer Management Strategy 2015-2030 provides the framework for this programme.
MPI, the Department of Conservation, and Land Information New Zealand are leading the work, with support from other central and local government agencies. Forestry and farming industries, landowners, researchers and communities are also providing support.
The Right Tree in the Right Place
More Government funding to help
It's estimated about $11 million is spent each year on wilding conifer control nationwide. In May 2016, the Government pledged an extra $16 million over 4 years for the first phase of a national control programme. The new funding will be used to tackle wilding conifers in the highest priority areas.
Funding for phase 1 is focused on:
- areas with the greatest vulnerability to invasion
- areas where controls are most cost effective
- managing infestations over large areas
- protecting farmland, biodiversity, iconic landscapes and sensitive water catchments.
Read the Government's media release – Beehive website
A million hectares in year one
In the first year, more than $5 million of national funding plus significant contributions from other agencies, partners and land owners will be used to control close to a million hectares of scattered wilding conifers to prevent further spread.
Areas covered by the 2016-2017 national control programme are:
- Kaimanawa (Central North Island)
- Molesworth (Marlborough)
- Amuri-Lewis (North Canterbury)
- Porters, Craigieburn (Arthur’s Pass)
- Four Peaks, Hakatere (South Canterbury)
- Godley (MacKenzie)
- Kakanui – St Mary-Ida (Northern Otago)
- Dunstan (Central Otago)
- Kawarau, Northern Eyre, Remarkables (Queenstown)
- Five Rivers (Northern Southland).
Further areas will be added to the programme as it progresses.