TREES TOPS

Thanks for the important stories on the value of trees (“The spirit of the land”; “For the love of trees”, January

11). Living among kauri has enhanced my life. I know about the solace and respite a native forest provides. It is heartening that there is a rash of new books to read and be debated on this subject. Yes, the drive to plant a million native trees is a great goal. But how about preserving the ones we have?

Before cutting down any more trees, we could all benefit from memorising that first step

suggested by botanist Matthew Hall and recognise that we are taking a life.

Chris Rowe (Sandspit)

“The spirit of the land” is brilliant – a keeper to be shared with family and friends. I am fortunate to live full-time in the bush with all the benefits the story mentions. And I’m sharing it with many birds including tūī, kākā, ruru, pīwakawaka, kererū, pīpīwharauroa and makomako, and wētā, skinks and geckos.

When I bought this bush section 44 years ago, it had scrubby waist-high mānuka. Now, the kānuka are sky-high with rimu, tānekaha, māhoe, mamaku, nīkau, tõtara, kahikatea, pōhutukawa and kauri flourishing, too.

I have a lovely partial view of the sea. People have said to me, “If you cut down those trees, you’d be able to see all the view.” And that’s what quite a few people do.

It supposedly increases the dollar value of a property. But, as far as I’m concerned, not in my neck of the woods.

Clare Dudley (Coromandel)

The tree stories didn’t mention the tallest specimens in New Zealand, a grove in Dunedin’s Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Some of the mountain ash trees, a species of eucalypt, are more than 80m tall and can be expected to reach about 120m. Mind you, they are, at a mere century and a half old, whippersnappers alongside Ōpōtiki’s ancient pūriri Taketakerau,whose age is measured in millennia.

RJM Gardner (Dunedin)