Seeding wildings to be felled

THE sound of chainsaws could soon be heard in the hills above Arrowtown.

Six months after the Arrowtown Wilding Group presented an ambitious, 20year plan to the community to enhance the township’s renowned autumn colours and eradicate wilding trees, the first phase is poised to start.

Contractors managed by the Department of Conservation (Doc) will soon begin felling mature seeding trees in a 500ha area stretching from the Crown Range road zigzag westwards to Bush Creek.

Group spokesman Ben Teele said $150,000 of funding from the Ministry for Primary Industries would allow treefelling in a month.

He was preparing a management plan to enable the group to make applications to funding bodies.

The project’s first phase, expected to take three years and to cost about $500,000, involved felling mature, seeding wilding trees.

They were sprinkled across the control area, but there were denser stands above Tobins Track, Butel Park and Bush Creek.

‘‘The sooner we can get the money we need, the less it’s going to cost.

‘‘For every year there’s a delay, the cost goes up.’’

He did not expect the treefelling to be obvious to people looking up from the township.

The project’s second phase, expected to take 20 years, had been planned to minimise its visual impact, Mr Teele said.

All the wildings in the control area would be removed in sections, and the resulting gaps would be replanted with a mix of noninvasive species.

The group had specified about 40 native shrub and tree species, and 20 exotic species known for their autumn colour, including maples, oaks, elms and poplars.

‘‘Most of them have a much more vivid colour change than your sycamores and larches.’’

The natives would complement the exotics and create ‘‘significant islands of biodiversity’’.

Trial plantings beside popular walking and biking trails could start in the spring, and he hoped to get the community heavily involved.

he majority of the control area fell inside Glencoe or Coronet Peak Stations, with the remaining land owned by Doc or Land Information New Zealand.

The group’s plan complemented wilding control work outside its control area by the Wakatipu Wilding Conifer Control Group and Soho Property Ltd, manager of the two stations.