Nurseries wary of new government tree planting plans
FOREST NURSERIES WILL TAKE A CAUTIOUS approach to gearing up their planting programmes to answer the coalition Government’s call for one billion new trees to go into the ground over the next decade.
That’s because many got burnt when the introduction of the ETS scheme promised to deliver a forestry expansion bonanza a few years back, only to see the expected boom turn to bust as the price of carbon credits plummeted.
Many nurseries who increased their plantings with those expectations in mind, ended up dumping thousands of seedlings and losing money.
The collation agreement between Labour and NZ First laid out plans to take jobs to the regions with roles in planting and nurseries, based on a target of 100,000 hectares to be planted each year. Of that total, nurseries already supply young trees for replanting 50,000 hectares that has been harvested, so the new goal will double that amount.
“Nurseries will be cautious about the government’s intentions and whether they will increase plantings is another matter,” says Peter Clark, head of PF Olsen that supplies young trees to plantation forests around the upper North Island from its Glenbrook nursery.
Mr Clark, who is also President of the Forest Growers’ Association, says: “The government needs to identify the objectives it wants to achieve with its planting programme, depending on whether it just wants to meet its climate change obligations under the ETS or whether it wants to grow trees that will be available for processing.
“If it’s for climate change only they’ll want to look for faster growing species, but those trees might not necessarily suit wood production or have long term value as native species.
“Where is that land going to come from? The government has some land that it can make available for planting trees, but it is largely going to be Maori and farmers who will need to step up and plant trees on their land. This is a different proposition to the 1990s when land was relatively cheap and it was easier to acquire large parcels to create new forests. Land is much more expensive now and it would take a significant investment to purchase it for creating new forests. Even with existing land, owners are going to need to be convinced that it is going to be a worthwhile exercise.
“Nurseries will want to be confident that there will be land available for planting trees before they invest in planting seedlings. If they choose to increase their plantings and the land isn’t available, it would result in commercial losses.”
If large tracts of land are made available for new forests, the additional trees won’t be ready until the 2019 planting season because the seedlings being grown for planting out next year are already in the ground.
Mr Clark believes nurseries can gear up quite quickly, adding: “I don’t think it would be a problem to meet the ambitious planting targets set by the government.”
NZL