No point looking at natives in Central Otago

LET’S gets some balance into the wilding conifer debate.

The photo (ODT, 20.4.19) shows a northfacing slope typical of Central Otago’s denuded dry landscapes (350mm average rainfall a year).

The aim, according to the wilding conifer control groups, is to replant in native trees. Am I missing something here? Indigenous trees, podocarp, beech or coastal species are not natural in these regions and would not survive.

A 20ha block of conifers (wilding or planted) would sequester between four and seven tonnes of carbon per hectare per year.

Carbon credits, at $25 a tonne, would cash in at between $100 and $170 per hectare, so 20ha would provide up to $2700 a year for management and control of outlier regeneration.

These areas are notorious for sudden downpours, resulting in any remaining topsoil being washed into creek beds. Trees of any species can retain and conserve water runoff. Wildings cost nothing to establish and are capable of regeneration as a permanent carbon sink. Jim Childerstone

Hampden

[Abridged]

Brunei

JOHN Matthews’ critique (letters, 15.4.19), of the editorial of April 8 is fully founded.

What kind of a man ignores and sanctions the sexual discrimination, gender abuse, or any other kind of assault against their own daughters and sons, let alone those of others?

We have had multiple examples this year alone of our historical, systemic, ideological culture of discrimination and abuse and the lasting harm that brings to individuals.

For all the justified and misplaced criticism of the ‘‘West’’, democracy to the UDHR and the protection of the individual by the State must remain paramount. Richard Barber

Dunedin .....................................

BIBLE READING: You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. — Acts 3:15.