Planting pines

The In Depth story in The Press on April 22 about a NZ Carbon farming company is very disturbing. Why plant pine trees? Yes, they grow fast, because they suck all of the groundwater up, which also stops any native trees from growing near them.

The Climate Change Commission has stated it would take centuries for native trees to grow under pine trees. Our own native birch trees grow just as fast as pine trees when left to themselves and on poor soil.

Surely I am not the only person who has seen the destruction caused by burning pine trees in California. Yes, pine trees attract fire. We need to look at countries like South Africa that have banned all planting of pine trees after having them for 150 years. Banned because they are causing water shortages. Matt Hardyment, Charleston