Ewan McGregor: Do we want pines or pasture?

Ewan McGregor says the loss of our rural landscapes, which have taken generations to create, to pine trees is a cost we must not pay. Photo / NZME

OPINION:

The New Zealand rural landscape is a dynamic thing, and always has been since becoming subject to man’s influence. Today, however, it is going through a change which may be not what we want, or more particularly, not what future generations would want. Furthermore, that change will essentially be irreversible.

One manifestation of this is the spread of urban development over our productive flat land. The other, a more recent phenomenon, is the spread of pine trees (pinus radiata) over low country farmland. Our food-producing footprint is being squeezed. The pine invasion has received attention in this paper in recent days.

New Zealand has a love/hate relationship with pines, and the latter is overwhelming the former. But we must not be too hard on this prodigious species, for it provides virtually all the timber for our construction needs as lumber and roundwood. Furthermore, it earns about $10 billion in overseas income, bested only by meat (just) and dairy produce (double the amount).

Today, the advance of pines is causing increasing public concern, but it’s like the weather; everyone moans about it, but no-one does anything to fix it (perhaps not the best analogy in the era of attempts at climate mitigation).

What is the role of Government in this? Farmers have always jealously maintained the right to determine their land use. Let the market choose whether to grow apples or kiwifruit or run sheep, cattle or deer. But is not a pine regime different? Firstly, whole conversion involves a change of ownership, and once committed to, forestry is likely to stay that way. In any case, just a single rotation takes 30 years.

Secondly, the social impact is devastating. The resident farming family living on and nurturing the land is swept aside. Thirdly, the rolling pasture land, with homesteads and a blending of trees from multiple species, is replaced by a wall of pines.

We regulate our urban landscape, after all. Try establishing a chainsaw workshop alongside a retirement villa and see where you get. And don’t underrate social pressure either. Swing the wrecking ball at an Art Deco building and be prepared for social ostracism.

In fact, Government policy is to encourage the process. But this is where it gets difficult. The planet needs more trees, and the payment of carbon credits to encourage their planting is logical given that, conversely, penalties are being imposed for carbon pollution. How many pine plantations are being established for the purpose of harvesting credits I’m not sure, but the corruption of our beautiful farm landscapes with untended and unharvested pines is just too big a price to pay. It must not happen!

Is the Overseas Investment Commission doing its job? Or is it locked into a criterion that prevents its ability to stop overseas ownership converting our landscape in this way? If so, that needs to be changed forthwith.

The global community - which we are a part of, naturally - is faced with arguably its biggest challenge ever. That is to arrest the weather delinquency affecting all life with alarming acceleration. There are no simple answers to this, and no-one should claim to have them, although too many do. It will mean serious sacrifice and discomfort, but we want to be careful that we don’t take irrevocable actions that are more destructive than beneficial. The loss of our rural landscapes, which have taken generations to create, is a cost we must not pay.

- Ewan McGregor is a Waipawa farmer and former Hawke’s Bay regional councillor.