Opinion: It's not all about the money, give this man a medal

Not everyone wants to see more logs leaving Hawke's Bay.

COMMENT

There are fewer sites uglier than a pine forest post harvest, before the land has been cleaned up or replanted.

Jagged stumps, craggy land, a background set for a post-apocalyptic movie.

To some, the sight of a flourishing pine forest on good soil is equally as obscene.

To meet massive international demand, we have harvested forests as fast as we can in the past few decades.

But right now, pine is causing an itch in the undergarments of a nation as China - not exactly thrilled with New Zealand right now - sources cheap wood elsewhere.

Demand is not exactly hot.

Heads and beards are being scratched at the impact this might have, on let's say, the share price of a port about to list on the stock exchange.

Up in Wairoa, they aren't keen on pine. Or Matua Shane's billion trees.

Because someone they trust reckons 700 rural sector jobs could disappear faster than a rocket at Mahia if they plant too many trees in Wairoa.

Not everyone up that way is a rocket scientist, you see. The land is for nurturing, respecting, not blasting off from.

The locals up there reckon William de Lautour could have made an extra $2 million when he sold his Wairoa farm.

De Lautour has become a folk hero.

Because, rather than pick up his pen and sign a big-money deal, he took his middle finger and lifted it in the direction of the forestry developers, companies, whatever you want to call them.

He refused to sell to someone who was going to plant trees.

Instead, de Lautour sold for less money to someone who has promised to keep the farm in beef and sheep.

He believes it is the best thing for Wairoa, because a forest, once it is planted, will not return dollars and jobs and wellbeing to the town he no longer lives in.

Beef and sheep ... way better long term.

De Lautour won't say how much extra he could have made. Or what he sold for.

But it's good land that's not cheap.

Regional Development Minister Shane Jones might need to rethink the coalition Government's Billion Trees goal.

Despite the verbosity that sometimes provides a sideshow to the point he is trying to make, he is one of the smarter minds in Parliament.

A billion trees is a nice catchphrase. But rural New Zealand is pushing back.

A billion trees was all about jobs and prosperity.

Perhaps Jones and de Lautour should spend some time together.

The Wairoa mayor reckons de Lautour deserves a medal.

We also might have just announced the first finalist in the Hawke's Bay Today Person of the Year Awards.