The effort to stop invasive wilding pines from choking the Kaimanawa ranges has received a major funding boost, Land Information Minister Louise Upston and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry have announced.
"The Government is investing an additional $538,000 in control work in the Kaimanawa ranges this year, as part of the $16m it is investing nationally to control wilding conifers over the next four years," Ms Upston says.
"The iconic landscape of the Central Plateau is highly vulnerable to invasion by wilding conifers, which threatens ecosystems, land and vegetation."
Wildings are enemy number one in DOC's ongoing War on Weeds programme which seeks to get more New Zealanders involved in weed control.
"If we don't remove the one or two trees in a hectare now, they can seed and turn into a dense forest within 15 to 20 years," Ms Barry says.