Abandoning 45 hectares of marginal land at the back of his farm to trees was a difficult decision for Hunterville farmer Justin Vennell, but he's now glad he made it.
He and wife Mary trade as Richcrest Farming Ltd. They were the supreme winners in the 2014 Ballance Farm Environment Awards for the Horizons region, and held a field day at their Rewa farm on May 8.
When the contingent of farm bikes rode to the forest block that day, Mr Vennell told them his tree planting began in 1992, with Cupressus lusitanica and pines lining a stream that cut through the 489ha property.
When Horizons Regional Council's Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) came along, the Vennells got a plan for their farm done. They got some funding and, by 2008, the stream was planted, from one farm boundary to the other.
Also on their minds was a 45ha block where they spent $12,000 clearing scrub in 2001. In 2004, those cleared areas slipped in a February storm and, by 2008, the scrub was back. The land was steep, with little topsoil.