A campaign to get Douglas fir trees removed from a plantation neighbouring Te Papanui Conservation Park continues with a meeting on the site today.
Indigenous tussock land protected by Te Papanui Conservation Park and Stoney Creek Scenic Reserve was at risk of being invaded by wilding trees, Emeritus Prof Sir Alan Mark said. Landcorp was planting 189ha of Douglas fir on a section of Waipori Station next to Te Papanui and Stoney Creek.
Prof Mark said he and Landcorp national business manager Graeme Mulligan and the company's two forestry consultants would meet at the plantation this morning.
Also invited were representatives from the Department of Conservation, Landcare Research, Mid Dome Wilding Trees Charitable Trust and the Clutha District Council.
Prof Mark said he would put what he believed was a very strong case for his, and others', concerns about planting on that site, about 200m from Te Papanui.
The concern was that the trees would produce seedlings which became unwanted wilding trees on conservation land.
''The threat is major. We'll be asking Landcorp to reconsider.''
With carbon prices reduced, the need for Landcorp to retain the trees was not as great, he said.
Prof Mark believed a precedent for removing the trees had been set when the Department of Conservation, through the tenure review process, took over a section of land in Southland planted in Douglas fir, then sprayed the trees and returned it to tussock land.
However, reports obtained from Landcorp showed it had sprayed the Waipori section and burned the tussock before planting the firs.
''The tussock is stuffed. We're not going to recover it.''
