There’s a rising tide of opposition to carbon farming on our hills, and some of the opposition is justified, and some of it’s not.
I believe climate change is happening at an even faster rate than scientists predict. That’s not because I understand the science, but because I look out the window and see what’s happening.
Like the banana producing fruit each year at the bottom of the garden. I’m sure you shouldn’t be able to grow bananas in the King Country.
That amuses me, but much more serious, are the moths disappearing.
Remember moths on the windows at night, of not being able to leave the windows open, and the light on?
Sure, there a still a few about, only one percent though, of what there used to be, and why am I the only one to have noticed this?
Why are there no alarm bells ringing from the scientific community? What will the effects be on pollination of plants, of birds food, on whatever other things in the great circle of life, and moths’ part in that great circle?
I’m blowed if I know, but it’s a change that’s happening with climate change.
Then there’s the fact that rural communities were failing long before any hills were planted for carbon sequestration. Rural people don’t have to look far around them to see the small villages that have disappeared, of the small towns that struggle, and those factors have been changing all my long life, and long before this latest tree planting trend.
I agree that it’s sad to see good country vanish under pine plantations, but lots of farming on that same land has been battling to be sustainable for generations and has to compete with the economic circumstances that exist at the time. While prices are good at the moment, that’s not always been the case. For livestock only, that is, log prices are rubbish.
I’m more concerned that the trees should be looked after, so that they have timber potential in the future.
That the trees are only planted where the land is good enough to sustain the extra weight on the hills. Nowhere near it on our farm.
And that the pests breeding under the trees don’t become an ignored problem for other land owners. Lastly, that the increased fire danger is looked after.
In my own case, pest control in our relatively small plantations becomes an absolute priority. The shut up land to grow trees becomes a haven for goats and deer, a magnet for them if you like.
Uncontrolled forest becomes a haven, a resort, for possums, wild cats, ferrets, and stoats. We certainly didn’t win the battle over bovine TB to relent and let possums get out of control again.
Forestry companies used to have dedicated fire control people whose job was to see that fire breaks between forest blocks were not only established, but also maintained, and that there were adequate water resources to fight fires.
Do the carbon farmers have any such plans in place? We haven’t.
