Using New Zealand’s trees
Jonathan Kennett
(Since graduating with a degree in botanical ecology in 1989, Jonathan Kennett has been involved in several projects relating to the history, protection and restoration of trees. He has completed oral history projects on Tongariro Forest, Otari-Wilton's Bush and Wellington Botanical Gardens, as well as managing forest restoration projects and a carbon forest sink in Golden Bay.)
- “For more than a century, native forest was regarded both positively as a source of timber and firewood and negatively as an impediment to agriculture.”
- Before the first Polynesian settlers arrived on New Zealand’s shores, 80% of the country was covered in dense native forest. The other 20% was ferns, grassland, shrubs, swamp and mountain terrain. By 2009, only 30.5% of New Zealand was covered in native forest, most of which was parks and reserves.
- More than any other tree, Rimu was sought after for its superb construction qualities. For over a century it was felled, milled and subsequently used for the framing of almost all New Zealand homes between 1850 and 1950.
- At first, Europeans had difficulty finding a profitable use for New Zealand’s tallest tree, Kahikatea. The problem was that it suffered from borer, so was not a durable building material. However, once they realised that its timber had no odour they started using it for packing butter being shipped to the UK. Much of New Zealand’s commercially felled Kahikatea went to the UK as butter and cheese boxes.
- Because the timber from Beech is hard to saw (because of high silica content) and can warp when being seasoned, the forestry industry preferred to log other native trees. But in the 1980s, South Island Beech forests were processed into small chips and sold to the Japanese for various glossy papers including fax paper.
- In the 1890s some of the largest forest trees in New Zealand grew on land in the Kapiti Coast. The government ballotted this land to settlers on the condition that it was cleared for farming within 20 years. Often this meant that the landowners, under pressure of time did not fell the forest, but torched it. These forest fires could burn for months.
- In the 1970s and early 80s, the government provided cheap loans to farmers to clear land (Land Development Encouragement Loans). Much of this land was not suited to sustainable farming, either financially or ecologically.
- Almost 5% of New Zealand is covered in plantation forest (90% of which is Radiata Pine and 5% Douglas Fir). Thirty-four percent of the world’s Radiata Pine is grown in New Zealand.
- Like many introduced species, Radiata Pine grows better in New Zealand’s mild moist climate than its natural home, California.
- Radiata Pine in New Zealand is a commodity. It is grown and harvested for timber for building mostly homes and furniture, occasionally used as a shelter crop, and annually sold as Christmas trees. For all these purposes it is carefully modified – only wilding pines are a natural form.
- It takes an estimated 24 Radiata Pines to build and average size house.
- European settlers planted many trees from their home countries, both to generate future resources, and to replicate or beautify landscapes, gardens and cities in a way they found familiar and, therefore, comforting. Over 3,500 of these trees are now listed in Notable Trees of New Zealand because of their size, history or rarity.
Jonathan Kennett
(Since graduating with a degree in botanical ecology in 1989, Jonathan Kennett has been involved in several projects relating to the history, protection and restoration of trees. He has completed oral history projects on Tongariro Forest, Otari-Wilton's Bush and Wellington Botanical Gardens, as well as managing forest restoration projects and a carbon forest sink in Golden Bay.)