Farm Forestry New Zealand

The inside story of the 2021 Wellington conference. Was it a great success?

Julian Bateson, New Zealand Tree Grower May 2021.

 ‘I have learned so much from this conference’ was an even more regular comment. This was said almost as often from local branch members as those from further afield, and from regular attendees as well as first timers. We will bask in the praise.

I know that, because I am one of the organising committee, I could be showing a little bit of bias, but why not? Everyone involved put a great deal of work into getting the conference up and running in just over six months. As I write this in the weeks following the conference, I am still in recovery phase, and I am sure most of the others on the committee are feeling the same. 

This article is very much my viewpoint and I have not asked anyone on the committee to approve or vet the content. Hopefully, they will agree with most of it, but it is my perspective.

You always need a lot of luck

It was a dark and stormy night probably somewhere in New Zealand during the conference, but not in Wellington. For five glorious days the sun shone. The first and only light rain appeared around 9.15 pm on the evening of the last day. Yes, we were lucky, but someone has to be.

There were no Covid-19 changes in alert levels in the immediate lead-up to or during the conference. We were all aware that any change, even to level two, would mean cancellation or postponement. Have I mentioned luck yet?

Attendance was beyond expectations. All of you who booked a place helped to make the conference the success it was. The recent survey of members suggests that around 15 per cent of you think the conference is an asset for the NZFFA. It is a small percentage, but around 15 per cent of you regularly attend conferences, which to me suggests almost 100 per cent approval, or am I fiddling the figures?

Almost exactly 150 people were booked to attend each of the speaker sessions, and the quick head counts I made during these sessions suggests there were more than 150 there. I hate to boast, but at the 2019 conference speaker sessions I also made a few quick head counts, and never got above 120. Our welcome dinner retained the numbers as it reached its maximum of 150, and the awards dinner had 140 people booked along with a few more late entries.

Numbers are not everything, although they help the finances. The big questions are how did it all go, did the attendees enjoy themselves, did you learn anything useful and was the time well spent? I will try and help find answers to some of these.

The action groups and the AGM

Two years ago, due to a bit of early confusion, the conference had an extra day added at the beginning to cater for the action groups. It worked extremely well and seemed to be such a cunningly good idea that this year an extra action group day was added to the beginning of the conference. It meant the action group meetings could run consecutively and anyone who wanted to attend all of them could do so. Around 80 people were there for most of the day as well as for the informal get-together in the evening. It was all a success, particularly the evening speakers due to extra work by Vaughan Kearns.

Thursday morning was for the Councillors’ meeting and the AGM. Howard Moore has written a summary of what went on here and you can read it on page 15. On the Thursday afternoon and Friday morning it was time for the speaker sessions.

The speaker sessions

Organising and obtaining a range of speakers for our conference is not easy, but Dougal Morrison made it look easy. He had the contacts and seemed to call on anyone he had worked with over the past decades. Even then, the Minister of Forestry and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment were not going to come to speak at the conference without good reason. Dougal made it work.

The range and quality of speakers was excellent and the numbers of people at the two sessions did not seem to diminish. Yes, we were lucky to be in Wellington where many of the speakers were based and they did not have to travel. Have I said before that we have been a bit lucky?

The field days

Next came the field days which I always think is the best part of the conference, but I am biased. For the Friday afternoon there were three choices with around 120 people going to one of three places

• CentrePort to find out more about how logs are prepared for export
• Zealandia which was the first predator-proof fenced mainland reserve in New Zealand
• The Wellington Botanic Garden with some of the oldest exotic trees in the country.

I am still waiting for reports on the CentrePort visit and the Botanic Garden trip. Those who went to Zealandia had a great time and gained more understanding of how the rest of New Zealand could begin to look and sound when all the introduced predators are under control, or dead.

Saturday the first full field day

On Saturday it was the first of the full field days and this is where good planning, allowing for every eventuality and occasional triple redundancy comes into action, or so I thought. The buses all arrived on time and were loaded with people and food. Off we went for the relatively short trip to Kaitoke. As I was the field day organiser I chose to ride on the newest bus, which of course was the one which broke down within half an hour. Luck, I hear you ask?

The luck was that we broke down very close to the bus depot from where a replacement bus would be sent and even better, the driver found a garage which was right beside a McDonalds café. While we added over 20 litres of water to the cooling system in a vain attempt to solve the problem, take-away coffee was available for anyone who wanted it. There is never a good time to break down. At 8.30 am on a Saturday there was no answer from the bus depot when the driver called for a replacement vehicle.

Panic was not an option, although failure was looming large. After a flurry of phone calls the pre-lunch bush walk at Kaitoke was changed to became a postbreakfast one for those lucky enough not to be on the broken bus. Meanwhile we waited for one of the buses to come back and collect us.

Finally, at around 10.00 am we were all together ready for the first of the field day presentations and all was well, or so I thought. I had brought sound systems so that the presenters could be heard out in the open. Being a pessimist, I had brought three so if one failed, we had back-ups. The main system was found to too heavy to cart around, even though it was supposed to be a mobile system. The first back-up, tested and working just the day before, only worked intermittently then failed due to a broken wire in the microphone lead. The third speaker and microphone did work and we were on our way. Luck again?

Nathan Wickens the park ranger enthralled the audience with his knowledge of the park and as we stood at the site of Rivendell, explained how the Lord of the Rings filming added lots of visitors and some much-needed resources. This was followed by Simeon Smaill and Grace Villamor from Scion who were able to explain, as a result of recent research, how reservoir catchments benefit from having trees such as radiata pine to help manage the water flow from falling rain.

Lunch along with tea and coffee is a vital part of any field day. Fortunately, the restaurant and gardens a short distance away were able to provide excellent lunches, delivered in recyclable carboard containers. The tea and coffee was provided by the Venturers − scouts – and we were all able to relax to a nice meal and a drink. I will not mention much of the attempted take-over of the shelter, which we had booked for the lunch, because it was effectively repelled with no bloodshed.

A replacement bus arrived during the lunch break so we were all fully mobile again. The afternoon involved a short trip along State Highway 2 to Te Marua to see how harvesting and replanting had taken place on land owned by Greater Wellington Regional Council. Chris Gibbons from Forest 360, the company managing harvesting on behalf of the forest owners the China Forestry Group, was there to make his presentation and answer myriad of questions. Following a short diversion to see some eucalypts and hear from Jeremy Collyns about their planting and management, it was back on to the buses and a return to Wellington.

Sunday the second full field day

Sunday dawned bright and sunny again, the luck hanging around despite the poor weather forecast, and we loaded the buses for the trip to Battle Hill. What could possibly go wrong today?

We all arrived on time and the park ranger Wayne Boness welcomed us and the day started well. We were taken around the park to see various planting and woodlots. The final stop of the morning was to look at the trees which needed to be harvested, but were still in the ground due to the delayed construction of the Transmission Gully road which now bisected the park. We sat on the sunny bank and relaxed as we heard the presentation from Wayne followed by the usual question and answer session. When the new road would open was one question which could be not be answered.

The lunch stop was early because everything had gone so well but that did not phase the lunch caterer from Blue Carrot who had fortunately arrived even earlier – luck was still with us and we did not have to wait to enjoy the food. Then it was back on the buses for the short trip to our final destination, Queen Elizabeth Park.

We had been told about a horse event taking place that day, with hundreds or possibly thousands of additional visitors to the park. It did makes things a bit crowded but we were able to travel through normally locked gates to quieter parts of the working farm to see how effective the native and non-native planting along the stream had provided much needed shading and silt control. Then it was to see more native planting which had recently been carried out by volunteers. The final stop was to walk round the small lake which had been created around 30 years ago and planted with natives. This was to be a nice relaxed finish to the field day. What could go wrong?

As we walked towards the entrance to the wetland we could see a long line of white tape on posts between us and the gate. This was not a concern until we got close and then we found out why. The temporary steeplechase track for the horses ran on the other side of the tape between us and the wetland. As soon as we started to cross there was a loud yell to stay off the track. Then a horse and rider appeared from around the corner and thundered past just metres away.

The yell became a serious conversation with the person in charge who said we had to keep off the track. We were not allowed to cross it. Then luck struck again as it was mentioned we were a farm forestry field day. The woman in charge, apparently, was married to a member of the NZFFA and she said she understood that we were not just a bunch of tourists, although of course we were.

A system was then worked out where small numbers of people were guided in groups across the track to the gate while we watched for incoming horses. The same applied for the return. No animals were injured and we all arrived safely at the buses.

For some reason there were no dramas on the return trip or during the farewell get-together later in the evening. We must have been lucky. The newly-created all-expense-spared baton was passed to the South Canterbury branch for the 2022 conference and we made our sad farewells until the next year. Give a silent round of applause to the others on the Wellington organising committee chaired by Dougal Morrison. They were Wayne Bettjeman, Robin Chesterfield, Vaughan Kearns, Kathryn Hurr, Hamish Levack, Howard Moore and Lynne Wallace.

Julian Bateson is President of the Wellington branch, which hosted the conference, and was also one of the above organising committee.