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Why trees?

Members of NZFFA grow trees for a whole range of reasons, from timber production to aesthetics and the environment.

Tree Grower articles

  • Environmental policy and landscape transformation (Access: NZFFA membership)
    Simon Upton, August 2021
    Imagine if communities worked together to tackle multiple environmental issues at once, using science, matauranga and grassroots local knowledge to choose the best option for their place. The Parliamentary Commissioner…
  • Telling better forestry stories (Access: NZFFA membership)
    Michelle Harnett, August 2021
    ‘I don’t like radiata’ – A King Country farmer who wants to plant more trees. ‘I do not want any trees on my farm’ − a South Island farmer. ‘Farmers…
  • Bigger than Ben-Hur - He Waka Eke Noa (Access: NZFFA membership)
    Howard Moore, August 2021
    We are all in this together It is fun now-and-then to run the plot of a movie backwards in your mind. Ben-Hur is a bit complicated for that but Thelma…
  • Beef + Lamb New Zealand and trees on farms from a hill country farming perspective (Access: NZFFA membership)
    Angela McFetridge, August 2021
    Hill country farmers are aware that they are part of a changing landscape which is seeing, hearing and feeling more expectation from society around food production, transparency, environmental sustainability and…
  • Reflecting on farm forestry field days (Access: unrestricted)
    Grant Hunter, November 2020
    With various people giving farmers and foresters a bad rap, some might wonder what tricks farmer foresters get up to. Does the combination concentrate their bad behaviour, or is there enlightenment?…
  • Are farmers missing out on wealth from forestry? (Access: unrestricted)
    Graham West, August 2020
    The average farmer works extremely hard to create wealth for themselves and others. They face adversity of all types but get up each morning determined that growing more grass and…
  • Breaking down barriers to afforestation (Access: unrestricted)
    Michelle Harnett, February 2020
    We all agree that planting more trees is good idea, but with the One Billion Trees programme, dealing with agricultural emissions and New Zealand aiming to become carbon neutral, how…
  • Myth conceptions- Are planted forests really the Devil? (Access: unrestricted)
    Michelle Harnett, May 2019
    …radiata pine is a foreign weed, spreads like herpes, makes rubbish timber and falls over after 50 years. A Stuff article on planting pines to make money from carbon farming…
  • Trees, sheep and beef make an interesting mix (Access: unrestricted)
    Victoria Lamb, May 2018
    New Zealand has an area of about 25.9 million hectares. Around 40 per cent or 10.6 million hectares of that is in sheep and beef farming. As many will know…
  • The true value of planted forests – An introduction to ecosystems services (Access: unrestricted)
    Michelle Harnett and Richard Yao, November 2015
    We see the trees, we see the wood, but what about the other benefits which planted forests provide? We benefit from the different environments or ecosystems we encounter in our…
  • Sustainable use of diverse forests (Access: unrestricted)
    Jeanette Fitzsimons, August 2014
    One of the presentations at the conference was to have been made by Jeanette Fitzsimons a long-time member of the NZFFA. Unfortunately the weather conditions meant that a number of…
  • The last 20 years and the next 20 years of farm forestry (Access: unrestricted)
    Garth Eyles, February 2014
    Twenty years ago I was introduced to farm forestry. For the previous 28 years I had been involved with resource mapping and the science of soil conservation throughout New Zealand.…
  • Patching Earth’s quilt - Planting trees for people, profit and the planet (Access: unrestricted)
    Henrik Moller, May 2013
    The main title of this article is an adaptation of a brilliant book by Professor Nancy Turner called The Earth’s Blanket. She recorded the knowledge of indigenous people from Canada…
  • Trees for protection – native or otherwise (Access: unrestricted)
    Jim Flack, May 2013
    In geological terms, New Zealand is a young country and still growing. Tectonic plates grind beneath us, pushing the land upwards, while our maritime weather systems try to wear it…
  • Trees are the Answer (Access: unrestricted)
    Wink Sutton, May 2010
    Trees are the answer. This slogan was first advocated by Dr Patrick Moore, one the original founders of Greenpeace. Patrick is now head of Greenspirit, a Canadian pro- forestry environmental…

Blogs

  • What would the public think - soil degrader or enhancer?: Grant Hunters blog, February 11, 2024
    On 17 December we public awoke to headlines: "New research uncovers how much damage pine forests are doing to our soil". (Adam Hollingworth, Newshub) Ravensdown CSO Dr. Ants Roberts - known…
  • Farmer’s forestry hysteria: Vaughan Kearns blog, November 02, 2022
    The recent press release from the president of the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association is a breath of fresh air in response to the drivel that continues to emanate from…
  • “Productive Farmland Disappearing under a Blanket of Trees”: Vaughan Kearns blog, June 23, 2022
    More RABID NONSENSE from people who should know better. I felt compelled to write this tirade in response to continued, misinformed allegations from Federated Farmers, Beef and Lamb, Dame Anne…
  • Is Forestry Really All Evil?: Denis Hocking's blog, December 19, 2021
    Opinion piece first published in Middle Districts Branch Newsletter October 2021  The ongoing debate on the pros and cons of forestry, and particularly permanent carbon sink plantings, versus farming, continues,…

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