{"id":78823,"date":"2023-12-07T16:12:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T03:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/?p=78823"},"modified":"2023-12-07T16:12:21","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T03:12:21","slug":"going-back-to-native-bush-for-a-better-bottom-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/farm-management\/going-back-to-native-bush-for-a-better-bottom-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Going back to native bush for a better bottom line"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

By Delwyn Dickey for Our Land and Water<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.\u201d John Burke often thinks about that old expression<\/a>, while planting young trees on retired land on Pukekauri,\u00a0his Katikati family drystock farm.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In decades to come they will become thriving ngahere (native bush), stabilising the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He uses mostly k\u0101nuka and m\u0101nuka plants, whose strong, flexible and elastic roots hold onto sloping soils, and are early colonisers when land naturally reverts to native bush. Burke is using that process to get new native bush underway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

K\u0101nuka does most of the heavy lifting, stabilising soil and rock in dry sunny areas especially, while m\u0101nuka suits moister shady areas. Their roots start building native fungi communities in the soil, such as mycorrhizae. Birds flit between their widely spaced branches, leaving seeds from berries of nearby native tree species behind in their droppings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soil fungi help these native tree seedlings to thrive, with the young succession trees eventually growing up through the k\u0101nuka and m\u0101nuka, as the new forest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burke uses the T\u012bmata method<\/a>, which uses commercial forestry techniques to establish small plants, about 30cm high, at least 2m apart. The wide spacing gives the plants more room to grow, and cuts planting costs from over $20,000 per hectare (for mixed species at 1.5m spacings) to as low as $3000\/ha (using mostly k\u0101nuka and m\u0101nuka at 3m spacings).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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