The suggestion that Molesworth Station could be turned into a giant pine monoculture is crazy says Alan Simmons of the NZ Outdoors and Freedom Party.

“It’s even more crazy coming from the Department of Conservation who have failed to control wilding pines on public lands it is entrusted by parliamentary law to manage,” said Alan Simmons. “The option from DoC to hand it over to forestry interests to plant as one huge pine forest is appalling to many and sends a shudder through all those who love and appreciate our NZ back country environment.”

Molesworth is such an iconic environment owned by the New Zealand public and valued for its vast wilderness landscape and currently run as a huge beef high country station. Well known outdoorsman Alan Simmons said DoC is completely out of touch with reality and to the contrary there is a strong case not to plant any more pine trees because of their detrimental effect on the environment.

“Pines are invasive, suck up huge quantities of water and deplete stream and river flows to the point of drying them up, poison the soil by turning it acidic, if and when harvested the slash waste is a huge problem for land owners downstream while clear felling results in heavy siltation of rivers and coastal waters such as the Marlborough Sounds.”

He said economic benefits were marginal as most logs are exported raw overseas and imported back as processed timber. Pine forests provide no real work for New Zealanders apart from harvesting and resulted in depopulation of rural communities and closure of community infrastructure such as schools. Environmentally monocultures of pines resulted in considerable loss of biodiversity.

Alan Simmons said perhaps DOC saw the concept of a giant pine forest in backcountry Marlborough as climate change mitigation. However the amount of grassland and native vegetation on Molesworth Station already contributes to any climate change goals. Besides the criteria of the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) is flawed such as not considering vegetation under five metres height.

"The thought of planting 446,705 acres or 700 square miles into pine forest turns my stomach" said Alan Simmons.”Molesworth needs to remain a vast wildness for future generations to enjoy. Our past experience with forests once owned by New Zealanders is that they end up overseas owned and we end up locked out. An example is Kaiangaroa Forest in the Central North Island or the many former State forests of the Hawkes Bay now overseas owned. "

He predicted any attempt to turn Molesworth Station into a mega-pine forest will set off a public outcry equal to the Save Manapouri campaign of the 1970's.

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