Trees pay off in many ways

A Hawke's Bay farm forester is devoted to repairing the environmental harm of land- use strategies of the past. David Bryant has  spent the last 35 years  mending the damage  done by over-vigorous  scrub-clearing that  denuded his Hawke's Bay hill  country sheep and beef farm in  the 1960s reports the Dom Post. Only the steep walls of the gorges that snake through the farm had escaped the slashers. But now the 450-hectare rugged farm at Kereru, on the snowline of the Ruahine Ranges, is a showpiece of conservation planting. The bush has been encouraged to climb back out of the gorges, erosion-prone hillsides are covered in native and introduced species, and spaced planting on easier hillsides gives a park-like feeling. Shelter belts protect stock from the murderous winds and woodlots and pine plantations are current and future income earners. In all, 150ha - a third of the farm - has been retired, with a large chunk being covenanted to bind future owners to preserving the landscape. But income has hardly been affected, Mr Bryant says. Savings have been from a sharp drop in lost stock, improved lambing under shelter, and a reduction in storm cleanup costs.The work of Mr Bryant and his wife, Ngaire, has been recognised lately with the Farm Forestry Association's North Island farmers of the year award. At 66, Mr Bryant is still fit enough to climb the gorges and hills to plant seedlings. The lease of the productive parts of the farm to nephew Murray Hinton nine years ago has allowed him to devote a lot more of his time to the trees and bush. Mr Bryant remembers working alongside those cheerful Fijian Indians in a bitterly cold winter. "They were good workers but we didn't know when to stop. We overdid it. We cut too much and went too deep into the gorges." He discovered the consequences of this when he and Ngaire took ownership in 1973. Hills that had been held together by the bush fell apart in storms and silt washed down to block culverts and cover access tracks. The unfenced gorges were the farm's Bermuda triangle, luring animals to their deaths. Cattle would lean over the edges to get at a tasty flax and then lose their footing. Ewes would give birth to lambs who in staggering to find their feet would slip over the edges. "It was a nightmare," Mr Bryant recalls. "I thought, 'Blimmin' heck. I've got to do something about this'." The gorges begin as one ravine, entering the farm from the east then forking into two and sending off more than 20 side- shoots. Fencing them became a priority and Mr Bryant spent 10 years putting up 20 kilometres of fencing.As he fenced, he noticed the edges of the gorges and gullies were eroding and realised some of the bush that had been cleared had to be put back. Instead of fencing close to the rims of the gullies, he pulled back and squared off the edges of paddocks, filling the gaps with native plantings. At the same time, he worked on saving the erosion-prone hills with shelterbelts, beginning with sturdy pines to protect the young native seedlings. Poplars have also been spaced out across the hillsides, giving shade and holding the soil from slipping. Some of the hills were too steep for stock and were forested in pines.