Plans to plant 20ha of pasture with kauri trees

A Melbourne man with roots in Dunedin has plans to plant 20,000 kauri trees south of the city at Taieri Beach, well south of the native tree’s present range.

Peter Parsons (63) grew up on his father’s dairy farm, near Dunedin, but moved to Melbourne when he was 20.

For his return, he bought 28ha of land at Taieri Beach last year.

Mr Parsons said 8ha was native forest at present, but he planned to plant the remaining 20ha of pasture with 20,000 kauri trees.

The first stage of planting on what would be a multi-generational project would begin next month.

"I’ve got two sons and I’ve talked to them about it.

"I’ve said ‘I’m spending your inheritance and you’re not going to be around to see it either — but your children might’," Mr Parsons said from Melbourne yesterday.

The retired director of product management for a fire safety equipment company said he had been looking to buy a block of land around Dunedin — from Kaka Point north to about Palmerston — for some time.

The property he found was 30 times larger than he needed for a house, but based on the photographs, he bought it anyway.

"My problem was ... now, what the hell am I going to do with it?

"I didn’t want to run sheep because I’m 63 years old and I’m supposed to be retired."

Trees became the next obvious choice, he said.

There were enough pine trees already — and they required maintenance.

Kauri, on the other hand, dropped their branches as they grew.

The first stage of planting, starting next month, would involve planting more than 7000 native nurse trees, to protect the kauri, on one-third of the block.

He would eventually plant 19,000 nurse trees over three seasons, to protect the young kauri from wind and frost.

Additionally, he bought from the North Island 34,000 kauri seeds, now germinating at Ribbonwood Nurseries, in Dunedin.

Because he was able to source all the seeds this year, he hoped to accelerate his planting programme and get 20,000 kauri planted within a couple of years.

He was unsure yet how he would protect the trees, but he could register it as a permanent forest in the emissions trading scheme (ETS) and that would protect it for 50 years, Mr Parsons said.

A spokeswoman for Crown research institute Scion said Mr Parsons contacted one of Scion’s scientists, indigenous forest researcher Greg Steward, who provided broad-level advice and contacts in the nursery trade to assist his project.

University of Otago botanist Associate Prof Janice Lord said while kauri typically did not grow south of latitude 38 naturally, the trees would definitely grow at Taieri Beach.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz