The 30 people attending the annual meeting of the group in Alexandra on Tuesday were left with no doubts about the impact they had made.
Mr Murray said their hard work had left other residents in the area complacent about the threat before them.
He said people had been shielded from an awareness of the negative impacts of wilding pines in the region.
"In Central Otago, the consequences to biodiversity and the landscape is almost total domination and replacement."
Since 2014, the group had spent $3 million and cleared conifers off 400,000 ha of land.
"The reason we are not talking about this all the time is because of the work the group has done," he said.
He compared the effect of removing wilding trees without addressing the seed source to "bailing out a boat with the bung out".
"Unless we get rid of seed sources, we are going to be bailing this boat out forever."
Mr Murray said New Zealand had been "very strong in promoting the economic benefits of forestry but very slow in recognising the downsides".
He understood that residents enjoyed the amenity values of conifer areas but investment was needed into transition areas such as Alexandra’s "contentious" Half Mile reserve for planting species that would not spread.
"It’s no use us out there killing trees if the rest of the community doesn’t think they are a problem."
Fire and Emergency New Zealand community risk manager James Knapp was guest speaker at the event, explaining the effects of increased numbers of wilding pines on fire risk.
"Unmanaged spread of wilding pines will almost certainly affect fire intensity and difficulty of control."
Climate change would also increase the frequency, severity and season length of fire weather conditions, with fire season length and severity likely to increase in Central Otago and other areas already at high risk, Mr Knapp said.
By: Staff reporter
