The second annual meeting of the Wakatipu Wilding Conifer Group will double as a celebration of the work done so far to curb the spread of pines in the past two years.
Members and the general public are invited to attend the group's annual meeting in the Queenstown Lakes District Council chambers, on Thursday, July 7, from 5pm.
District forester Briana O'Brien said she and a representative of the Department of Conservation Wakatipu area office would give brief updates on conifer control and advances in control techniques.
Chairman Peter Willsman, of Queenstown, would conduct annual meeting business and three short videos would be played. Central Otago artist Grahame Sydney would also give a presentation.
Mrs O'Brien asked attendees to RSVP to brianap@qldc.govt.nz by July 5.
Asked if the war on wildings was being won, Mrs O'Brien said it was in some areas. With funding and the use of new tools, such as boom spraying, scrub bars and spot spraying with a lance pole, efforts could get to the stage where the trees could be contained.
There are 70 people on the group's mailing list and almost 200 on its volunteer database. This winter, members would seek more funding to expand the group's conifer control programme, she said.
