He believes removing the infestation, which has spread along the hill to Grant’s Hill, above Frankton, would become "a poster child" for their cause.
"Every year we have to spend money tidying up that spread.
"It’s like bailing a boat — why would you bail it for 100 years if you could fix the leak?"
He says WCG’s strategy is to remove seed sources — "unless we remove the seed sources, in the long run we can’t win this battle".
"We believe [Queenstown Hill] can be better by removing the wilding pines, by seeing that replaced with natives that encourage more birdlife and enhance the recreational opportunities on that hill."
Hensman says they’ve been talking to the council about their proposed first stage — removing wildings on the council-owned windward side.
They’d be simply taking the hill back to what it was 40 to 50 years ago, he says.
But first "there’s a process and public consultation to go through — there’s no consents or anything in place".
"It will cost money for sure, but we are looking to how we can fund it."
The group celebrated a major win in April when Otago Regional Council (ORC) announced the management of the Shotover wildings — encompassing about 66,700 hectares in the Mt Aurum, Skippers and Macetown area — was moving to a maintenance phase, after a 16-year effort to bring the infestation under control.
That was a joint effort between WCG, ORC, Department of Conservation, Queenstown’s council, Land Information New Zealand, the National Wilding Conifer Control Programme, contractors, volunteers, landowners, managers and funding supporters.
