Fight on to halt rapid march of the wildings

Tony Benny

Nick Ledgard, left, and Ray Goldring are leading the fight against wilding contorta pine in the Waimakariri Basin.

Almost 50 years after he helped plant contorta pines to control erosion, retired forestry scientist Nick Ledgard is back in the South Island high country leading the fight to stop their alarming spread.

The fast-growing - but commercially useless - pine variety is marching across landscapes from Otago to Waikato and is high on the list of pest species of many regional councils.

It is especially virulent in the Waimakariri Basin, between Porters and Arthur's passes in an area very close to where firefighters are today battling a massive fire. That area where Ledgard, along with members of Welra, the Waimakariri Ecological and Landscape Restoration Alliance, is concentrating his efforts is on the opposite side of State Highway 73 from today's huge blaze is being battled.

Nick Ledgard

BEFORE: A small patch of contorta was planted on Helicopter Hill in the Waimakariri basin near Flock Hill in the 1960s to control erosion.

As a young scientist in the 1960s, Ledgard was part of a team planting experimental plots on Helicopter Hill in the Waimakariri Basin, looking for species to control what was perceived to be a serious erosion threat.

In contorta they seemed to have found an answer; it would grow and thrive at high altitudes and hold the ground together.

But it was soon realised that contorta had the ability to spread far from the original site thanks to its light windborne seeds that could germinate on virtually any open ground.

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Fight on to halt rapid march of the wildings