Wilding control guidelines for farmers and land managers

Abstract

The spread of introduced conifers (wildings) threatens biological conservation, landscape values and pastoral productivity of large areas of montane New Zealand. Considerable resources are spent annually on their control. This paper reviews the background to a guideline manual that has been written to enable farmers and land managers to determine the most practical and cost effective means for wilding control. Wilding size and frequency are used to choose the optimum removal technique from a wilding control 'toolbox'. Methods involve management of the affected site (burning, grazing, fertilising), physical removal (hand pulling, hand tools, ring-barking), power tools (chainsaws and scrub-bars), heavy machinery (mulching, windrowing) and chemicals (foliar spraying, stem poisoning, cut stump application, soil injection). For each technique, implementation recommendations are given, along with comment on the most appropriate tools, audit procedures and safety issues. The wilding website (www.wildingconifers.org.nz) is used for additional detail.