But Hugh Wilson’s neighbours let rip when his plans for Hinewai Reserve became clear.
The buck-fit botanist was creating nursery cover for natives.
Extensive areas of gorse, broom, bracken and native shrubs served as excellent canopies for regenerating forest.
“I wrote an article in the Akaroa Mail explaining what we were doing. Two weeks later, in the next issue, this letter came from a neighbouring farmer saying ‘Look, I’m all for preserving the little bits of bush that are here but as for letting gorse go and turning it into native forest, that’s fools and dreamers stuff’.”
At least pine trees would contribute to the local economy, the farmer said.
Now, farmers are among those praising Wilson’s work in a newly-released documentary, aptly named Fools and Dreamers.
Carbon sequestration has earned the landowner, the Maurice White Native Forest Trust, about a million dollars. The biggest source of income is carbon capture.
“It’s growing all the time and the per tonne/per unit price is going up and up and up.
“So, we’re on a bit of a roll there,” Wilson said.
Some of the up-front costs were covered by supporters like Landcare Research and the Carbon Zero Initiative but Hinewai today is an example of the productive power of conservation, he said.
“I can guarantee that Hinewai is making more money now than would ever have been achievable under pastoral farming. So, we are adding to the local economy.”
Wilson finds it appalling to see good pastoral farmland planted in pines and equally for marginal country, unless it is for timber harvest.
“Planting it for carbon sequestration is a monumental folly.
“All that land could be managed as Hinewai is.
“An individual farm that has some good, productive pastoral land – you keep farming that. But nearly every hill country farm has gullies so you leave it in reserve, you manage it.”
It took work, including fencing, fire prevention and invasive weeds and wild animals control but the job was far less labour-intensive than planting exotics, he said.
Hinewai keeps out cattle, sheep, deer and goats and it hammers the possums but has no predator-proof fence.
Nature is flourishing with minimal interference, Wilson said.
“People get the idea that the only way nature’s going to cope is with this huge manipulative management with highly expensive fencing. That’s wonderful in small, tiny bits Hinewai is also an example of what happens with what we call minimal interference management.”
Hinewai’s regrowth is startling compared to when Wilson started working there in 1987.
At that time he was doing a botanical survey of Banks Peninsula.
“I just thought the ecology was completely thrashed because it was once forested from side to side. And there’s less than 1% of old forest left now.”
But Wilson’s survey of the peninsula showed native seedlings were itching to come back and regrowth had already started.
“Even the rarest of the plants are mostly just hanging on and just waiting for the opportunity to get away again.”
White originally asked Wilson if he would help with a conservation project.
White grew up on the other side of Akaroa harbour, at Wainui, and by 1987 his trust had accrued enough money to buy a postage-stamp sized 109ha off Long Bay Rd. The farmlet had only pockets of remnant native forest and was home to hares, rabbits, possums, hedgehogs, rats, mice, stoats, weasels and cats.
In 1991 his workload ramped up when the trust bought Otanerito Station, increasing the size of the reserve nearly tenfold.
The reserve is part of the outer flank of the ancient Akaroa Volcano, falling steeply from the sub-alpine top of Tarateruhu/Stony Bay Peak (806m) down to near sea level at Otanerito homestead. In between there are more than 40 waterfalls and a 16km network of publicly-accessible tracks.
At a critical moment in the early 1990s Hinewai benefited from changing attitudes to tourism and conservation. Four eastern bays landowners, including the Maurice White Trust, created a public walking track through their properties, the Banks Peninsula Track. The economic value of the regenerating natives is rising as visitor numbers grow.
The trust earns about $25,000 annually from track guests and a variable amount from visitor donations.
“It’s completely open to the public. You don’t have to ask to come to Hinewai and now it’s like a mini national park on the doorstep of Akaroa.
“And I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but the town – they love us.”
