WTMC Ruapehu Lodge –
and the solitary wilding pine
🌲
The wilding pine on the Whakapapa slopes of Mount Ruapehu needed to be removed – so Sarah and her teddy bear set out to do the job
Some time ago while passing across the western slopes of Mt Ruapehu around towards the WTMC Lodge Sarah Saurus noticed a solitary wilding pine. These are, of course, a disaster for NZ’s natural landscapes so she did her best to break it down but it was too sturdy.
But now that she was back at the lodge as a host for the Teddy Bears Tramping Club picnic weekend what better time than to get the biggest and strongest Teddy to help her fell the tree once and for all.
She left the lodge with her helper getting a lift over the rocks that were awkward for very short legs. They carried a sharp saw and travelled over the path Sarah remembered from three years before and found the tree with no problems.
It was bent over as if someone, or maybe the wind, had made a determined effort to uproot it but had failed and although the tree was on a lean it was still growing vigorously.
Teddy tied a rope to the tree and pulled it over until it was nearly horizonal and then it was a simple matter to saw through the trunk.
One more wilding pine gone!
But there are 1.8 million hectares of wilding pines in NZ, which at about 3,000 pines per hectare is 5.4 billion invasive trees.
There are about 2.4 million working age adults in NZ so that’s 750 trees each.
Sarah and Teddy now have 749 to go. When are you going to start on your share?
