Listen Now: 
A new government agency is being launched today, and it’s not in Wellington.
The forest service Uru Rakau will be based on Rotorua.
It will be tasked with finding the land and the seedlings needed for the Government’s billion trees policy, identifying and overcoming barriers to participation, and promoting ways to add more value to the raw product.
It will have a high Maori component, as awareness grows that much to the land available for planting will be Maori, especially in areas subject to erosion.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will attend this morning’s launch at the Ministry for Primary Industries offices in the Sulphur City, along with Forestry Minister Shane Jones.
She says will breathe new heart into a sector that has been neglected in recent years.
"You know we had the old Forest Service. I remember it from the 80s, living in Murupara, and we just want that focus again, particularly for what it can do for our regions," she says
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