November 13, 2018
More mahi needed to ready Ngāti Hine land for pines
Regional Economic Development and Forestry Minister Shane Jones has rejected suggestions he bungled a Northland project that is part of the billion trees initiative.
The New Zealand Herald is reporting many of the million seedlings grown up for 1100 hectares of Ngāti Hine land behind Moerewa had to be diverted elsewhere because the land was choked with weeds and regrowing scrub.
Mr Jones says the forest strategy will not succeed without ambition, and there was no money wasted.
"The scrub needed to be eradicated. Next year we will most certainly have covered much of that country and plastered it with pine seedlings and you get these rough spots when you launch a waka which has been beached for over 30 years," he says.
Mr Jones says rather than fight the Ngāpuhi settlement, Ngāti Hine leaders should look at the $33 million they are getting from the crown for the forestry project and make it a success socially, commercially and politically.
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