SAVE THE WILD HURUNUI RIVER
Great photos of the river gatherings, one of which was a big gathering on the Hurunui.
Here is the post I did 5 hours ago about "planting native plantations on conservation land" as a Government greenwash tactic. This will sanction the clearfelling of Balmoral Pine Forest in North Canterbury and the irrigation demands from this former forest land will contribute to the damming and sucking down of the wild Hurunui River. This will be done so that the driest, most gravelly land in that region can be turned into large scale dairy farms through the application of huge quantities of nitrogen fertiliser (from fossil fuels) and of water.
"Last week, the Government passed the Emissions Trading Scheme. It sanctions the taking of up to 40,000 hectares -and probably more - of public conservation land, so that this can be planted in native and exotic trees. There are statements that these new plantations will be allowed to be harvested.
This "tree planting" is to offset the clearfelling by 5 major iwi of pine plantations they received in Treaty settlements and the conversion of these former pine forest areas to dairy farms. If the DOC land was not earmarked for the planting of native or exotic trees, the iwi or the government would face a carbon tax liability of around $20,000 per hectare for clearfelling the carbon sink that the pine plantations represent.
Ngai Tahu have received Balmoral Forest in North Canterbury next to the Hurunui river in their Treaty Settlement. They plan to clear fell this so that it can be converted to dairying. This dairy farming will require large quantities of water for irrigation from the Hurunui River thereby jeopardising the protection of this wild river for which a Conservation Order is currently being sought.
In summary then the ETS and the huge pressure for dairy development, not only means that existing pine plantations are hastily being cleared. It also means that a large area of public conservation land, set aside for its natural heritage values, is to be planted as a new plantation of native and probably also exotic trees. It also means that a magnificent wild river is to be destroyed or damaged by having large quantities of water taken from it!
What a crock that this can occur in this land labelled 100% Pure New Zealand under the guise of New Zealand making a serious effort to reduce our carbon emissions in the lead up to the Copenhagen conference.
No wonder Prime Minister John Key doesn't want to go to Copenhagen. World leaders might ask him what is going on in this country that for so long was a shining beacon of environmental leadership."
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