One of the things I wanted to do more of while I traveled was volunteer work. I particularly enjoy the kind that involves physical labor and the outdoors, which made the opportunity I discovered in Queenstown, New Zealand ideal.
The hostel had posted notices looking for people to help clear “wilding conifers.” I honestly had no idea what that meant, but with a few days to spare in Queenstown I jumped at the chance. It included a free ride to the top of the mountain via cable lift and a free lunch, so it sounded like fun as well as a chance to help out the community.
My impression was that we would be clearing dead brush to prevent forest fire potential, which is a common practice in Los Angeles. The reality was the complete opposite. We would be killing and chopping down as many trees as we could.
What the hell kind of environmental effort is THAT?
Quite a significant one, as it turns out. Like Australia, New Zealand suffers when the wrong flora and fauna is imported. With few natural predators, some species will grow uncontrollably.
In the case of Queenstown, the culprit is Douglas fir. Originally brought to the city 100 years ago to provide inexpensive material for lumber and firewood, the trees quickly took hold in the fertile soil and began to take over. Creating a thick cover of forest, the trees kill everything native to the environment underneath. With dozens of seeds in each pinecone, hundreds of pinecones in each tree and thousands of trees, they spread quickly and it’s been a constant battle to save the region’s original inhabitants.
Much of the forest has already been given up as lost, so the trees are left because of the difficulty of removing thousands of full grown trees from the mountains and hillsides.
We were charged with clearing a border area to prevent the trees from spreading further. Each area in a border zone needs to be cleared at least every 5 years to prevent new growth from maturing and extending the forest, killing more of the local vegetation.
Most of the effort is not unlike weeding a garden. Small fir sprouts that have just begun to grow can be pulled completely from the ground. Larger trees that have been around for a few months can trimmed off at the base with clippers.
Finally, there are some trees that were missed on the last go round that have now matured enough that they require axes and saws. That was where I focused most of my attention, in full lumberjack mode. In a bit of Paul Bunyan bravado, I considered it my personal mission to attack the trees no one else could bring down.
We worked for several hours, with bits of rain occasionally hampering our efforts. Finally, after lunch it started coming down in buckets so we called it a day and headed back to town.
Not a bad way to spend a morning.
