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Tree Farms
It took me a long time to begin to recognize tree farms. Or tree plantations, as they are often called. At first, I just noticed there were lots of trees in New Zealand. I'll show you how I began to start recognizing the tree farms. First, here are some patches of natural forest (or bush, as they call it here). First, the trees across the valley from our house; second, the trees on one of the islands in Otago Harbour; and third, a hillside by Lake Manapouri. Notice there is variation and texture in the carpet of trees.
We'd been in New Zealand several months before I began to notice that many patches of trees had a uniform texture. We'd be driving by a patch of trees with that uniform texture, and suddenly we would come to a place where I could see that the trees were in rows. The next two photographs demonstrate the uniform texture and the rows.
We had lived in our rental house for five months before I realized we had a view of a tree farm out of our window. See it?
Then we moved into the house we bought, and this time it only took me a month or so to realize a patch of woods we can see from our dining room window is actually a tree farm. See the rows?
In some places, the tree farms are like carpets that cover the hills, like the photo below. The hills in the distance are natural forest (I think), but the hills in the foreground are clearly covered by planted trees.
I had a conversation at a church we visited with a man who is somehow connected to tree planations. He told me 85% of the trees grown on tree farms in NZ is radiata pine, most of which is exported to the US and Australia to be used for trim for houses. The remaining 15% is pretty equally divided between three other kinds of trees: eucalytpus, which is exported to China to become paper pulp; macrocarpa cyprus, which looks like Leylandi cyprus and is used to make furniture here in New Zealand; and Douglas fir, which is used domestically for home construction. You can see how much wood they grow here if 5% is enough to build most of the houses. Almost all the tree plantations I've seen on the southern half of the South Island are radiata pine, but I've seen a few macrocarpa and eucalyptus plantations as we have whizzed by in the car. They are usually pretty small. In the photo below, the uppermost band of trees appears to be a radiata pine plantation (see the rows on the left edge of the photo), and there's a band of grayish trees below it, which I think might be eucalyptus trees planted for harvest.
Now that I've learned to identify tree plantations, I see them everywhere. Big, small, very small. Some lamb and dairy farmers seem to plant the edges of their fields with small tree plantations, I guess to diversify. So here are five more photos showing different sizes of tree plantations.
In ten days we're going to the North Island for a three-week vacation and a conference. I'm sure we'll take tons of photos, but won't be able to post them until we get back. So in mid-July, look for several posts of photos from the North Island. Sorry there won't be anything until then.
We'd been in New Zealand several months before I began to notice that many patches of trees had a uniform texture. We'd be driving by a patch of trees with that uniform texture, and suddenly we would come to a place where I could see that the trees were in rows. The next two photographs demonstrate the uniform texture and the rows.
We had lived in our rental house for five months before I realized we had a view of a tree farm out of our window. See it?
Then we moved into the house we bought, and this time it only took me a month or so to realize a patch of woods we can see from our dining room window is actually a tree farm. See the rows?
In some places, the tree farms are like carpets that cover the hills, like the photo below. The hills in the distance are natural forest (I think), but the hills in the foreground are clearly covered by planted trees.
I had a conversation at a church we visited with a man who is somehow connected to tree planations. He told me 85% of the trees grown on tree farms in NZ is radiata pine, most of which is exported to the US and Australia to be used for trim for houses. The remaining 15% is pretty equally divided between three other kinds of trees: eucalytpus, which is exported to China to become paper pulp; macrocarpa cyprus, which looks like Leylandi cyprus and is used to make furniture here in New Zealand; and Douglas fir, which is used domestically for home construction. You can see how much wood they grow here if 5% is enough to build most of the houses. Almost all the tree plantations I've seen on the southern half of the South Island are radiata pine, but I've seen a few macrocarpa and eucalyptus plantations as we have whizzed by in the car. They are usually pretty small. In the photo below, the uppermost band of trees appears to be a radiata pine plantation (see the rows on the left edge of the photo), and there's a band of grayish trees below it, which I think might be eucalyptus trees planted for harvest.
Now that I've learned to identify tree plantations, I see them everywhere. Big, small, very small. Some lamb and dairy farmers seem to plant the edges of their fields with small tree plantations, I guess to diversify. So here are five more photos showing different sizes of tree plantations.
In ten days we're going to the North Island for a three-week vacation and a conference. I'm sure we'll take tons of photos, but won't be able to post them until we get back. So in mid-July, look for several posts of photos from the North Island. Sorry there won't be anything until then.
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