North Otago wilding pines to become Christmas trees

Photo / ODT files

Wilding pines will be removed from Cape Wanbrow and sold as a Christmas fundraiser for the cape, the Waitaki District Council says.

Council acting recreation manager Lindsay Hyde said the council's "initial view'' was that profits from the sales would be reinvested in the reserve overlooking Oamaru Harbour, "most likely in the purchasing of additional plants to thicken up existing plantings''.

"We need to (a) determine the areas, which we think we've identified as being those native areas, we need to get an idea of what numbers are in those areas, and if it's worthwhile, and a group can sell those pines as Christmas trees, then those sales will be looked at being re-invested into the reserve,'' Hyde said.

The cape was largely a pine plantation until it was harvested throughout 2014.

The first organised replanting of the current 6.87ha forestry block on the cape began in May 2015, Hyde said.

There were subsequent community planting days throughout 2015 and the Waitaki branch of Forest & Bird has held regular plantings days since.

As well as the pines that had spread into areas where natives were planned, there were some trees in planted areas that could be targeted for removal.

The next step for the council was to "sit down with interested parties'' and identify areas that would benefit from tree removal.

He could not say, until that work was done later this month, how many trees would be removed.