The pastoral era
Today after almost 150 years of pastoral land use the effects of long-term pastoralism are becoming more evident.

Modern high country properties derive the bulk of their pasture from better land types which have been developed by oversowing and topdressing, and which have been subdivided to allow for intensively managed stock pasture systems. The majority of better land types suited for intensive development have already been worked up. Unimproved or semi-improved rangelands adjoining these developed lands carry less and less of the farm production and increasingly serve as run off summer pasture which allows the developed pasture to be spelled for winter. The winter feed capacity of high country runs determines their overall production limits.

Trees as shelter
Trees were first valued as sources of firewood, building material and homestead shelter. Many early homestead sites were chosen because of proximity of native forest remnants.

In the context of land development, trees have extremely important roles to play.

The shelter benefits of trees in the extremes of high country climate are important for stock and herbaceous plant growth, and for soil conservation. Trees provide shelter and shade. This reduces summer heat stress and winter wind chill thereby improving energy conservation and stock performance.

Shelter can also reduce wind speed and evapotranspiration over pasture, improving pasture growth. Shelter decreases physical damage to crops from high winds. Perhaps most importantly, shelter can reduce wind speed across cultivated areas and thereby help prevent wind erosion. Many high country topsoils are light, weakly structured and of shallow depth. Single storm events can erode and waste valuable soils.

The question of sustainability
On extensive rangelands, the sustainability of pastoral landuse is under question with the increase in hieracium, loss of pastoral production, and chronic rabbit problems. Some scientists believe a decline in soil fertility levels has occurred over most rangelands. Certainly it is known that herbage production and stock carrying capacity has declined, particularly where hieracium increasingly dominates ground cover.

The place of forestry
High country forests could play a key role by assisting land rehabilitation processes. It is now well known that conifer, and probably many hardwood species, can improve soil fertility and biological activity through mobilisation of phosphorus and other key plant nutrients. Trees can also immobilise aluminium and increase organic inputs to the soil. Forests can also provide protection against further soil erosion and help capture wind blown soil.

Many options exist for integrating forest and grazing systems for mutual benefit. For example, soil rejuvenated after a rotation of trees may carry many more stock. An alternating forest/grazing landuse may yield more herbage and grazing potential as well as timber yields over a given period of time.

Another possibility is to open up a young forest by thinning to reintroduce pasture growth and grazing in conjunction with the growing forest. Forest grazing systems can provide for soil fertility improvement for pasture growth, and specifically provide for legume growth through phosphorus mobilisation. Nitrogen fixed by the legumes will in turn enhance the productivity of the forest growth.

The key advantage of forestry long-term is income source diversification, and the potential to earn far higher sustainable income from the land. Established forests managed on a sustained yield basis are an extremely profitable land use. For example the pretax annual income from moist sites under Douglas fir may be as much as 50 times greater than from pastoral use on the same land.

The longer rotations of high country forestry are a disincentive to potential investors. In moist areas, good investment returns are achievable and may be sufficient to attract joint venture investors.

Forests and landscapes
The main controversy about landuse for forestry in the high country centres on the issues of uncontrolled spread of conifers onto tussock grasslands and the resulting visual changes to landscape character.

Wilding tree regeneration can be controlled at low cost to forestry projects through intelligent planning and diligent and timely wilding control operations.

The visual quality of exotic forests is also in the hands of planners and forest managers. Careful location and design of forests and imaginative management can create forest environments of special character and beauty whilst having little impact on the long-term productive potential of the forests. Already excellent examples exist of high country forests which in some cases are not only productive landuses, but are also valued as settings for recreational activities and for high country settlements. High country tourist recreation centres such as Hanmer, Castle Hill Village, Tekapo Village, Naseby, Cromwell or Queenstown are unimaginable without their attractive setting of exotic trees. The challenge in all new plantings is to create landscapes which are attractive as well as productive.