“It's going to look pretty cool in 10 years' time. But in 300 years, this is going to be tōtara forest like has not been here for a long time. We're bringing it back into this hill range.”
“The only thing that I was absolutely sure about was that I wanted to plant trees.” Encouraging biodiversity, maintaining water quality, holding topsoil, and providing habitats for birds and insects, Mark decided, “There couldn’t be any purpose for my life that was bigger than that.”
“The industry has been privatising profits while externalising the costs of their activities – having a free ride at the expense of the environment, residents, ratepayers and taxpayers. Those days are over.”
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/09/10/east-coast-cant-fell-the-forest-for-the-trees/
"Planting native trees is more expensive, tending native trees is more expensive, but over the lifetime of those trees in the inimitable native forest that will flourish, it just takes a tad longer than shoving a pine tree in the ground."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393832/one-billion-tree-plan-flawed-says-climate-scientist
