Those of us who get annoyed by white butterfly caterpillars on our cabbages or broccoli may want to spare a thought for pastoral or crop farmers of the late 19th and early 20th century in New Zealand. Some caterpillars were of such plague proportions that on occasion, trains were brought to a screaming (or perhaps more squishy) halt by armies of caterpillars with their sights on a particularly tasty-looking field of wheat or oats. (more…)
March 27, 2013
Caterpillars stop train!
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: biological control, DSIR, farming, pests, Ross Galbreath, science history |Leave a Comment
February 16, 2013
Hay-making on the Horowhenua terracelands
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: farming, flaxmilling, Horowhenua, river terraces, Shannon |Leave a Comment
Hay bales in fields just south of Shannon, Horowhenua. Photo: C. Knight
This shot, taken just south of Shannon, looks west across the terracelands above the Manawatu River as it meanders out to the Tasman Sea. Click here for map. (more…)
February 10, 2013
Upper Pohangina Valley farmscape
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: Apiti, Environmental History, farming, Manawatu, Piripiri, Pohangina Valley |[2] Comments
Farmscape near Piripiri in the upper Pohangina Valley. Photo: C. Knight
On the same trip on which we met the “horse for sale” (see previous post), we also passed through the Pohangina Valley, travelling from north to south.
Like Apiti, the upper Pohangina Valley is characterised by small settlements which are often more evident on the map than they are in reality: places such as Utuwai, Umutoi and Komako. Looking at early survey plans, it appears that the vision for these places was somewhat more substantial than what eventuated. (more…)
August 5, 2012
Burning New Zealand’s forests
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: bush burn, deforestation, East Coast, Environmental History, farming, fire, indigenous forest, New Zealand, North Island |[3] Comments
Of all the photographs I have seen relating to New Zealand’s environmental history, this is one of the most powerful. It shows the beginnings of a bush burn off at Puketora Station on the East Coast of the North Island in the early 1900s. This fire destroyed the indigenous forest over 30,000 acres, to make way for farming (probably of sheep). (more…)
July 14, 2012
Did European settlers loathe the forest? (Part 2)
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: bush burning, deforestation, ecosystem services, Environmental History, farming, Manawatu, New Zealand, shelter belts, W. J. Croucher |[3] Comments
This post follows on from the previous post Did European settlers loathe the forest? While I am largely satisfied with the idea that European settlers destroyed the forest driven by the need to make productive use of the land, rather than any deep-seated loathing of it or what it represented, this still does not explain the extent to which forest – lowland forest especially – was destroyed. It was, by and large, decimated. (more…)
June 9, 2012
Totaranui: the many totara of Te Horo
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: Environmental History, farming, greywacke stones, Kapiti Coast, Old Hautere Road, Otaki Gorge Road, Otaki River, Te Horo, totara |1 Comment
In the last post, The “Hautere Turnips” of Te Horo, the origin and history of the stone walls, cairns and piles characteristic of this area was discussed. Another unusual feature of Te Horo is the large number of totara groves that can be seen in the fields. (more…)
May 31, 2012
The “Hautere Turnips” of Te Horo
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: 1930s, Environmental History, farming, greywacke, Hautere turnips, Kapiti Coast, Old Hautere Road, Otaki Gorge, Tararua Ranges, Te Horo, the Great Depression |[4] Comments
Driving through Te Horo recently, on the Kapiti Coast, I was fascinated by the number of stone walls, stone cairns, and stone piles evident in the locality – more reminiscent of my image of the English countryside, than of typical rural New Zealand. I sensed there must be a story there, and I was not disappointed. (more…)
February 20, 2011
Tutira: desecration of God’s earth dubbed as improvement?
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: Environmental History, erosion, farming, floods, Hawkes Bay, Herbert Guthrie-Smith, Lake Tutira, New Zealand, sheep farm, The story of a New Zealand sheep station, Tutira, William Cronon |[2] Comments
It seems both ironic, yet at the same time intensely appropriate to me that New Zealand’s first major environmental publication was written by a farmer – one of the many who helped to so dramatically transform the land into the landscape we take for granted today.
Tutira: the story of a New Zealand sheep station (1921) was written by William Herbert Guthrie-Smith about his sheep station in the Hawkes Bay [click here to view location]. In particular, he chronicled – with meticulous detail – the way he developed the land, and the implications that these “improvements” had for the ecological, hydrological and geological systems that had functioned within the landscape for thousands of years.
Tutira became an internationally acclaimed classic of ecological writing, and is generally seen as New Zealand’s first major environmentalist publication. (more…)
January 9, 2011
Canterbury Plains: an ecological “ground zero”
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: biodiversity, Canterbury, Canterbury Plains, Colin Meurk, coprosma, deforestation, Environmental History, farming, farming productivity, Four Leaf, ground zero, industrial agriculture, intensive farming, Japan, kanuka, Landcare Research, matai, New Zealand, Rebecca Macfie, Resource Management Act, satoyama, semi-managed nature, The Listener, totara, Waipara Valley |Leave a Comment
An article in the New Zealand Listener by Rebecca Macfie is entitled “Nature ground zero” and describes an initiative in Canterbury to give “a new lease of life” to “the devastated native flora of the Canterbury Plains” [click here to read article]. The initiative is to identify and encourage the reintroduction of indigenous plant species which provide “ecosystem services” such as the provision of pollen and nectar to attract beneficial insects, improved soil health, weed suppression, the control of pest insects, and greater biodiversity. The project is focused on the Waipara Valley of Northern Canterbury, which is renowned for its vineyards, but has potential to be applied across Canterbury. (more…)
May 11, 2013
The effect of personal memory on environmental consciousness
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: afforestation, Cyclone Bola, deforestation, Environmental History, erosion, farming, floods, hill-country, New Zealand, storm |[2] Comments
One of many scenes of devastation in the aftermath of Cyclone Bola.
I have often wondered why I am so interested in the link between deforestation, flooding and erosion. I put it down to my love of forested environments, and therefore my interest in the history of these environments. But it has occurred to me that it is perhaps more than this – that it relates also to personal memory, of an event in the environmental history of my lifetime.
That event was Cyclone Bola, which hit the east coast of the North Island in March 1988, when I was a teenager. (more…)
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