WAR AGAINST WILDINGS

If you’ve ever ridden in Queenstown, Craigieburn, Alexandra, Glendhu Bay, or Middle Hill Mountain Bike Park, you’ll know that all of these places are amazing and unique because of their variety of terrain, mountain scenery, and for the ability to ride (at least in part) through native ecosystems. Now imagine these places covered in the same type of dense forest—limited to no views, limited variety in terrain, and no nature. Expand that over thousands of hectares of vulnerable high-country land across New Zealand and it's not hard to see why wilding conifers are the country’s worst weed species, and why we’re fighting so hard to contain the spread.

First, some terminology. Conifers are a group of trees that have needles instead of leaves and produce cones. Pines are a type of conifers, and fir and larch are other common