‘It’s a bit like a game of snakes and ladders – sometimes you go two steps forward, only to slide back down again.”
Dick Hubbard is talking about eradicating wilding pines, the exotic trees he’s been at war with for the past few years. A member of the Whakatipu Wilding Control Group (WCG), Hubbard often volunteers with those who spray and chainsaw the Douglas fir trees near his Queenstown home.
“Wilding-pine spread, where the wind blows the pine seeds across the ground, can totally change the landscape, robbing the region of its colourful seasonal leaves and tussock, using up valuable water and increasing fire risk,” he says, grimacing at the introduced species.
“Imagine the iconic face of the Remarkables covered in green forest. Imagine never being able to see the light fall on the tussock-covered slopes of Cecil Peak. That could be the case within the next 30 years. I couldn’t sit back and let those views be denied future generations without doing something to help.”
It’s unusual for the 76-year-old to get into such a lather. Niceness is, after all, intrinsic to the Hubbard brand, particularly the range of breakfast cereals that still bears his name.
