Land Clearing and Mulching, Taranaki

Working in Taranaki

Taranaki has a strong culture of active land management, which changes the conversation, a lot of enquiries here come from people who already know what species they have and what they want done, and just need machinery that can physically get onto the face. Riparian work is a recurring theme, with margins needing to be cleared before they can be fenced or planted. The valley sides are consistently steeper than they look from the road.

The country here

Flat to rolling on the ring plain, then abruptly steep where the rivers and streams cut down through it, plus the coastal cliffs and terraces. The valley sides are the work: they are steep, they are numerous, and they carry the gorse and old man's beard that the flat country does not.

What dominates in Taranaki

• Gorse, on valley sides, coastal faces and retired ground
• Old man's beard, a long-running regional priority here
• Blackberry, through stream margins and valley floors
• Wilding pines on the eastern hill country

Councils and compliance

Taranaki Regional Council

Taranaki Regional Council runs a well-established sustainable land management and self-help pest programme, and old man's beard control has been a sustained regional priority for years. Landowners here are generally more used to structured pest programmes than in most regions, and often already know exactly what they have.