Already Northland is moving into conditions that we might expect towards the end of summer.
The grass is still green but another few days of really hot dry conditions will bring on a major water shortage in the district. This will impact all of us over the holiday season as holidaymakers flock into our camps and motels and shower themselves without thought. It will also impact, of course, on farming and the many horticultural enterprises of our region.
But it won’t impact on many of the wonderful giant tree ferns or Mamaku that we see most often. On roadsides in the North, hundreds have already died. Obscene stark trunks mark gullies and fringes where their luxuriant fronds once made a wonderful picture. Weeds are taking over the hot ground that was formerly sheltered by these majestic ferns.
As I've said before, nobody seems to have noticed this event right on the side of our roads. A desultory reply or two from the Dept of Conservation suggests that perhaps some kind of virus plus the droughts of the last two summers have caused the massive die-off…
But nobody seems to be tracking the scale of the disaster. I have read or heard nothing of it in the news media. I think that’s a little sad.
The grass is still green but another few days of really hot dry conditions will bring on a major water shortage in the district. This will impact all of us over the holiday season as holidaymakers flock into our camps and motels and shower themselves without thought. It will also impact, of course, on farming and the many horticultural enterprises of our region.
But it won’t impact on many of the wonderful giant tree ferns or Mamaku that we see most often. On roadsides in the North, hundreds have already died. Obscene stark trunks mark gullies and fringes where their luxuriant fronds once made a wonderful picture. Weeds are taking over the hot ground that was formerly sheltered by these majestic ferns.
As I've said before, nobody seems to have noticed this event right on the side of our roads. A desultory reply or two from the Dept of Conservation suggests that perhaps some kind of virus plus the droughts of the last two summers have caused the massive die-off…
But nobody seems to be tracking the scale of the disaster. I have read or heard nothing of it in the news media. I think that’s a little sad.
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