networkn:
Linuxluver:
frednz:
NZ has set itself a target of planting 100 million trees per year in a "Billion Trees" planting programme.
Now that means we need to plant about 274,000 trees per day, every day of the year.
Do you think this is possible when you consider ground preparation and the availability of such a large number of trees?
How many people would you need to have continuously working on this project?
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11936301
Forestry
Re-establish the New Zealand Forestry Service, and planting 100 million trees per year in a Billion Trees Planting Programme.
Assuming you have the seedlings, you can plant 50-75 / hour. In an 8 hour day one person could plant 400+ trees. In 260 M-F working days in a year that person could plant at *least* 104,000-ish trees. A thousand people doing that is 10 million trees. Ten thousand people doing that is well over 100 million trees.
So if 50,000 people did it two days / week......it would happen with bells on. Sounds like a good scheme. I'd walk the hills for two days / week and plant trees. Sign me up.
If you paid $20 / hour to the ten thousand people for those M-F 8-hour days for a year...that would be $416M in wages, plus whatever the trees cost. We spent $100M selling off part of the energy companies despite most voters opposing the idea in the referendum......so $500m / year for planting 100 million trees sounds like good investment money. Eventually they become a renewable resource and habitat, as well as a carbon sink. Hopefully they aren't all pinus radiata and we plant a few million kaori and totora.
This, of course, does not take into account the cost for water, labour for maintenance, and dealing with the ground after the trees have been chopped, to prepare it for another planting, pest control, fungus and bacterial control, etc.
An even bigger problem is getting the workers to do it all. The industry cannot attract sufficient workers right no despite offering $40k-$60k in economically depressed areas with high unemployment such as Northland. So planting these extra billion trees has many hurdles to cross.