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On-farm tree planting financial calculator

While natural factors, such as slope, geology, and climate, influence the amount of contaminants (such as sediment) entering our waterways, landowners’ decisions around land cover and management practices also play a critical role.  

By making informed and sustainable decisions, landowners can effectively reduce the amount of contaminants entering waterways and help improve freshwater in their community.  

One of the ways to achieve this is to retire steep, erosion-prone pasture into forest. Space planting and conversion to forest can also reduce erosion by 50 -90%. Landowners with land in forest may also be eligible to claim carbon income through the Emissions Trading Scheme.  

Retiring pasture to forest is a big decision and can incur a range of costs (e.g., planting, pest control, fencing, forgone pastoral income). That’s why we’ve developed an ‘On-farm tree planting financial calculator’ to help landowners test the costs and benefits of converting land.   

This calculator can test conversion of pasture to: 

  • permanent native forest,  
  • permanent exotic forest (pine, other softwoods, or hardwoods), or  
  • pine plantation forestry.  

Please note, this calculator is not designed to investigate the physical or legal feasibility of a specific land conversion proposal. 

Financial calculator and relevant documents 

While this calculator has been designed for landowners to use on their own (see User Guide below), our Land Management Officers are happy to work through it with you.  

Contact your local Land Management Officer

Disclaimer 

The calculator is aimed to be a conversation starter, to help landowners consider their options and test different assumptions. Landowners are encouraged to do their own due diligence before deciding on land use changes. Regional Council does not accept any responsibility or liability for losses, claims, damages or costs arising from the use of the tool.  

While all models have been broadly adapted from Brazendale & Schroder (2023), the one for native forest is specifically based on a concept of 'planting nurse species for establishing native forests' developed by New Zealand Forest Service, The Tindall Foundation, Trees That Count (2021) and Dewes et al (2022). Several assumptions about input costs have been adjusted based on MPI & SCION (2023) and the latest observations from our land management team. The assumptions for pine plantation forestry have been validated by an experienced forestry consultant.

Peer reviewed by staff from Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Waikato Regional Council. 

Tested by Regional Council’s Land Management Officers and Te Uru Rakau Forestry Advisors.

References 

  • Brazendale, R., & Schroder, B. (2023). Financial performance of key land uses and land use conversions. Methodology, assumptions, and results. Rotorua: Perrin Ag Consultants Ltd.
  • Dewes, A., Burke, J., Douglas, B., & Kincheff, S. (2022). Retiring Farmland into Ngahere. Report for Our Land and Water National Science Challenge.
  • Ministry for Primary Industries & SCION. (2023). A New Zealand Guide To Growing Alternative Exotic Forest Species. Wellington: Ministry for Primary Industries.
  • New Zealand Forest Service, The Tindall Foundation, Trees That Count. (2021, 8). Planting nurse species - the concept of succession. Establishing Native Forests, Tāne's Tree Trust Factsheet Series. 

We recognise that each tree planting project is unique, and therefore that there will always be limitations to a tool like this.  

Some specific costs/benefits may be missing as only major costs/benefits are accounted for in the calculator. Values for each cost/benefit accounted for are pre-populated with a default assumption. We acknowledge that these values would be site-specific (e.g. planting cost, and opportunity cost from the current land use), so input values may be altered by users in the input section. 

In particular, the pine plantation model does not include potentially significant site-specific costs related to upgrading infrastructure to enable forest harvesting (e.g., culverts, tracks, etc.).