Lincoln University ecology lecturer, Dr Tim Curran, says planning to minimise fire hazards needs to be considered by the Government in its One Billion Trees planting programme
This is in the wake of the bushfires raging across Australia.
Dr Curran made the comments in a Newshub article, “Fear One Billion Trees programme could go up in smoke, literally”.
"Planting a lot of these trees across the landscape will change the amount, the continuity and the flammability of fuel loads across the country," he told Newshub.
"Species like gorse, marram grass, any of our pines - these are changing fire regimes, they're changing the pattern of fires across the landscape and through time."
One solution could be to plant "green firebreaks, strips of low flammability species, across the landscape to reduce or halt fire spread" he said.
"While it is clear that we need a national revegetation programme in New Zealand to help solve a host of environmental problems, we need to be very careful in our planning of the One Billion Trees programme to best minimise fire hazard."
You can read the full article here.