John has declared war on the Japanese walnut trees in our immediate area. We've killed any that were growing here on Struan Farm, so he's now extending his efforts to adjacent roadsides and our neighbour across the road. With their consent he has just ring barked a big tree on their property and poisoned and pulled out others. He's also teaching them which ones to look out for so they can identify and get rid of them too.
The problem is that the nuts of these trees, which are edible but often bitter, drop and then travel in waterways and seed everywhere. They're basically out of control around the countryside, you'll see them along the roadsides and rivers if you start to look.
Juglands ailantifolia is native to Japan and was once popular in NZ as a garden feature or shade tree. It grows into quite a large deciduous tree, up to 15 metres high and 12 metres wide. It tends to colonise, shading out and overcoming less vigorous native species.
I'm starting to call John "weedbuster" since he's definitely on a crusade, and it's a good one. I guess if I've taken up the feral goat issue and he's onto the noxious and pest weeds that's a reasonably good division of labour between us.
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