Willowmere Organics Restoration & Protection Management Plan1

Planting of indigenous species on-farm has a vast number of benefits, but could there be downsides or even risks? In 2019, we connected with the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand CRI Plant & Food Research on the topic of research they had recently published through a primary industry organization which found that some species of native plants could potentially harbour pest insects known to damage certain crops. Specifically, we wanted to know if this risk may exist for an organic arable farm for which we were developing an indigenous planting strategy at the time.

The outcome was that through discussion with the scientists behind the research, we made an informed decision to minimize or exclude certain native plant species from the planting plan for their risk potential. However, for those risk species we did include, we were able to establish an agreement with the help of a local trust involved in the project for these same scientists to attend the planting of the seedlings and then monitor them as they matured to see what risk they might indeed pose as they matured. In essence, a real-world scenario to yield valuable feedback that could help prevent unintended negative consequences of native on-farm planting elsewhere in the future.