Prisoners from Tongariro/Rangipo Prison are playing a key role in the Taupo farming community’s search for new, environmentally safe crops.
Prisoners working under the Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) programme have planted 50,000 shrub willows as a trial crop for energy farming operations around Lake Taupo.
Faced with the choice of curtailed fertiliser use and lower productivity or smart environmental planting to stall nitrogen levels leaching into the lake, Taupo farmers are watching closely to see if shrub willow farming might be an option.
Prisoners hand-weeding willow seedlings near Lake Taupo.
Seven different species of shrub willows planted around Lake Taupo are being tested for growth rates and resistance to local pests. The best species will be used to plant a commercial nursery later this year.
Landowners who choose to plant shrub willow in the future will sell them to a commercial biorefi nery for production of ethanol and lignin.
Auckland-based BioJoule (a spin-off of Genesis Research and Development) Managing Director Jim Watson says ethanol, when mixed with petrol, reduces demand for fossil fuels. Lignin is used in resins, paints and plastics.
Tongariro/Rangipo Prison Forestry Instructor Dave Galloway says prisoners became involved in the project when the prison’s (CIE) staff agreed to support economic development agency Lake Taupo Development Company and Genesis’ efforts to clean-up Lake Taupo.
The project has enabled the prisoners to handle, plant, weed and look after the trees as well as gain marketable skills.
Mr Galloway says scientists from New Zealand Crown Research Institute Scion (formerly known as Forest Research) and HortResearch are impressed with the quality of the prisoners’ work. If the shrub willow trials prove successful, prisoners could well have a lot more trees to plant.
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ISSN 1178-8453