Re: Farmers understand and appreciate the land, July 25 letter. 

Unfortunately, acres and acres of native vegetation is still sprayed and burned off here every year by landowners, often on very steep hillsides. It is just accepted – no one generally bats an eye. Every autumn we see the huge billowing smoke clouds from the back of our hills; “just a scrub burn”, people say. 

Kānuka holds our unstable hills together and is also an incredible habitat for our native birds, geckos and insects. Untold millions of creatures die instantly when it is sprayed and burned off. 

This to me is one major example of what needs to change. 

Tanya Hawthorne