New Zealand’s grasslands have changed from covering a small percent of the country to being the dominant land cover. Read about the changes in New Zealand’s grasslands here.
As I’ve talked about many times before, the islands of New Zealand were mostly covered in forest before the arrival of people. Prior to the arrival of people about 10% of the land was covered in native grasslands. However, in the past 750 years the land cover of the country has changed dramatically. These changes are reflected not just in the forest cover, but also in the grasslands, which now cover about 50% of the country! New Zealand went from being a land of forests to a land of grasses.
New Zealand’s Grasslands Before People Arrived
Before people arrived in New Zealand about 80% of the land was covered in forest. The remaining 20% was covered in a mixture of wetland, grassland (about 10%) and scrubland.
In other words before people came and impacted the natural landscape only about 10% of the country was covered in grassland.
The native grasslands are mainly a type of grass called tussock. There are 30 species of native tussock in New Zealand. Some of the common native grasses are red tussock, silver tussock, and hard tussock. Tussock tends to grow well in areas that are cold or dry, like high elevation areas on the north island’s volcanoes or the south island’s high country.
New Zealand’s Grasslands Today
It’s crazy to think about, but the dominant type of land cover in New Zealand is now grassland! Yep, the amount of land covered in grasses increased a lot (from 10% to 50%) while at the same time the amount of land covered in forest took a sharp decline.
Today the dominant land cover in New Zealand is exotic grassland, which covers about 40% of the country!
The total amount of land covered in grassland increased tremendously from before people to today. All of that increase is in exotic grassland (40% of the country today). That is more than native forest, which now covers about 26% of the country.
A common site when you explore today New Zealand is to see field upon field of grasslands dotted with sheep or cattle. It may look beautiful to see those green fields in the foreground with the snow capped mountains in the distance, but that is not a natural landscape. Those grasslands have replaced native forest or wetlands.
Native Grasslands Support Lots Of Species
Those native tussock may look barren and lifeless, but they are actually teeming with life. They support a wide variety of insects, reptiles, and birds.