Mid Dome is a prominent mountain in the northern
Southland Southland may refer to:
Places Canada
* Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia
New Zealand
* Southland Region, a region of New Zealand
* Southland County, a former New Zealand county
* Southland District, part of the wider Southland Reg ...
region that overlooks the township of
Five Rivers and the
Waimea Plain. It rises to a height of . Surrounding farms at the base of the mountain make up the original Dome (later East Dome) station which lies to the west of the Mid Dome. Mid Dome stands above the upper reaches of the
Mataura River
The Mataura River is in the Southland Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is long.
Description
The river's headwaters are located in the Eyre Mountains to the south of Lake Wakatipu. From there it flows southeast towards Gore, New ...
, some 7 km south of the township of
Athol.
Mid Dome was the source of an experiment during the late 1960s to confront the effects of ongoing land
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
. In an attempt to reduce erosion
wilding pines
Wilding conifers, also known as wilding pines, are invasive trees in the high country of New Zealand. Millions of dollars are spent on controlling their spread.
In the South Island they threaten 210,000 hectares of public land administered by ...
. The solution was effective, with the pines spreading quickly over the western slopes of the mountain. In the early 1990s, however, it was noted that the pines were spreading beyond control and efforts have been made since that time to try to control them. Aerial spraying of the pines has been undertaken and has successfully reduced the area covered by the pines.
References
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Mountains of Southland, New Zealand