Chris McKeen/Stuff The main clearance of pine trees and surrounding natives has been completed in Western Springs Forest. He said it was decided that moving away from Visser’s advice provided a better outcome than spreading the felling and removal of trunks over several years. “That would have been more damaging than doing it once.” Clearing a wider area, chipping logs on site and then replanting with natives across the whole area would get the full regeneration underway sooner, he said. The native trees to be planted would eventually be better for the environment, sequestering more carbon than the ageing pines they replaced.