Vegetation management for fire safety during restoration of forest margin

In New Zealand, there is honey that comes from bees that visit Manuka flowers, and the honey is high in something called Manuka Factor, which is a range of compounds that are highly regarded from a medical/health perspective. Honey that is high in MF (or UMF “Unique Manuka Factor” as the trademarked metric) fetches a premium, often 10x the value of more standard honeys, hence the term “Honey Money”. There is a bit of a battle between producers in Australia and New Zealand over the use fo the name “Manuka Honey”, because Australia has Leptospermum trees that also produce MF, but their species are not known as Manuka (which is the Maori name for the tree), and so NZ producers don’t think they should capitalise on the marketing of the name Manuka Honey. Sheesh… money muddies everything!

It also happens that Manuka scrub (monocultures of manuka, which happen quite naturally outside of cultivation, I might add) are tinderboxes as far as fire is concerned

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