Erosion on East Coast hill country

Erosion on East Coast hill country

Much of the pre-human landscape was hill country covered in bush. ‘Bush’ in New Zealand generally means native forest. When people arrived they burnt off much of this vegetation, so that today’s typical landscape, such as this scene on the East Coast, is hilly pastureland rather than bush. In places where the underlying geology is unstable, such as areas of mudstone, erosion washes much precious soil away and slips scar the landscape.