Why were Pine Trees brought to South Africa?

Question

I watched a documentary today on South Africa and part of it talked about how Pine Trees are hogging the water and causing other native plants to die. Since they are not native to the area, I am wondering why they were brought there in the first place (I am assuming during colonization, but why?)

Answer 1

I checked on the Web to confirm my suspicion, and I was right: it was introduced primarily as a source of timber. People didn't think too hard about the potential consequences of such introductions back in the day (we still don't do enough of that in the present), and just saw the potential economic benefits of having pine plantations for furniture, window frames, floors, etc. Additionally, it appears that pine trees were planted for erosion control in South Africa (and New Zealand) -- seems a flimsy reason for introducing species from other parts of the world, but that was a trendy thing in the past (primary reason for the introduction of Scotch Broom to North America -- sadly, it, too, is a serious invasive now in certain regions).

See:

http://www.issg.org/database/species/eco...

http://www.invasive.org/publications/xsy...