DEER IN FORESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 93, 21 April 1933, Page 14

DEER IN FORESTS

ECONOMIC-ASPECT

FORESTRY VALUES

(By E' Phillips ~ Turner.) In joining in 1 this controversy I do bo i as a forester, a botanist, and one ■who has for a larger part of the fortyBine years he has been in New Zealand actually lived in the forests, surveying them,' studying them, reporting'on them, and, afterwards, controlling thoso owne.d by the State; but the, opinions my. experience has caused me J most firmly to- hold will, I am afraid, put •me in Dr. Anson 's category of those who are "so ,obsessed by their own bigoted viewpoint-that they lose sight of all the • general issues involved." I do not, however, object to b«ing classed as a bigot in the causo of forestry, and 1 hold that the "general issues involved" in this' connection are only of trifling importance _ compared ■with the well-being- of the forests which are of. such "great national economic value that no preventable" forest pests should be' allowed in them. Similarly, I assume, Dr. Anson, as a' member os. the medical profession,, holds strongly the opinion that1 all pests and diseases wKich are detrimental, to the health of human being's should be destroyed or their noxiousness be prevented or minimised as far as' pos-, Bible. "With respect to the Native BirdProtection Society -and the Forestry League I think it narrow-minded and ■unfair that any but the highest motives should be attributed to them. Both societies contain nuny members who are rightly held in the highestrespect throughout New Zealand, and I am sure that both have been and are now fighting solely for those particular public interests—forests- and native birds —which had for so many years been sadly neglected or mismanaged. -The subject of deer and other animals in forests is one of vast importance to the people of New Zealand, but in order that your readers may more readily realise this importance it is desirable to make here some remarks about our forests—i-both those which Nature has given us for nothing and thoso which have been planted' by'man at large expenditure of both public and private money. The total area of all classes of indigenous forests now remaining in New Zealand is about 12J million acres, or 19.1 per cent, of the total' area of the country —the proportion should be 25 per cent., but of this "only about 7J million acres, 0r.11.7 per cent., are controlled by the State Forest Service- for forest management. Of the 12J'million acres only about 5i million acres, or 8.4 per cent, of New Zealand V area, are .commercial' forests, or forests that will profitably yield timber. The balance is "protection forest," the main value of which is for the maintenance of the regularity of stream-flow, the prevention of erosion, the moderating of climatic extremes, and for recreation purposes. THE FOBEST'OOMMinNITT. . Our indigenous forests are communities of certain trees, shrubs, ferns, climbing plants, perching plants,sedges, mosses, etc., all in a. balanced relationship which is the result of tens of thousands of years of development without the presence of any plant-eat-ing animal. ■ The indigenous birds aro also part of the forest community, and they have valuable functions in it, •When the "man in the street" does think of our forests it is, I fear, rare that their monetary value is thought of. The forest on the 7J million acres of reserves, which- are administered by the State Forest! Service, were, in 1924, valued'at £34,100,000. If the other indigenous forests (4} . million acres) are valued at only .half this rate th6y are worth £10,450,000. All our indigenous forests have, therefore, a direct commercial value of the large sum of. £44,550,000. The State plantations at March 31, 1932, were about 350,000 acres in area with a ".present value of not less' than £2,000,000. There are1 about 250,000 acres of private and " local authority plantations which are' of a value of about £1,200,000. The total present value of all the planted forests in New Zealand is thus about £3,200,000; and the total value of New Zealand forests of all kinds is, therefore, about £47,750,000.' The foregoing Bhows the great present monetary value of our forests, but their value in the future wnlfare of our country is inestimable. DESTRUCTIVE DEEE. 'Now, with; respect to deer in our national forests', I confidently claim that their great destructiveness has been proved .beyond question. The greatest authority on the flora of New Zealand is our , own . most eminent botanist, Dr. L. Cockayne', F.E.S., who has for Over, twenty 'years' frequently shown the serious1 damage that was b.eing done'in our forests by thuse animals; and I believe there is not anyone in New Zealand with any standing as a field naturalist or a forester who has not" the same opinion as Dr. Cockayne, in this matter. Year after year' the reports of the State Forest Service have referred to the serious damage being done in the forests and plantations by deer, and the expense entailed in endeavours to check their depredations: In 192 a the State Forest Service detailed aa officer (Mr. A. N. Perhain, now forester to the Wellington City Council to make a special investigation with regard to deer. He reported that their number was at that date about'3oo,ooo, that they were.increasing rapidly, that they were in many places doing great damage to our forests,' that they were ' causing farmers a loss of about £180,000 a year, and that those who legally enjoyed the sport of stalking them formed only 0.0005 per cen'^. of our population. Now, some defenders of deer have tried to belittle' the value of this report because it was based only on a reconWaissanco survey; but I submit that though only a . comparatively short ■time was allowed for the "field work, tho' survey was the only "systematic one that had been made by a competent person and was, therefore, of great value and far.more reliable than the opinion of anyone.who made a trip once a year to a particular locality for sport only. The question of deer versus forests in' New Zealand was admirably dealt with in a .series of articles by Mr. E. Muir in the "Evening Post" during September, 1929; and I tliink, Sir, it would b© a good thing if these articles were republished as a pamphlet and distributed, gratis throughout the Dominion. . . EFFICIENT CONTROL. I notice'that at the last meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society it was proposed to call a conference of all interested parties, i.e., the pro-deer and the anti-deer parties; but as the views of the two parties are fundamentally opposed, such a conference would be as resultless as would a conference' between ■• a Christian priest and a Mohammedan mullah. In its forests the State has a property which is of very great present value and which it holds in trust .for tho future. A-State Forest Service with a staff of forest technicians has been esta'l'.shed specially to secure such efficient management of the property that.it will yield all, possible. benefits to ourselves and be passed on to our successors in an improved, not deteriorated, condition. If any; acclimatisa-

tion society or other outside body is allowed to interfere- in the management of these forests —and the controlling of deer, etc., in the forests is interference in management—then the people of New Zealand will certainly not have their forest estate managed in the best possible was,