The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1949. Waipoua Forest

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25732, 18 February 1949, Page 6

The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1949. Waipoua Forest

The reports of the divergent views of the visiting scientists on the control of the Waiooua kauri forest will have been read with interest by all who are concerned that this beautiful and unique forest should be preserved. Lest it be thought that the statement of Dr. H. H. Chapman, professor emeritus of forestry at Yale University, completely vindicates the State Forest Service’s policy, it should be pointed out that the “ management ” programme which he approves is not, in fact, the department’s own programme, but one forced upon it by pressure of public opinion. The “fully-pro- “ tected strip ” of forest which Dr. Chapman finds it “ of the first im- “ portance to scientists ” to preserve is now a fairly substantial block of 7000 acres; but until public anxiety over the department’s commercial operations in the forest was expressed in a powerful demand that the whole area should be declared a national park, the State Forest Service proposed to keep only 650 acres exempt from the axe. Dr. P. Dansereau, the Canadian ecologist, leans still further away from departmental policy. He would allow some scientific management programme over part of the forest, but

the larger tract should be left as it is, preserved in its virgin state. Professor H. E. Gregory, geologist and biologist, of Honolulu, is at the opposite pole to the department. In an interview at Auckland recently, he said:

I have seen something [the Waipoua forest] that is absolutely unique. Many countries would like to have it, and would make sure of preserving it. . . .

Anyone who goes in to touch it up and clean up underbrush is defeating the very idea of conservation. It should not have dead timber cut out. That is the way it was before man was on the earth, and that is the way it should remain. It is obvious that there is some good timber in Waipoua forest; but I would just as soon see an electric elevator put into the Grand Canyon as I would see timber cut out of this area.. . . Leave it alone. Nature knows much more about regeneration than man does, and will do the job better. This is the real answer to the case for the commercial exploitation of Waipoua, which the State Forest Service bases on the highly questionable contention that the forest will die unless its trees are milled as they reach maturity, and on the hope—it is nothing more—that in the fullness of time new kauri will replace the felled trees. And even if the department’s highest hopes for artificial regeneration or assisted regeneration are fulfilled, the forest will have had its character utterly changed. It will be a plantation, not a natural wonder of the world. None of the scientists questions the desirability of preserving Waipoua. They differ only in their opinions regarding the size of the areas which should be reserved intact and the areas which might be “ farmed ” for timber. New Zealand is not so hungry for timber that the country needs to balance economic considerations finely against all those that call for the complete protection of a great national asset. All that the visiting scientists have said, indeed, will strengthen the conviction of the public that the State Forest Service, if it is allowed to retain control of Waipoua, must be compelled by statute to leave its axes, saws, and tractors outside the boundaries of the forest.