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TREES & FOREST PRODICTS-II Planting Will Heal Ravages Of Misguided Farming

/Specially written for "The Tress’’ by R. ST. BARBE BAKER) The conference of the Farm Forestry Association held at Masterton last month at the invitation of the Wairarapa farm foresters underscored the urgency of speeding up New Zealand’s planting programme, not merely for timber production, but to save the countryside from becoming an emaciated skeleton.

The Wairarapa at one time was largely covered with natural forest and bush, but this was progressively cleared and burnt to provide grazing. The high country is being skinned alive. In wet weather the hillsides become unstable and slips are frequent and widespread on papa soils.

Across the Ati-whakatu atream the foothills provide an example of misguided farm settlement On these hills, of almost solid rock, there was once a substantial forest on a thick covering of soil. Since the bush was felled and burned, the soil has rapidly deteriorated. Much of the so-called “farming” along these hills was on the “fern and bum” system. Bum the fem in the autumn, crisp flush of spring grass, then fem again, all the while the surface soil going down the drain. Natural Regeneration The Minister of Lands and Forests, Mr Maclntyre, opening this present farm forestry conference at Masterton, said he felt that “we should give the Wairarapa back to God, apologise for what we have done to it, and help Him to reclaim it”

Some years ago, Mr Zotov, the D.S.I.R. representative on the Wairarapa Catchment Board, strongly advocated let-

ting at least 25,000 acres of the eastern Tararua foothills revert to “indigenous” regeneration and forestry. Some of this is in process now, a bit further south. At one position on the Holdsworth road, the wing seeds from a farmer’s radiata plantation have already made a good start on the rocky hillsides across the stream. Any such natural regeneration is valuable and should be encouraged. It is amazing how the root of a pine will split a rock and find its way down to the soil below. The hair roots of pines are provided with tiny sheaths charged with acid which eats , into a rock and forms an ' opening for the root, which 1 plumbs and splits the rock, : and in time the leaf-fail will I restore the humus to the mountain side. Such land, of ’ course, should be dedicated to ■ a mixed forest in perpetuity. It is important to have broadi leaved species as well as coniI fers.

Farm Forestry’s Place Joyce Kilmer wrote: “Only God can make a tree,” but He needs the help of the farm foresters in New Zealand, whether in Wairarapa or in Canterbury, where the rivers are running wild as the result of deforestation in the foothills. The frequent burning of bush and tussock has caused excessive erosion. Incidentally, much of the high country would be many times more profitable growing timber. Tree should go right up to the snow line and be worked on a sustained yield plan. With the prices for wool speedily falling much land could be spared for farm forestry.

As far back as 1871 the Government recognised the value of encouraging the planting of trees by its Forest Trees Forestry Amendment Act, although this fell through. Later a board was set up and one of the conditions of renewing leasehold land was that an area of trees be planted each year. Unfortunately in the past there have been lapses and the time has come when the question of reafforestation must be treated realistically, for in a

little over a century much of' the country has been strippedj of its green mantle, with tragic consequences. j The story of much of the' so-called “farming” in New| Zealand during the last 80 years could be described as “a | rake’s progress.” Flagrant Example | A flagrant example of mis-' use of land may be seen today in the Wanganui river where less than a century ago there was a prosperous Maori community of 12,000 living happily and prosperously on fruit and vegetables which they grew in their gardens, and on a succession of fruiting forest trees which covered the whole of that catchment area.

Along cam e the sheep farmers, who cleared the bush and burnt it as far as they were able. They brought in goats to keep the bush at bay, and today goats are swarming like lice along the steep sides of the hills right down to the river land, and the healthy, happy and prosperous population of 12,000 souls has been reduced to about 200 unhappy farmers, including pakeha, who live with the constant threat of a dam, or having their river robbed of water for grandiose power schemes. The river is silted up and getting rapidly worse. Here again the land should be given back to- God and farm forestry.

Timber Trees I venture to predict that the prosperous farmer of tomorrow will be a forest farmer. The farmer will gradually free himself from having to tend animals, to which he has become a slave, and devote more and more of his land to horticulture and the growing of timber trees, first to heal the scars in his land and second to provide timber, and all that the forest yields in the form of paper pulp, numerous fabrics and food. Many of the by-products of pulp mills, such as yeast, can help to meet world food shortage and become a real answer to the attaining of "freedom from hunger.”

The Minister of Forests revealed that an extra million acres of exotic forests should have been, planted by the year 2000. It was anticipated that the New Zealand Forest Service plant 35,000 acres, and other planting to be 10,000 acres. Mr Maclntyre said: “If the steady annual rate of 3000 acres planted under the loan scheme is maintained until the end of the century, nearly 100,000 acres will have been established.” When one considers the enormous acreage of the original forests and the speed at which the hillsides have been denuded, it will be obvious that trees must be restored, even to the 33 1/3 per cent—the minimum for safety.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19670509.2.195

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31364, 9 May 1967, Page 22

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TREES & FOREST PRODICTS-II Planting Will Heal Ravages Of Misguided Farming Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31364, 9 May 1967, Page 22

TREES & FOREST PRODICTS-II Planting Will Heal Ravages Of Misguided Farming Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31364, 9 May 1967, Page 22