$700,000 student forestry scheme

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32562, 23 March 1971, Page 12

$700,000 student forestry scheme

Government approval has been given for an afforestation scheme which will bring the University of Canterbury Students’ Association more than $700,000 in funds over the next 25 years.

The association was informed yesterday that the Forest Service had agreed to the association’s application to lease more than 700 acres of land for afforestation in the Methven district. The association’s business manager (Mr F. Baird) said last evening that the news of the success of the application was the culmination of two years of negotiation with the Forest Service, begun at a time when greater emphasis was being placed on development of forestry resources.

The area concerned is in the Dry Creek catchment a few miles from Methven and is covered in grass, light foliage and gorse. It was the aim of the association, Mr Baird said, to plant out the forest over the next six years and to tend it until it matures. “Considerable expense and effort will be required to prepare the land, form the roads and erect a hut, but it is hoped that this will be completed with the first planting of pine by the end of the year,” he said. Mr Baird said it had become necessary for the students’ association to have long-term investments to safeguard its future. It is expected that the association will invest more than $35,000 in the project over the next 5 years. Mr Baird said that without the enthusiasm and assistance of the Forest Service and the Minister of Forests (Mr MacIntyre) it was doubtful if the scheme would have prospered. Work should start in about a month. The afforestation project might make the association

financially independent of both the Government and the university. The Vice-Chancellor (Professor N. C. Phillips) said last night that the proposal showed “praiseworthy foresight.” “This is a gesture of one generation of students to future generations of students and the present group is to be congratulated,” he said.