Compromise on beech milling

Press, 28 November 1977, Page 1

Compromise on beech milling

Parliamentary reporter A “middle-of-the-road” view on the use of West Coast native forests is taken by the South Island Beech Forests Management and Utilisation Council.

It sees a shortage of rimu in some areas for up to 30 years, but finds in favour of a kraft pulp mill in the Upper Buller, based initially on low-grade beech, as proposed in the Jaako Povry report. This mill is not an end in itself, but is rather “a means of achieving forest management and social goals,” says the council.

The council sets imnortant conditions, however: (1) The development of smaller, high-value forest products industries, also

using beech timbers, must not be jeopardised; (2) The mill must have the most modem technology 7 for controlling poU lution; (3) There must be adequate provision for wood supply, so that reserves are not at risk, and so that the beech forests may be renewed with even distribution of age classes; (4) The mill should be of minimum economic size, established in such a way that there would be minimal social disruption in the small West Coast communities.

Until industrial wood supplies are adequate to support a kraft mill — the Jaako Poyry report judges this to be 1989 — the coun-

cil says that the beech should be transported to and chipped for export at Richmond, Nelson, at a calculated annual loss of between SI.2M and SI.9M.

This loss would have to be bome by the State, partly as assistance to the sawmilling industry, and regeneration of the forest. There might, however, be another outlet for the lowgrade beech. The council recommends that consideration be given to a processing plant at Reefton, to produce charcoal, ethanol or methanol from this “industrial wood.” In the event of there being no kraft pulp mill, the council says that the traditional logging of currently economic beech-podocarp

and podocarp - hardwood forest can be modified until the exotic forests are millable — without cutting into the controversial reserves. Necessary conditions would include: (1) Logging beechpodocarp forests in one pass, leaving seed trees and extracting all of the industrial wood to ensure complete regeneration of the beech and, where possible, podocarp species, while at the same time maximising sawlog production. (2) Partial logging, or reduction in area, of the riparian strips and green belts, after consultation between the Forest Sendee and the catchment authority. (3) Reduction of 10 per

cent in the permissible cuts in the Buller, Inangahua and North Westland subregions by the exchange of some short-term for longterm sale agreements involving lesser annual cuts. Surplus sawlogs from around Inangahua would be directed steadily to the deficient Buller and North Westland sub-regions, but no podocarp sawlogs would be transferred north from South Westland. Podocarp forests south of the Waitaha River should be managed to the greatest extent possible on the principle of sustained yield, and the level of cut steadily reduced to the sustainable level by the year 2000 at the latest.

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