Forest protection ‘limited’

Press, 26 June 1978, Page 4

Forest protection ‘limited’

PA Wellington The Nature Conservation Council is concerned that only limited progress is being made to conserve what remains of New Zealand’s low-lying [ native forests. In its annual report

i tabled in Parliament, the ! council says it is clear ! there is still a long way I to go before those forests ; are comprehensively proI tected.

Noting that delays in implementing forest management policies were inevitable, it comments that these delays can and should be avoided in many cases bv the substitution of exotic timber milling for indigenous. Where practicable, a policy of this type could allow native milling to be phased out without serious repercussions to local and regional economies, providing that Government support and assistance for the changeover is made available. “The costs incurred are justifiable when weighed against the recreational, ecological and aesthetic value of what remains of these forests to present and future generations of New Zealanders,” the report says.

*A 50-page submission calling for complete preservation of the Waihaha forest, west of Lake Taupo, has been presented to the Minister of Forests (Mr V. S. Young). A deputation from the Waihaha Forest Preservation Committee, headed by its chairman (Mr R. Stuart) presented the submissions.

Also at . the meeting were Mr G. Salmon, of the Native Forests Action Council, members of the Caucus Environment Committee, and Forest Service officers. Mr Stuart said after the meeting that Mr Young had been “very receptive” to their submission on the forest, the largest remaining area of native forest in the region. Mr Young had said they could expect a decision on the area within the next two to three months, he said.

As. well as calling for the preservation of the forest, the committee, in its submissions, said it recognised that time would be needed to complete the renegotiation of logging contracts and to accommodate the human problems of phasing out the west Taupo sawmilling industry. During this transition period a supply of native timber would be needed under the existing contracts between the Government and timber companies.

Because it was unwilling to see present logging continuing .in the main blocks of kokako habitat in the Pureora State forest, it proposed that interim log supplies be drawn from two areas of less conservation importance.

These were a 102 ha area of forest north-east of the Waipapa Reserve in the Pureora State forest, and a 220 ha block on the northern fringe of the Waihaha block. This would allow' time for a humane winding down of sawmilling or a conversion of the mills to exotics, the committee said. It would also allow a halt to logging in Pureora State forest and remove any need to allow any logging in any other part of the Waihaha block, it said. It preferred to see selection logging in the "compromise” areas but would consider removal of all timber if necessary to prevent selection logging in virgin forest elsewhere.