Forests opened

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 2

Forests opened

I PA Wellington 1 The Minister of Forests (Mr V. S. Young), announced yesterday that 151 State forests throughout New Zealand would be opened for public recreation. The required notices were published in the Gazette yesterday. “It is now permissible for the public to enter most native forests without obtaining an entry pennit,” he said. The forests gazetted were the first “open indigenous State forests,” a new category under the Forests Amendment Act, 1976. Mr Young said : that 21 \bbre in the Auckland con-

iservancy, eight in Rotorua, 28 in Wellington, 24 in Nel-son-Marlborough, 24 in Westland, 20 in Canterbury, and 26 in Otago-Southland. The public now had the) right to walk in the .forests, provided they were not carrying firearms, Mr Young) said. The forests would be developed to encourage the increased recreational use by the public. “However, in some forests entry will be kept to a minimum consistent with the well-being of the forests,” he said. Permits would be required before fires could be lit in the open except in places set aside for this purpose.