Conservationists put case for Whirinaki

Press, 18 August 1979, Page 5

Conservationists put case for Whirinaki

The Minginui sawmill, at present using logs from the controversial Whirinaki forest, west of Urewera National Park, could be sustained on 1 per cent of the annual output from Kaingaroa exotic forest or 3 per cent of the logs at present exported to Japan, the national president of the Native Forests Action Council (Miss Gwenny Davis) has told a public meeting in Christchurch.

Miss Davis, of Nelson, told about 170 people at the meeting that conservationists calling for the preservation of the mixed podocarp Whirinaki forest believed that there should be a transition over five to eight years during which the Minginui mill could convert from native logs to exotic logs.

Dr A. S. Edmonds, a Waikato University ecologist and executive member of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, told the meeting that if the Forest Service agreed to the conservationists’ requests to have Whirinaki forest added to Urewera National Park, it would ensure that a cross-section of an important regional vegetation pattern w r as preserved. Such a cross-section

was unrepresented in existing national parks. The 30,000 ha would in, crease the area of the park by 15 per cent. “The upper Whirinaki basin represents the last remaining opportunity for adding a large intact tract of true lowland forest to an existing national park in the North Island,” Dr Edmonds said. Of the Whirinaki State forest area of 60,900 ha, 53,700 ha was native forest, but 67 per cent of this was on steep hill country with unmerchantable forest. Under the proposed management plan of the Forest Service, 27 per cent of the 17,500 ha of merchantable podocarp forest would be set aside in reserves, while the remaining 73 per cent would be selectively logged. “The main idea in the plan seems to be to give Whirinaki’s podocarp stands the once-over during the next 10 years until the mill can be sustained by exotic pines,” said Dr Edmands. He rejected assertions that the podocarp forests in Whirinaki were dying out naturally and not regenerating and therefore needed to be selectively logged so that young seedlings could be planted. “Once gaps occur in the stands by natural falling, regeneration occurs freely. “It is most arrogant for foresters to suggest that the last few thousand hectares will need to be logged if they are to survive,” said Dr Edmonds.

Dr Edmonds said that the Forest Service plan included regeneration of the logged areas by natural or artificial means. “The Minister of Forests (Mr Young) has placed great emphasis in his statements on the idea of sustained yield of native timbers and the perpetuation of forests into the

future. The management plan provides nd substantiation for this. There is no information on growth rates. There is no allowance for logging-induced mortality. “Last August, the Minister declared that 5000 cu. m per year would be the ultimate sustained yield Of native timber from Whirinaki. But the management plan gives no information on how this can be achieved. Most importantly the plan makes no claim that a sustained yield of native timber is possible from Whirinaki forest,” said Dr Edmonds.

Miss Davis urged conservationists to write to the Forest Service opposing the Forest Service management plan. Submissions officially closed tomorrow, she said, but they would still be considered after that date.