Nature cannot stay ahead of chainsaw

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 14

Nature cannot stay ahead of chainsaw

Conservation Week is over but the memory lingers, and the era of conservation is just beginning. In the days of Early Man, three-quarters of the world was covered with forest. The primitive people feared and respected the forests, because they harboured the wild animals that could maim and kill. The forests also provided them with their needs for survival — food and clothing. With their crude tools and weapons, and only their native intelligence, skilful hands and speed of movement to protect them, the early inhabitants of the earth could not destroy at a faster rate than nature could regenerate. They were not conservationists by intent, but

they were disciplined by the forces of nature, and by their own limitations. Nature cannot keep up with the machines of the twentieth century that destroy in minutes the trees and other resources that have taken more than 100 years to grow. It cannot supply the raw materials needed to provide for an increasing world population, with a growing demand for a higher standard of living, and above all, it cannot compensate for waste of any kind. The native forests of New Zealand began to dwindle from the time the first settlers arrived. They needed timber for houses and land for farming. In other words, they had to have shelter and food. Other people came, not as settlers, but . to make

money quickly, and our timbers provided a rich harvest for them. New Zealand was a challenge to the early settlers and to the adventurers who came to look around and take what was going for them. They did not conserve the natural resources of the land. Perhaps they did not realise that the bounty of nature was not inexhaustible. Neither did the generations that followed them. Now, nearly a century and a half later we are experiencing the effects and we are beginning to understand the causes. We need timber for so many purposes. One of its greatest uses is in the making of paper. Nobody would wish to be without books, magazines, newspapers and all the paper products that we use — sometimes wastefully. The remedy is to plant more trees — exotic trees that mature quickly, and the New Zealand Forest Service has been doing this for many years. We need to value these trees,

as well as our native <’ trees, because they will £ ensure a continuing sup- / ply of timber for our ' needs, and for the needs ’ of future generations. The >■ early settlers burned areas ‘ of forest land to grow t food. Forests still burn, ;• and for no purpose. The ' causes are carelessness ' and vandalism.

Every generation has £ been faced with chai- . lenges. In our short his- J tory New Zealand men I and women have fought in \ wars because they saw it • as their duty to their < country. War, now, is as J unthinkable as killing a ? native bird or felling a. £ native tree. Our attitudes ■ have changed, and perhaps * we understand a little bet-. ter. The challenge of the J present is conservation of ' all our resources — our i native birds, forests and; all that grows within J them; our land, and the » living creatures in the lakes, and rivers; and the* 1 life in the oceans. It is a war against destruction and waste.