Pureora plans ‘deplorable’

Press, 15 April 1981, Page 11

Pureora plans ‘deplorable’

PA Wellington Forest and bird protection groups have described proposals to resume logging in the Pureora Forest Park, west of Taupo, as “deplorable in the extreme.” Plans to log the Waihaha block in the central North Island would also be resisted with utmost determination, said spokesmen for the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and the Native Forests Action Council, in a joint statement.

Future management plans for the forests are outlined in a King Countrv regional management draft plan released this week by the Forest Service. The draft said a moratorium on logging in the Waihaha block and the Pureora Forest Park — imposed in 1978 and requiring $7 million compensation for timber companies working the area — could be extended beyond its December expiry date. The extension would allow completion of studies into populations of the kokako (blue-wattled crow) and management of tawa, beech, and podocarp resources.

But it noted that further areas of podocarp timber would be needed to sustain existing mills and industry in the area and suggested four options for future logging. They included extending the moratorium over areas where kokako were present, allowing 4200 cubic metres of timber for logging, annually, or restricting the moratorium to only north Pureora where the kokako were best established, releasing 6900 cubic metres of tawa and podocarp for logging. The society and council said the draft plan had been prepared in secret because the Forest Service did not want wildlife studies made public before the Govern-

ment made logging decisions on the area. “It is in no way inevitable that some areas under the moratorium will have to be logged. There are no legal commitments to supply timber nor is any sawmill dependent on getting the timber,” they said. The Waihaha block contained the bulk of virgin podocarp forest in the Pureora park and also important populations of parrots and parakeets which were “obviously diminished species sensitive to selection logging.” “The proposals to log the Waihaha block will be resisted with utmost determination,” said the society’s deputy president, Mr A. Edmonds, and the council’s president, Miss Gwenny Davis. The Forest Service’s management planning head, Mr J. Holloway, said it was likely that more than three years of study would be needed to decide the future of the kokako. “Interim findings are that the kokako is not reproduc-

ing itself and having extreme difficulty nesting. None of the 60 pairs under study have raised young that we are aware of,” he said. Mr Holloway said there appeared room to allow up to 3500 cubic metres of logging annually in the area but he expected" the level decided would be less. An area of 18,000 cubic metres set aside to allow logging during the moratorium was expected to last until late next year but “to continue logging after that, some areas will have to come out of the moratorium.” The draft suggested that Tihoi forest areas were the best logging prospects without affecting principal kokako populations. Public submissions will be allowed on the draft until the end of June but Mr Holloway indicated that a decision on future logging was not expected until late next year. “There is no pressure for an immediate decision. We .will not have to decide where to go for at least a year,” he said.