Picture contest sparks warning

Press, 24 January 1984, Page 1

Picture contest sparks warning

Persons seeking the $250 prize in a “firestorm photo competition” during West Coast Forest Service burnoffs this summer could be putting themselves in danger, said the Westland Conservator of Forests, Mr P. J. Berg, yesterday. In his conservancy, about 1700 ha of cut-over forest patches and scrub will be burned off this summer, weather permitting. A jellied accelerant which has been called “napalm” by conservationists is used by the Forest Service to start fires designed to clear and prepare land for new plantations.

The Buller Conservation Group in Westport is offering a $250 prize for the best photograph, movie, or video of the burn-offs.

Competition organisers said that photographs could show either the actual fires or the remains of wildlife, such as kiwis or the giant native land snail, caught in them. About 16 fires in the Westland Conservancy, as far south as the Hokitika area, will include about 50ha at Seddonville. Another 35ha at Karamea are part of the Nelson Conservancy’s burning programme for the summer. Mr Berg said there would be fires in State forests and on Crown land being developed for agriculture.

Some other small burns would be done to help local

authorities with scrub problems.

Most of the indigenous forest that would be burned had already had its merchantable timber removed by sawmillers, he said.

"Obviously we are quite concerned about it," Mr Berg said of the photograph competition. Controlled burning was "a tricky situation” at the best of times, and there had been accidents and fatalities associated with it. He would be very concerned if photography' competitors moving in the burn areas created safety hazards for themselves and his own staff.

“It will obviously place my staff under additional stress if people are going to try and capture these things on film," he said. Areas being prepared for plantations were mainly ones that had recently been logged. He agreed that areas logged more than a decade ago could have an indigenous forest look about them, but the Forest Service tried to choose areas that were not regenerating well.

There would undoubtedly be some pockets of untouched native bush within safe burn boundaries in some areas, said Mr Berg.

The summer burn-offs were part of the Government’s West Coast plantation establishment policy.

"I think we are well down the track to achieving that programme," he said. Although the Forest Service tried to select land that had formerly been cleared, there would be some plantations established on cut-over forest land.

Mr Berg said it was probable that some animals would be burnt in the fires, but many that could travel fast would have a good chance of escaping.

In the relatively small areas being burnt, animals would be able to quickly reestablish, he said. There were some significant New Zealand examples, such as kiwis, becoming established in new plantations. Surveys in the Buller region had shown that even the large land snail could be found in plantations only five to six years old.

"I think it is possible to strike the proper balance,” he said.

Cut-over indigenous forest would certainly be the greater part of the 1700 ha planned for burn-offs in the Westland Conservancy this summer, said Mr Berg.

Such burn-offs were conducted every year throughout the country, and had proved to be the most effective way to clear and prepare plantation land. The jellied accelerant had been used “for two or three years now,” said Mr Berg. “It gets a good, neat fire going.”