Move to shelve logging pleases some

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 3

Move to shelve logging pleases some

Conservationists have welcomed a forest advisory committee’s decision to shelve support for logging more of the Maruia Valley beech forests on the West Coast.

The Victoria Forest Park Advisory Committee has voted to withhold any action on its earlier recommendation for partial logging of the valley’s west bank.

Forest Service officers opposed the decision made at a meeting in Reefton on Tuesday.

The director of the Joint Campaign on Native Forests, Mr Guy Salmon, said the decision brought protection of the forests a step closer. The beech forests, a scenic backdrop to the valley along 20km of State highway 65, had been a centre of environmental controversy for more than a decade.

Advisory committee members voted four to two, during a discussion chaired by the district forest ranger, Mr John Ruru, to hold the original resolution in abeyance.

Mr Ruru said he was concerned about this week’s move.

“But they have not ruled out the resolution completely,” he said. “It only sets us back to thrash through all the details again.”

More discussions would probably take place with the Forest Service, D.S.I.R. and the Wildlife Service in Wellington within the next few weeks. Mr Ruru said he had opposed the shelving partly because some of those committee members who made the recommendation late last year had not been present. The Forest Service also believed regeneration of the beech forest would allow it to be logged in perpetuity. A decision on logging the area had been left out of the Forest Service regional management plan although an earlier draft suggested using an area of about 3900 ha. The committee, which reports to the Minister of Forests, then recommended felling areas of 30ha to 50ha within a smaller area of about 2600 ha.