Forest and land use

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 12

Forest and land use

Sir,—Guy Salmon (May 4) paints a gloomy economic picture of the industry in Westland. However, he bases his remarks largely on fantasy rather than fact. The recent Officials Committee addressed itself solely to land use options for South Westland. Its report, founded on economic considerations, provided the catalyst for the current blackwood planting programme in that region. Plantation forestry in central Westland will have the capacity (as trees begin to mature) to produce about 500,000 cubic metres of wood each year. Processed into a variety of products this volume of wood could earn the local forest industry $75 to $lOO million annually. Clearly this will be of significant economic benefit to the Coast. During the last year, timber harvested from indigenous forests in Westland earned $3.6 million for the taxpayer, and $270,000 for local bodies. Processing of logs into sawn timber, plywood and other products generated a total turn-over in the Westland economy of $2O million.—Yours, etc., J. C. HALKETT, N.Z. Forest Service, Wellington. May 3, 1984.