Milling on coast

Press, 9 January 1987, Page 12

Milling on coast

Sir, —Full marks to Peter Allan (December 30) for his ability to distort facts about milling on the Coast To claim that foresters have laboured over the past century for a sustainable yield of native forests is today’s best joke from the Coast. “The Argus,” newspaper in Greymouth in September, 1913, states, “That millers had devastated the forests without the least thought for future generations, and no country in the world had dealt with its wealth of timber in a more barbarous and improvident manner.” Thank heavens we do have people who are conservationists and do care for their forests. After all, forests on Crown land belong to the people. The Prime Minister is no fool and will not be misled by Peter Allan’s hellbent determination to convince him that conservationists are unreasonable people. Conservationists are the salt of the earth. Without them, like forests, what a desolate place the world would be. — Yours, etc., STAN HEMSLEY. January 2, 1987.

Sir,—ln his letter dated December 30, Guy Salmon identifies Peter Allan as deputy chief of the Forest Service in Westland. Mr Allan is the assistant conservator (planning) in Westland. I do have three assistant conservators of forests. I do not have any designated deputies. Like Mr Allan, I subscribe to the view that the ultimate goal of the conservationists (“preservationists” would, perhaps, be more apt) is the cessation of all wood production from indigenous forests. Mr Salmon’s bland assertion that major forest conservation organisations are signatories to the Blakeley Report cannot detract from the fact that there is strong opposition to continued harvesting from indigenous forests, Westland’s in particular, among the conservation movement. For example, the outcry and the establishment of a group to oppose the so-called “think big” beech scheme recommended in the Blakeley Report, and for which proposals have recently been advertised, clearly indicates a continued level of opposition to any effort to productively manage indigenous forests.—Yours, etc., E. R. KEARNS, Conservator of Forests, Hokitika, January 8, 1987.