FOREST DAMAGE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 132, 7 June 1930, Page 15

FOREST DAMAGE

jDEER MENACE KEALITY REPORTS NOT "ALARMIST" l (To the Editor.) Sir, —In the annual report of the Otago Acclimatisation Society/ it is stated that alarmist reports have been circulated in the Press as to the huge number of deer there are in the Dominion and the damage that is done in our forests by these animals. I have no hesitation in stating that the damigc done by these pests is appalling, iid anyone who has studied the question ;(. all exhaustively cannot help but igrce with me. Acclimatisation society •epresentatives who were present at the leer Conference will have no difficulty .n remembering that the chairman, the lon. Mr. Perrelle, stated quite frankly u his opening remarks that ho recogised that damage was being done by .eer, and consequently he asked those resent to refrain from giving evi.ence or speaking on this subject. This .-quest, of course, effectually gagged hose delogatcs present who had made i special study of this question, and prevented them from giving to the cone'ereuce a mass of evidence that could not be refuted. That the Minister considered it unnecessary to call evidence on this point is surely proof enough to any unprejudiced person that the deer are doing very serious damage. In the all-important matter of estimating the amount of damage dono by deer to .our forests, it is essential that the observer should have an intimate knowledge of these forests as they ,\-erc before the advent of the deer, ami'as they are to-day. These qualifications seem rather obvious, but they cannot be too strongly stressed, as the deer have so modified the vegetation surrounding their haunts, that it is a matter of difficulty''nowadays to visualise these plant associations as they were in their primitive state. And so it happens that virgin beech forest in the minds of many to-day consists 1 of trees, widely or closely spaced, separated from one another by more or'less opeii ground, the forest floor being bare of shrubs and undergrowth generally, so that one can *,valk unimpeded in any direction. In other words, these rainforests have, now a more or less park-' like appearance, and have been shorn of all their rain-forest characteristics. The observer needs now to visit remote districts where the deer have not yet penetrated in order to obtain a first-hand knowledge of what our forests originally were , like. There are few indeed who can speak with authority on the composition of New Zealand's primeval plant associations, and wo are fortunate in having in this country to-day Dr. Cockayne, who, for a period extending over forty years, has exhaustively studied the plant communities of New Zealand from all aspects. Needless to say, Dr. Cockayne advocates a policy of total extermination of the deer.

My own small experience concerning the effect of deer on. our vegetation may bo of interest. During the last 'decade and more, Mr. Geo. Simpson and myself have been jointly studying the Leech forests in various parts of Otago, and have paid particular attention to those tlm't occur in the mountainous area abiut the head of Lako Wakatipu, this locality being heavily stocked, with deer. The. more glaring, cases of destruction by deer, such as barking of the trees, etc., arc easily seen; but it is the insidious attack on the undergrowth, and floor-covering that is difliei'it to "detect, so that'Tt "became apparent quite early in the investigations that trusting to memory for details was useless, and that accurate and very full note-taking-was essential if any knowledge worth while was to be gained. _ Our procedure, though simple, entailed a large amount of work; certain easily recognisable routes through the forests in different directions and expending up to the Alpine belt were marked out. These routes were traversed "year 'after' year—in: all about forty days being, spent, in the field—and during each visit full notes were taken of the species present and of their relative abundance. In these notes particular attention was paid both to the prevalence of beech seedlings and saplings, and to the condition of the vegetation of the forest floor. To cut a long .st.ory. short, it was. found that species after species which' were noted on our first visit had subsequently become scarce or had'vanished; that the number of beech seedlings had dwindled until hardly, one could be seen; and finally, that in many places, the invaluable forest floor carpet, consisting of :small ferns, lichens, mosses,; and liverworts, had disappeared altogether. Once this water-holding carpet is destroyed it takes years to replace, and, indeed, owing to the altered conditions, may never be replaced, thus opening the way for floods, with all their attend-ant-evils. Briefly stated, the situation is that the forests in "this, area have not only '■come to a stand-still, "but have definite! back. ' . , It must be v remembered also, that these forests were infested .with deer long before--our first visit, so. that,.in this case only-.tho tail-cud of the destruction was observed. Apart altogether from the loss of the shrubby and ground plants, the larger trees and shrubs of the forest' are also attacked, as, for instance, the three species of beech (N. fusca, 'N. Menziosii, N. clifi'ortioides), the broadleaf, the pokaka, the two totaras (Podocarpus totara and Pod irallii), Nothopanax species such as Nothopanax simplex and Js T . ColcnsoL, Schefflera digitata, the ribbon-wood (Ilohcria glabrata), and the celery pine. Regarding the ribbon-A»oo<j, we Jiayo seen whole groves of this tree killed by the doer, and as this plant is one that can quickly cover over denuded areas caused by land-slips, its value in the forests cannot be too highly aprcciatod. r

I will now touch upon. the. havoc caused : by deer to our alpine plants. Species once common arc being rapidly wiped out, ami in some cases have disappeared altogether. To mention one or two only: Take the largo mountain buttercups, ouch as Ranunculus Buchanan! and It. Lyallii; these two species, justly famed wherever science is known, have suffered severely, and on some mountains can only now be found in small numbers where the deer cannot roach, such positions, needless to say, being few and far between. Also those unique associations of plants which surround our mountain tarns, and which scientists from all over the world have come specially to sec, are in danger of extermination, and what were once spots of rare beauty and interest aro now only trampled mud-holes. So much for the country round about the head of Lake Wakatipu.

It may perhaps be news to some that even the remote country in the Sounds district shelters large herds of deer, and that there also the inevitable destruction takes place, as the following extracts, taken from letters written by Mr. E. J. Herrick, of Hastings, will show. I may mention that Mr. Herrick is a well-known stalker, who has visited Dusky Sound on moro than one occasion, and' that his letters to me wero quite unsolicited, and the information therein was given quite voluntarily, Mr. Herrick enclosed in his letter some leaves of the pokaka, a. largo forest tree, and writes: "Tlio enclosed twig is from a tree that has been killed in very large numbers by ring-barking caused by the eating of the moose. J. have a photograph of one of these trees ring-barked up to a height of cloven

feet by measurement, and I have seen tlic barking higUpr,still. .The moose arc very fond of these trees,, literally hundreds of them have been killed through this barking. This eating of the bark must not be mistaken for the rubbing of their horns —the results of the two actions are entirely different. In this eating business, one never sees a scrap of bark broken or left on the ground; but in the rubbing the ground is strewn with shavings and bark." After noting this destruction, he nevertheless goes, on to say: "The damage the moose do is infinitesimal compared with that douo by the red deer, and I could show you hundreds of acres without a green blade of fern or anything, else in the heart of the bush at Dusky Sound, eaten absolutely bare' by/red deer. Prom a distance this bush looks untouched, because the large forest trees cover it up, and unless one penetrates into the forest itself, no one would beiicve it." . And that is what is happening in our magnificent Fiord country. This wholesale destruction of our forests cannot bo allowed to go on, and the only possible goal to aim at is the absolute extermination of these pests.—l am, etc., J. SCOTT THOMSON. Dunedin.