DEER IN FORESTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 150, 28 June 1930, Page 11

DEER IN FORESTS

A SERIOUS MATTER

WIDESPREAD DAMAGE

THE "WOBST AIIEAS

, An address given at the annual meet--ing of the New Zealand Forestry League last evening by llr. ■C. JM. Smith, chief. inspector, New Zealand State Forest Service, very fully con-, firmed the opinions of the members as-j to the "destruction- of forests and the ; danger of erosion caused by deer over wide areas in both islands., ■'-;.In the northern "part..of the-.North Island, said Mr. Smith, and in Taranaki, the deer menace did not at present exist.. Recently from Taumarunm. had come complaints of damage- dono Ivy red "deer, but/deer had never been liberated.ia that'area. There had been liberations ia the.Taupo area, and obviously the animals . about - Taumarunu.i had "migrated from Taupp. Deer in the . Itotorua area were, particularly a concern to the Forestry Service,- asthero were in' that "region 250,000 acres of 'planted State forest and 130,000 acres of forest planted by public investors and private companies. A small herd of fallow deer liberated in the Wauganiii region, said Mr. Smith, did not 'occasion great concern. ■ In,the "Wellington, district sauibur and red dcci- liberations had resulted in the linn establishment of herdsrunnbig into, big numbers.' "In" 1803 a stag and two hinds were liberated: on the Taratahi ■plains, south of ■ -Martinbbrough, ahd.;j from 'thore ; they iad. .crossed. ■' the Thiamahauga Itivcr and taken up their jiljode in the forested areas to tho south, to-day constituting the largest herd in.tho "Wellington Acclimatisation Society area. -Deer were 1o bo i'pund right through the■ Tar.iruas. "-■ In the I'eilding and" Jlawlccs Bay regions,--1 he ■liuahirics, Ahimanawas, .and- Kaijnanawas now had both red doer and sambur widely scattered throughout; The centres of most serious trouble at tho present in the North Island, said Mr. Smith, were the afforestation areas in the Eotoriia district,- the Tararuas in rtbe mid-Wellington district, and the . Haurangi area in the South Wellington ■district. ::" , ';. V." .-.- ..;•'. ' JTBW ZEALAND'S WORST' AEE A. Two attempts to-•■establish deer in Kelson in -1851.and,.1354 failed,'.;said Mt. Smith, but a ' stag and two hinds which were set free in ISOI were the beginning of the huge herd which haa now spread Tight through Nelson and , down into Canterbury, the worst dper 'district, iiii the Dominion. Virginian .(white-tailed) deer were set free about LMotueka in .1001, and fallow doei- in ' the Grey district-and further south, in the Otago Blue Mountains- (1867 and .1.571). lied deer, liberated at'Bokaia' Gorge in '.1896,. had.now. spread .all "through the back country of Canterbury ■from Lhke Tennyson, in the north, to Jj&ke Ohauj in the south, crossing over .the passes to,the west and vice versa, ..-Thar were, liberated at Mount Cook jn 1904 and" 1909, and'chamois in IDO7--and 1914. From .there they had spread rapidly,- chamois having "been seen in tho National Park near Bealey and thar about Lake Sumncr, which is about the same distance from, the starting point, but'further ovor to.the cast. ': ' lake rotorua and the* . ■ ;.;■-.■. ■;.: wairatj. ; : ■ ~-■. >; - ,-By far the'worst, area in the Dominion, said Miy Smith, was in.the southern - districts of Nelson, particularly;, about, hake Kotoroaj and ~tho worsts ■regards erosion as .a result of defovesta-. •lion was.in the tipper Wairau. There the deor were thicker than, anywhere else in New Zealand, and the erosion • of-the■ hills, had reached .such a. stage that a man oould riot take a horse over .the: country after rain .on account of the .danger of;moving stone, and the , erosion had1 resulfcod. in tho river beds .being built up by as much as eleven 'rcet above normal. Parties r of men, .who ,'wero rather ' slaughterers -than sportsmen, had'gone into that country and shot 40 and 50 head"per day, and they had come out earlier than they '.<had intended because thore was nothing ■itt.it. •:'..■■ ' -..:;■ -' ','.. ■-'.-■ ■ ■'■■■ .' ;■;'. - ■ -■"•■

.. The deer had crossed over the passes \o the West Coast, and had spread generally down the forest areas. Id ■South Wostland their numbers were and in one season one culler killed 1100.

There were mo deer in the Oatlius area, for they bad for some reason never spread from nearby areas, fallow denr as a rule did not travel from ono part of the country to another; they ■u-ere a serious menace to plantations about Tapanui. Fallow drives had been instituted, and 350 had been killed |j/>r month, but without' making any .ippieciabl difference to their numbeis. VIRGINIAN AND BAMBTJR DEEE.

Virginian deer were very numerous, und did- great destruction, on; Stewart : Island,-■; from . wliicK, lid believed,- it 'would be almost impossible to eradicate I hem. on account of their shy'habits and skill in hiding. Sauibur deer were somewhat similar in their habits, and ■were consequently' difficult to. rlcal 'with. A BAD REPORT. ■■~ Moose and -wapiti, in the flordland, ■ would, probably not travel over any i;i'eafc distance, but reports of tho | ■ damage they were causing there wore- ' .extremely bad. By- reason of their build they ■were essentially foliage \ browsers, Hie length of their. front legs making it diijicult for them to browse from tho forest floor. , Thar and chamois threatened serious damage by destroying. alpine flora and by denuding, the upper levels, • leading to heavy erosion. Mr. Smith illustrated his address with a number of lantern slides showing forest in various stages of destruction by deer. King-barked saplings and fully-matured trees —the barking done by antler-rubbing. as well as by feeding—the forest floor, completely cleared of undegrowth and young growth, "five finger" chewed as ■high .as the deer could reach (in some areas this plan.t has completely disappeared), upper river valleys where serious erosion has been caused, turnip fields despoiled, and damage done to exotics, were all jllua:trated. The slides were a most convincing proof of the statements, made that the doer menace is rcaland very .serious. The last half-dozen slides wero of State plantations in the Botonia fjistriut, and -with these on the screen, 'Mr. -Smith asked how could deer be cleared out from such plantations once they gained a, hold? There were deer in tho plantations, but so far the damage they did was confined to small areas about their camping places. He himself knew of no way in -which deer could be eradicated from such closely planted, forests, for ordinary methods of stalking could not be effective.

Mr. Smith was _ accorded, a. hearty rote of thanks for his address.