PINES TO BE FELLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 129, 27 November 1940, Page 8

PINES TO BE FELLED

KARORI WATERWORKS

TREES SIXTY YEARS OLD

A stand of pinus insignis at the Karori waterworks reserve, covering about forty acres between the lower reservoir and Highbury Road, is to be felled and sawn into timber, probably by contract. An estimate of the usable timber places the amount available, apart from firewood, at least half a million board. feet, a sizeable cutting from a small section of the reserve.

The trees were planted sixty years ago and have reached the stage where deterioration will be rapid; *in a few years more they will be dangerously old and will then have to be removed with less likelihood of return. The pinus insignis is a short lived tree, 90 years being the maximum known life.

The cutting, which may extend over two years, is to be done methodically. The stand has been surveyed by the forestry officer and the trees will be marked for felling in definite order. Unmarked trees are to be left standing.

Strict rules have been laid down for whoever may undertake the cutting. Sanitation rules will be particularly strict. All persons working on the reserve will be required to provide medical certificates that they are not "carriers" of waterborne disease transmittable to human beings and may be required to undergo medical examination at any time during the contract. Rules as to fires, maintenance of roads and tracks, ensuring that streams, channels, and the reservoir are kept free of pollution from debris are to be equally strict.