BUSH GOMES BACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 130, 28 November 1940, Page 13

BUSH GOMES BACK

DENSE SECOND GROWTH

UNDER PINES AT KARORI

NATURAL NURSERY

The fine stand of pines to-be felled from . the eastern hillside above the lower Karori reservoir is unique in the Wellington Province, first in the quality of the trees, with their' clean, free barrels and lighter upper growth to 50 and 60 feet, and, secondly, because on the "floor" there is a-dense undergrowth of natives —five-finger, rangi!ora, matipo,, coprosmas, mahoe, lancewood, makamaka, and tree-ferns,. 10 and 15 feet high, flourishing too thickly to be easily walked through. The general impression is that nothing grows under pines, but here the contrary—which the forestry experts, have long enough stated —is plain enough. Under rapidly-growing pines, undergrowth cannot get along, but these Karori pines have reached their full growth after 60 years and the dense canopy is breaking and letting the light in, and seeds carried by birds from the opposite hillside grow under natural nursery conditions. Sixty years is about the maximum life of pinus insignis -in New Zealand, and many of the trees are already "stag-headed," one stage short of dying down from the top and falling uselessly. The native undergrowth will unavoidably be broken about by felling and logging, but in three or four years the hillside will not show a sign of ever having carried pines or of temporary logging damage. There is proof of that on the hillside west of the reservoir. Here two patches of pines were felled seven or eight years ago under similar conditions —aged trees with.thinning tops letting in the light for undergrowth to get a start. Today these felled areas are covered by natives and the average person could not distinguish where the pines had been.

There is a photograph of the reservoir hillsides in this issue—pines >to be felled oh the left, and the complete come-back of native bush where pines were felled a few years ago on the right. . AT WAINUI ALSO. There is another example of the way native bush can come back, given [a chance, at> the Wainui waterworks reserve. Fifteen years ago the reserve was infested with deer and, between them and fire damage, a hillside above the Wainui reservoir was cleaned out of bush. Gorse and broom took charge: not a shrub or a fern was left. The then caretaker went after the deer all the year round and he reduced them from hundreds in a year until a single shot was something to. talk about. Left alone,, young natives have again come back, and have smothered out the gorse and broom.

It is probable that there will be ah outcry against.the felling of the Karori pines,, but those who protest would be convinced if they had the opportunity to visit the reserve arid see for themselves that ' the ■ native bush is there, immediately ready.to replace the pines. The trees have to go in any case, either by falling and rotting from old age, or under the axe while the timber .is sound. ; •-. "-' '■■ ' ''V '■'■-■ "