Effects of Forest Fires

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1946, Page 3

Effects of Forest Fires

Fires lit years ago by.irresponsible individuals are responsible for .much of the bare and eroding land m lhe Mid-Canterbury district, states an early settler, writing in “Forest and Bird.” A large part of. the caimtry through which the Midland railway in Canterbury passed was once heavily forest, especially that part, between Kowhai Bush and Staircase Gully. This part now shows abundant evidence of extensive erosion. Hundreds of acres of dense bush and many settlers’ homes were lost in a succession of disastrous fires; and much of the work done by the Waimakariri Forest Board, at a cost of many thousands oi pounds, would have been unnecessary if the forests bordering the upper reaches oi the river had been preserved.