FUTURE OF NEW ZEALAND FORESTS

Grey River Argus, 19 April 1948, Page 8

FUTURE OF NEW ZEALAND FORESTS

(By

B. Irons

in “Forest and Bird.”)

Conditions that have arisen in New. Zealand land since the second World War in relation to our indigenous forests are causing anxiety among all true bush lovers. During the war almost all available supplies of timber were used for war purposes, and since the war the attempts to cope with arrears of building maintenance and the erection of necessary new wooden buildings have led to such a greatly increased demand for timber that long-established restraints on timber -cutting have been removed from mar/ areas of forest hitherto considered essential for water’ conservation and the, prevention of accelerated erosion, apart from having a definite ' scenic value. This demand for timber which industry is now making has resulted also in a greatly increased number of sawmills and of capital invested in them, also in sawmill employees and in the wood workers in the actual building operations. Fortified bv all these influences and responsibilies many of these mills have already demanded, and been given, entry into bush contrary to all the dictates of reason and experience, and as .cutting proceeds, no doubt the position will become worse.

A combination of financial interest, sentimental appeal and political pressure will inevitably paralyse the brakes that should be applied to this transparently short-sighted policy. When the last log has been removed, then, and then only, will the alternative of building otherwise than in wood be turned to, and it looks as if this path is to be followed to. the bitter end.

We all deplore the ruthless extermination of far too' much of the unique original forest of this country in the past, but under QJ.ir eyes this is still going on with the aid of all the latest inventions of mechanical industry. The unfortunately too numerous advocates of this policy invariably preface their projected fresh attacks on the diminishing areas of forest with a hypocritical panegyric on the great amount of forest so unnecessarily destroyed in this country, and then proceed to promise regeneration, forest management, • continuous crops, ect; but they are always careful to aim at some area that has the prospect of an immediate profitable return if the trees are felled. After the trees are felled’will the advocates of “get out the timber’’ worry about regeneration or even if the bush survives at all? The use of so much of this timber for purposes for which other superior materials are available, and its use under such conditions that decay and insects attacks will reduce its life to perhaps one-third of that possible, is a criminal folly based largely on the absurd but wide-spread belief that there is still plenty more in the bush. The milling or even total removal of bush on flat or moderately rolling land of good or average farming guality is both logical and commendable, but surely there is enough accumulated experience of the dire consequences of the application of similar treatment ■ to steep and poor land in the watershed basins of our already troublesome rivers? This type of country should never be deforested. From an aesthetic point of view the beauty of the New Zealand bush is unsurpassed in any land, and a panorama consisting of a wide expanse of undulating mixed bush on a bright midsummer day, with great variety of shades and shapes, and especially if there are snowcapped mountains in the distance, rarely fails to convince even the''most widely travelled doubter that this is indeed correct. Deciduous forests, especially those of eastern Canada and north T eastern U.S.A., have in autumn a brief and glorious splendour in fiery colours, followed by a long winter period that is. as far as the forest in concerned, difficult for the average New Zealander to assess as anything but the deariness of death, and the writer has in these winters walked miles to see even a single evergreen tree that looked really alive. . . , £ The question of the survival of the New Zealand forest in. anything approaching its original form is a big one. There is little doubt that there are not many people alive to-day who have seen any considerably large area of the forest in its absolutely virgin state, unaffected by the intrusion of introduced animals or pests, and we must, resign ourselves to the hope of saving something, at lea,to remind us of 7 what we so unworthily inherited. On the lower levels nearer to what we call civilisation, the forest is more close to the dangers of fire, .the encroachments of reading, housing and vandalism, and the qualities and usefulness of its products offer greater temptations to those to whom a-tree represents merely so much timber, firewood or money. On the higher and more remote

areas man ceases to be the main enemy ; his place is ably taken by a horde ol animal pests—deer of different species, thar, goats, pigs, opossums, rats, weasels and some escaped farm animals.

In' these days when all protection has been, removed from these imported animals in New Zealand, the owners of grazing lands declare war on them and sportsmen and deer-shoot-ers in general do likewise on the alpine area. Only the forest is leit as a niding place for them. Ln winter nature drives them clean off the snow country, and they are compelled to get almost a hundred per cent, of their food from the forest and do ail their stamping about on the forest floor. All this is in great contrast to the conditions in the land they came from, where they seldom had to interfere with tree or shrub leaves, and it is in no wise a basis for the arguments put forward by sportsmen from other lands who deplore the organised efforts at the extermination of such fine sporting animals, which like most introducea animals, plants, trees and insects, greatly exceed in size and rate of increase than normal in the land of their origin. Ine operations of these animals on the vegetation of the snow line country is perhaps not noticeable to the casual observer, but over a course of years tilings begin to happen. Natural erosion had worn down the original rugged lace, and a little soil had formed. Sufficient for suqh vegetation as would grow on these high exposed surfaces, out after deer had ranged on this land for some years, it has become apparent, especially on the windy exposures, that large areas are reverting to their pre-vegetation state, and even to absolutely bare rock. The original mat of vegetation instead of increasing with time, had become weafned and destroyed ana is being torr, cl I completely by severe winds in many places. This is the most pronounced and easily observed aspect of the problem, for the lesses and more giadual deterioration on the less exposed positions.is appar.eni only to those older observers who can picture back in. their minds just what the snow line country looked like when lt.ex first saw it. At the best, the presence of these imported pests is destructive to the absorbent mat. of vegetation that hela and retarded rain and melting snow to . give a more gradual, run-off into streams, thereby reducing the sudden severe floods so destructive to our farming economy. The effect on the forest land lower down, especially after a prolonged winter oi continuous snow covering the alpine area, is apparent to even the most biased. The ghostly white trunks of the panax trees, stripped of bark, even Sown along the roots, and the leafless battered state of many shrubs, even such as the stinkwood coprosma, and the trampled condition of the soil,could leave little doub in any, mind. This undoubtedly causes many slips on the steeper slopes, producing, in the early stages of regrowth, a covering of grass, small shrubs and plants which become a favourite place for deer, as shooters soon,find out. Often these slips are so heavily grazed as to prevent regeneration and consolidation, and in some ‘ cases in mind, the whole surface has slipped off again. On some heavily-laden, sjeep ridges where deerf and pigs and some wild cattle had infested- the forest for many years, jpractically all the shrubs had gone, and only theMarger, widelyspaced trees remained, the surface of the ground being covered with a sheet of loose, broken rock moving down from the almost bare ridge-tops. No forest could have developed on such a surface and no regeneration can take place as this surface sheet is disturbed and moves down, assisted by both animals and men; also it is doubtful if the existing large- trees can survive to anything like their normal ages. Great forests of exotics of many varieties, hard and soft, have been planted in this country, but none hav» produced timbers with the special qualities of kauri, totara, rimu, or kahikatea: yet so recklessly were these timbers used that we read of--25,000 kauri blocks for street paving being supplied to the Melbourne City Council by a New Zealand firm in 1889, and hopes were expressed in a government publication in 1896 of the possibilities of working up a big export trade in these blocks, even sending home to England a timber expert to further the object. In the publication the statement was made that, as France and Germany had squandered their forest resources, now was New Zealand’s chance to get into the European market. Apparent Jy these blissful optimists did not consider it squandering to pave streets with the finest pine timber in the world. The battle to save from the axe the last remnants of the kauri grandeur at Waipoua Forest is ample proof < that the folly-of fifty years ago is still the' folly of to-day.