DEER IN TARARUAS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 253, 23 September 1935, Page 2

DEER IN TARARUAS

DAMAGE TO FORESTS. CHECKED BY STALKERS.. WELLINGTON, Sept. 21. The destruction of deer in the Wellington district is described in the annual report of the Department of Internal Affairs for the year ended March 31 last, tabled in the House of Representatives. The report states that operations were commenced in the Tararua Ranges about the middle of January, and were continued throughout the summer and autumn. A total of 1011 deer were killed and 55 skins saved. An analysis of the figures shows that the average strength of the, party was six men over a period of 18J weeks, and that they killed an average of 54.3 deer per week. Over tlie whole of this area there was a great preponderance of' bushclad, country, and the small proportion of open country above the “limberline’' was so rrequently enveloped in dense fog that it was seldom that shooting could be conducted there. The owner or a block of freehold country would not permit the party to continue to operate, and the men were withdrawn. The party was subjected to a great deal ot interference by stalkers who, wlule shooting few deer, disturbed all animals in the area, and thus rendered the task more difficult and less successful. The weather was, generally, very bad, especially during the “roaring’' season and sut>sequent few weeks. Communications and transport were attended by many difficulties ; bat, in spite of all this, the operations were very successiul, and there could be no doubt that they would result in an immediate improvement in the condition of the forest, and prove a decisive factor in bringing the ileer in this area under control. “The deer-iiitestatioii situation, in the Tararua Ranges is singular in that, while deer are excessively numerous ill some localities, they are scarce in others, but the latter are comparatively small, and are widely separated,” adds the report. “The whole area can, thereiore, be regarded as having been pretty generally infested, and in places the concentrations of deer were, prior to these operations, so large that very serious 'damage was done to the busn. it so happens that some of the worst damage nas been done in localities where it is hkeJy to prove the most harmful, as they are in the steepsided valleys ot the Hutt, lauheremkau, TVaiohine, Wamgawa, ltuamaJianga and iVlangahao Rivers, near their sources. SERIOUS DAMAGE. “In some of these localities the damage to tlie forest and the lorest-iioor is exceedingly serious, and is equal to that which has been sustained by forests in heavily infested areas of the South Island. In such places all the lorest-lloor covering ot terns has been killed (the dead stumps remain to indicate their previous existence), the ground has been trampled bare ut mosses and grasses and is torn up to an extent which resembles a stockyard, roots are laid bare, small slips and water-channels are already appearing; all undergrowth has been killed by tlie eating of bark or rubbing of antlers; all seedlings of the major species of trees which effect regeneration, have been’killed (tlie dead stumps and trunks are evidence of this), and nothing remains but tlie adult trees of the beech, and tiicse have but a precarious hold on tlie earth. In these localities it was noted for the first time that the deer have eaten the bark of even the konini or native fuchsia and thereby killed many trees. “It is significant that during the operations, which embraced the whole of tlie main divide and the sources of all the main rivers, although every effort was made to kill goats as well as deer, where both were to be found together, only 28 goats were killed as compared with 10x1 deer.”