DESTRUCTIVE DEER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18168, 14 August 1922, Page 9

DESTRUCTIVE DEER.

INJURY TO PLANTATIONS. : YOUNG TREES DAMAGED. LOSSES OF SETTLERS. i BY CHAS. IT. C. WORTHINGTON'. Cumulative complaints as to the ravages committed by deer oil the crops and plantations of settlers and on the great national asset, the exotic plantations of the forest service at Whakarewarewa and adjacent country,, led to an exhaustive ex- ■ animation by the writer. Lying to the s east of I*ako Rotorua are a number of , farms and pastoral runs. Practically every owner has. the samo story and the samo complaint. The farms lio to the Lake Road, with a western aspect, and behind- tho cultivated land li© rising foot hills clothed in dense fern, tutu, and i native bush. The number of deer that run in this bush country it is impossible to gauge. The settlers estimate tho number very higldy. Visiting tJie farm of Messrs. Gee and Sons, which is some 500 acres in extent, mostly under cultivation, and carrying 80 i| l ead of milkers, besides young stock, horses, etc., the work <>f the deer is at once apparent. The owners state that as soon as night- draws on the deer come from their shelter and mix freely with i the cattle: in tho morning they fade away, and it is almost impossible to locate them. On a recent morning 19 were i counted. The same story is told by i | every settler in tho district. The deer | have no regard for fences; they, even I the youngest fawns, sidle up to a fence ' and hop over. They take no notice of ! dogs. Mr. Gee estimates that at least 25 per cent, of his turnips aro eaten by ' the marauders and the damage to young j mangel crops cannot be estimated. Tho I young roots are pulled up and scattered. | At points cf vantage, paddock intersecI tions, Mr. Geo has planted shelter planj tations of pinus insignis, Douglas fir, and eucalypt. There is also oil the property a fine grove of native bush, hakehake. i This latter tree has a hard' rind-like bark, j which is difficult to mark. The diameter I of the trees does not lend itself to a I hold between the bays of the tines of i the antlers, and though the stags have | scarred and disfigured them they have i done no damage. In the exotic plantations trees up to four or five inches in diameter a; - e utterly destroyed. The trunk is absolutely skinned. The fact ; that they are surrounded by a seven-wire I (top-barbed) fence makes no difference. In some plantations 75 per cent, of trees were destroyed, and others damaged. An antler pickwi up was worn smooth inside the tines by rubbing up and down the. growing trees. Not only does the settler lose his labour, but five years are lost. The farms of Messrs. A. lies and H. Pearce have had the same experience. Both hold that more than half their root crops go to feed the deer. Fences as Protection. Captain Knowles, of Okareka, on an area of new grass, counted 47 head one ; moonlight r.ight recently. They mingled I freely with his stock, and like the other j victims to the marauders he finds it imj possible to close up a paddock, for the j deer takes no notice of a fence, l'lie j situation is most serious, and every year adds to the difficulty of restraining the pest. The fiction that mankind will frighten the red deer away and that the solitude of waste places has an attraction for them is untenable. A cultivation paddock and root crops have an irresistible attraction. They come right up to homesteads. Acres of young trees have been destroyed, and planting shelter for stock aitd land by which the whole country benefits. is rendered impossibly unprofitable So much for the settler, uut the decision on the main issue as to tho desirability of continuing to permit deer to increase must I bo guided by events now happening in the great plantations of tho State forestThese plantations are incredibly fine. Noble redwoods are established up to 20in. in diameter, euca.lypts and vast areas of Douglas fir, Corsican pine and insignis are rapidly coming to a marketable size; the growth of the past- ten years exceeds belief. Tn company with a senior officer of the Forest Service I visited many of the outlying plantations. Tracks of deer were everywhere. Through the fire breaks and along the roads, every few yai-ds, could be seen young trees skinned, others barked and dead. The preference seems to be for trees about 6in. in circumference. These give something to push against. On the younger firs the bark is pulled off and eaten. ' Extensive Damage. Tying up our horses we pushed through to plantations of some 40 acres of chestnut, interspersed with eucalypti. These chestnuts were utterly destroyed, having been browsed to the butt- The eucalypts, save where some more robust had got away, were barked and dead. Deer tracks were everywhere. The cover was so dense that any deer could be utterly invisible at a few feet. Jj. i 5 no exaggeration to say that thousands ard thousands of trees are being destroyed, and thousands have been. It is impossible to give an estimate of actual damage over the many thousand acres, but judging from the "wees on tho edge of small clearings, and along tho penetrable forest lanes, and also taking into consideration that those destroyed trees are from five to eight years old and fully established, the loss to the country is infinitely greater than _ decades of stag shooting and all that it brings to the Dominion can make up for. Pushing through the narrow lanes we came upon young trees newly stripped, the sap still running from the bruised wood. A splendid Douglas fir some Bin. in diameter and 50ft. high was completely scraped and ring-barked. r lo indicate tho density of the cover and the peculiar indefiniteness of the light, some cattleheavy stock —were on the road near tho plantation paddocks. As we approached they went into the pines. Though we wero close to them we could neither see nor hear them, nor yet see the way they went in. - The edge was apparently an impenetrable wall. Shelter iu the Standing Forest. The seriousness of the problem in the Otago district has been given some prominence. There tho herds have increased beyond the capacity of the country to carry them, and the number is estimated at 60.000. In Rotortia and Taupo districts there is no possible means that man can devise to keep herds within given boundaries. The forest shelter is so complete that they can move 20 miles and never break cover. Not only arc the present young plantations endangered, but planting and replanting is mere folly until the question of control is settled. The big standing established forest may, now, take no harm, ' but .from the shelter thus given the deer 1 can operate over the newer groups, and 1 it must be borne in mind the habits of the deer at-o nocturnal; in daylight they are invisible save at certain periods of the year. But they eat and destroy all the year round. Again there i 3 a menace to the natural | regeneration of forests. Sad it may be, j but the issue is clear cut, either settlers and forest must go or the deer be ' destroyed. There is no other way out, unless it is considered feasible to enclose some thousands of acres in a deer pale Bft. high and to maintain it. Those who | j have never had the opportunity of visit- | ing the State forests can have no idea of the immensity of tho scheme, or the 5 | enormous values that they now repre- . sent. The ravage now done could not be . compensated by 20 years' license fees for j stag shooting. The officers of the Forest i Service are greatly concerned and must ) feel deeply disheartened. T' le results of recent planting experiments of chestnuts and European exotic timbers 3 have been rendered useless, and the proI auction of such timbers as the chestnut - a i vi"' • w ' 10se leafage is extremely palatable, is under the present conditions impossible. Whatever the authorities intend to do must be done quickly, for not only are the fortunes of settlers impenlled., but a great national asoet is Uircatctied extinction.