POOR TIMBER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27058, 18 April 1949, Page 4

POOR TIMBER

FIORDLAND AREA NOT WORTH MILLING Staff Correspondent GEORGE SOUND, Apl. 17. Timber in the region where the New Zealand and American Fiordland expedition has been operating is poor, its volume per acre too low and the country so rugged that milling is inconceivable. This is the opinion of Mr J. Holloway, leader of the party from the national forest survey branch of the State Forest Service. Other members of the group are Mr ,T. Henry and Mr J. Everett, and they have been examining the forest in this area.

Mr Holloway explained to the Daily Times that during the past lour years a survey of all the remaining native forests in the Dominion had been carried out. Several million acres had been covered, including about half a million in western Southland. The survey was made to discover how much merchantable timber was left in the country, to embrace a complete ecological survey in an attempt to find which areas could be placed economically under intensive management, and to try to discover the effects of introduced animals on the forest.

“We possess fairly comprehensive data,” Mr Holloway said, “on what red deer are doing to the forest elsewhere and we wanted to .know whether they are having a similar effect in this area. Wc also wanted to know the influence of the wapati on the forest in Fiordland.” The party had not gained any new information. Instead, it had confirmed the result of observations elsewhere.

“The type of forest and the effects of the animals on it are what we expected.” Mr Holloway said. “ Our study did enable us to link the work we had done in western Southland with that in South Westland and so gives us a fairly full overall picture of the forest in the southern part of the South Island.” Asked what he thought of the region, he smiled. “ It was a bit tougher than any we have worked in before," he said. Mr Holloway and his two colleagues went into Caswell on March 20 and left the George Sound camp on Saturday to travel through to the middle arm of Lake Te Anau via the Henry saddle and Lake Thompson.