DAMAGE TO NATIVE BUSH

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1933, Page 8

DAMAGE TO NATIVE BUSH

DEER NOT THE ONLY ENEMY. PIGS, GOATS AND CATTLE. “The deer is not the only enemy of the forest,” said Mr. H. C. Savage, a sportsman with extensive knowledge of the wooded areas on the Kaimanawa and Urewera Ranges, in commenting on proposed compaigns against deer in order to reduce the amount of damage to undergrowth and trees in New Zealand forests. “No matter how much the deer ' are culled,’’ he said, “it will not have any appreciable effect in reducing the depredations of animals in the forests. There are other browsing animals to be exterminated before the menace is removed.” -In explaining that hosts of other animals were doing far greater damage, Mr. Savage said that portions of the bush on the eastern side of some areas in the Kaimanawa Range were infested with wild pigs. To give an idea of the numbers, he stated that even without the assistance of dogs, one day’s shooting would yield between 20 and 30 pigs to the gun of an average sportsman. “These wild pigs are the worst offenders in ravaging the forest and undergrowth,” he said. “They feed on roots, berries and some forms of plant life, and disturb the whole floor of the bush.”

In the same locality there was ample evidence of many wild cattle which had penetrated far back into the hills, continued Mr. Savage. He had observed the “stamping grounds”' where the beats congregated at nights, and from these grounds he was able to estimate that their numbers were large enough to account for a fair proportion of. the damage because the cattle were entirely dependent on the forest for food. The extensive destruction by goats in the Auckland province, particularly in the area covered by the Coromandel Peninsula, was referred to by Mr. Savage. These animals fed on the small growth in the bush and stripped the bark of trees, and it would require a concerted effort to rid the affected areas of that pest. Hares and rabbits ascended to the fringe of the f° r *’ ne in winter, and were responsible for damage. Advancing civilisation was the cniet offender in some instances for irretrievable damage to valuable wooded areas. Mr. Savage said he had noticed that on the Coromandel 'Ranges, where whole areas of bush had been felled and the good timber taken out, many slips were occurring. This fact indicated that once the timber was removed from steep country, erosion and other causes resulted in the continual slipping of the hills. , A solution of the problem was advocated by Mr. Savage, who said that the only possible way of protecting forests from damage by browsing animals

would be for the Government to set aside certain areas and then to exterminate every type in those areas. It was not sufficient to concentrate on getting rid of the various species of deer, because that would not reach the heart of a trouble which was growing more and more serious.