DEER NUISANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19365, 23 July 1925, Page 3

DEER NUISANCE

DAMAGE TO FORESTS. “LIKE COMPOUND INTEREST." (Special to Tho Press). WELLINGTON. July 17. According to Mr H. A. Goudio, Con* servator of Forests at Rotorua, deer in New Zealand should be treated as rabbits and ruthlessly destroyed. “In our native forests,” he says, “wo have a plant association which has yet to be studied. It may mean that the destruction of only one unit in that association may have a very deleterious effect, and present us with a very difficult problem in the scentific treatment later of problems arising with tho. endeavour to retain other individual species. This is one reason and a very strong reason why doer, if not completely destroyed, must be kept well under control.

“It is utter nonsense to talk about clearing out the deer near plantations, and keeping them to the back country, where there are only native forests. We find that where deer have access to indigenous forests they kill out quite a lot of shrubby plants, especially tho penax. more familiarly known as the hou hou or five finger, and the effect of this on tho figure of the forests cannot be estimated.

“Their work in pine plantations is even more disastrous. We lintl them a menace more particularly in the Rotorua district. Doer were liberated there some twenty years ago. The firs* few years they were not so noticeable, but they are like compound interest, increasing surprisingly after the first decade. So crowded are they in the Rotorua district now that there are very few good heads secured there by sportsmen, and it scorns that we shall have to treat the deer the same as tho rabbit for a few years.

“From lhe point of view of the Forestry Department, they do a vasl amount of damage to new plantations Ono small plantation of Weymoutl pine was totally destroyed by them ai a cost to the Department of £2OO They ate the tops off the young plants, and the bark from the saplings. Tn some cases we have found the older trees killed by them, as they eat the bark off the trees up to six inches in diameter. The Whakarewarewa planta* tion has been a great sufferer, but the same applies at Kaingaroa plaim where the planting of pine and Doug las fir is being undertaken. m he deei have encoached on this area, wud hav« done a great amount of damag' amongst the young trees. Wo are doin. all we can to keep them out, but the trees grow up i* will be ingly difficult, as they will afford cover for the deer

“Many farmers have had serious losses in our district, and so bad have tho depredations been among turnips and mangolds, that one farmer’s son sat up all one frosty night, in order to be hidden near the crops, and have the benefit of the morning light for his rifle.”