FOREST AND BIRD

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXV, Issue 8902, 9 April 1936, Page 2

FOREST AND BIRD

THEIR VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY

NEED FOR PROTECTION

WHAT DESTRUCTION MEANS (No. I—By R. P, Bell) One wonders what the shade of Abraham Lincoln, hovering over the United States of America to-day, would think of his famous plea: “That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

When Jay N. Darling (a famous caricaturist) took office as chief of the United States Bureau of Biological Survey, he had high hopes of an administration which could prevail against the callous selfishness of sectional interests. He fought hard, he fought well —but, he was beaten. He was the “irresistible force against

the immovable object”—and the stodgy object won. Here are the words of “Ding” Darling on his resignation:— “I have come to realise that most of our wild life conservation troubles are due to lack of organisation among those who are interested but ineffective in the conservation of wild life. There is no mass strength to enforce adequate legislation and executive attention to wild life interests. Every other natonal element of American life has a national organisation to get effective results. Wild life interests remind me of an unorganised army, beaten in every battle, zealous and brave but unable to combat the trained legions who are organised to get what they want.” DESTRUCTIVE MINORITY

“There is a great truth in this statement,” comments “Nature Magazine.” “The money interests involved on the side of those who want wild life so that they may kill it has resulted in the organisation of this minority ‘to get what they want.’ They have built up a fiction that they own wild life and they defend that fancy with ample funds and power.

“If the makers of cameras, the owners of railroads and the manufacturers of automobiles that carry people to recreation areas deriving much of their allure from the existence of wild life, or the producers of innumerable items of use to those who seek the outdoors would realise the value at stake, things would be different. They might see the wisdom of protecting wild life afid providing the means to combat the money power of the arms and ammunition makers who seek to keep the killing going. There are more people fundamentally interested ■in the perpetuation and increase of our renewable natural resources in wild life than there are those seeking to destroy these resources. But Mr Darling is right; they are unorganised.” MENACE OF DEER

It is of vital importance that New Zealanders awaken to the necessity of forest conservation and of the wild life existing therein. The welfare of ourselves and growing generations is absolutely dependant on tlio protection of our natural resources. It is with this object in view that the Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand was inaugurated a short tine ago. But little can be done to preserve our national heritage without the co-operation of every member of every section of the community in an attempt to ensure the return to the original natural conditions of ravaged bush country; to prevent the destruction of native plant and bird life except upon the recommendation of recognised authorities on wild life conservation; and to eliminate all exotics to the utmost extent.

Mention was made in the “Telegraph” recently of the disastrous results attendant upon the deforestation of hill country. Wailii is fortunate in not having bush areas about, the township housing deer, which are proving a serious menace to the conservation of remaining remnants of native forest in other parts of the country.

FAR-REACHING DAMAGE 1 In striking contrast with the airy plea for the preservation by Lord ! Latymer (a devotee of stalking), vaiious accurate observers can point to the far-reaching mischief of both deei and goats in our native forests For example, in the Palliser Bay area, Wellington, one sees gaunt mountain ranges consisting of masses of rock lightly covered with soil (the scant remains of the humus of ages) which for centuries supported luxuriant vegetation. This type of country needs an abundance of undergrowth in order to hold the soil and prevent the hilltops slipping away as shale slides and ruining the valley below. In the Palliser Bay area, deer, goats and other pests have destroyed much of the undergrowth, and the remaining forest consists of old trees which will die sooner than they should because denudation of tbe undergrowth has destroyed thennatural protection. Among the few native plants which seem capable of resisting the onslaughts of the deer ami goats ace the kie-kie and one or two spaces of koromiko: nevertheless even where such plants are growing fairly densely there is no floor covering and the stones roll. One notices a total absence of any young trees such as mahoe, -pate hangehange, whauwliaupaku and so foitli, and, of course, there are no frees of the larger forest types.

PLEA FOR NATIVE SHRUBS’** v appreciation of the value of i e-\\ jQd and s native forest weli i* * Cq ") rC{ \ by the of exotic Shrubs and flowers in home tive in i' Jy llatiVGS ecluall Y attractne and, in most cases, more sueessfiu in growth owing to their being acclimatised to the rigours of New Zealand’s winter.

A further article will deal with ■methods of cultivating native plants