NATURE-AND MAN

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19663, 24 August 1935, Page 4

NATURE-AND MAN

DEER WORSE THAN RABBIT “NEW ZEALAND’S ENEMY NO. 1." (By Leo Fanning). Several evils have been named “New Zealand’s Enemy No. 1." In view of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, the strongest claim to that title belongs to deer. This belief is impressively supported by an illustrated article in the Society’s August Bulletin, which declares “that there is plenty of indisputable evidence that deer are New Zealand’s Enemy No. 1. In some forests, especially the girdle of Mt. Egmont, wild goats are the main menace, but the districts threatened by hordes of deer are of much greater area. “The introduction of rabbits has proved a very costly, blunder hut bad as the rabbit is as a destroyer It has to take second place to deer. Why? Well, the rabbit makes Its habitat In country that Is easily accessible. Experience has proved that strict enforcement of existing laws can keep this nuisance under control. A few years ago, when the prices of skins soared to high points, this animal was practically cleaned out of some thicklyinfested parts of Otago and Southland. “It is not so easy to wage successful war on deer, which can take refuge In very rough country. They are like the plundering old-time barons of England who could retire to strong castles when pressed by their enemies. "Always the deer are bringing death nearer to. forests, on which the welfare of large tracts of farming country is absolutely dependent. They are eating out the undergrowth and so preventing regeneration; they are also killing adult trees. They are spoiling the forest floor—changing It from a sponge, a natural regulator of waterflow, into a waste of rubble. When those forests cease to be protective of the high-country soil, which Is a comparatively thin layer, resting on rock, the lowlands will be smitten with Irreparable disaster. "A good few thousands of the pests have been killed during the past three years In limited areas, but the tally of the slain would be far short of the natural- Increase, because those alien animals have no natural enemies in the forests. Sir Alexander Young (Minister of Internal Affairs), with a full knowledge of the havoc wrought 'by ;deer, has rightly declared a war of extermination against them, but he lacks the funds for the necessary large-scale operations. "The time has come,” the article •concludes, "for the Government to recognise properly Its responsibility to the present population of New Zealand •and to posterity. An effective onset against deer—a great campaign to save the vitally necessary forests —is far more Important to the Dominion than anything else that Is visible In the Government’s programme." “Seeing Is Believing.”

The Illustrations are reproductions of photographs supplied by the State Forest Service. These pictures show how deer have destroyed much undergrowth of the Haurangl. State Forest (one the eastern side of Wellington Province) and mountain beech In a forest of Otago. Indeed, the havoc of the deer Is such as the largest ‘war-tank’’ might cause In rampaging through woods. One of the pictures Is titled “One of the final stages of deer ruin. Scoured scarps in parts of the Haurangl Reserve after the forest cover has been ravaged by deer." In contrast with that distressing evidence of desolation ts a ploture showing how Nature, In suitable localities, oan make new forests If she Is not oheoked by man or animals. It is a beautiful young growth of beech In a Southland forest ( previously out over), a strong regeneration, because the area Is not Infested by deer.