NO FOOD THERE

Forest and Bird, Issue 45, 1 August 1937, Page 13

NO FOOD THERE

THE BIRDLESS NEW FORESTS.

DURING the past summer, writes “Tangiwai,” I travelled through about a quarter of a million acres of pinus insignis and other exotic timbers, in the great plantations of the two principal companies in the heart of the North Island. Waves upon waves of pine, an immense monotony of pine. Valuable, no doubt, for some timber purposes; valuable also in a climatic sense, a protection from the bleak winds. But a silent depressing place after the forests native to the soil. That was the most significant feature of those American pine plantationsno birds. For league after league, through hundreds and thousands of acres of exotics, not a bird note is heard. The explanation is —there is no food for them there; never a berry or a flower. It is different among the eucalyptus, especially the red gums; the bellbird, sweet honeysucker, is often seen and heard there, and frequently the tui, and other birds. That is in the State plantations near Rotorua; also on the Kaingaroa Plains, where there is a roadside sprinkling of gums in the great pine forest. Not only is this absence of bird life a melancholy thing, it is an evil omen for the new plantations. Insect pests are comparatively unchecked there without the birds to keep them down. Bird and treethey are interdependent. One cannot live without the other. These exotic forests are most necessary in order to relieve the strain on the valuable native timberlands. Paper-pulp forests will be in great demand. But more Australian hardwoods are called for; they are the most useful of all exotics, and while the planters are about it they should not forget the birds, which may yet prove to be their best friends in preventing the early decay of some components of the great forest scheme.