DOOM OF NATIVE BUSH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 308, 21 May 1941, Page 2

DOOM OF NATIVE BUSH

DESTRUCTION IN 1 NORTH WESTLAND

"North Wcstland is at present passing through a phase of history common to many parts of New Zea-. land, that phase when the timber mills close down bccause there i" little more bush to feed them," states a contributor to Forest and Bird. "It is said that at the present late of destruction of the native bush there will be very few timber mills left in North Wcstland in 15 years' time. "Sawmillers assert that the chiet trees of Wcstland, rimu and kahikatea, take 300 years or more t<i mature. Such a length of time i; far too much for a commercial mind to comprehend : hence, the reason for the delay in putting into operation the practice of selective logging in Wcstland,, though this has been recommended for some time past. The immediate excessive cost to the sawmillers of this practice, by which only mature or overmature trees are felled, isl counted of more importance than the preservation of a beautiful and valuable forest so that generations to come might derive pleasure and obtain profit therefrom. "It is noteworthjr that in Germany, a country which has been experimenting in forestry for hun j dreds of years, plantings of trees to simulate the climax forest are being made Avith a rotation of from 100 to 300 years.This is sound economic practice, and if such were tried in New Zealand it might be found that with up-to-date sylvicultural methods native trees, such as kahikatea, might not take so long to mature as is at present thought by many. The experiment would be well worth while. "When exotics are advocated for the sake of immediate commercial gain let us not forget the claims of posterity, and let us also remember that native vegetation- wil'l protect the all-important soil to a far greater extent than Avill any foreign vegetation."