P.W.D.'s Grim Battle With Nature For Sandy Wastes Of Waitarere

Chronicle (Levin), 15 January 1949, Page 4

P.W.D.'s Grim Battle With Nature For Sandy Wastes Of Waitarere

; ' - • — 4*-- - :'-4 ' ' When man wages war with nature it;s a ^rim battle with ng holds barred. It's a Ipng struggle, to'o, with no respite for those engaged in it, only hard toil, bitter disappointment and unwitting fifth column activity by the gr§atest beneficiary-^ man himself. On the coastal strip/.not very f ar from Levin's neat gardens » ;- and green lawns, such a battle is being fought today and on the desolate wastes behind Waitarere are to be .f'ound' the first signposts of victory — -neat rows of sand binding grasses, lupins and stately pines. But there are wounds— ^horrible, gaping wounds— where winds have whipped relentlessly. through the man-made dunes and charred barren stretches, where fire — the greatest enemy-0— has undone years of work and planning. , Fire! That is the fifth column after planting the fern. and ltipln, of this war, but it originates in- which has grown up around ihe many instances from a thoyghtless young trees, has all to he cleare'd

act by a passer-by, or a carelesslyi lit or partially extinguished . camp h fire. Children playing on the sand dunes or bathers running back- ' wards and f orwards over them can 1 also do considerable damage, • . Vast Area Planted : Touring the area this week With ] the engineer in charge, a "Chron- 1 icie'-' reporter learned that to date : 3000 acres of sand country are' now hel'd and half of That planted out : with trees, The scheme was started in 1935 to provide work. The Government th'en had 350 acres just north of the township and 1100 acres to. the south, extending almost to Hokio. That area is now almost completely held and plansed out in trees, with the exception oi a coastal strip from a quarter to half a mile wide. A part to the south, also to be planted out, is a quarter of a mile of beach near Hokio, which was used as a bombing range. by the R.N.Z.A.F. -during the war. Worx is now being carried out on this area. A new area of 1500 acres was acquired last year through a Levin man, Mr. S. L. Jackson, who made a gift of 1006 acres of his land north of Waitarere for tree planting purposes. About one third of this has been . stabilised where .once there was bare sand and it should be ready for the planting of lupin next season. A considerable portion alrea'dy held by fern and lupin has been planted out with two-year-old pines. • At the turn off to the right on the . Waitarere Beach road, is the original P.W.D. settlement 'establiShed in 1935. . It eonsists ! of a nuniber of hutments arid around it g,re ,the nurseries where, 100,000 young pines can be-seen in variou$ stages of growca. The engineer stated that the seeds are secured from the pine cones gathered in from other parts of the •plantation and dried out at thenursery. At the settlement, che reporter and engineer were joined by ihe overseer,. and the part v transferred froih" a" car to a sturdy ex-Air Force Command vehicle for a tour of all sections of the rough country. Much Preparatory Work , On the way the engineer explained that the work is carried out to a set pattern and system. The first task is the building up of the fore sand dunes to the correct shape and height. This is done with * scrub fences, Next came the planting out of silvery sand grass, or Spinifex, which thrived only on moving sand cn the lower seaward edge of the fore dunes. Marram grass is then planted, the clumps being spaced 30 inches and from the fore dune inland. It also likes the moving sand. Next comes the planting of lupin which thrives on the stable sand" and when it has been established and in for three • seasons, lines are cleared and two-year-old trees planted out. Owing to the broken nature of the country — the high dunes and intervening flats — the ciearing of the lines is the most. expensive part of the job, said the engineer. The use .of mechanical plant for this has not yet proved satisfactory and considerable manpower is necessary. Two or three years

after which the trees- become well sstablished. The gigantic nature of this work is ^seen in some, areas where the fern has almost engulfed bhe trees. • . ' Some 1200 trees to the acre is the usual planting system. Previously there have been 800 to the .acre, but the spacing ha§ been reduced ' hi aocordahce with the latest forestry methods. .Clbse planting, it has * been found, induces rapid and straight growth, and a better quality of timber. . Increased thinning out is necessary and this thinning produces fire wood wfiich has a considerable sale value. ' Record Growth RecordedSouth of 'Waitarere some of the trees are now 15 years .old and 60 feet' high, and show an annual height grov/th of from five to_ six feet. One variety, the pinus radiata (pinus insigms) is showing better growth resuits' than any in New Zealand and in fact compares more than favourahly with the growth in any part of the world. A recent measure up for 12 and 13-year-olds, 600 to the acre, sfiows. a total volume of 4500 cubic feet per acre, whereas 18^-year-old trees in other parts of the North Island show only 5800 and 6400. cubic feet. The lupin's ,main function is. - to provide feed for the young trees and later, decaying pine needles completely altered" the texture of the sand, ; - Asked whether the land^ might ultimately be used for farming, the engineer said that it WUS possihle but unfikely that it would be of any use. The main aim • was the- prp-r tection of the land behind. . • The trees, when matured, can be felled for timber and the area from which they are taken 'replanted, Other types of trees haye ,been tried also but the pines have proved the best, Fire Control . . ; The greatest danger in sucn . plantatioris is fire and considerable steps have been taken to refi-uce this risk. Fire breaks have been c,ut parallel and at right ahgles throughout the plantation.s and the. three fire- watching towers ara ' ht present being heightened. A consfcant watch is kept and on holidays and Sundays a mobile patrol, with fire fighting equipmen't, is on duty at the beach. Wipfi is also destructive and does much damage to the young trees nearer the coast. Protection is also needed - against rabbits " which undo much of the good work. The Waitarere plantations were, until a year ago, under the control of th.e Palmerston North branch .of the P.W.D. (now known as Ministry of Works), and much credit for -.the original work is due the engineer who was then in 'charge, ' Now the control has passed to the Wellington district office under the redistribution of districts. \ Bumping along the rough sandy • tracks in the Command car may have been the best way to obtain a full picture of what is being "done at Waitarere, and consider1 able other areas along New Zealand's coastline, but.it is certainly nq.t the most comfortable. Sorxie areas are as near an approach tq the Western Desert as cari be found in New Zealand, but the Works Department is nearly master now and the prospect for the future -- looks brighter — much brighter than ever before.