RIMU FORESTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 January 1928, Page 4

RIMU FORESTS.

REGENERATION PROBLEM

CHRISTCHURCH, Jan, 17

The. problem of perpetuating our rimu forests by practical and economical methods is being investigated by Messrs C. 12. Fowerakei- and F. 12. Hutchinson, of the Canterbury College School of Forestry.’* They leave again to-morrow for AVcstland to continue their research.

They state that the regeneration of our rimu forests by replanting is out of the question on the score of cost, but there are great hopes for regeneration by systematic logging over the areas just felled. The lumber would not be burnt but the growth allowed to spring up over it. Thus the seeds would fall from the .cut branches of the old trees and the young trees would not be damaged. Hitherto much damage has been done by fire destroying the young growth over the felled areas. There is ample evidence in wet /gullies on the West Coast which have been left unscathed by the fire that usually follows felling that the young rimu does sprout from seed and grow up through the undergrowth. The investigators are trying to discover the rate of growth under different conditions of logging and fire protection, and also the amount of seed which germinates, and the most suitable conditions under which its does so. This is the method which gives most hope for the regeneration of our native rimu forests, and the method has been used in American forests with gratifying results.