Forests of the Future

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 8

Forests of the Future

State Plantations Extended

THE completion of the season’s planting’ at Riverhead adds another extensive tract to New Zealand’s State plantations. During the season about 2,500 acres have been planted, important experiments have been carried out. and employment has been found for about 100 men, most of whom ha's e been paid off this week.

CTATE plantations in the Auckland Province now cover an area of about 100,000 acres, and the programme projected by the State Forest Service is as yet only in its early stages. The afforestation schemes will serve many different ends. Slaughtered kauri forests can never be restored, but the imported trees will, at least, conceal scars. Further, they will redeem from its present infertil-

% * at ity much country now sterile. That is a consideration for the future. Planting has been carried out on an immense scale on the remote Kaingaroa Plains, where leagues of waste country now wear a hint of unfamiliar greenery where young trees form a light but thickening garment for the downs. ON MODERN LINES These operations have been conducted along scientific lines. There is provision for weapons wherewith to oppose that hideous menace, fire. From high spurs lookout towers command a wide sweep of infant forest, which is broken by fire-breaks and patrolled by forest rangers. Portable fire-extinguishers are provided so that small outbreaks may be quenched. All this reads rather like America, where the rangers patrol their wards in airplanes. New Zealand, it has been pointed out, is not so far behind America in afforestation projects, and experts from overseas have said that her efforts are creditable. It is perhaps a belated amendment for the ravages of broad-axe and cross-cut saw in the days when kauri was king, and the bushmen could exercise a cal-

lous discrimination, but it is an amendment, just tbs same. Even the zooming airplane is not altogether lacking, for the ground for a huge afforestation scheme at Hanmer, North Canterbury, has been surveyed Irom the air. The Forestry Department does not restrict its operations to planting. Wherever possible it acquires standing timber, -which it holds as fcrest reserve. In the past year such purchases have been made in the Auckland. Hawke’s Bay and Nelson Provinces. KARIOI PURCHASE An immense area of country at the extreme northern end of the 'Wellington Province was acquired from Mr. W. Duncan, a well-known sportsman, early this year. It comprised the Karioi station, of 33,000 acres, skirting the base of Mount Ruapehu, and the purchase excited a good deal of criticism from neighbouring settlers, who retained visions of the glory in which the station basked when it was part of the immense Karioi sheeprun owned by the Studholme family, and who still consider that it is too good to be buried under a mantle of forest. Auckland’s chief concern, of course, is the Riverhead project. The formation of the plantation was begun in the early part of 1926, when an area of 8,765 acres of Crown land was gazetted State forest. With the inclusion of adjoining lands, the area has already been enlarged, and ultimately will be as much as 12,450 acres. Outstanding advantages of the area are its close proximity to Auckland and its accessibility by highway, waterway and rail. “SPOT” SOWING METHODS An area of 40 acres near Riverhead township was acquired for a nursery site, which has been sufficiently successful to allow an output which has kept 100 men engaged in transplanting during the season. Economies could be effected by the “spot” sowing method, by which trees are planted where they are wanted, but the method is not always successful., as birds and rabbits, wind and weather, have taken heavy toll of the seedlings in the open. The system has advantages of speed, as a Duncan seeddrill drawn by a tractor can plant 100 pounds of seed per day, which means that something like 200 acres can be covered. At Riverhead adequate firebreak provisions have been maintained. Avenues two chains wide, principally following the ridges, divide the plantation into blocks up to 150 acres in area.

The plantation now consists of about one and a-half million trees. During the summer about 15 men will be kept employed, and roadmaking operations are to be started. Other proposals include a topographical survey of the area, and further plaiting at Maramarua and Riverhead, which will double the number of trees.