Guilt of Deer and Goats Proved

Forest and Bird, Issue 39, 1 February 1936, Page 9

Guilt of Deer and Goats Proved

(By Witness).

In striking contrast with the airy plea for the preservation of deer by Lord Latymer (a devotee of stalking) various accurate observers can point to the farreaching mischief of those animals in native forests.

For example, in the Palliser Bay area, Wellington, one sees gaunt mountain ranges consisting of masses of rock lightly covered with soil (the scant remains of the humus of ages) which for centuries supported luxuriant vegetation.

This type of country needs an abundance of undergrowth in order to hold the soil and prevent the hilltops slipping away as shale slides and ruining the valleys below. In the Palliser Bay area deer, goats and other pests have destroyed ' much of the undergrowth, and the remaining forest

consists of old trees which will die much sooner than they should because denudation of the undergrowth has destroyed their natural protection. Among the few native plants which seem capable of resisting the onslaughts of the deer and goats are the kie-kie and one or two species of the koromiko; nevertheless even where such plants are growing fairly densely there is no lloor covering and the stones roll. One notices a total absence of any young trees such as mahoe, pate, hangehange, whauwhaupaku and so on; of course there are no young trees of the larger forest types. Much of the Palliser Bay area is State Forest. Some action to clean out the goats is urgently necessary. Fire and sheep, of course, contribute to the damage, but hre is avoidable, and sheep do not penetrate far into bush, unless their entry is made practicable by the more agile goats and deer. The big menace is a combination of goat, deer, domestic cattle and opossum, in that order of importance.