FORESTS

Forest and Bird, Issue 44, 1 May 1937, Page 8

FORESTS

Address delivered at Forest Conference held in Wellington on 2nd April, by E. V. Sanderson, President Forest and Bird Protection Society,

YOUR Excellency, the Honourables Messrs. Langstone and Parry, Ladies and Gentlemen. First of all I should like to congratulate your Excellency and those of your Ministers whose duties bring them in contact with forest matters, on the recent efforts to grapple with the very serious forest problems which have accumulated in this country owing to past lack of knowledge of the value of standing forests. Now at last, after years of indifference, there is to be a change. It is with profound pleasure and gratitude that this Society greets the new policy. For the first time we have an administration which is alive to this urgent need for a reversal of the bad old system of free play for forest destroyers. There are here in New Zealand the same two sections in the community which are to be found in most countries occupied by the white man. On the one side we have the organised commercial-minded minority who are bent on exploiting all available assets, (frozen assets they have at times been called) for their own immediate advantage and without much thought as to the consequences to the community. The other section consists of a disorganised majority (sometimes dubbed by the first section as sentimentalists) who are prepared to put national interests before individual gain. The Forest and Bird Protection Society, which comprises many of the second section, welcomes the fine idea of calling this Tree conference together and congratulates those who, along with Your Excellency, are responsible for its being convened. Let us all now look this question of forestry squarely in the face. When the matter of all our forest policy is reviewed, as from the date of colonisation, it must be admitted that possibly in no country in the world, or at no time in the world’s history, has the foundation been so well laid for creating those disasters which have wiped many former civilisations off the face of the earth. New Zealand, owing to its configuration, is very sensitive to the disastrous effects of uncontrolled water run-off such as

floods, erosion, etc., therefore Nature provided it with the most remarkable and effective pro-tection-covering known, composed of a plant community the like of which is found nowhere else. Naturally therefore we have forest problems to deal with, the solution of which does not lie in merely copying what other countries do or have done. It seems to me and to many others that we should fully realise what an excellent job we have made of laying the foundation of the future destruction of this once fair land. We have introduced foreign plant-eating animals onto the mountain tops, and all manner of browsing animals such as deer, opossums, cattle, etc., into our main forests, despite warnings from eminent authorities as to the unsuitability of our plant life to withstand the ravages of such creatures, especially as their natural enemies are absent. Man actively aids all these destructive agents with his fire, axe and saw. The Maori lived on the interest nature produced. We live on the capital. The fact that no nation can live in prosperity, nay exist, without a sufficiency of standing forest appears to have been entirely ignored in the past. A few have been permitted to accumulate wealth at the expense of the community. This is where we are to-day. The remedies must be of a drastic nature in order to combat effectually the state of forestry affairs which I have dwelt upon. The Forest and Bird Protection Society therefore recommend: — 1. That a great effort be made to educate the community old and young to the value of our native plant life both economically and aesthetically. 2. The undertaking of immediate demarcation of all lands under three main headings: Agricultural, Pastoral and Forestry, irrespective of ownership. 3. All remaining native forests be sub-divid-ed into two classes, Protection and Commercial. Protection forests to be removed from the Departments at present administering them and placed under a Department of Conservation,

whose administration would include all wild life, sanctuaries for wild life or forests such as Waipoua, Scenic Reserves, National Parks and similar national monuments. Their policy would naturally be the elimination of all exotics both plant and animal where possible. Commercial forests to be administered by the present State Service, who would be compelled by legislation to operate them as a perpetual crop without interfering with their scenic value in any marked manner such as interplanting with exotics. 4. All State exotic plantations to be administered by the State Forest Service. Continuous

pure stands to be avoided. Further plantations to be made for various purposes such as timber, pulp-wood, etc. 5. All native forests now existing to be tax free while standing, but a heavy compensating tax to be charged on timber milled on nativeowned or privately-owned native forest. That milling and felling of native trees be placed under a licensing system, under the Department of Conservation. That all mills operating on native forest be rationed down to at least two thirds of their present output which is now much in excess of what New Zealand can afford to sacrifice, and that the importation of

building timber be resumed from America and elsewhere in order to cope with the increased demand, and thereby conserve our own greatly diminished supply. The Forest and Bird Protection Society has received a report which goes to indicate gross mismanagement owing to the lack of such a system. High up on Mount Tongariro, this report states, a wonderful nativeowned forest is being cut and milled by a Syrian. This forest, which is at an elevation of 3000 feet, should be part of the Tongariro National Park, but we have been told that no funds are available to purchase it despite the fact that finance is usually forthcoming for such schemes as the new road to Milford. Exploitation invariably dominates conservation in New Zealand. 6. The export overseas of native timber, at least from the North Island, should be prohibited. New Zealand cannot afford to send its valuable native timber to Australia. This applies emphatically to kauri, white pine and rimu. 7. A special effort should be made in order to acquire knowledge as to the conditions required to grow our native timber trees rapidly. Some small experiments by private individuals tend to demonstrate that this can be quite easily done provided the proper conditions of soil, moisture, drainage, etc., are ensured. The fact that we have never seriously attempted the regeneration of kauri forests is surely a reflection upon our enterprise. Beech, totara, rimu and kahikatea will all grow reasonably fast under proper conditions. White pine may, however, require such good soil that the cost may be prohibitive owing to the heavy accumulation of compound interest incurred by the initial cost of the land. 8. All lands upon which the bush has been felled and which have been found to be economically unfitted for pastoral purposes should be abandoned and where we cannot afford to replant, should be left to nature and guarded against fire and plant-eating animals. The initial growth would be fern, manuka, etc. This is, however, quite a good check against excessive water run off. 9. That all protection should be removed from the opossum, that it should be declared a pest, and that free trapping should be allowed to rid the forests of it. Trappers should not be permitted to damage the forest as they do at present. Every opossum in the bush means so

much less food for the native birds, so much less protection for them. 10. That timber milling should never be allowed in a water supply reserve such as the Akatarewa or the Waitakere. No official forester is needed. Not another tree should be felled. There Nature is the best forester. All that is necessary is to protect the forest from fire and animals and it will continue to reproduce itself as it has done for centuries until man came to ruin it. To summarise, Forests are the first essential in the economy of a nation. They protect the top soil (which produces nearly all our wealth and food supplies) from being washed away into the sea and hold back the stony debris and such like material which would follow the loss of the top soil and cover over much of our lower land with its useless material. Forests further, have a marked effect climatically; without them hard, harsh desert-like conditions arise. No individual should be permitted to acquire wealth by destroying forests on watersheds, high country or steep country because the resulting losses to the community far outweigh individual gain. Some arguments used in order to destroy the forest are puerile, such as the need for grass for more stock. Trees are in all probability a much more productive and permanent crop than grass, as Japan has discovered. She has 67 per cent, of her total area in forest and 15 per cent, in agriculture. Yet she carries an incomparably larger population than ours on much the same area. All the facts and all the statements made are, however, without any avail unless the public realise them as correct. Nothing can be done without public sympathy, therefore, the first essential is to secure this backing, and it can be done by telling the public the facts in their own language in as simple a form as possible. The Forest and Bird Protection Society has gone as far as its funds would permit in this direction, with, we are pleased to think, marked success, but the funds available are wholly inadequate to do the work quickly.