One Tree—One Forest.

Forest and Bird, Issue 48, 1 May 1938, Page 16

One Tree —One Forest.

(By G. R. Lomas.)

The big trees of California have the reputation of being the largest trees in the world, but in the North Island of New Zealand are trees with twice the timber yield of the towering Sequoias. These are the Kauri trees (Agathis Australis), whose habitat, according to R. W. Firth, is confined to the Auckland Province, where, in the State Forest of Waipoua, may be seen some magnificent specimens of these giants.

In the Tutamoe Forest, adjoining Waipoua, grew the largest timber tree in the world, mentioned in the Government Report on Waipoua Forest by D. E. Hutchins. This tree measured 22 feet in diameter and contained 295,788 super feet of sawable timber, whereas the largest Californian tree recorded in the Congress Report 397 of 1912 on Calaveras Big Tree National Forest contained 141,000 super feet. As a tree with 1,000 cubic feet of timber is generally considered a very big tree, this New Zealand giant with 31,416 cubic feet is as large as thirty-one big trees elsewhere! Comparing this tree with European forests—an acre of medium quality spruce has, at 120 years of age, about 10,000 cubic feet of timber, whereas this single Old Man Kauri has a timber stand of three acres.

The cross-cut saws used to fell these mighty trees are operated by four men, and forty-six people have stood together on the stump of a fallen monster. The growth of these trees is slow, averaging about one foot per year, and some now standing are estimated to be over twelve hundred years of age. In his Botanical Report, Dr. Cockayne aptly describes the —“huge, grey, shining, columnar trunks whose heads tower over the rest of the forest, giving the impression from a distance of one forest superimposed upon another.”