FOREST ABUSE

Forest and Bird, Issue 51, 1 February 1939, Page 7

FOREST ABUSE

Destruction in the Mamaku-Rotorua Bush

THE despoiling of the valuable forest on the Mamaku hills, the broken tableland between the Upper Thames headwaters and the Rotorua slopes has been evident to observant travellers during the last twenty years or more. A very serious aspect of this misuse and wastage of a region which should be a reserve in perpetuity for the growth of New Zealand indigenous timber has been brought to the attention of the Forest and Bird Protection Society by Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald, County Council Engineer at Matamata. Mr. Fitzgerald wrote as follows on November 25th of last year: —

“As one who is keenly interested in the protection of our remaining forests, I beg to raise the following point in the hope that you will be able to follow it up by an enquiry in the Government Offices, possibly the Mines Department. Much of the bush in this locality has been combed for millable timber, and when the millers pass on the bush is still in as fair condition as can be expected with every chance of regeneration. However, the pit-prop merchants then come along and make such a mess that blackberry and the like get a hold and the firestick is a natural consequence. The other day a pit-prop merchant mentioned some astounding figures as to the short life of timber in goldmines and the huge demand for replacements that I began to wonder whether this trade was not the greatest enemy to our forests. He spoke of 12in. x 12in. x 7ft. props and sheeting having a life of only six to twelve weeks in some mines, and I wondered whether the possibilities of some more durable material had been en-

quired into.” Enquiries were made in Wellington as suggested, and the President communicated the

result to Mr. Fitzgerald, who then wrote in reply to Captain Sanderson: —

“From your letter of the sth I gather that the Mines Department gave you a candid admission that they still live in the ‘dark ages.’ The Public Works Department’s road engineers have abandoned their old rule to slash and burn the bush for chains wide to ‘let in the sun and wind,’ as well as ragwort and blackberry, and now have a well-developed bush-preservation complex. The Forestry Department is still too commercially minded— at least, its fieldsmen will let any axeman take anything if he produces the royalty in advance. For a number of years pit-prop men operated in the State bush on the Mamaku Hills bordering the Rotorua-Cambridge highway. They were supposed to keep ten chains away from the public road, which was some concession to aesthetics, but they failed to do so. The story is on the files of the Forestry League. The particular place I had in mind when I wrote you is a mile or two south of the Government railway line Auckland to Rotorua, and about midway between Arahiwi and Ngatira railway stations. It is either on the large Government Reserve or some adjoining native land. However, the trade is common in many parts of the bush in the Rotorua district, both State forest and other. The usual sequence of events is as follows:

“The timber-millers comb the bush for millable trees, leaving behind many small trees of up to 15 inches diameter. The forest floor is still well carpeted, no serious injury to climatic conditions has resulted, saplings and seedings immediately set about the work of regeneration —which is far more rapid than many suppose. However, at any time from now on the bush-

combers get to work. Fencing-post and firewood merchants are bad in their comparatively small way, but the pit-prop men are worst. They thrash the forest carpet with bullock and motor truck, with camp clearing (to say nothing of pea-rifles, domestic cats and pig-dogs, for that’s another story). All of these scars are breeding grounds for blackberry and ragwort. “What is the ground landlord (often the State Forestry Department) to do next? Firestick, hand-sow rough grass and turnip, fatten up some bullocks, stump and improve pasture, use up the natural manures, and in ten or fifteen years ask the country to do something about deteriorated lands and flood damage. “It seems to me that in the conflict between the two interests, preservation of forest for climatic reasons and meeting the demand for timber, the line of demarcation is drawn in the wrong place. We have let the former become too closely associated with scenic reservations. Total preservation or none at all. By all means let the lucky landowner scoop his £IOO per acre for millable trees, but draw the line there.”

What Should Have Been Done at Mamaku.

A careful consideration of this question compels the feeling that the working of the originally great forest on the Mamaku plateau and hills has proceeded on utterly wrong and unscientific lines. This conclusion is not a hasty one, but is based on close observation of the bush during the last forty years and more.

There has been no properly thought-out system preliminary to the operations of cutting. In the first place, there should have been a liberal reservation for the preservation intact of a belt of the original forest, up to the skyline on each side of the railway line, and a similar belt taking in all the bush in sight, on each side of the main highway to Rotorua. Within these limits not a tree should have been felled, least of all the large rimu trees that were the glory of the forest in this part. These belts should have remained to this day as sanctuary parks, unspoiled sections of the primeval forest. It would have been the most beautiful place on the main travel route, a fitting gateway and avenue to the wonderland of the Rotorua

country.

This untouchable sanctuary having been set aside, under the protection of the State scenic reserve guardians, the use of the rest of the

forest for timber purposes could have been defined by foresters preferably trained in such countries as certainly not in North America where forest is simply considered as so much lumber worth so much a foot, a “frozen asset” (to use an unfortunate phrase of our Forestry Department), presumably to be thawed and liquidated by the sawmillers. The principle on which operations should have been conducted is that of the recurring crop, the removal of approved mature trees and the perpetual renewal of the native forest, and the increase of the area by the cultivation of the local species, strictly excluding all exotics. That is not only forestry science: it is simple common sense applied to the useage of timber. The destruction of the young trees as well as the old is the exact reverse of common sense methods. Obviously the native timber growing on the Mamaku Hills is far too good to be used for quickly destructive purposes in the mines. This is where the millions of exotic trees, Australian and American, could be made use of. If the well-grown trees in the plantations are not of sufficient strength for mine props, then the plantations are so much waste.

What Can Be Done.

The regeneration of the Mamaku forest or a large portion of it is still possible if commercial interests are kept out of the areas in the young plant and sapling stage. But the methods which have prevailed must be reversed, if the prime objective of true forestry is to be attained here. The formation and preservation of a perpetual native forest for timber supply besides soil protection, climatic amelioration, water supply protection, and the preservation of the richest kind of natural beauty. All the gold mines of the Hauraki are not worth the selfish ravaging of springing up forests that could be a continual source of wealth and an ever-increasing field of employment.

“There is no essential reason why birds should be terrified of human beings. It is only the brutal way in which they have been treated through the ages that has made them, with few exceptions, dread the sight of humanity. When these glories of the Creator’s art are treated with kindness, they are only too ready to respond to it. In a bird-lover’s garden they are tame and trusting—even finger tame. A so-called wild bird is the result of persecution from time immemorial.”— S. Hawkens.