Longariro Forest Park: The people's proposal

Forest and Bird, Volume 16, Issue 1, 1 February 1985, Page 11

Longariro Forest Park: The people's proposal

by

Gerard Hutching

: ongariro State Forest is no longer the hub of the southern King Country timber industry. Here rimu, matai, totara and kahikatea are no more sacrificed to the needs of man, and the sawmills at Raurimu, Owhango, Erua and ‘Taurewa are silent. The piles of native logs stacked alongside radiata pine at the surviving sawmills at Mananui and National Park have been taken from bush remnants on private land, for the accessible areas of the State Forest have been completely logged out. The? 25.703-hectare forest «ts regenerating. Logging scars have been disguised by kanuka, toe toe, kamahi, five-finger, mahoe, wineberry and Coprosma, while saplings of their more stately bretheren assert themselves through the low canopy. Some of the forest was logged only lightly or not at all: kaikawaka-totara-matai forests grow on the’ waterlogged Ngauruhoe ash of the cold uplands; mountain beech forests crowd down the Whakapapa River and tawa-rimu forests mantle river banks. Apart from a few tracks, it is difficult to detect that logging has even occurred here. ‘The magnificent heavy stands of totaramatai growing on Taupo pumice have been worked over, although many matai remain, in part because of their defective timber, in part because the market for matal was poor.

In 1977 logging in Tongariro Forest ceased, but in the few years since then native plants have swiftly begun the process of restoration. A unique group of King Country locals 1s determined to defy Forest Service plans to clear native forests in their region Like the forest, the sawmilling towns close by are also being restored -this time as tourist and holiday centres. Strategically located near the ski fields of the Tongariro National Park, the mill and railway houses have been transformed into holiday homes, ski lodges and school camps to which people flock from throughout the North Island. These visitors are capitalising not just on the towns’ proximity to the ski fields. They are also making increasing use of the old roadways, the hunting opportunities, the bush walks and the magnificent fishing rivers of the Tongariro Forest. However the respite for the native plants of the Tongariro Forest may be only brief. Since 1951 the Lands and Survey Department has cleared over 3,000 hectares of the southern part of the forest to create marginally economic farmland which has been beset by problems of a severe climate, high development costs and bovine tuberculosis. Over a thousand hectares of exotic trees have been planted

in patches through Tongariro by the Forest Service. Now that the millable timber has gone, the second wave of the onslaught is underway. A December 1983 Land Use Study produced by the Forest Service identified much of the forest as suitable for conversion to pines or pastures. Public comment was invited on this study but even before the deadline for submissions had closed, an interim zoning map was produced by Forest Service for the area. This zoned approximately 7,000 hectares of the forest for conversion to pines and a further 3,000 hectares for conversion to farmland. The remainder of the forest that was not already pines or pastures was zoned for a range of uses including indigenous management, recreation, scenery protection, ecological areas and soil and water protection. Of particular concern to local people, was the zoning for exotic conversion of Owhango townships’ new water catchment area and native forests around the popular Outdoor Pursuits Centre. Their response to the Forest Service proposals was to form a group unique in New Zealand conservation history — the first time an organisation outside the Forest Service has taken the initiative to push for the creation of a forest park. The Tongariro Forest Park Promotion Committee was formed after a major

public meeting in Owhango township on 17 April 1984. It describes itself as ‘"probably more representative of a local community than any other group of its type in New Zealand today’. A quick check of its members confirms this — a Taumarunui County and Taumarunui Borough councillor, community councillors from the townships of National Park and Owhango, a representative of the local Outdoor Pursuits Centre, tourism, deerstalking and tramping club representatives and members of the Forest and Bird King Country branch. The chairman of the committee, Alan Bradbury, a local farmer and Federated Farmers office holder, sees this broad base as one of its major strengths. The committee is promoting the idea that a Forest Park could have a number of uses. Forest production would not dominate, as the Forest Service appears to wish; more emphasis would be placed on tourism, education and conservation of native forest. For a brief time in October last year the issue hit the headlines when the Minister of Forests, Koro Wetere, approved a twoyear planting programme which involved the clearance of 600 hectares of Tongariro State Forest near the Outdoor Pursuits Centre. The promotion committee was outraged. They had previously received assurances from the Forest Service and

"*The committee ’s demands might be seen as too radical by Forest Service bureaucrats. "’ from politicians on both sides of the House that no development was to occur until after amanagement plan was produced for public comment. Their protests were given wide coverage through both radio and newspapers and resulted in the calling ofa snap debate in Parliament. Later that day after the intervention of the Prime Minister, the clearance decision was reversed. ‘Tongariro Forest had been granted a temporary reprieve while a management plan was produced which is due out later this year. In some areas it is too late. Tony Harrison, an instructor at the OPC, says that over the years he has watched trees that had become friends tumble one by one. The low point was reached when a Forest Service bulldozer was working down from the Mangetepopo Gorge, an area regarded by the Service itself as having ‘‘high potential’ for outdoor education. The bulldozer carried on right up to the river, leaving debris choking its formerly clear waterway. To Tony and others at the OPC, such behaviour does not seem ‘‘sensible’’.

While the Forest Service admits a mistake was made, Tony believes that none of the forest close to the OPC should have been touched. ‘It’s a heartbreak to see trees which we knew personally. Now they are left on the ground. At least they could have used them,"’ says Tony, who conducts classes in environmental interpretation with some of the 2500 young people who visit the OPC each year. One of the arguments advanced by the Forest Service for clearing the 600 hectare Ketetahi block was that the area was little but gorse and blackberry -a patently untrue assertion. In fact it is ideal for OPC activities such as compass work, exploration and camping. The park promotion committee also sees value in this type of land for what it is proposing. It believes that, given the opportunity, it could transform the southern King Country into a carefully planned tourist area. Skiing, fishing, hunting, tramping and rafting are already attracting people from throughout New Zealand and overseas to the region. The committee also sees possibilities in horse trekking, a ‘‘Raurimu_ railways special’? showing visitors the famous railways engineering feat, and home hosting to enable visitors to meet locals. Alan Bradbury says that the committee’s demands might be seen as too radical

‘‘Now that the millable timber has gone, the second wave of the onslaught is underway. ’’ by Forest Service bureaucrats, but all it is asking for is that the local community should have a say over what happens in its own backyard. ‘We want a forest park and we want a committee to set a management plan as to the best use of the land. It’s a pretty innovative suggestion’, says Alan Bradbury. He views the way in which the locals have taken up the conservation of Tongariro forest as indicative of a change of heart to these matters by the establishment. ‘"There has been a change. Before it was tear down, destroy, destroy, destroy. Farmers in particular had been the worst when it came to that. It is time to stop,’’ he Says. Significantly many of the people strongly supporting the campaign to stop conversion of the forest to pines used to be involved in logging it. Bluey Smith and his father logged out much of Tongariro Forest for the Dominion sawmill in Owhango. He and his wife now strongly support the Forest Park campaign. His botanist son Kevin recently joined with Forest and Bird National Conservation Officer, Gerry McSweeney, to carry out a vital ecological survey of Tongariro Forest last April. That survey identified may plant and forest association unique to the Tongariro Forest. It also found major flaws in the Forest Service 1983 Land Use Study. Most of the areas mapped as ‘‘heavy scrub’’ were found to be indigenous forest by the normally accepted definition of what constitutes a forest. Unfortunately the Forest Service was using an incorrect definition. Secondly, any land that had been ring fenced to keep out stock was simply described as ‘partially developed farmland’. Yet some of this contained sizeable areas of lightly exploited forest inhabited by important bird species such as robins and parakeets. One such area con-

tained the only recorded stand of red beech (apart from a little stand on Mt Pihanga) in the area north of the Tongariro volcanoes. Gerry McSweeney and Kevin Smith found a whole range of native birds both in the native forest and_ regenerating shrubland areas. The North Island brown kiwi was widespread throughout, along with species such as whiteheads, pigeon, tui, bellbird, tomtit, and fantail. Less common species such as kaka, parakeet, robin and falcon are also present in the forest. Blue duck are abundant in the Wanganui and Whakapapa rivers which drain through Tongariro forest. The Forest and Bird survey recommended that the ecological reserves proposed in the forest be more than doubled in extent to achieve adequate scientific representation of Tongariro’s important plant communities. It also suggested that the remaining forest and shrubland areas be protected to conserve the area’s wildlife, to protect rare plants like the curious wood rose Dactylanthus taylor, the river systems and to provide opportunities for outdoor recreation. Forest and Bird’s scientific reserve recommendations were subsequently largely endorsed by the Forest Service’s special Scientific Reserves Advisory Committee. King Country locals are fond of quoting the words of that doughty warrior Sir Winston Churchill, who told President Roosevelt in 1941: ‘‘Give us the tocls and we will finish to job."’ So far the only tools possessed by the committee have been the organisational and lobbying skills of people such as Alan Bradbury, Keith Chapple — writer of their voluminous submissions -Noeline Buckland, secretary and local body councillor, and Anne Fraser, whose plant and wildlife expertise is always sought after. The next move is up to the Government and the Forest Service. Will they provide the local people with the opportunity to decide their own destiny or will it be determined for them? oe