THE CHIPPING OF SOUTHLAND'S NATIVE FORESTS

Forest and Bird, Issue 250, 1 November 1988, Page 4

THE CHIPPING OF SOUTHLAND'S NATIVE FORESTS

by Executive Member and Southland branch chairperson Fergus Sutherland

he pile of dark wood chips at the Bluff wharves in Southland represents the destruction of many hectares of native forest. More native forest clearance occurs in Southland than in any other part of the country, although the recent allocation of publicly-owned forests in Western Southland has slowed the pace of destruction. Every day more than 30 truckloads of logs, clearfelled from hectares of beech or kamahi forest, rumble through Invercargill on their way to the chipmill at Awarua. There some are stockpiled while others, still festooned with garlands of dying orchids and ferns, are fed into debarking and chipping machines. Reduced to shreds, these forest remains are trucked 20 kilometres to the Bluff stockpile to await shipping to the paper mills of Japan. This chipmill stands as a monument to the last and most frenetic era of native forest destruction in New Zealand. The mill was the longtime idea of a local man, Murray Crosbie. He succeeded in getting it underway in 1980, having enlisted the services of consultants T.J. Sprott and Associates as well as finance from the MLK. Hunt Foundation of Rotorua and C. Itoh Ltd of Japan. Planning approval for the establishment of the mill was sought from Southland County. This brought forth several objections. The objections put forward

by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society were based on the widespread destruction of forest that would result from the establishment of the mill. The County blindfolded itself to this obvious effect and chose only to deal with problems related to the site of the mill itself. The rest of Southland's planners and people were content with the mill company’s assurances that it was to consume "‘waste wood" only. Nearly 1,000 Hectares a Year How wrong these assurances were! This can be judged at any time by observing the great trees riding the trucks on the way to the mill, and seeing the results of clearing in the forests of the Catlins and Western Southland. Ancient trees, many straight, some twisted and rotten cored, are condemned to the paper making machine. None of this was ‘‘waste wood". It was home to rare kaka, yellowhead and parakeet populations as well as myriads of other ‘‘protected"’ wildlife. It was holding soil in place on steep land, was helping to keep rivers pure and even in their flow, was also a potentially valuable craft timber resource, which carefully harvested, could have remained forever for future generations. In the eight years since it started, the Awarua chipmill has caused the clearing of over 7,000 hectares of rich native forest on privately-owned land in eastern Southland, South Otago and in Western Southland. A further large area of publicly-owned Western Southland beech forest at Rowallan — now in the control of the Conservation Department — has been exploited as part of a chipwood and sawlog extraction scheme. Era of Destruction In the east and west of Southland the chipmill initiated and sustained a massive resurgence of native forest clearance at a time when the milling era was at last winding down. The milling had already stopped in the Catlins district of eastern Southland, leaving a landscape in the process of stabilising to an attractive combination of farmed valley floors dotted with islands of native forest and lapped by rich forested hills. There were also accessible valleys where regenerating forest promised in time to re-establish the primeval forests of the

past. Although it was too late to save the rarer birds, this forest was a lowland one full of mystery and rich in life. The chipmill has cut ugly scars into this scene and presently scavenges the forest back up the valley sides to the skylines. The picturesque Tahakopa valley in the heart of the Catlins is being hardest hit, with clearing underway on many of its farms. On the valley's south side, forests once renowned for their brilliant southern rata displays are now almost half gone, on the northern edge, ever steeper slopes are being cut into. Particularly hard hit has been the yelloweyed penguin. Significant areas of coastal forest near its breeding habitat have been woodchipped. Fortunately, there is now a much greater awareness in the farming community about the value of coastal bush for penguins. In Western Southland the native timber was still being exploited prior to the coming of the chipmill. Two mills at Tuatapere took predominantly beech and rimu from Maori land sections at Rowallan and the stateowned forests at Rowallan, Dean and Longwood. These operations selected the best trees for sawlogs and left a broken forest, but at least it retained most of the nutrients and seed sources in the slash and the nonsawlog trees. Now the chipmill removes most of the timber of any size, leaving a grey desert of broken branches and exposed soil. On the Maori-owned sections this is mainly left to regenerate as best it can, or occasionally it has been planted in exotics. On the publicly-owned land it was to lead to another generation of native beech forest, but this time a managed mono-culture without the age and species range of trees necessary as a habitat for kaka, yellowhead, parakeet or pigeon. All this was at a cost to the taxpayers of New Zealand before the Government allocated the land to DoC in July. The ‘‘beech management" scheme in western Southland was consistently a money loser. Public Silence -- Private Shame Although Southlanders accept the chipmill, few show great enthusiasm for it, unless, like the Southland Harbour Board, they directly benefit from it. Many deplore its destructiveness in private but are unprepared

to speak out publicly. Numbers directly employed are not great, this being an absolute minimum ‘‘value added"’ industry. Those employed fulltime at felling, trucking and at the chipping plant probably do not exceed 30. Another 30 may provide labour or services part of the time. The regional economy gains little apart from these few jobs. Roads get extra use and wear, the cost of which is barely balanced by road tax income. The Harbour Board undoubtedly receives the largest single rake off — from wharfage for the 150,000 tonnes of chips and the dues from eight or nine chip ships annually. Nationally there is a little foreign exchange earned, the company pays little tax, and it has received $200,000 of taxpayers’ money in regional development assistance. Sadly, the Southland United Council (SUC) recently joined forces with the Southland Harbour Board in arguing for the woodchipping to keep going. The SUC says claims that regenerating forest may be suitable for ‘‘snails and birds’’, ‘‘must be balanced against the livelihood of thousands of people reliant on the resource’’. Like regional government elsewhere in New Zealand, the SUC shows little environmental concern, preferring to kow-tow to the almighty dollar — yet another example of the problems in Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer's plans to hand environmental regulation to regional government. Is An End In Sight? When will the chipping end? The present rate of exploitation cannot continue as there will be no available timber outside of state-owned land in a few years. At present the mill operators are aggressively seeking to obtain rights to the remaining timber in private ownership. They have recently negotiated the purchase of two major forest blocks in the Tokonui District in eastern Southland and they are also trying to obtain rights to cut the largest block of Maori land in the Catlins. These Catlins coastal forests are scenic gems presently under an important short term conservation lease agreement between the owners and the Department of Conservation, due to expire this year. As for the western Southland public forests, now that they are in Conservation Department control, the chipmill is attempting to find more supplies from adjacent Maori lands. But thanks to the pressure applied by the conservation movement, coupled with an excellent case put up by DoC, the future of a number of our threatened species in the publicly-ownd forests is at least assured. Careful assessment of bird habitat in Fiordland National Park by ornithologist Kim Morrison found that only 2.6 percent of the Park a mere one fortieth of its huge area — was the tall valley floor and footslope forest, vital for kaka, parakeet, yellowhead, robin and other species. The protected area of this important forest has been almost doubled now that the western Southland state native forests are protected.