LETTERS

Forest and Bird, Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 November 1989, Page 7

LETTERS

Wellington

Christchurch

Wayne Devine,

John Coppal,

Dear Sir I believe I was the anonymous but "keen enthusiast within the old Lands and Survey Department" whose actions in the 1960s resulted in some geological reserves in Southland (Bruce Hayward’s article in the August ‘89 journal). I was acting with advice from DSIR Geological Survey officers whose names I can't recall now, regrettably. The Te Anau Scientific Reserve is one of the areas Bruce refers to. The process of getting it established holds a memory which is still a very vivid one in a 26-year career in conservation. The memory is of walking into the field officers’ room in the Lands and Survey Invercargill office one day and saying I wanted some land from a farm settlement to preserve erratic boulders. The reaction was disbelieving laughter and ridicule. Life was tough for the would-be environmentalist in the mid-1960s! Anyhow, it's good to see the rest of New Zealand catching up with Southland in protecting important geological sites. Congratulations, Bruce, for

reminding us so well of this heritage at risk.

Dear Sir I was very pleased to receive my August issue of your magazine in the mail today. However I was most distressed to see this magazine covered in clear plastic wrapping. Why does an organisation that proclaims itself as having a "conservation ethic’’ waste money, energy and resources wrapping its publications in something as environmentally unsound as plastic? It seems to me to be a poor example to set. Can’t we change it?

The magazine is in fact wrapped in cellophane, not plastic. However, there have been problems with the durability of the cellophane and it is 15 percent more expensive than plastic. We are looking at the option of returning to manilla envelopes. Ed.