Kicking the TEA TREE FIREWOOD habit

Forest and Bird, Issue 265, 1 August 1992, Page 43

Kicking the TEA TREE FIREWOOD habit

Don Chapple

FIREWOOO. SQcu_ metres jin a ert ee ff oan, Sea ie) gle | FIREWoo Bu red, $38 6x4x] Phone 566-6277. Stacked trailer, ~ >eorbcp GP OS Rind to, OY City J ke? Se on Sters, geo a e-06 ee D, dry, $30 ver, cuvered pn Dt FIR py es: 230; Macrocarpa ~ pnp. » Ory, per | ji, ed, : aes: Spit $310. «°C? ute load. Phone 578-1113. Phone Pt a hordvong OAL NZ $480 or mixed loads and 4¥cu FIREWOOD are you hav FIREWOOD : Promps day. TY. ho e metre loads. Tel Pilchers’ a1 4 ing trouble’ _ black Wattle’ dry, Sur deli: @f 06-308-9438 Featherston. ~~ pik ie al € green FIREW, €. Ph 533-1299 Sr eed Phone p FIREWOOD. At dry split pine" 7:4) five anehave dry, N.Z. na: tive pO, dry NZ. , eetonp $110, manuka $175, per cord. « tive, Shed Sto; Shed Stored ’«. oh Dn Cucalyy ee i 4 Pt. diy ve include; trailer’ $38 6x4 forests } FIREWOOD. Cut your own with a 24sh- GST. MacDonalds Bitstio, quality chainsaw, petrol and nd, ¥ arbecye a ine. ud Fy Pitre bs Farm, (In Yellow electric models, from $399. AladWe, 2nd ha : ‘ Pages} np BD) as din Lawnmowers, 411 High St, > Phone Firewoog M: 4 ti 94947, sin | FIREWoon a Yellow Far ty. psatahibat d | bp OOD, dry pir] 54g. Pages) Phe 53s j SREB eye omen eet PICKS: ideal for tot. teh at Poulan chainsaw, new 5 9208.7 2° and chip heaters 6x5y Woop. dr ~ FIp unbelievable prices, from $299. $40: 8x 5 trate. | 2Nd native ‘6% a Sales. Service. Hire. Lawnboys, = © X $50, delive » $45 2 ute 60 Vivian St, Open Sat mornings. "ty | ered. Phone 575-604.) Ted. Phone Site Tel 384-8324. FIREWoan 10¢ Bh be oh : FIREWOOD. Kindling only, dry, ~ dry gu = Pine, gyz 4’. $20 per trailer load. Ph 499-5078. * = 2cu.m, Phone 543-190 ered. Ph yale FIREWOOD. Win a trip to Fiji, on +. i IREWOOD, free, Wil} PIREWoo st coerce amet | Pioesean Sige Oon i ail. Guaran 2 ; : oy, tant * " gum and pj. ayaijap; within 3 days. Wairarapa Fie- | 6x4 delivered $4) pi! up o wood Supplies. Ph 04-560-2400. > | 2442565 or 543-3075. load. Phor FIREWOOD dry, macrocarpa, na-," FIREWOOD Kingling | FIREWr tives, manuka, pine. Deliveries.. "4, b y | in and yard sales. Ngaio Coat and; bag, car or trailer | Macroo Wood ph 499-1930 anytime... *, hr Phone (Ca ns ler O Mili slab, $30 pers. 971-8690 or cal} at 12g} for ’ qewrage Ph 233-9211 Ave, Sup; a/hts 239-9799. . ial. Spit ~~» Srdie Pine rts bit pei ~ dine, 6x4 {not Wharf Pine). Ngaio Coal and: °30, cord $65. Ph 578 Wood. Ph 499-1930 anytime. bs "IREWOOD- g FIREWOOD split Pine, $120 «Nd ma . cord. Ute loads $60, trailer $50.7)... ae huka Ph 564-3364, 025-438-623 t.4«.Strfl FIREWOOD Split pine 4m? guir delivered to Hutt VORO: Oe ein" ele

bd Aahanbhy Dredahd 527-9046 a" FIREWC Red " trai’ F Tea tree is by common consent a clean, hot firewood. It is so good it can burn out the back of your stove if you are not careful. But, as DON CHAPPLE explains, it is an important feature of the native vegetation cover and even conservationists use it, unaware of its ecological values. UCH a hot firewood as tea tree fetches high prices. Loopholes in the resource management law plus the old Kiwi habit of "getting away with it" encourage landowners and contractors to meet the market and perpetuate demand. Fuel merchants and retailers become willing partners. Consumers complete the cycle from rapidly diminishing resources to wood ash under the home burner. New Zealand is paying dearly for this practice as precious stands of kanuka (Kunzea ericoides) and manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) fall to the chainsaw. Both species are found in most districts of New Zealand. Both are colonisers of bare earth, burnt or barren sites and poor pasture land, their extremely fine seed being wind-borne for considerable distances. Both are denigrated as "scrub". It is scrub which is important in the early stages of what is called forest "succession". This is the natural process whereby cleared areas are revegetated over a number of stages climaxing in mature forest. Kanuka and manuka pro-

vide shelter for seedlings of the slowergrowing later canopy species such as totara, rimu, beech and broadleaf trees. These seedlings eventually grow large enough to dominate the forest and force out the early scrub species. It is impossible to plant a native forest. We can approximate, crudely, the natural process of creation; we may even speed

up the early or "nurse" phases. But we cannot duplicate the myriad variables and the intricate interrelationships. We cannot match either nature’s amazing prodigality or its monumental patience. It is more thorough, and much cheaper. At best we can assist by reducing alien threats — invasive exotic weed plants, feral animals, destructive machines.

ANUKA the smaller-growing of the two tea tree species — 1s hardier and more versatile. It has specialised spongy, air-filled root-tissue which enables it to grow in sour, nutrient-deficient and waterlogged soils. With this advantage it is invaluable for revegetating flood-scoured stream banks, establishing as a shrubland in its own right on permanently wet, sour or badly drained and depleted soils (for example, northern "gumlands’’). The same species, however, is also xerophytic — able to thrive on very dry, exposed sites. Kanuka, with its softer foliage, masses of tiny flowers and seed capsules is the

aristocrat of the two: rather more particular as to soil and site, and destined for lordly height (up to 16 metres) and spread. Where it shares the first succession stages with manuka it usually outstrips the latter. Kanuka, as "nurse" to secondary succession and the emergence of future broadleaf and podocarp climax forest, is an impressive tree in its maturity (at 50 to 75 years). Not surprisingly, the larger diameters, many stems and high-crowning of kanuka make it profitable for the firewood contractor. It is also cleaner to handle, more even in quality. Not that manuka is immune; where it predominates it is likely to offer up to 6 metres of branchless stem with convenient diameters of 10-15 cm — no splitting required. Whichever species happens to be targeted when chainsaw, bulldozer and winch start operating, 30 to 70 years of growth 1s soon destroyed with companion broadleaf and fern species crushed and torn. In the older stands, seedlings of future canopy trees meet the same fate. Bird, insect and reptile habitat is lost. It is unlikely that any but a small proportion of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of hectares cut annually will be allowed to recover its former

Surviving Kanuka and Manuka COr munities may yet enjoy respect — for | own sake and for what they are nurtu ing, that is, native forests of the future Don Chapple is a garde and retired teacher. He | on Waiheke Island. 4 ere, ) Reis Pip re Pt "OD Ai Pine oe pp Pad, an Wong eS. g575 hone" Stacked 6x Cig Je of ORE yee Pipe Mag! hi resp? Ping Yeo ~~ | 0 5 BA,

vegetative balance and completeness. Protective bush is being depleted in water catchments and around the margins of streams and wetlands. The folly goes unchecked, it seems, by either national legislation or local ordinance. ESOURCE management law in general, and soil and water conservation law in particular, is still skewed toward maximising commercial opportunity; the wider and longterm ecological context of land use tends to be honoured only in preambles. Section 10 of the Resource Management Act is already notorious for its "existing use’"’ clauses. The first of these clauses gives licence independently of local body ordinance. The second clause places certain limits upon the "use" claimed but in words which should keep lawyers (on both sides of the disputed case) arguing until the rivers run dry. As one of the many kinds of rural "‘users’’, firewood contractors are likely to be able to keep cutting until that part of the law at least, is thoroughly revised. If and when that happens it will be up to each local body via its district plan to ensure that protection of natural assets has top priority. Surviving kanuka and manuka communities may yet enjoy respect — for their own sake and for what they are nurturing, that is, native forests of the future. +

is a gardener

and retired teacher. He lives on Waiheke Island.

The alternatives

ad. NTRODUCED tree species offer firewood alternatives and have done so for many years. Some people are fortunate in having ready access to a number of species, much of it "rogue" growth. Gorse, wild cotoneaster, old pussy willow and black wattle are among my favoured exotic wildings. Macrocarpa sapwood thoroughly dried is excellent kindling and good for a quick hot flame. The tough stringy heartwood of brush wattle (Albizia lophantha) 1s clean-burning, with good embers. But my favourite is the common wattle (Acacia meamsii) which has the qualities of tea tree — clean-burning, very hot and with good embers. It is faster growing than manuka and kanuka and also coppices vigorously. There are many other choices. ‘WOOL : . ative, These almost all the acacia rome species with A. decurrens having the &x5 trailer. highest thermal rating, several of the comer eucalypts including E. saligna for "length, ‘a. warmer climates and E. nitens for the vet colder, and Salix matsudana (a species hone 573-483 Of willow) for wetter sites. }OOD, manu Two less well known species with ‘arpa etc) ct : ; : ths. Firew a thermal rating are the ey T.M.T j "Phone sy STOWing tagasaste or tree lucerne 00D, mix (Chamaecytisus palmensis) and the pensioners s]ower-growing but versatile and 78-5477. me 00D, old m frost-hardy black locust ‘and delive pseudacacia). Then of course, there is «. Phone 575. Kheold aa ay : h 0D, old m, the pine, /2 ton, $70, and_easy to obtain but not so high in | hone 578-796 th ] ] \ ee "etal | — Sup There are other species for use as one firewood, especially other acacias and " (07) 333-80 eucalypts. For detailed information | OD, pine get hold of The Firewood Venture (FRI | a, = Bulletin 137) from the Forest | OD special, Research Institute, Private Bag 3020, | 6x4 trailer Rotorua. cam ifund Waihi Ro: | Dt es 2 a | alr QOD Naa por a and native mix $19 7. | ee et_ Ini ti St Phone ani. Teste Pet | $50. Fern high, | G: ee try. Phone (07) ga gy0e | Hours. eo alter | Fa )D ‘split baP nee: Firewas Phe AFIREWOUD eneiai, TT | wp |