Stopping the native firewood clearout

Forest and Bird, Issue 281, 1 August 1996, Page 12

Stopping the native firewood clearout

THE DUNEDIN branch has been campaigning this past winter to encourage the city’s firewood users to buy only non-native firewoods. Reduced demand for native wood will hopefully lead to a reduction in the cutting and clearance of native forest. Raising local awareness of the natural values of manuka and kanuka is a major objective. Manuka and kanuka are often labelled "scrub", a term that belies the important role both species play in maintaining biodiversity. Manuka and kanuka forests in Otago provide habitat for native passerines including brown creeper, rifleman and tomtit. An isolated population of South Island robin inhabits kanuka forest in the Silverstream catchment behind Dunedin, and fernbirds and falcons both use areas of low manuka close to the city. The jewelled gecko is also found in manuka around Dunedin, often in association with Ileostylus

mistletoe. The branch has been running advertisements in newspaper firewood columns (which carry ads for native firewoods from as far afield as the Catlins and the West Coast) to promote nonnative firewoods, and to provide the message that manuka and kanuka are wildlife habitat.