Major Gifts of Northern Forest To Preserve Heritage

Forest and Bird, Issue 300, 1 May 2001, Page 6

Major Gifts of Northern Forest To Preserve Heritage

wo major gifts of forest T in Northland, and a gift and purchases near Auckland, have expanded the number of public reserves which protect the surviving rainforests of the north. e A forest of 753 hectares, south of Kaikohe, has been gifted to the nation by the family of the late Mr Hilel Korman, former owner of Hilstan Industries and founder and chairman of Holeproof Industries. The forest is inhabited by several threatened species.

e Project Crimson has benefited from a transfer of lands on the southern shores of the Hokianga, with the gift of 245 hectares by the timber company Carter Holt Harvey. Three blocks of South Auckland kauri and other native trees, totalling just over 350 hectares, have also been protected with help from the Nature Heritage Fund. The gift of forest by the Korman family has been described by the Minister of

Conservation, Hon. Sandra Lee, as ‘a magnificent and extremely generous act of philanthropy. The Korman forest is dominated by totara, rimu, and two of Northland’s key forest trees, towai and taraire. It is home to several precious species of native wildlife, most notably the North Island brown kiwi, kukupa or native pigeon, kauri snail and the forest ringlet butterfly. The reserve is a prominent local landscape feature and a strategic source of water for many streams flowing three

ways; to the Bay of Islands, to the Hokianga and to the Kaipara harbours. It adjoins the Hikurangi Scenic Reserve and together the two reserves form the largest expanse of native forest in the Tangihua Ecological District. The forest will be securely protected as the Hilel Korman Scenic Reserve, and administered by the Department of Conservation. A grant from the Nature Heritage Fund covered the legal and administration costs of the gifting.