NZ Govt. Study: Logging Degrades Beech Forests
8/16/99
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Title: NZ Govt. Study: Logging Degrades Beech Forests
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 16, 1999
LINCOLN, New Zealand, August 16, 1999 (ENS) - Logging by state owned
enterprise Timberlands West Coast in old growth beech forests of the
South Island is causing the decline of those forests, a new computer
model by a government research agency has found. The logging is being
fought tooth and nail by New Zealand's conservation groups.
The status and use of these publicly owned beech forests on the West
Coast of the South Island has been a contentious issue over several
decades.
Even low-intensity logging will change the composition of red beech
forests in the Maruia Valley, according to a new model prepared by
the government research agency Landcare Research. The model shows the
number of larger, older trees is likely to be reduced under most
logging options.
"The new model allows forest management options to be explored by any
interested party," said Dr. Andy Pearce, Chief Executive of Landcare
Research.
The Landcare Research model is an extension of the one used by the
state owned enterprise Timberlands West Coast.
Landcare Research produced the model to allow anyone to explore the
tradeoffs between harvesting and maintaining the forest's current
composition, and to enable public debate about acceptable tradeoffs.
A free copy of the model is available from Landcare Research web
site: http://www.landcare.cri.nz.
"Our model shows that the number of large trees will decline even if
the rate of harvest is less than one tree per hectare per year," said
Dr. Murray Efford, the maker of the model.
"The Timberlands model has suggested that low-intensity logging would
allow the present size structure of the forest to persist. This no
longer appears to be the case. Our model suggests the forests will
progressively lose their old-growth character. How quickly this will
happen depends on how many trees are felled in each 15-year felling
cycle," said Dr. Efford.
"Most of the wood volume in these forests is in trees that are more
than 200 years old. The largest trees in these forests are more than
400 years old. And these large, old trees provide nest sites for
native birds and bats, so they play an important part in the
ecosystem," he said.
Forest conservation group Native Forest Action says the new report
shows major flaws in Timberlands' claims to sustainable logging. "The
Landcare report shows that under Timberlands' beech logging model,
the forests will be severely depleted of older trees in only a few
years," said Native Forest Action spokesperson Dean Baigent-Mercer.
Environmental group New Zealand Forest and Bird Society is among
those angry that this small state owned enterprise is being allowed
to plunder priceless rimu and beech forests all over the West Coast
of New Zealand's South Island.
The group condemned the commencement of logging by Timberlands in
Buller's Orikaka Forest last week - Conservation Week in New Zealand.
"Timberlands' logging makes a mockery of this year's Conservation
Week theme of 'Turning the Tide' on the decline of New Zealand's
native plant and animal species," Forest and Bird field officer,
Eugenie Sage said.
Forest and Bird has challenged the logging of Orikaka Forest in the
Environment Court. The Society has sought a Court ruling under the
Resource Management Act on whether Timberlands has the resource
consents it needs to log Orikaka Forest and four other Buller
forests. The case was heard on July 26 and 27 1999, and the
Environment Court has yet to release its decision.
"Timberlands' action in starting to log without waiting for the
Environment Court's decision highlights the SOE's [state owned
enterprise] arrogance," Sage said.