Beech Forest Types and Managemnet Potential in North Westland

Authors: J.Y. Morris
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 1959, Issue N.Z.J.For. 8(1) 1959, pp 91-100, May 1959
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: The forests of north Westland (Grey, Ahaura, and upper Taramakau valleys) total approximately 570,000 acres. Of this, some 290,000 acres is high-mountain protection forest. Virgin accessible forest of possible potential for sustained timber production totals about 200,000 acres. This accessible forest is largely beech-podocarp forest with either hardwoods or softwoods locally dominant.
Red beech is a species of high promise, but pressure for the land on which the best stands occur must ultimately mean that its management will consist in the culture of discontinuous pockets in lower-quality stands, or the extension of the species on to land now carrying the best hard beech. Hard beech is a species of somewhat lower potential than red, but owing to the fact that it occupies the major part of the true forest land in the region its management must be undertaken in the interests of regional economy. Silver beech has unquestionable watershed-protection value, but it is never likely to be more than a secondary species in forest production, and its management will be undertaken in conjunction with that of red or hard beech. Mountain beech will probably be managed only for the production of mining timber, but this is not to say that its contribution is unimportant. Converting this species to mining timber creates an opportunity to save more valuable red beech stands for sawlog production.

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