Saving West Coast and New Zealand Native Forests and Birds

Authors: Gerry McSweeney
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2011, Issue N.Z.J.For. 56(3) 2011, pp 11-13, Nov 2011
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: The 25-year period (1975-2000) was a time of major debate about the management of New Zealand native forests. The Institute of Foresters’ position evolved during this period from initially arguing in support of status quo, to seeking forest protection and logging only where this could be done sustainably. The ancient age of most of the trees, particularly podocarps, compared to fast growing exotic plantation trees meant that any sustained supply of native timber would be small. On the West Coast, this volume was insufficient to keep the existing West Coast mills supplied with their traditional large wood volumes. Under the 1986 West Coast Accord, the quantity of native timber available to the mills was substantially reduced as part of a West Coast sawmills transitioning to dominantly exotic timber. To ease this transition, throughout the 1990s the Government allowed its state owned enterprise, Timberlands, to overcut public forests. They removed native timber volumes well in excess of the sustainable supply. In 2002, Helen Clark’s Labour led government halted all logging of publicly owned native forest on the West Coast.

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