I feel that people in New Zealand have been mislead about the impact that the new logging laws will have on our ecosytem and climate. I have spent several days a week in the West Coast forest, both on and off public tracks, photographing & recording landscapes and species for the last 9 years. Many of my findings are reported back to scientists at Landcare Research, and my photographs record and monitor changing conditions in the forests from year to year as I do my work. Ive seen a lot of change of the West Coast over the last 9 years. Just yesterday I was at Woolley Creek, between Stillwater and Blackball, where I was reminded just how many forest gullies have so much moisture locked up in the wetlands and swamps that build up behind windfallen logs, and how many species rely on those damp environments. Todays rotting logs wont last forever, and the forest NEEDs those 40 year windfalls to replenish those habitats. I have seen areas of forest where logs have been removed, the swamps have drained and there is now just pig rooting and mud pools. Arorangi Reserve at Marsden is a good example. There are already enough people on the West Coast illegally felling and harvesting native trees. We dont need to give people any excuse to pillage the environment further. I would have thought that DOC on the West Coast would have understood the importance of these windfalls in our ecosystem. My understanding is that once the West Coast forest dries out, we can expect to see radical extremes of climate in New Zealand, and desertification of what is now farmland, in areas all over New Zealand. Is the West Coast logging industry, the National Government, or the Department Of Conservation prepared to take the legal responsibility for those outcomes ?
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 05:09:56 +0000
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