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It was not until the early 20th century – when New Zealand had about 250 sawmills and was left with only half of the 14 million hectares of forest estimated to have existed when the Europeans arrived – that concerns began to grow about the ability of the remaining forest to supply the country’s future needs. In 1919 the Government decided that firmer control was necessary and established the State Forest Service to administer its forestlands and policies.
Leon McIntosh Ellis, a Canadian, was the first Directory of Forestry and he immediately began to conserve the resource by putting strict controls on harvesting and introducing more rigid fire control and prevention measures. An inventory showed that only 6.3 million hectares of natural forest was left and much of that would be required to meet the country’s needs until other resources were created.
Following the initial despoilation of the natural resource by settlers and the permanent impact on landscape and wildlife, the programme introduced by Ellis and continued by successive governments has been successful in largely protecting native forest.
Current statistics show that there are 6.2 million hectares of native forest accounting for 23% of total land use in New Zealand. In comparison, plantation forest accounts for just 7% of total land use.
First Plantations
In the early years of the 20th century it was realised that the country would soon have a wood deficit unless trees were planted to give a future commercial supply.
The newly formed Forest Service estimated the amount of wood needed and suggested the best species to use. It is interesting that these first projections of supply and demand, and timing for the future wood supply were remarkably accurate.
The economic Depression of the 1920s and 30s provided a large pool of otherwise unemployed labour and the Government supported extensive planting programmes to create work for these people.
At the same time, private enterprise funded planting projects and by the mid 1930s several hundred thousand hectares had been planted. The largest was a single contiguous area – the Kaingaroa forest – stretching 100km or so from the east of Rotorua to south of the Napier-Taupo highway. With an area of 150,000 hectares it was, for many decades, the largest planted forest in the world. Many promising species were planted, with radiata pine and Douglas particularly favoured.
These plantations formed the basis of New Zealand’s highly successful and internationally competitive forest products industry.
Modern Plantations
Plantation forests established since the late 1920s now cover more than 1.8 million hectares and account for 7% of the total land mass. The forests are capable of meeting almost all of our current and future timber requirements.
Plantation pine forests were successfully established during the 1940s and 50s. Within 20 years, the amount of timber cut from plantations was double that from native forest and today, the very small amount of native timber still cut (less than 2%) is almost solely for use in high quality cabinet making and veneer industries.
With this abundance of plantation grown timber, New Zealanders are the highest per capita consumers of sawn lumber and medium density fibreboards.
Exports of plantation timber have expanded to make New Zealand one of the world’s major suppliers of sustainably grown softwood products.
The Forest Contribution
Right from the beginning of European colonisation forestry has been a key industry in New Zealand. With plenty of trees in almost every region, the setting up of sawmills around the country to provide building materials was logical and necessary.
Houses, schools, hospitals, factories, offices, farm buildings, fences, railways, telegraph and power lines, furniture and fittings were all derived from indigenous wood.
The old government building in Thorndon, Wellington, was the largest single structure built of wood in the world at the time.
The quality of some of New Zealand’s timber products also made them attractive overseas and soon after colonisation, a significant timber and log export industry developed. With the phasing out of exploitation of native forests, plantation timber began to supply these markets and so forestry continued to provide one of New Zealand’s largest sources of export revenue – it is now the third largest after dairy products and meat. |