Letters: Region dodges a bullet as rain breaks drought

Rain last week relieved drought conditions. Photo / File

How lucky can we get? The Western Bay of Plenty missed a bullet when it rained – gently - to break the drought on Tuesday.

Had we instead received a tropical cyclone then the intense run-off from dry, short pastures and from our damaged catchment forests of the Conservation Park, would likely have resulted in severe flooding downstream.

We cannot rely on luck. We will get intense storms falling on our catchment-protection forests. The catchment function of these forests is compromised by out-of-control, introduced browsing pest animals.

The canopies of the catchment forest are in various stages of destruction, and in places have totally collapsed. Possums are the destroyers of protective canopies.

Under the canopy, understory vegetation is heavily browsed and in places also totally eaten out. Deer, goats and pigs are the understory destructors. Deer are the most widespread pest, but wallabies which are poised to invade on our Rotorua and Whakatāne boundaries, pose an even worse threat to our protective catchment forests.

Our Kaimaī-Mamaku Park and its forests urgently require an aerial 1080 poison drop to control and reduce the introduced browsing pests so that the forest can recover and restore the flood and drought protection for downstream communities and property.

Basil Graeme
Tauranga

Drugs and users a terrible dilemma

Drugs are probably the biggest problem facing the world today.

Every country is facing the terrible dilemma of what to do with the thousands of drug users who are mostly homeless, unemployable, totally dependent and are creating such a problem that most big cities and towns can't cope.

The critical situation is caused by the greed of the drug dealers and the inability of the authorities to contain the influx of drugs into our communities.

Something has to be done. We have to learn how to toughen up against the dealers and the importers, the ones who create the problem.

We have to re-look at the penalties and the way the courts view these vicious people who care only for the vast sums of money they are able to make at the cost of human life and the tragedy that leaves affected families broken and devastated.

We have to get tougher with the perpetrators. The situation is already out of hand in many countries.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

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