We know today that our forbears destroyed the forests excessively and it has had environmental consequences. Bisset tells us this, and goes as far back to a dozen years after Cook called, when the British Navy started harvesting kauri, and of the denuding of Waiheke Island more than 150 years ago.
By World War I, most of the lowland forest was cleared for farming. Certainly our pioneering forebears overdid the clearance but were ignorant of the long-term consequences. That's history, and essentially irrevocable, and for which today's Kiwis are not responsible.
But we should hesitate to judge harshly, for we have yet to be judged by generations yet unborn.
Isn't it exciting to live in our time of environmental revolution, a revolution that has been gathering momentum for several decades? This is something the armchair environmental malcontents, strangely, don't want to acknowledge. We should celebrate success, as it encourages our quest to reach for ever higher standards.
Twenty years ago, legislation was enacted to protect our native forest from exploitation on public and private land, unless specifically authorised. Today, apart from minor imports of speciality timber, New Zealand's entire timber usage is from plantation forests - and much left over for export. Almost none is from old-growth forest anywhere. This surely makes us unique. This is just one manifestation of our regard for our indigenous flora. Another is the outstanding success of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, formed in 1977, which assists private rural landowners to voluntarily protect bush from livestock and pests, and to legally protect it in perpetuity. There now are 4380 covenants, totalling 180,845 hectares. We have 14 national parks and 20 forest parks.
Here in Hawke's Bay there are many acts of ecological protection; too many to mention in a 750-word column. But let's cite a few.
-Riparian plantings along streams such as the Karamu and Maraetotara, and waterways on farmland.
-The possum knockdown through the use of 1080 has allowed a great improvement in our native forest health and resulting birdlife.
-The native plantings along the expressway and other roadside verges throughout the region. How much of this was done just 20 years ago?
-Wetlands, such as Pekapeka and Whakaki, restored at considerable cost. And some artificially developed for the public to enjoy; Lake Lopez on the way to Waimarama and Roger Alexander's at Puketapu, for example.
-The Cape Sanctuary, funded privately and with a corps of volunteers, is an environmental initiative of international significance. (I understand that there is a project to plant 1000 kauris there - that's one tree for every six months of the Titirangi kauri's life.)
-Far more developers are planting natives than chopping them down, such as the two lifestyle subdivisions that straddle Hill Rd at Bay View, where many thousands of natives have been planted. And just yesterday, I was shown around an extended garden - a park rather - on the eastern edge of Havelock North, where less than 20 years ago the owner had planted 2500 trees, which are flourishing. Mostly exotic but no matter, beautiful and a refuge for birds, native and otherwise.
-The wonderful arboretum at the Guthrie-Smith Trust and other ecological initiatives in the Tutira area.
All this is a cause for celebration. But more needs to be done.
-Ewan McGregor, a former regional councillor, is promoting a project to exclude stock from farm dams so as to develop them as mini wetlands - Farm dams for Wetlands.
-Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion, and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz.
