The future of West Coast forests and forest industries

A submission by the Society to the New Zealand Minister of Forests, setting out 9 distinct purposes of ecological reserves in the lowland forest that has largely disappeared from New Zealand. The reserve proposals of the official Scientific Co-ordinating Committee for Beech [Nothofagus] Research are regarded as an absolute minimum. The Society also endorses, in principle, parts of the new indigenous forest policy published by the Forest Service that relate to retention of native forest cover and sustained yield of podocarps [Podocarpaceae] (currently in short supply) and beech. Forest management, timber supply and social economic aspects of a conservation policy for Westland are discussed in some detail