Corona stories: Number 53 New Zealand 2001

Timber Jack

In 2015 Yale University tried to make an assessment of the total number of trees in the world. The result was 3 040 288 194 283. The number is declining. In march 2020 alone, 645 000 ha of trees were felled. Culprits mainly were Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, and overall, Brazil. The amount of forest lost there was 167% higher than in the year before.

Redwood in Redwood National Park, California

It is very easy to blame a faraway place. For sure part of the forest is cleared because corrupt and greedy politicians and entrepreneurs want to fill their pockets. However, all the countries with big forest loss belong to those parts of the world beset by high population growth and poverty. Big parts of forests in Indonesia or Brazil were cleared to satisfy western demands, for example in palm oil or soja. Not only carnivores, but also vegetarians of the western world greatly contribute to the decline of forests.

Sequoias at Matriposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park

As a school kid I loved to read the leatherstocking tales of J.F. Cooper. The leatherstocking tales are about the time of the indians, trappers and pathfinders in the newly colonised atlantic canada between 1740 and 1793. The heroes roam the endless forests in the american north east. In 1827 J.F.Cooper published another book in the series, “the prairie”. The hero, Natty Bumppo, in the books called “the trapper”, by then an old man, is asked why he left the endless forests and ended up in those endless grasslands. His answer is that he could not stand the noise of the axes and saws any more.

The foot of a redwood

Many of the people protesting against the loss of forests in the third world live in countries where the forests were cleared long ago. In fact the colonial powers Great Britain and Spain destroyed their own forests just like the ancient Greeks and Romans before them for the sake of ship building. But the British went further. While the Spaniards did not care at all, the British after their arrival in the new world introduced a production oriented forest management based on mono cultures which in the Anglophile countries like United States, Australia and New Zealand has a legacy lasting until today.

Cypress trees in Congaree National Park, South Carolina

The remaining forest in Okefenokee swamp, Georgia

Big parts of the south eastern united states from Louisiana to Virginia were covered in forests. Although an average of habitat loss of 30% of the forests in this area does not sound alarming it means that from the original old growth forests with big trees only small pockets like in Congaree National Park in South Carolina remain. Okefenokee swamp at the border of Georgia to Florida originally was an area entirely covered with trees. They were all logged. However, the alligators remain.

Alligator in Okefenokee swamp, Georgia

The trees growing in these areas have evolved in millions of years. In hot California, a climate prone to wildfires, evolution has created Redwood and Sequoia forests which are basically flame resistant. Redwood trees are the tallest trees on earth. In 1850, 8100 sqkm of California were covered in old growth redwood forest. Of these, about 300 sqkm remain. Sequoias are the world’s most bulky trees. Of the old growth forests 144 sqkm remain. The biggest tree, General Sherman, is more than 80 m high and has a diameter of 10 m.

At the foot of the biggest tree of Argentina

Burnt down forest outside Parque Nacional de Alerce

The old fire resistant trees were replaced by fast growing pine trees. In Europe forests are usually managed in a way that only grown up trees are selectively taken from the forest. In United States, Australia or New Zealand tracts of land are leased to investors and trees are harvested like corn. Blocks of land are entirely cleared and a monoculture is planted. After 20 or 30 years all the trees are harvested and the cycle starts again with planting. There are roads where you drive along 2 km of trees 5 years old, than 10 years old, then 15 years old etc. until you arrive at a clearing and the next new growth plantation. The consequence is low resistance to pests, risk of forest fires and increased erosion. But the profit is higher.

Alerce in Parque Nacional de Alerce in Argentina

South America has its own bread of Sequoia, the Alerce Andino, or Fitzroya, growing in the southern Andes region of chilean and argeninian Patagonia. Likewise, these trees were heavily logged. The biggest known tree is taller than 60 m and has a diameter of 4.3 m. Much bigger trees had existed. Charles Darwin reported a tree of a diameter of 12 m. The biggest tree in Alerce National Park close to Esquel in Argentina is 57 m high and has a diameter of 2.20 m. It is 2600 years old. In Chile they found a tree more than 3600 years old. It then is the second oldest tree species on earth, after the Bristlecone pines growing in some pockets of the White and Panamint mountains in California and the Big Basin National Park in Nevada.

The world's oldest trees: Bristlecone pines in Patriarch Grove, White mountains, California

The big old tree of New Zealand is the Kauri (Agathis australis). As the map shows, the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand as well as the lovely Coromandel Peninsula was almost completely covered in Kauri forest. The evolution of the Kauri tree goes back some 150 million years. Kauri trees are known to grow to a height above 50 m and a trunk girth up to 16 meters and can be more than 2000 years old. The trees grow extremely slow and reach maturity only after a millennium. As a consequence, Kauri wood is extremely durable and solid. Kauri trunks 50.000 years old can be recovered from peat swamps and still be used by artisans for furniture, but not for construction.

Development of forests in New Zealand in the last 150 years

Before the arrival of the British, Kauri forests covered 12.000 sqkm. By 1900, 90% of the Kauri forests were felled. Still, in 1911, in Auckland Province alone, 118 saw mills were busy to get some profit out of these Kauri forests. The work of the loggers and workers in the saw mills was dangerous. Some logs had a diameter twice the height of the men. Eventually a device was invented to move the logs – the timber jack. On longer distances, initially trains of oxen were used to pull logs out of the forest. Later, gravity was employed to move logs on trucks on wooden rails. Brakemen were lying on the trucks, and downhill, applied the brakes when necessary. If the truck jumped the rail, the brakemen were squashed to death by the log. When the first steam engines arrived, most of the big trees had already been cut. Today about 4% of uncut original Kauri stand is left. Against all public protests logging of Kauri continued until 1972. Today logging of Kauri is prohibited in New Zealand. Instead, a related Kauri species is logged on the Fidji Islands and imported.

Kauri tree and stump in Waipoua Forest

Although the wood is of such high quality, big parts of the original Kauri forest was burnt. But even when the wood was sold, the profit was meagre and hardly covered the costs. Another valuable part of the tree was the gum. While most of the gum pieces are corn size Kauri also produced pieces as heavy as 25 kg. There are various uses for the gum and gum digger became a profitable profession in the 19th century. Between 1850 and 1950 the incredible amount of 450.000 tons of Kauri gum were exported.

Road in Waipoua Forest

Tree ferns, another endemic species of New Zealand

In the winter of 2001 we wanted to get away from the clouds and the rain and decided to spent the turn of the year in New Zealand. However, the turn of the years 2001 to 2002 must have seen one of the worst summers in their modern history. Begin december 2001 we drove up route 12 towards Waipoua Kauri forest in nearly constant rain. Meanwhile, on the south island, they had evacuated the popular Abel Tasman National Park. The hiking path along the beaches was flooded and people could not get out any more.

Young kauri tree towering above the camper

In Matakohe a museum tells the story of the Kauri timber industry. They have a big collection of pieces of gum and furniture made of Kauri. Some short breaks in the downpour allowed a couple of short walks in Waipoua forest to see some of the remaining old trees. However, when we tried to drive up further north the road was blocked. The brown flood of the river had submerged a bridge and was flowing above and underneath the bridge. We turned around and tried our luck at the Coromandel peninsula, previously covered in forest but now mostly by grass.

End of the way, flooded road 12

Old Photos show how Mercury Bay on Coromandel’s East coast looked like in the time of the timber trade. The logs were stored in the booms, that is they were lying in a separated area of the bay waiting to be sawn into planks and beams by the local saw mill. Barques were waiting to load the sawn wood and bring it to places as far away as Australia, the California gold fields or even Europe. Today, the bay is filled with yachts and pleasure boats. The saw mill has disappeared long ago. Like many, the place now lives from tourists. The surrounding hills are covered in scrub and low growth forest. It looks pretty, but the big trees are gone. Already by 1885 the forests were cleared to such an extent that farming became more profitable than logging. Only a little Kauri grove is left outside the town of Coromandel.

Coromandel Peninsula

We ended up in a quiet holiday park next to the beach in a shallow bay on the west coast. The sun came out and everything looked green and pretty. The derelict old red telephone cell and the worn out, seedy caravans gave the place a nostalgic feel. We had a camper and were glad we did not have to stay in one of them. On the photos the location looks like Shelly Beach, but the place has changed beyond recognition. The old caravans are gone and they have even paved the road.

The campground on Coromandel

Today, in the time of global warming due to an increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Kauri is considered a long-term carbon sink. The total carbon content in living above ground biomass and dead biomass of mature Kauri forest are the second highest of any forest type anywhere in the world. The estimated total carbon capture is up to nearly 1000 tones per hectare. This is more than any tropical forest. This would make Kauri forests an interesting alternative to carbon dioxide storage under ground or recovery from the air by chemical means.

The coastline of Coromandel

One of the few remaining old forests of remarkable size in Europe is the Białowieża Forest at the border of Belarus and Poland. 1771 sqkm in Belarus and 105 sqkm in Poland are protected as national parks or Biosphere reserves. However, 84% of the forest in Poland is outside the national park. Against pleas of UNESCO as well as against EU law the polish government decided to allow logging in the old growth forest. Since 2017 160,000 to 180,000 trees were felled. But maybe the Polish were only ashamed that their trees were dwarfs. The tallest stands 41 m high.

Fishing port in Coromandel

According to the investigation by Yale cited above the Netherlands has 307 087 470 trees. The website boomregister.nl shows how many trees are in each neighbourhood. However, the European initiative “Green deal” wants to plant an additional 2 billion trees in Europe. It could serve as another carbon sink. For the Netherlands, the green deal would imply planting 1.3-1.5 million trees. Planting 500.000 trees would require a surface of 200 ha and bind 2000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. This sounds like a lot but it is nothing compared to the yearly emission of 200 million tons produced by humankind. Even if the entire green deal would be carried out it could only lead to a yearly consumption of 8 million tons of carbon dioxide.