Skip to main content

Story: Logging native forests

Clearfelling West Coast forest

Image
Clearfelling West Coast forest

Because native forests regenerated slowly, the Forest Service often preferred to completely clear the land and replant it with faster-growing exotic trees. This continued into the 1970s, when the Service was managing the West Coast beech forests. This 1973 photograph shows seedling eucalyptus trees planted in clearfelled sections of the Hochstetter forest on the West Coast.

Using this item

Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: AAQA 6500 col1267

by John Johns

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Logging native forests – Managing native forests, 1920s–1970s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12757/clearfelling-west-coast-forest (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 2 March 2009.

Comments

Bayley Cressey-Reed
12 March 2012
Very Interesting