A further comment to Ted Bilek's response re monocultures in the New Zealand situation. As Ted rightly points out, if it were not for the mainly Pinus radiata plantation estate, we would not have the extensive areas of indigenous lowland conifer and conifer-angiosperm forests remaining. These remaining forests have high timber values, but are now protected in perpetuity under the Conservation Act (1987) which specifically prohibits timber extraction. While there are occasional complaints about plantation forestry (eg., increased sediment yields), the general feeling amongst NZ conservationists is that if it were not for plantation forestry, there would still be intensive and extensive timber extraction occurring in indigenous forests. Furthermore, recent government leglisation has made it compulsory for harvesting in private indigenous forests (a very small percentage of the total) to be sustainable - clearfelling is no longer allowed. And the remaining crown indigenous production forests are also managed under sustained-yield management regeimes, based explicitly on the ecological processes in these forests. David Norton School of Forestry University of Canterbury Christchurch, NZ
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