Waipoua Forest

The Waipoua Forest is a forest in the Northland region of the North Island of New Zealand. In the 25 km ² area grow three-quarters of preserved kauri trees of New Zealand. Particularly well known are two of the greatest living trees Tane Mahuta and the type Te Matua Ngahere.

The forest stands with the neighboring forests Waima Forest and Mataraua Forests in conjunction.

The protected area has the largest holdings of the North Island brown kiwi in Northland. On the high plateau also the endangered kokako or crow lobe live ( Callaeas cinerea).

History

The forest, at that time about 80 km ², was purchased in 1876 for just over 2,000 pounds of the Maori.

In 1885 he was placed with an area of ​​90 km ² under the State Forests Act as State Forest Reserve under protection. One of the reasons that escaped this forest of deforestation in the early years of colonization by the Europeans, was its remote location and the difficulty abzutranportieren the wood from there.

In 1907 was the Waipoua Forest and one or two smaller protected areas the only original kauri forests in state ownership. A Royal Forestry Commission recommended in 1913 to get 0.8 km ² of the Waipoua Forest and total Warawara Forest with 50 km ² as National Kauri forests for the New Zealanders.

In 1926 they suggested a road through the Waipoua Forest to create a driveway adjacent settlers.

In the 1940s, it was announced that the National Forest Service in Waipoua Kauri trees felled. 1947 gave the Whangarei Progressive Society together with the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, the Waipoua Preservation Society and their organizations interested in the protection of the area to Parliament 50,000 signatures in a wheelbarrow. Their hope was that 160 square kilometers in Waipoua should be protected as a total reserve. Other petitions followed, so that finally, on July 2, 1952 an area of ​​over 80 square kilometers have been designated as a protected area.

Fire of 2007

At the beginning of 2007, a forest fire threatened the Waipoua Forest. The fire broke out on February 1, after someone had cooked at the nearby coast on an open fire shells. The fire destroyed pine plantations in the vicinity of the national park and destroyed the vegetation in ecologically important wetlands. It came within 3 km of the Tāne Mahuta. The New Zealand firefighters and volunteers from the Department of Conservation to bring the fire with water airdrops from helicopters and fire lanes under control succeeded. Pine forest worth several million dollars and many protected birds were lost. Among them were estimated 20 Kiwis. A total of more than 2 km ² of vegetation were destroyed.

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