Behind Government Hill

You can find Government Hill, Herbert on Google Earth! It is the highest point on the North Block of the forest 1395' from memory.

We planted the area behind Government Hill in 1965 (its all been harvested now). It is a reasonably steep area, probably too steep for extraction by ground machine - probably hauler, but having said that, modern machines are able to work  on steeper country than we used to!

Mainly the area had a cover of silver tussock, Poa cita and on a reasonably dry day it is easy to burn off. The area goes right down to the boundary, the North Branch of the Waianakarua River. On the other side of the river is run country - that is a large sheep run.

I was keen to protect the forest boundary, and the best protection from fire is native bush. Native bush was regenerating on the run side of the river and I gave it my moral support. However, the landowner made a profit from grass, not bush/scrub and his only tool was fire. He was safe enough to burn it, because fire only travels well uphill. It was always very apparent to me when he tried to burn the area - I saw the smoke! I would go down there with a shovel! This was quite an epic walk really, but I was fit, I guess. As he lit the fire, I would beat it out with my shovel. I was always under cover of smoke or bush and he never did see me! He tried over a few seasons, but as it was a southerly face, I presume he guessed it to be difficult to burn. I guess I won this battle and now the area is under to jurisdiction of the Department of Conservation. I don't think anyone knows what I did :-)

In those days we used mattocks to plant the trees - a method these days condemned as a bad technique. The trees came from Milton, the NZFS nursery. Radiata Pine, in bundles of 25 tied with flax and puddled (dipped in muddy water). On site we heeled them in into pits. The trees were much smaller than those planted today. I have even seen the stems split by frost and the sap that oozed out had become frozen. Even in the most sever drought we achieved at least a 75% survival. As time went on we changed to spade planting and the seedlings were conditioned differently. Today I remain in the nursery industry and our forestry clients impose all sorts of specifications, well we meet them, but you would think that anything less than those specifications would not survive!

Gib Green was the Leading Hand and he led his troops well. He had served in Egypt in WWII and I found him to be a gentleman. He biked from Waianakarua each day and took his turn at being a target for joking. Things like someone putting heavy rocks in his tucker bag for him to carry out of the gully and home! A dew pond frozen over in winter was another trick, someone put is tucker bag in the middle and he had to go out on hands and knees to retrieve it - a dangerous thing, and the crew saw me frown over it. The other dangerous thing was placing his tucker bags in a three foot culvert, and when he went in, someone lit a gorse bush to smoke him out! This was a culture where there was fun and danger in the work place and I tried to keep things in control. But how could I not laugh when I came to supervise them just after lunch. Gib as usual had a snooze after his lunch, and the others (George Mitchell, I bet!) tied Gib's boot laces together and they sneaked away. Gib woke on hearing my approach and tried to hurry off, alas he was lying down legs up when I caught up with him!

Mick Hill was another trickster. He drove the D6 Bulldozer. When we were planting the back of Government Hill, old Herbie Welsh, the truck driver managed to get the old K Bedford (numbered and known as 1140) stuck. Mick pushed him out, but kept putting the blade of the dozer under the towball and lifting the rear wheels off the ground. And stopping and going - Herbie's teeth clenched his pipe with determination and rocked with the motion thinking it was his efforts that made the truck go! Micks eyes were glistening and he grinned like Popeye as he too smoked a pipe!

Good nature and camaraderie was always apparent at this time and it made everyone's lot a happier one. Oh as I am on this, the other trick and this is not the first this has happened but - one of the guys needed to do his business, and you guessed it, another took a shovel and collected it as he passed it (I'm talking poo, motions or whatever you want to call it - I have tried not to say the sh word). So the guy thinking he had done a lot, looked back to see he had done nothing! The roars of laughter told him what had happened.

Compartment 41

This is a photo of wind damage caused by the gale of 1 August 1975. I will describe this weather event later, but the photo is of Compartment 41.

Compartment 41 was the first planting at Herbert Forest - why it is not called 'Compartment 1, I do not know and in fact there was no Compartment 1, 2,3 or 4 for that matter.

The area is only 8 acres and it was planted over two years; 1948 & 48. The first tree was planted by all who were there but as I wasn't, I can't be sure of all but I know Jack Lawn, Laurie Hore, Gib Green and Bert Moir.

Bert Moir was originally employed as a Rabbiter and had bought a block of land off Reid Road (running up to Mt Misery Road) after the war (WWII). The local Otepopo school kids used to hide from him in those early days because they feared him as he rode his horse to the Herbert Store dressed in his khaki clothes, bushman's hat and legs wrapped in puttees. A rifle in a scabbard. But Bert wouldn't harm a fly ... well, I want to do a bit of a profile on him as he was one of those wonderful characters. In the artillery based at Port Lyttleton (the Heads) he told me they were guarding the port entrance and all incoming craft were supposed to identify themselves. One small fishing boat did not, so the officer, thinking the crew were gutting fish or asleep, ordered Bert to fire a round across her bows. Well he hit the boat midships and sank her! What eventuated was never related to me, but his rendition of a later incident, he thought may have been a punishment.

He was in occupation force in Japan and was ordered to guard a train of a trip for one place to another. He alone was the guard and he became concerned, if a little frightened that the train was gathering too much speed. It seemed to be rocking to & fro with reckless abandon! So he thought he would exercise his authority and order the driver to slow the train down, but he did not understand him, so Bert flourished his rifle, and the driver and fireman put their hands up. This concerned Bert even more because the train seemed to be going faster, and now nobody was controlling it! He decided to lower his weapon. The fireman smiled at him and took from his bag a new bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey. Bert knew very well that it must have been pilfered from the good he was supposed to be guarding, but on the other hand he was partial to a drop - so the three shared the bottle. His fear of the careering train slowly evaporated as the level in the bottle lowered. They arrived safely at their destination and the Americans to whom he delivered the train did not notice that he had been imbibing!

Anyway back to Compartment 41.

Because the area was more or less a demonstation site, and it was accessable to the road (Breakneck Road - then a public road), the silviculture was kept up to standard. Silviculture? Tending of trees to make them as marketable as possible. This basically means pruning and thinning. Pruning to remove lower branches, thus producing clear wood outside the pruning scars. Thinning, like a row of carrots, to make them grow fatter.

In the old days we used to use Orsa saw blades on wooden handles - difficult things to sharpen and thse days jacksaws are used with throw away blades or often loppers are favoured.

Pruning is done in a series of lifts and should be dome only to half tree height, though there has been a school of thought that 1/3 green crown remaining was ok. so in this area the first lift was 0 - 6 feet, later 6 - 12 feet, later again 12 - 18 feet next 18 - 24 feet, and here 24 - 32 feet! No longer carried out because of the cost. You can not use saws on the end of poles for this. A platform was used - climb the 16 foot ladder and fix around the tree the platform; stnad on the platform and pull the ladder up between your legs and sit it in the hooks on the platform; climb the ladder and continue pruning.

Obviously this was a very hard job, and I remember the bonus target of 42 trees per day being set for the 24 - 32 foot lift. A most expensive operation and no longer carried out - where would you get the workers anyway?
The picture is grainy but you get the idea.

Frank Ford carried out the production thinning operation, contracted to McCullum & Co - later to become Fletchers/Placemakers. Every tree in the block had a mark on it - Foresters! And we were required to cut some of the trees ourselves to measure them and test the volume tables. Colin Bartrum and I did this. Franks young brother Adrian also was there making money while he was starting up his tree nursery business - oh yes he will come later because I ended up working for him!

When you prune trees to such a height, they must be thinned appropriately to gain the maximum clear wood outside the pruned stubs. This puts the stand at risk to wind throw. That night of 1 August 1975, I stopped in the moonlight at around 1:00 am to wathch the trees thrashing around, the crowns catching the wind like a sail and the stems bending unnaturally! Snap, the stem would break! I didn't stay too long it was dangerous and returning home would be an adventure in the conditions.

The following 12 months saw me leading a team to salvage as much fallen timber as possible from the damaged crop around the forest, but Compartment 41 was the biggest loss because the trees had snapped, rather than toppling.

I visited the area recently and the third crop is established, but look, the war has not been won over the gorse.