Healing Hand In The Hills

It is nearly 10 years now since "Photo News" printed pictures showing the alarming extent of erosion in the Mangatu area, in the Te Wereroa stream and other tributaries of the Waipaoa River, in the high country above Whatatutu. Ten years before that, in 1948, the Catchment Board had started tree planting on what was called the "crushed argillite" area in an attempt to stabilise the sliding hillsides, debris from which posed a serious threat to flood protection works in the lower Waipaoa River. In May 1959 the Board persuaded Ministers of Cabinet to inspect the area, and subsequently the State took over 17,000 acres at Mangatu and started large-scale afforestation. Today, as the pictures on this page show, the result is a marked success on all but the worst of the slips.

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Picture taken from the Tarndale Road looking down the Te Wereroa towards Gisborne. showing some of the worst of the slips. The dark areas are initial forest plantings.

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The same scene today. Almost all the area is planted, and the "healing" process is well advanced.

In many respects the area is a blueprint for the scheme which the Government has now adopted in principle to control erosion on a quarter of a million acres extending northwards from Mangatu to Ruatoria. The scheme, as recommended in the Taylor Report, is a very long-term one, but the effect eventually would be to provide the East Coast with a major timber industry at least as extensive as that on which the kawerau project was based. It is thought that the initial plantings would be in a critical area north of the Tapuaeroa River, near Ruatoria, working south from there and north from Mangatu until the plantings meet.

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Young pine is symbol of big developments on the East Coast back country.

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Forests in developing stages in view across Te Wereroa Stream. Hill on opposite side of the river was seriously eroded.

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The giant Tarndale slip has in the main defied regeneration.

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Looking down into the Mangatu Stream from the Tarndale Road. This is a typical area so far not planted, except for one lone pine.