Totara: A Natural and Cultural History

Totara

TotaraSome of the biggest and oldest trees in the New Zealand forest are totara. But sadly only a few are left standing.

Such mighty trees are a comforting link with our past, memorials to nature, innocence and beauty, yet colossal statements of strength, endurance and survival.

Eagles have perched on its massive boughs, moa ate its seeds beneath. It has survived enormous snow and wind storms, prolonged droughts and earthquakes, experienced the arrival of humans, possums browsing its foliage, fire and nearby logging.

An old totara has command over the bush like that of a leader, a chief, a rakau rangatira. “It is so much more than just a tree” writes botanist and consummate story teller Philip Simpson.

His passion for totara has resulted in a wonderful book in which he has explored the totara from all angles: its place in the natural world, its role in the Maori world, how Pakeha used it excessively and how it is now being protected and managed for its ecological values and for future generations of New Zealanders.

Simpson has a gift for sharing his vast botanical knowledge in a way which makes it understandable and interesting to the general reader. He explores how the totara (which is a podocarp) has evolved, explains the differences between the five species and where they grow in New Zealand.

The totara is a valuable food source for many birds as the female totara bears fruit for most of the year. Not only kereru, tui and bellbirds and silvereyes feast on its berries but introduced birds like starlings, sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds also indulge.

Maori used totara because it was durable, easy to work with, and readily available. Nearly all of the most treasured Maori carvings on which tribal genealogy is recorded were made from totara. It was also the wood that waka were made of. It featured in their waiata (songs), myths and whakatauki (sayings).

The early settlers used totara for every kind of construction. Simpson points out that “A family could get off the boat with an axe and build a new life from the tree”. Entire houses and furniture were made of totara.

But the growth of towns and cities and especially the major public works programmes instituted by the Julius Vogel government would almost spell the end of the great totara forests.

When Philip Simpson was growing up on a farm in Uruwhenua in the Takaka valley totara were just trees you chopped down and split for fence posts. They were the most durable wood you could use as they contained totarol, a natural preservative which prevents rotting.

It was not until later that he became aware that far too many totara had been chopped down and of the need for their conservation.

Protests against the wasteful logging of totara became stronger and came to a head when the forest service planned to fell a stand of mighty totara in the Pureora forest n 1980.

Conservationists led by Stephen King clambered up them and remained put on platforms which they had built. It was the perfect way to get media attention!

Their persistence paid off and eventually led to the end of widespread logging of totara and the establishment of the Department of Conservation.

So what is the future of our totara?
Philip Simpson looks to a brighter future in which we continue to build on the models of protection and restoration which have been put in place in recent years. He makes a plea for the creation of a Totara National Park. He has high hopes that the Totara can once again become plentiful as they regenerate easily and grow well when planted. But it will depend on our children’s and grandchildren’s resolve to bring more totara back. The future of totara is in their hands.

Take them if you can to stand beneath an old totara tree. If you go off the beaten track there are still some to be found. The oldest totara, like the ancient kauri tree Tane Mahuta are about 1000 years old and are awesome.

Then put this book in their hands to read the story of the totara, so eloquently told, and hope it will ignite their enthusiasm to support its continued protection and growth.

Title: Totora A Natural and Cultural History
Author: Philip Simpson
RRP: $75
Publisher: Auckland University Press

Reviews by Lyn Potter. Read more by Lyn here.