The Green Party is pushing for the Government to pass special legislation before Christmas to close the legal loophole that allowed rimu logging on DoC land in the Whanganui River Valley.
Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons called on DoC to carry out an urgent stocktake to establish which other areas of high-value
conservation forest around the country are still subject to such logging contracts.
"The Wanganui clear-felling of ancient rimu has fallen through a crack between two laws, and Parliament may be the only remedy," she said.
"The Greens campaigned in 1999 to stop the logging of the West Coast beech forests and the Okarito and Saltwater forests in south Westland.
"One of the first acts of the incoming Labour Government, supported by the Greens, was to halt that logging, with some contracts allowed a phase-out period," Ms Fitzsimons said.
"New Zealanders have believed ever since that all logging on lands owned by the public has ended; no wonder people are today outraged at what is happening in [Taunoka block]. We don't expect logging of ancient forests to be happening in the 21st century."
The public needed to be assured no other native forests were being felled and that legislation would stop such incidents happening again.
"The principle behind the present law is that there shall be no native logging on public land at all and that such cutting on private land must be under a sustainable management plan that ensures that only timber equivalent in volume to the annual growth rate of the forest is taken," she said.
"While some compensation might have previously been due to the very inappropriately named Wildlife Properties, they are not owed anything now if they are found to have breached the council's rules limiting clear-felling to half a hectare a year.
"In any case, compensation for the full value of the timber would be outrageously unfair, given that no compensation was given to private owners whose logging was earlier restricted or to Timberlands, whose logging rights were cancelled in 1999.
"This is a situation where protection of these ancient forests and their wildlife for their own sake and for our children's children must be the primary goal," Ms Fitzsimons said.
