The results of modern landscape burning near Ruātoki, inland from Whakatāne

A typical 'Polynesian' burning pattern survives in the landscape today because of the important areas of Maori land within the Urewera Ranges. The pattern results from hundreds of years of firing. The fires start near settlements on the flats, burning up dry faces and then travelling along ridge lines until stopped by the natural topography, the steep slope at the rear of a hill, for example. Fires in the forest canopy may destroy very large podocarps such as rimu over very large areas; this photograph shows no outstanding large trees above the general level of the canopy of tawa, as it would in its natural state. (There has also been selective logging of rimu.) Fern persists in frequently burnt areas, while a forest of rewarewa (on ridges) and tawa develops on less frequently burned country.

The pattern resulting from fire is still maintained today, however the fires are not for gardening but to clear slopes of fern. On the eastern side of the hills near Ruātoki, the pattern is particularly plain. Elsewhere, the planting of pine trees and strict fire control have obliterated these landscapes.