Probably the most controversial kauri logging decision in the last century was that of the National Government to initiate clear fell logging of the Warawara state forest (North of the Hokianga) in the late 1960s. This created a national outcry as this forest contains the second largest volume of kauri after the Waipoua forest and was until that time, essentially unlogged (Adams, 1980). The plan also involved considerable cost, requiring a long road to be driven up a steep high plateau into the heart of the protected area. Because the stands of kauri were dense, the ecological destruction in the affected plateau area (approximately a fifth of the forest by area, and a quarter by volume of timber) was essentially complete (as of the early 1990s most of the affected area contained a thick covering of native grasses with little or no kauri regeneration). Logging was stopped in fulfillment of an election pledge by the Labour Government of 1972. When the National Party was reelected in 1975, the ban on kauri logging in the Warawara remained in place, but was soon replaced by policies encouraging the logging of giant totara and other podocarps in the central North Island. The outcry over the Warawara was an important stepping stone towards the legal protection of the small percentage of remaining virgin kauri-podocarp forest in New Zealand's Government-owned forests.