Download Forestry

Forestry
The science and art of cultivating,
maintaining and developing forests
for commercial production
Economy
• New Zealand is a small player in the international forestry
industry, accounting for 1.1 percent of the world’s total
supply of industrial wood and 1.3 percent of the world’s
trade in forest products.
• However, New Zealand supplies almost 9% of the Asia
Pacific forest products trade volume, representing nearly
20% by value.
• Forestry is therefore a significant industry in New Zealand,
contributing an annual gross income of around $5 billion, 3
percent of New Zealand’s GDP and directly employing
around 20 000 people.
• Wood products are New Zealand’s third largest export
earner behind dairy and meat.
Economy
• The sector is entering an exciting new phase,
as wood production volumes are expected to
increase significantly in the coming years as
forests planted in recent decades reach
maturity. Our forests are also at the centre of
New Zealand’s climate change response
efforts, and there is also increasing realisation
of the environmental and social benefits
delivered by forests.
NZ Forestry
• The industry is based around sustainably
managed exotic plantation forests, covering 1.751
million hectares – approximately 7% – of New
Zealand’s land area.
• 90% of the exotic plantation area comprises
radiata pine (Pinus radiata), with Douglas fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii) accounting for 6% and
the remainder of the estate made up of
eucalyptus and other softwood and hardwood
species.
Pine Forest
• The Radiata Pine forest is characterized by its
high productivity, which on average reaches 22
m3 per hectare per year, with a growth rate up to
4 times higher than the northern hemisphere.
The aim is to maximize the economic return of
the forest, for which an intensive silvicultural
management is performed consisting of pruning
treatments at different heights, in order to get
pieces free of knots, which are of a higher
commercial value, to be used in the
remanufacturing industry.
Pine Forestry
• Pruning is accompanied by thinning operations,
to concentrate the site potential wood volume in
the best trees of the forest. The industrial logs
which are not pruned, are used as structural
timber as well as a complement to the
production of finished or semifinished products
with a high added value, (parts and pieces of
furniture, doors, mouldings, among others etc.).
Logs of smaller diameter and lesser quality are
intended for the pulp and paper industry.
Production Cycle
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This diagram shows the steps involved
in growing a plantation pine, from
preparing the planting site to the
harvest of the tree for its timber some
25–30 years later.
First, land is prepared before planting
by clearing away competing shrubs and
weeds.
Young plants, about 30 centimetres
high, are planted out in winter months.
The young trees are pruned one to
three times. The lower branches are
removed when they are young to
produce knot-free timber.
The stand of forest trees is thinned to
around 300 trees per hectare, giving
the best specimens more space to
grow well.
Most pruning and thinning occurs
within the first 12–15 years, and for the
next 10–15 years the remaining trees
are left to grow until harvest.
The trees are felled and delimbed, and
the logs are transported to a timber
mill or port for shipping overseas.
Production Outputs
Land and Climate
• Radiata pine was first introduced to New Zealand in the
late 1850s to see if would be a good candidate for
widespread planting. Its excellent growth rate
prompted seed imports from California in the 1870s,
mainly for shelter belts and woodlots.
• By the first forestry planting boom in the 1920s and
1930s, it had been adopted as the species of choice. It
proved to be versatile and grew well throughout New
Zealand on a variety of soil types, including coastal
sands, heavy clays, gravels and volcanic ash deposits.
• Farmers can make marginal land productive by planting
pine forest where grazing or cropping are not viable
options.
Economy
Economy
• Greens slam 'economic stupidity' of forestry
sale
http://www.3news.co.nz/Greens-slameconomic-stupidity-of-forestrysale/tabid/421/articleID/296134/Default.aspx
Technology
• To improve the quality of radiata pine, a genetic
research programme was started in the 1950s.
Trees of superior growth and form were selected
and propagated by grafting. The grafted pines
were planted out at wide spacing in seed
orchards away from other plantations, to prevent
pollen contamination. The first improved radiata
pines were planted in forests in 1970.
Technology
• Thousands of genetically
identical radiata pine trees
can be produced using
cultured tissue. When
seed embryos are placed
on a special growing
medium in a Petri dish,
they develop many little
shoots. Each of these
shoots can be cut off,
grown and induced to
form roots. The little
plants are then transferred
from Petri dishes to pots in
a glasshouse until they are
large enough to transfer
Technology
• Improvement programmes have continued, with selection
criteria becoming increasingly complex and the testing of
parent stock more stringent. Through controlled crossbreeding, hybridisation and advanced plant propagation
techniques, scientists have developed breeds that:
– are adapted to particular
climatic zones and soil
types
– are resistant to foliage
diseases such as dothistroma
needle blight
– produce wood that is
stronger or more durable.
Politics
Politics
• After reading your pages, what can you say
about:
– Reasons we should protect out native forests
– How Maori freehold land contributes to
protecting our forests
– What the forest means to Maori
– How native forest affects New Zealand’s plants
and animals
Future Forestry?
• THE POTENTIAL FOR REDWOOD
UTILISATION IN NEW ZEALAND
• Several factors contribute to our
decision to focus on the future of
redwood in New Zealand. The
timber is light, durable and stable;
the plantation production cycle is on
average 35 years, as opposed to the
Californian average of 60 years; and
trial exports have demonstrated that
a receptive market exists offshore.
• Redwood has, in fact, been planted
in localised areas in New Zealand for
some time, but these plantations
have lacked management input. Our
research and analyses lead us to
predict that, with correct
management procedures, real rates
of return exceeding 10% can be
achieved.
Politics
• EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME
• The ETS began in 2008.
• Forestry was the first sector covered. Those
covered by the scheme have to either pay the
government $25 on their 2008 – 2012 emissions
or acquire and surrender carbon credits. The cost
of that is the ETS's incentive to change behaviour
and cut emissions.
• In 2010 liquid fossil fuels, stationary energy and
industrial processes were included.
• Agriculture will not join until 2015 at the earliest.
Politics
• New Zealand's target is to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions 5% from 1990 levels by 2050. On today's
trends – up 22% on 1990 levels by 2007 – New Zealand
will not achieve that.
Agricultural methane 32%
Electricity 26%
Transport 19%
Agricultural nitrous oxide
15%
Industrial solvents 6%
Waste 2%
Environment
• Pine plantations are the
most efficient way of
absorbing carbon dioxide of
any major land use in New
Zealand.
• The graph illustrates the
efficiency of pine
plantations in capturing
carbon dioxide during their
active growing phase. The
average pine plantation is
twice as efficient at
capturing carbon as
regenerating scrublands
dominated by mānuka and
kānuka.
Environment
From NZJF 1997
Understorey biodiversity
Although it's New Zealand's natural forests where we expect to
find the most biodiversity, radiata pine plantations are not "biological deserts" but in fact contain a large variety of understorey
plant species (Allen 1995a,b, Ogden 1997). The composition of
understoreys is very dependent on the geographic location of the
forest and on the stage of plantation development. For example,
new plantings on coastal sands will likely only have a very few
species present, whereas forests on the central volcanic plateau
may have rich understoreys of both exotic and indigenous species.
In recently planted radiata pine in Kinleith Forest, Allen et al.
(1995a) found up to 35 vascular plant species, 67% of which were
indigenous. They also found that the proportion of indigenous
species present in the understorey increased with time from planting to 82% in a 29-year-old stand This level of species richness
was greater than for many natural New Zealand forests (Allen et
al. 1995b). Ogden et al. (1997) reported similar results from
another Kinleith Forest study. The more recent study included a
67-year-old radiata pine forest, which had a fern understorey
structure similar to that of native podocarp and kauri forests.
Environment
Forestry can still have negative effects on native animals. In
New Zealand some of our most endangered species are forest
dwellers who are very sensitive to the effects of forestry runoff and deforestation.
Archey's Frog
Hochstetters Frog
New Zealand’s native frogs are listed as critically endangered due to deforestation,
introduced predators and chytrid disease.
These unique animals are from an ancient lineage of frogs.
They are mute, give birth to live young and fathers carry young on their backs for weeks.
Labour
Forestry may be for you if you are interested in:
• plants and trees
• outdoor and physical work
• working with tools, machinery and equipment
• conservation and the environment
• managing forest operations including
managing staff, contractors and budgets.
Labour
• Pay varies, but forestry and logging
workers usually earn between
$28,000 and $60,000 a year.
• Trainees usually earn between
$28,000 and $40,000.
• Experienced forestry and logging
workers usually earn between
$40,000 and $60,000 a year.
Labour
Working conditions
Forestry and logging workers:
• usually work regular business hours, and may work
Saturdays
• work in forests, bush and scrubland in rural or isolated
areas, and may have to travel up to an hour to their
workplaces
• work in all weather conditions and their working
environment may be hazardous and noisy.
http://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs/forestry/forestry-andlogging-worker/about-the-job
Social
Case Study: MURUPARA
Murupara
Social
Case Study: MURUPARA
• In the early 1950's Murupara was a small village with a
post office and three stores. It was a service centre for
Maori belonging to the Ngati Manawa tribe and the
dairy farming community of the district.
• The State Forest Service had provided jobs for growing
numbers of people in the area since 1918.
• Forestry workers residing at Murupara worked in the
township itself, at a State mill eight miles westward,
and at two bush camps to the north.
Social
• In 1954 the Government and Tasman Pulp and Paper
Company Limited formed a private company, the Kaingaroa
Logging Company Limited, to handle clearfelling operations
and extract the logs from the Kaingaroa Forest.
• The Government built over 200 houses and a single men’s
camp at Murupara, and another 50 houses nearby at the
Forest Service settlement of Kaingaroa, to accommodate
the workforce.
• Murupara during the 1960's was described as “a booming
town”, “a place where you came, you worked, made your
dollars and left” and “peaceful”. Residents had high
incomes and the town had many of the facilities that
existed in Rotorua.
Social
• Restructuring of the Forest Service in 1987 and
the rationalisation of the operations of the
Kaingaroa Logging Company, which began in 1981
and resulted in the loss of over 250 jobs over a
five year period, an outflow of population from
Murupara and a downturn in the local economy.
Social
• As a result, there was a growing incidence of welfare dependency,
unemployment, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime and other social
problems within the community.
• Many workers who were laid off by the Kaingaroa Logging Company or the
Forest Service during the 1980's were left with mortgages and outstanding
debts they had to service on a much reduced income.
• Some families were devastated. They found it difficult to cope with their
changed circumstances, and marital break-ups occurred when they were
unable to meet their financial commitments.
• Today there are people who are still working through the events of this
period. Another effect of the loss of employment was low self-esteem
amongst both men and women which sometimes manifested itself in
suicide and alcohol abuse.
• The men’s anger was transmitted to the women. They joined their
husbands drinking, the children were left alone, and “it becomes a cycle”.
There is now a third generation of unemployed people in Murupara,
young people with grandparents who were made redundant, who have
grown up in an environment of welfare dependency.
Social
• http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/featurearchive/466138/Murupara-follows-the-dream-pics