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Newsletter 113, October 2018

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New Zealand Farm Forestry Association
NZFFA
P.O. Box 10349
The Terrace
Wellington 6143
www.nzffa.org.nz

Farm Forestry Members Newsletter

   Newsletter 113, October 2018
In this issue

2018 NZ Wood Resene Timber Design Awards Winners Announced!

Proposed biological control of Paropsis charybdis in New Zealand using Eadya daenerys

MPI joins forces with forest industry on biosecurity readiness

Tōtara project sets sights on sustainable timber

Getting to the heart of coast redwood durability

Using satellite photogrammetry for forest inventory

PGF funding to help establish forestry school

Contacts

President
Neil Cullen
cullen@farmside.co.nz
-North Otago
-Mid Otago
-South Otago
-Southland
-Sthn High Country (south)

Immediate Past President & Newsletter editor
Dean Satchell
dsatch@gmail.com
-Far North
-Mid North

National Office
Savannah
admin@nzffa.org.nz
Phone: 04 4720432

Executive
Angus Gordon angusg@xtra.co.nz
-Taupo & Districts
-Middle Districts
-Hawkes Bay
-Gisborne East Coast
-Taranaki

Michael Orchard
 orchards@xtra.co.nz
-West Coast
-Marlborough
-Nelson

Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz
-Wairarapa
-Wellington

Patrick Milne patrick@cypress.co.nz
-North Canterbury
-Central Canterbury
-Ashburton
-South Canterbury

Peter Berg
thebergs@ihug.co.nz
-Lower North
-Waitomo
-Waikato
-Bay of Plenty

Don Wallace
don@wallace.gen.nz
-At large


 

Members

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If you don't have a password or can't remember it, you can get one very easily. Just follow the instructions here.

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Dean Satchell, website administrator



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Notices

North Island Farm Forester of the Year field day
Dean Satchell, Purerua, Bay of Islands, Northland. You are invited to view the property of Horowai Trust, a 150 hectare plantation forest comprising radiata pine, durable eucalypts and cypress.
When: Sunday 28th October, 10 am
Where: 759 Purerua Road, Kerikeri
Dean is the immediate past president of NZFFA and passionate about forestry and in particular high-value species and specialty timbers. Dean will guide a tour through an innovative forest enterprise that operates outside the square. The focus will be on the lessons learned on the pioneering journey toward high value timber production.

NZFFA Special Interest Group seminar
Te Awamutu 3–4 November 2018
Sat 9am 3 Nov visit to Wilson property, Otewa
Sat 2pm visit Forsythe property Te Kawa
Dinner and Speaker at Te Awamutu Sports Club
Sunday 4 Nov visit Ian Brown property at Pirongia
Come to Visit the Waikato

Events

For more information on these events, they are posted on the NZFFA website >>
Branch secretaries, please make sure you notify head office of any branch or action group events.

  • Memorial for the life of Bob Berry  A memorial for Bob will be held at Hackfalls Station, Tiniroto on Saturday, 6th October at 11 a.m. This will be followed by a light lunch. Please RSVP to Diane…
  • Phenotyping forests - a potential game changer for planted forests  Given the long lived nature of plantation forest tree species and the real world environments that they are planted into it has not been possible to easily explore the phenotype…
  • Middle Districts branch field day  October Field day: Back to the forests. When: Tuesday 16th October Time: 10.30 a.m. to mid-afternoon. Where: Gather at Murrays Nursery 36 Sowry Rd, Woodville at 10.30am and we will…
  • Forest Growers Conference and Field Trip 2018  Day 1: Tuesday, 16th October 2018, 9:30am - 4:30pm.  Conference Dinner and Science Awards 6:00pm Pre dinner drinks 7:00pm Dinner/Awards Day 2: Wednesday, 17th October 2018, 8:30am - 4:30pm. Conference Day 3:…
  • North Island Farm Forester of the Year field day  Dean Satchell, Purerua, Bay of Islands, Northland You are invited to view the property of Horowai Trust, a 150 hectare plantation forest comprising radiata pine, durable eucalypts and cypress. When: Sunday…
  • NZFFA Special Interest Group seminar  Te Awamutu 3–4 November 2018 Come to Visit the Waikato Summary: Sat 9am 3 Nov visit to Wilson property, Otewa Sat 2pm visit Forsythe property Te Kawa Dinner and Speaker…
  • Gisborne East Coast branch field day  Where: Longbush Ecological Trust. Riverside Road. When: November 18th,  1-30 p.m. There has been a lot of interest in the use of native planting on some of the most vulnerable…
  • Wairarapa branch field day  Where: Paton properties, Martinborough When: Saturday 24th November 2018 Our next Wairarapa Branch field day will be hosted by Clive Paton, Ata Rangi Vineyard, Martinborough. We will visit the renowned ‘Bush Block’,…

Blogs

  • Wood is as important as food Wink Sutton's Blog, August, 2018.  Wink Sutton, New Zealand Tree Grower August 2018. For over 60 years I have had to defend a common criticism of forestry that ‘forests including plantations are occupying land which should…

NZFFA members can set up their own blogs on the NZFFA website. Email Dean.


Headlines


Market Report


2018 NZ Wood Resene Timber Design Awards Winners Announced!

NZ SPECIALTY TIMBER AWARD: Sponsored by NZ Farm Forestry Association
The use of specialty timber in a manner that best highlights its unique characteristics. This category is open to entries from across the spectrum of NZ grown timber usage from furniture to buildings, facilities to objets d’art.
Judging Criteria: Material selection; Innovation; Aesthetics; Environmental sustainability.
 
WINNER: Pukapuka Road House 
       Pukapuka Road House, Rodney:  Belinda George Architects © Simon Devitt
 
COMMENDED: Walton House 
       Walton House, Tauranga:  John Henderson Architecture © Amanda Aittson Photography

For more awards click here >>

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Proposed biological control of Paropsis charybdis in New Zealand using Eadya daenerys

The application for release is with EPA. Watch a 5 minute video explaining the biological control programme.

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MPI joins forces with forest industry on biosecurity readiness

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the New Zealand Forest Owners Association are joining forces under the GIA (Government Industry Agreement) to improve forest biosecurity preparedness.

The first jointly-funded initiative under this partnership will be a forest biosecurity surveillance programme designed to detect unwanted forest pests and pathogens in high-risk places.

The association and MPI recently signed the Commercial Plantation Forestry Sector Operational Agreement for Readiness under the GIA. This agreement establishes a new way of working in partnership between the 2 organisations and will see a doubling of efforts to improve forest biosecurity readiness, says Andrew Spelman, MPI's acting director, biosecurity readiness.

More >>

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Tōtara project sets sights on sustainable timber

In Northland, $1 million dollars, partly funded by the Provincial Growth Fund, is being spent to investigate the feasibility of a tōtara timber industry.

There’s little cause to dust off the anti-native tree logging placards of the 1970s though. The Tōtara Industry Steering Group, which is running the pilot project, is quick to point out it is not clear-felling trees or cutting down the few original tōtara left in New Zealand. The pilot is focused on selective felling of tōtara trees which have regenerated in abundance on Northland’s farms.  

More >>

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Getting to the heart of coast redwood durability

The “Getting to the Heart of Coast Redwood Durability” Sustainable Farming Fund project was set up in 2015 to quantify the natural durability and variability of redwood heartwood throughout New Zealand.

The current natural durability rating for New Zealand redwood is Class 3 – moderately durable with ground contact and a probable life expectancy of 5-15 years. One of the reasons for this rating is the high variability of durability between  wood samples used for this rating. Understanding the sources of durability variation will help growers to remove or mitigate these sources, by, for example, choosing durable seedlots/clones.

More >>

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Using satellite photogrammetry for forest inventory

Forest management has undergone a transformation in recent decades. Management regimes have shifted from treatments that were applied to entire forests, to precise programmes, that can be tailored to single tree and are based on detailed data attained by remote sensing. Of the remote sensing technologies available to forest managers, satellite-based photogrammetry (the use of multiple images to extract measurements such as height) is a relatively unexplored area with huge potential.

Scion is exploring the use of photogrammetry applied to stereo-pair imagery from the Pléiades satellite constellation. Combined with an algorithm called semi-global matching, it has been used to model forest inventory attributes with a level of accuracy comparable to LiDAR.

More >>

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PGF funding to help establish forestry school

The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will provide just over NZ $300,000 to pilot a forestry training course as a solution to the growing forestry skills shortage, New Zealand’s Regional Economic Development and Forestry Minister Shane Jones announced in September. 

The full cost of the pilot is NZ$840,000, with the additional funding coming from the Eastland Community Trust, the Forest Growers Levy Trust and the Eastern Institute of Technology. 

“Forestry is a key sector in Tairāwhiti, but there simply aren’t enough skilled workers in the region to do the work,” Shane Jones said. “The ManaiaSAFE Forestry School pilot course funded through today’s announcement will reduce the current skills shortage by preparing individuals with the right skills needed to be successful and make forestry their career of choice. 

“The pilot will take eleven trainees through 20 weeks of training, with the goal of gaining permanent employment. It will also contribute nine new jobs to the local community through the running of the course.

“Current forestry training often sees students move from the classroom to a full commercial logging crew, with practical learning done on the job in a high-pressure environment. This can lead to disengagement and potential health and safety risks”. 

“The ManaiaSAFE Forestry School pilot will bridge the gap between the classroom and commercial sites by delivering a specifically designed training programme within a controlled, commercial environment.

“If successful, the pilot could also form the basis for similar training courses in other parts of the country where there are forestry skills shortages,” Shane Jones said.

Source: Scoop

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Disclaimer: Personal views expressed in this newsletter are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the NZ Farm Forestry Association.

 

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