Farm Forestry New ZealandNewsletter 154, November 2024
President's Report November
Busy times continue. The renewal vote for the Forest Growers Levy has taken place and we should soon know the outcome. Earlier we put a lot of work into gathering the views of small scale growers in regard to the levy, and finding what changes or improvements they wanted. We will expand this survey now that we have the email addresses of an additional 4,000 landowners with forests.
Our efforts to push for changes in how the levy is administered and spent werer reported in the November Tree Grower. There has been some recognition that the Levy Board might widen its view of where levy money should be spent, and with whom it should be consulting.
The main talking point in the industry currently is margin squeeze, and lack of profitability from increased costs and lower export prices. The China log market appears to have permanently shrunk and we need to find new outlets for top logs. Biofuel is an obvious possibility but some regions have been slow to develop the necessary facilities. Although some of our logs that go to China become furniture for the US market, this trade is also under threat from proposed tariffs.
In the October SME meeting we looked at six projects that asked for $180.000 of Levy funding. We had just over $100,000 to allocate, which meant considerable discussion and compromise. There are a number of other projects proposed by or supported by NZFFA members that have gone to other committees, and we should know the outcome of all applications next month.
Howard and I took our revised version of the MOU between NZFFA and the Forest Owners Association to the latest FOA board meeting. We'd like a stronger relationship between the two associations, and this should help. The Forest Growers Research Conference in Dunedin last month had a good representation of farm foresters and an increased content on alternative species. Vaughan Kearns and Rob Webster reported on the breeding programmes for improved cypress and redwoods.
This month NZFFA has been represented at the AGMs of NZ Certification Association, Poplar and Willow Trust, Phytos and Tane's Tree Trust. I joined the Pan Sector group in a meeting with MPI leaders, where the agenda included proposed planting controls, wood processing investments, joint standards for wood products with Australia, transition forests, and international recognition of sequestration in pre 1990 forests.
Internally our focus is on upgrading the membership system and the website: Howard has taken responsibility for one and Graham the other. This is a great opportunity to improve the appearance and usability of our website which MPI recognises as an important resource.
In case we don't have another newsletter before Christmas, thanks everyone for your work and support over the year. Have a relaxing time, and enjoy friends and family.
Neil.
This week: 28 November - Harvesting Workshop, Helensville
Perrin Ag and Auckland Council are hosting a free workshop on Thursday 28 November in Helensville on forest harvesting. It is designed to help small forest ownere get a better understanding of harvesting including managing environmental impacts and selecting contractors. The workshop will be in the meeting room at the Helensville War Memorial Hall and will run from 9:30 am to 2pm with a light lunch provided. They say:
• Understand why getting harvesting right is important.
• Learn the questions to ask to confidently select the right harvesting contractor.
• Start thinking ahead and planning for your harvesting in the next 5 years.
• Tap into the knowledge and expertise of a forestry expert and get your harvesting questions answered.
• Better understand the harvesting process.
• Know who to go to for support when needed.
Can't argue with a free lunch. Register here or email consult@perrinag.net.nz to ensure they know how many to cater for.
This week: New forestry promotion campaign
Elizabeth Heed, CEO of the levy secretariat, has advised that the levy promotional campaign for 2024 has just gone live. There is a one-minute video here, and three 15-second advertisements that have been clipped from it. The campaign will run until the end of January and will highlight how production forests benefit people, jobs and the environment while providing timber for construction and everyday household items. It's aimed at non foresters, so if you feel a little cynical that's fine, you're not the target audience. The idea is to:
Raise the profile of Foresty by increasing our reach and engagement with the public across a broad range of platforms.
Test the efficacy of a range of campaign messages and tone to produce data that will help us develop a larger campaign in 2025.
Address the negative perceptions of forestry emerging among younger peopleby expanding our target audience to include 18 to 34 year-olds.
Pilot whether a brand change to ‘Forest Growers New Zealand’ prompts positive associations and responses.
Media placements will include Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube; traditional media outlets; subscription TV adverts; some print media and cinema nationwide. The parent website of the initiative is Forest Growers NZ, the new brand of the Levy Board and FOA.
This initiative is desperately needed - Auckland City has just erected its community Christmas tree, 18 m high, covered in plastic and made of steel. Who gave the steel industry the right to celcbrate our Christmas?
Rise up, 18 to 34 year-olds. I'll join you when I find my teeth.
Soon: 10 and 12 December - Hui on native afforestation
Te Uru Rākau is currently trying to address barriers to native afforestation, particularly for Maori. They have held a number of meetings and are now seeking to explore two questions:
How might we best enable Māori landowners to make informed native afforestation decisions?
How might we best support Māori to generate sustainable income from native forests?
Two hui are planned where Te Uru Rakau will share the current work programme, discuss opportunities identified and workshop what could be done to better support opportunities for native afforestation. The aims are to empower Māori to make informed decisions and to generate sustainable income from native forests.
Hui 1 will be on Tuesday 10 December, 12.30 - 1.30pm. This is the link to join. Hui 2 will be on Thursday 12 December, 12.30-1.30pm. This is the link to join. Note both links are in microsoft teams.
If you have any questions around these areas of focus feel free to email Rangapu.Maori@mpi.govt.nz
Jacob Paterson | Senior Adviser Strategy, Enablement & Māori Partnership
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service
1-4 April - Annual Conference "Trees in Farmed Hill Country"
The North Canterbury branch invites you to the 2025 annual conference in Christchurch, 1st to 4th April. The venue is the Commodore Hotel, 449 Memorial Avenue, Christchurch, close to the airport. Registration will be online after Christmas but if you plan to come, please book your accommodation early. This is a popular place.
Conference Programme
Day 1 - Afternoon, Tuesday 1st April. Action Group meetings starting at 1 pm, and a free evening The Eucalypt, Cypress, Sequoia and Indigenous Forestry action groups will each meet. The Executive will meet in the evening.
Day 2 - Morning, Wednesday 2nd April. Balance of Action Group meetings: Acacia Melanoxylon, Oaks, Farm Forestry Timbers, Poplar and Willow and Forest Investors.
Day 2 - Afternoon, Wednesday 2nd April. Council meeting, AGM, Keynote speaker and technical presentations. In the evening, pre-dinner drinks and the Awards Dinner.
Day 3 - Thursday 3rd April. Field trips to Mt Grey and Selkirk, both previous winners of the South Island Farm Forester of the Year. There will be an 8 am start with the buses leaving from the Commodore. We will split into two groups and visit one property in the morning and the other in the afternoon, swapping over at lunch at the Tin Shed in Amberley.
Mt Grey (Gary Fleming’s property) has been in the family for four generations, and contains a variety of species. Gary planted his first eucalyptus trial in 1985, and since has planted over 100 varieties of eucalypt with many seed lot trials of timber and rare species. He also has over 50 species of oak and numerous cypress trials. Gary has recorded most of his plantings over the last 40 years and now has over 900 entries. Multiple provenances of some species have been planted for seed production. There is a DFI Eucalyptus globoidea seed orchard as well as clonal Eucalyptus bosistoana, and a number of species generally only considered suitable for warmer North Island sites.
Gary with Eucalyptys fraxinoides, 2013
Selkirk (Jenny and Alastair Malcolm’s property) was purchased in 2012. It is a dryland hill block which was bare except for 5 ha of second rotation radiata and some Leyland hedges and cypresses. Alastair came from a background of fruit growing and fruit tree nurseries. Stage 1 plantings included native beech, redwoods, douglas fir, totara, kauri and cedars. Since 2016 plantings have been aimed at carbon farming with eucalypts being preferred as well as some poplars and a final native planting along the waterway in 2024. This has brought the planting to approximately 60 ha. Bird counts have been taken over the last two years with adjacent farm land being used as controls.
In the evening there will be an informal dinner at the Hornby Club, and afterwards you will be delivered back to the Commodore carpark.
Day 4 - Friday 4th April. Field trip to Melrose and Double Tops. This is a full day trip to the properties of Mandy, Dugald, Andrew and Charlotte Rutherford situated up the Virginia Road inland from Hawarden. There they farm 6,700 ha ranging in altitude from 300 m to 1,300 m, from cultivated paddocks through to high country tussock. We last saw this property during the 2004 Conference. Since then there has been a major expansion partly funded by the proceeds of timber sales. Mandy and Dugald have been practicing farm foresters for over 50 years, and have also won the South Island Farm Forester of the Year award.
The evening's dinner will be at the Omihi Hall on the way back to town. Afterwards you will be delivered back to the Commodore carpark.
Day 5 - Saturday 5th April. Choice of two trips from 8.30am to 5.30pm. The first is to see high country wilding control in the upper Waimakariri basin. This will include Lake Lyndon at the top of Porters Pass to look at amenity trees, beech establishment and wilding spread. From there, the Kura Tawhiti Conservation area, Castle Hill village, and on to the Cave Stream straights to view Flock Hill Station where there have been major efforts at wilding control. Lunch will be at the University of Canterbury Cass Research Station. After lunch we will see impressive Douglas fir plantings at Coralynn Station and associated wildings on the slopes above Bruce Stream. The homeward journey will be via the Lake Lyndon-Coleridge Road with a stop overlooking the 400 ha Mt Barker Forest, perhaps the largest managed wilding forest in the country.
The second trip will cover drylands eucalypts, a Specialty Timber sawmill and the Proseed Seed Orchard. We will stop first at a property close to Mt Grey and investigate a Eucalyptus Action Group Stringybark trial, which is part of the national Drylands Eucalypt trials, and a redwood trial. This will include about 1.5 kms of walking. Later we will stop at John Fairweather’s Specialty Timber Sawmill, where John will speak about the issues of small volume, high quality timber production. After lunch we travel to the seed orchard of Proseed on the outskirts of Amberley, hosted by Shaf van Belekom.
After returning to the Commodore there will be a free evening to talk and socialise.
Enquiry - know of any contract grazing under trees?
We've had an enquiry about whether we know of any examples that can be referenced, where foresters have successfully let their land out to farmers for grazing once the trees are mature enough to withstand stock. Since pastoral farming is earning less and less, perhaps a contract leasing model might be helpful. If you have heard of any instances where this is either working or not working, please contact Geoff on geoff@leviassets.com
Cows like trees - no bull.
Forestry promotion campaign - stand by
Elizabeth Heed, CEO of the levy secretariat, has advised that the levy promotional campaign for 2024 has just gone live. There is a one-minute video here, and three 15-second advertisements that have been clipped from it. The campaign will run until the end of January and will highlight how production forests benefit people, jobs and the environment while providing timber for construction and everyday household items. It's aimed at non foresters, so if you feel a little cynical that's fine, you are not the target audience. The idea is to:
Raise the profile of Foresty by increasing our reach and engagement with the public across a broad range of platforms.
Test the efficacy of a range of campaign messages and tone to produce data that will help us develop a larger campaign in 2025.
Address the negative perceptions of forestry emerging among younger peopleby expanding our target audience to include 18 to 34 year-olds.
Pilot whether a brand change to ‘Forest Growers New Zealand’ prompts positive associations and responses.
Media placements will include Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube; traditional media outlets; subscription TV adverts; some print media and cinema nationwide. The parent website of the initiative is Forest Growers NZ, the new brand of the Levy Board and FOA. You may wish to check it out here.
This initiative is desperately needed - Auckland City has just erected its community Christmas tree, 18 m high, covered in plastic and made of steel. Who gave the steel industry the right to celcbrate our Christmas?
Rise up, 18 to 34 year-olds. I'll join you when I find my teeth.
Want to manage the awards process?
We think having annual awards to recognise the good work members do is a good idea, and we want to continue the tradition. However some awards fall through the cracks if no-one is keeping an eye on what the awards are for, who got them, who judges them and who hands them out. Basically we need an Awards Manager: a good organiser who can be thorough and professional and make sure things happened on time. This is project management. The basic job description is:
Promote the awards to branches and members well in advance of the closing dates
Ensure there are records of who has won the awards, past and present
Make sure all the awards criteria are written down and accessible
Make sure there are appropriate judges, and a proper judging process
Make sure all nominees are kept fully informed
Make sure the award winners are at the ceremony wherever this is possible
Commission the necessary certificates and/or engraving
Ensure the relevant award money is available from the sponsor or the NZFFA
Manage, or delegate to a capable person(s), the whole awards evening process
Manage and help obtain the sponsorship of the awards.
If you are a good organiser, have the time and would like to be part of the team, please tell us. Some of it will be fun. Contact Vaughan on ruapehusawmills@xtra.co.nz.
What we did with your money - Statement of Service Performance
Because we didn't share this at the Napier AGM, Graham felt it would be useful to tell members what we achieved in 2023. Here it is:
• Work continued to improve functionality of our website, updating and adding new information.
• A successful Annual Conference was held in Timaru from 30 March to 3 April 2023 with the AGM on 31 March. There was excellent organisation, a healthy attendance, an interesting programme, fine weather and strong financial support.
• Four Issues of the quarterly NZ Tree Grower magazine were produced to a high standard with important information relevant to smaller-scale forest growers.
• NZFFA represented the interests of small to medium scale forest owners in consultation processes in a number of areas. We also worked closely with a number of government and other agencies on matters of interest to NZFFA members.
• The small-to-medium forest owners’ database that captured around 16,700 plantation owners was checked, and errors noted. Specifically, clean addresses had been found for a large number of incorrect landowners. The addresses of the correct landowners are now being found as time allows.
• NZFFA acted as the financial manager of a special project funded by Te Uru Rakau delivering 20 workshops on ‘Opportunities from Trees’. It also acted as the financial manager of two projects funded by the Forest Growers Levy Trust: identifying Coast Redwood trees with superior heartwood durability, and investigating the training needs of Small Scale Forest Owners. All of these projects were successfully completed.
• Regular Farm Forestry Newsletters were produced including a special version for levy payers who are not NZFFA members but who want to receive communications from NZFFA.
• Branches and Action Groups sent newsletters to their members and held meetings, field days, information sessions and social events.
• The Farm Forestry YouTube channel is going well, with over 75,000 views since it was launched. Subscribers rose from 463 in 2022 to 617 in 2023.
• The Farm Forestry Facebook page still has 5,000 followers and a strong discussion group, although fewer posts were made in 2023 due to other pressures of work.
We hope to report an equally strong performance over 2024 at the Christchurch conference.
NZFFA on facebook