3rd February 2020 Newsletter

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

I hope you all had a good break over the Christmas and New Year period and are fully refreshed, and are ready for another fulfilling year working in the profession of forestry. The website upgrade is well underway and we are hoping you are already enjoying the new look and feel of the website. There has been a lot of feedback on the usability of the newsletter and this first newsletter of the year has a new format. We hope that this removes previous shortcomings and is now convenient and suitably responsive to your needs. Please let us know if further improvement is required.

The current Council term ends in May and the call for nominations for the next Council have just been sent to all members. If anyone is interested in standing for Council and wishes to discuss this with a current Council member please contact me at President@nzif.org.nz

David Evison NZIF President

PERLEY EDITORIAL

The Next 30 Years of New Zealand Forestry: Getting off the Love affair with Simple

Chris Perley

Some of us have been keeping an eye on the massive disruption of the British Columbia forestry sector, particularly over the last year.  A true Annus Horribilis for the lives of many people.  BC forestry, and not that province alone, was hit by multiple factors.   Monique Keiran wrote a useful summary of the perfect storm, outlining pest epidemics, fire, salvage volume overcuts, US market disruption, and growing public concern from all sides.  She makes the point that the debacle has been almost two decades in the making.   Surprise after surprise.

“A number of forces led to us to this point. They include wildfire devastation, with 2017 and 2018 both setting records for area of forest burned. High log costs and low prices due to a slowing U.S. market contribute.

We’re also at the end of the mountain pine beetle harvest — a period of high timber cuts permitted to salvage as much beetle-killed timber from the landscape as possible while it was still worth something.

…

The unfolding consequences were pronounced steadily and relentlessly. In my memory, the conversation has taken on the quality of a bell tolling.

In other words, he was describing a catastrophe — an inexorable, slow-motion catastrophe.”

Buzz Holling, the gifted ecologist who revolutionised ecological and wider systems thinking away from determinism and climax states – one of the pioneers in resilience thinking – actually predicted the demise of the BC forestry ‘industry’   An overreliance on only a few species and connecting structures were his key reasoning.  It was too simple.  Complex systems that are framed as simple – by engineers, financiers and agronomists – in the monocultural or one-dimensional mind, do not make them no longer complex.   Something will happen.  And it will spread like a contagion, because one trip cascades to another, to another, to the point of extinction. 

If you want another example, think Fonterra; producing largely undifferentiated milk powder, from largely undifferentiated milk inputs, to largely one market.  The logic of a centralised industrial clone, engineered to ‘perfect’ efficiency’ for this one exact set of conditions.  A clone, as fragile as a feather in the breeze, believing there will never be a breeze.

When you simplify what are inherently complex systems[1]; when you presume to control the complexity rather than acknowledge and embrace it,  then you will create fragility, not resilience.   

We make what are technically simple, complex systems with all the adaptability removed.  Because it is now simple, it is prone to cascades.  And because it is still complex, you cannot predict what is going to break down next, or how.  That unpredictability goes logarithmic if we’re not looking, or dialoguing, or thinking.  Beware the one-dimension man, the monocultural mind.

Figure 1: Working with complexity and uncertainty; different mindsets, cultures & tools.

Using hierarchical-mechanical approaches (over-simplification) to an inherently complex systems, decreases resilience, and increases the chance of surprise and unpredictability.

 I raise what is happening in British Columbia because of the lesson it provides for us all, including in New Zealand.  It’s a lesson about ‘resilience’ and ‘fragility’, and the thinking that is needed to sit in the resilience space.  It also relates to how we may change as a profession in the next 30 years. 

I think we’ll need our multifunctional breadth more than ever, our foresters’ sense of the wider.  We need to resist the attempts to make us radiata pine agronomists.  A forester is much more.  We’ll need our sense of forests as far more than manifestations of capital or fibre. 

And looking around the world, that is an obvious trend: the shifting sands from industrial fibre factories to ecosystem management and continuous cover; from centralised hierarchies to localism; from continuous to batch processing; from economies of scale to economies of scope; from divorced commercial power and the values of the spreadsheet to participation by people; from the colonial segregation/allocation approach to old-world functionally-integrated landscapes: away from blanketed 10,000 acres of ryegrass and romney, and over the fence another blanketed 10,000 acres of radiata pine, both of which smother system scope. 

I think there is a trend to break down the simplified boxes of the mind built over the last 30 or 40 years.

There is also a shift away from the industrial headspace whose underlying metaphysics presumes certainty, control and the efficiency of one thing, to post-industrial resilience structures whose metaphysics are fundamentally different. 

The Planetary Boundaries work is based on that emerging systems thinking.  It’s a space that expects to be surprised, that expects things to happen that will be outside our control.  It is a space that doesn’t accept the excuse that “it was a surprise, who could have known?” because it is not about having perfect predictability.  It is about setting up thinking organisational cultures of awareness that are able to cope with complex, non-linear systems.   And that at least keep an eye on the trends and what they mean to strategy.   The nine boundaries of the Stockholm Resilience are at least a start.  And there are social and economic boundaries in play as well, from local to international scales.

Foresters used to do this well.  Be aware.  Look at the values, objectives, constraints and conditions here in this place – from ecological to social – and with knowledge of the wider world.  Then decide on options and best approach.  Don’t be a recipe agronomist working as if management means prescription. 

Learning to Think and Act Beyond Colonial Commodity & Scale

A colleague in the University of British Columbia had hopes from the mass disruption of the forestry sector there.  He told me that this BC crisis may be their chance to move away from the narrow, industrial, Economies of Scale commodity strategy and shift to a strategy that emphasises value, diversity, resilience, socio-ecological systems thinking and the potential we get from thinking in Economies of Scope terms, not mechanised Scale.  A policy turn.

Figure 2: Allocated to Integrative Landscape Functions

Source: Per Angelstam’s et al.’s (2006) vision of a policy turn from industrialised specialist scale to integrated scope.

Within landscapes, those scope economics come into their own.  Mutualisms that save costs, create diversity, provide value, connect community and give a market position, are potential features of self-organised systems. 

Reducing a forest to an isolated structure of certain controllable capital will replace mutualisms with the act of chasing fires no one has foreseen.   A case in point is the continued objectification of community, their objections to the consequences of industrial management reduced, in the best deficit model way, to a problem – usually of perceived ignorance.  Then it is given a label – ‘license to operate’ – and then ‘managed’ with PR and one-way communication (to inform the ignorant). 

I would challenge that framing.  The root of the ‘problem’ does not reside within the communities, but within that very objectification of people and landscapes (give them a number and put them in a spreadsheet) that goes hand in hand with narrow industrial thought, be it dairy or forestry.

A Future Forest Strategy

All of this relates to our future forest strategy.  There have always been two broad alternative strategies for land use.   Either sell on price bulk scale homogeneity – the price taker approach – or sell on quality, diverse, price positioned – the price maker.  New Zealand has a colonial past of doing the first; producing lots, cheap.  While the real commodity prices erode.  And yet we still hold to it …. “This is what we do.”

We hold to that model, even though the history of commodity prices is negative.  This was the problem observed by Willard Cochrane not yesterday, but in 1958 agriculture.  He analysed it and termed it the ‘technology treadmill’.  Various positive feedbacks in a complex system. 

Post-war intensification led to production increases, within an increasingly undifferentiated, corporate agribusiness commodity market.   Prices dropped, so the growers shift emphasis to cost cutting.  They presumed they would hold the ‘efficiency’ gains.  They aggregated for scale efficiencies, specialised and homogenised, used less and cheaper labour, with spiralling down local aggregate demand reducing the social and .  Or they took up the techno-fix, the new technology input (which costs, and then creates other system effects no one tells you about) to raise yields, and the prices fall again because buyers have more power than sellers in commodity markets[2] … and repeat. 

A treadmill.  Cochrane, who 20 years later was advising President Carter, said the imperative was to get off the treadmill.   Differentiate.  Position yourself in a sellers’ market.  Build relationships.  Look to mutualism efficiencies of scope and market position.  Have market position before you make costs savings to ensure the margin is maintained by the grower. 

Figure 3: International Agricultural Real Price Trends

Judging by the graph above, agriculture is still largely in the industrial commodity game. 

I remember discussing the relative nominal flat line (log price spike excepted) in the early 2010s.  Log prices had started to rise after the GFC as China provided a surge of infrastructural development spending.  He was surprised when I said I had been doing runs with pretty much the same stumpages 20 years earlier in 1992.  Even our nominal prices trended down until 2008.  So what about real prices?

This, over a 30 year period where a number of positive ‘miracles’ occurred that favoured NZ forestry enterprises.  From privatisations, log price spikes, Korean development to offset Japan’s slowdown, then China the same, the ETS etc. 

We should be openly acknowledging that these have been three favourable decades.   In literary terms, every time there is something to worry about the deux ex machina miracle comes along to save the protagonist.  Zorro magically appears in the nick of time.  Look, Korea.  Look, China.  Look, the ETS. 

Perhaps those decades have led to complacency, and what many foresters feel is – with the odd smaller company exception – a stifling homogeneity. 

Figure 4: Nominal Radiata Pine Prices 1992 – 2019 (no inflation adjustment)

 Source: MPI  data. Nominal decline until 2008 GFC.

Looking at the real picture, even the ‘log price recovery’ since early 2009 doesn’t look so impressive.  In point of fact, it looks more like a stabilising than a rise. 

Figure 5: Real Radiata Pine Prices 1992 – 2019 (PPI Adjusted)

Source: MPI & Stats PPI data.  Real price stability associated with China trade, post 2008.

I don’t like looking back on the last 30 years of New Zealand forestry.  The sector had a number of fortunate breaks, but I see it as a time of wasted opportunity, of increasing fragility, of the narrowing of thought, and … yes, complacency.   The ‘business as usual’ imperative. 

I don’t know what the next 30 years will bring, but two things are likely.  In line with the biblical principle of famines and feasts, there will be a series of events that won’t be positive, and Zorro won’t appear over the horizon.   Given the way climate is shifting, with all these connections of pest epidemics and fires, I consider that ‘likelihood’ practically a certainty. 

I think there will also be fundamental changes in the ways we look at forests.  People will ask the question “What is a forest – in scope and meaning?”  A challenge to the metaphysics of land, of forests, of the simplified dispassionate uncaring industrial model.  Communities are already demanding it, around the world.  People and land matter.  They cannot be objectified.

To respond to those challenges to thought, they will need people who see forests as far more than a manifestation of a discounted cashflow or agronomics.  Frankly, they’ll need foresters – real foresters where the short-term is measured in years not months, and the long-term is measured in decades or centuries – and forests are not just seen, but known, as a subset of a much much broader complex system that extends beyond economic, environment and society, and well beyond the presumed regularity of a factory. 

I think the days of simple are coming to an end.  And many of us, frankly, will welcome it.  We don’t like being considered by the public as radiata agronomy technicians. 

Chris Perley 

Reference

Angelstam, P., E. Kapylova, H. Korn, M. Lazdinis, J. A. Sayer, V. Teplyakov & J. Tornblom. 2006. Changing forest values in Europe. In Forests in landscapes: ecosystem approaches to sustainability, eds. J. A. Sayer & S. Maginnis, 59-74. London: Earthscan.

INSTITUTE NEWS

NZIF Trademarks

The NZIF Council are very pleased to announce that the following Trademark applications have been approved for our use by the NZ Intellectual property Office.

NZIF Registered Forestry Professional

NZIF Registered Forestry Consultant

NZIF Registered Forester

Registered Forestry Consultant

A system has been set up to ensure the automatic renewal of these registered trademarks in 10 years time.

Peter Hill, Vice President

The Secretary of the NZIF is calling for nominations

for the following positions on Council and the Registration Board:

Council (10 positions):

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Six Councillors

• Nominees for Members of Council must be Full Voting Members, Retired Associate Members or Associate Members.

Registration Board (2 positions):

Two Members who are registered members or retired registered members

Two Members who are full voting members

Each candidate must be nominated by no fewer than 2 Members, and must include written acceptance of the nomination.

All nominations must be submitted to the secretary via email to admin@nzif.org.nz by 5pm  28^th February 2020.

 Nomination forms and more specific requirements can be found online: https://www.nzif.org.nz/members-only-area/nominations/

Full details on more specific rules and requirements can be found in the NZIF Rules available online: https://www.nzif.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Documents/NZIF-Rules-amended-2022.pdf

Central North Island local section Event

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our next Central North Island local section evening meeting on Thursday 20th February 2020

In the first meeting of the CNI local section for 2020 we want to start with a bang and engage in some of the big national forestry sector issues.

Jeff Tombleson and Graham West will be providing updated presentations that were recently prepared for major conferences. Focusing on the need to rapidly expand the forest estate on farmland with the goal of making a major contribution towards achieving carbon zero 2050? What is the role of the NZIF?

Key issues include; on what land should this estate be grown, how rapidly does it need to be established, how much area is required by 2030 and 2050, what will it take to create landowner buy-in, does it require subsidisation, what species, and what management?  

Jeff Tombleson’s presentation is titled “The contribution of plantations to achieving carbon zero 2050” as presented to the VII Chilean Forestry Science Congress on Climate Change. Jeff has maintained engagement into Chile for 20 years and on this occasion was engaged by CMPC that is headquartered in Chile and is one of the largest forestry companies in the world with 638,000 hectares of plantations. Jeff’s presentation will also contain insights into forestry in Chile’s warming climate and how a mega forestry corporate has rebranded to positively address the same environmental issues as those faced by the NZ forest industry – but on a colossal and concerning scale.   

Graham West addresses the question “should the development of small scale forests be on fast forward in NZ?”, provided to the 2019 NZ FFA Annual Conference. What’s at stake?, who will make it happen? What is the Farm Forestry Association doing about it? Graham is chairman of the BOP NZ FFA Branch and was chairman of the May 2019 NZ FFA annual conference organising committee that had the theme “Fast Forward”. A key message was that “we have a once in a generation opportunity to put NZ and our primary industries on a more sustainable footing for the next 30 years”.

Venue: Room O3, the Forestry school at Toi Ohomai

There will be drinks and nibbles from 5.30 and the speakers will start at approximately 6 pm.

Please RSVP to hazel.swanson@tll.co.nz if you plan to attend.

From the Registrar

Registration Reviews

The following members have applied for a 5-year review of their status as a Registered Member:

·        Jan Derks of Harihari

·        Ross Larcombe of Rotorua

APPLICATION FOR REGISTERED MEMBER

The following member has applied to become a Registered Member:

·        Mitchell Haberkorn of Nelson

Any member of the NZIF has the right to object to a new application or an application for review. Any objection should be lodged with the Registrar registrar@nzif.org.nz within 20 working days of the first appearance (3 February 2020) of the notice in this newsletter, specifying the grounds for the objection.

NZIF ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2020

28-30 June 2020
Copthorne Hotel & Resort Solway Park
Masterton

In Masterton this year, we have an inspiring line-up of speakers and CPD session to showcase the pride and passion in our forestry workforce.

Sunday 28 June – morning and afternoon CPD sessions plus an extra Leadership professional development CPD course (full day, with limited numbers), Annual NZIF AGM and Future Foresters event.

Monday 29 June – a day full of inspiring speakers followed by a Pre-election Policy Panel exclusive to NZIF, featuring forestry representatives from each major political party.

On Monday evening the NZIF Conference and Award Dinner will be held at the Carterton Event Centre.

Tuesday 30 June – Women in Forestry breakfast with guest speaker and then an morning conference session (open to the public) and focusing on forestry in our communities.

2 field trips on offer in the afternoon. Town Tour (log distribution and processing) or Forest Tour (farm forestry and advanced logging systems).

Lock in the dates in your calendars now and watch for further information regarding the conference, speakers and event in the NZIF website and newsletter.

IN THE NEWS

Australian Fires

Given the scale and scope of the recent Australian fires, and the plethora of journalism involved, here is a list of sources and articles.  The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and The Age have made all bushfire coverage freely available. 

Time Magazine Coverage (4^th Jan)

Sydney Morning Herald Coverage Archive

The Age Coverage Archive

Brisbane Times Coverage Archive

Opinion: Combustible Questions

Guardian Coverage

ABC Coverage

NSW bushfires could cripple forests' ability to reabsorb carbon dioxide, climate scientists say. Read more

Australia turns from defense to offense in wildfire battle. Read more

Forestry industry eyes off fire-hit national parks.  Read more

Australia: Fires set stage for irreversible forest losses in Australia

Australia’s forests are burning at a rate unmatched in modern times and scientists say the landscape is being permanently altered as a warming climate brings profound changes to the island continent.

Heat waves and drought have fueled bigger and more frequent fires in parts of Australia, so far this season torching some 40,000 square miles (104,000 square kilometers), an area about as big as Ohio.

With blazes still raging in the country’s southeast, government officials are drawing up plans to reseed burned areas to speed up forest recovery that could otherwise take decades or even centuries.

But some scientists and forestry experts doubt that reseeding and other intervention efforts can match the scope of the destruction. The fires since September have killed 28 people and burned more than 2,600 houses.

Before the recent wildfires, ecologists divided up Australia’s native vegetation into two categories: fire-adapted landscapes that burn periodically, and those that don’t burn. In the recent fires, that distinction lost meaning — even rainforests and peat swamps caught fire, likely changing them forever.

Flames have blazed through jungles dried out by drought, such as Eungella National Park, where shrouds of mist have been replaced by smoke.

 “Anybody would have said these forests don’t burn, that there’s not enough material and they are wet. Well they did,” said forest restoration expert Sebastian Pfautsch, a research fellow at Western Sydney University.

Read more

Australia: Logging makes forest fires worse: experts

Experts say allowing logging in national parks would increase the intensity of bushfires.

Allowing logging in national parks would increase the intensity of bushfires by boosting the amount of flammable fuel and creating additional "kindling", experts have warned.

Millions of hectares have been scorched in raging bushfires across Australia since October and scientists claim fires burned at a higher intensity in heavily-logged forests.

Australian National University Professor David Lindenmayer says while the main driver of fires is the climate, logging makes forests drier and leaves behind flammable debris on the ground.

"Forests that have been logged and regenerated are significantly more likely to burn at higher severity," he told AAP.

"Very substantial areas of forest which were logged in East Gippsland and southeastern NSW have been burnt this summer."

Prof Lindenmayer said scientists and the government have known about this for a long time.

Researchers found logged forests burned at a "significantly" higher severity during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria.

Read more

 NZ: City Forests’ big little contribution 

Forestry may be getting a bad rap lately particularly from the farming community, but there is no arguing with its returns. Brent Melville logged some time with City Forests this week, discovering a truly biodiverse, sustainable industry on Dunedin’s back door.

City Forests is now well into logging its third generation of forests.

The company, which has held forestry investments since 1906, will celebrate its 30th anniversary of being a subsidiary of Dunedin City Holdings next year.

Since coming under DCHL ownership, the forestry estate has contributed more than $225million to the council — a nice round 1000% on the initial investment of $25.7 million in 1990.

Read more  (and they were going to sell it for that. Ed)

Shane Jones on funding conflict of interest, forestry meeting.

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is hitting back at fresh criticisms of a conflict of interest saying he can meet with whomever he likes at Parliament's restaurant, Bellamy's, and he's not going to stop doing that.

Read more

Possible Whangārei mill closure sign government needs to intervene in the industry - union

The 111 workers at Carter Holt Harvey's Union East St timber mill in Whangārei, above, face an uncertain future with the company looking to potentially close the site.

The government needs to step in to secure a steady supply of mature logs to protect the country's timber milling industry, a union official representing some of the 111 workers at a Whangarei mill that is facing closure says.

Carter Holt Harvey's (CHH) Whangārei sawmill, in Union East St, might shut, after major upgrades to its Kawerau branch. The sawmill employs 111 people and CHH chief executive Clayton Harris says domestic customers are well serviced by its Kawerau and Nelson sawmills.

Harris said the company was reluctant to shut the - but the sawmill's been facing log shortages for some time. Staff will now be consulted, before the future of the mill is officially decided.

Read more

Prominent Kiwis share stories About the trees they love (The Listener)

Read more

NZ Farm Forestry Association Events

A calendar of events relating to forestry in the wider landscape are kept up to date by the NZ Farm Forestry Association Events Page.

Including:

NZFFA Conference 2020 - “46° South Revisited”.  4-8 April 2020, Ascot Park Hotel Invercargill

Download the Registration form »

Register online »

Find out more »

Wahine Toa graduates make history

History was made in the Far North forest industry when the first intake under the 20-week Wāhine Toa programme formally graduated at Kaikohe's Kohewhata Marae.

"We have come together today to celebrate achievement, commitment and dedication. It hasn't been an easy journey," RecruitMe NZ director/manager and Johnson Contractors owner Jack Johnson said.

Read more

Australia & New Zealand FSC Newsletter

Read More

Council owned forest Near Nelson may be replanted in natives and exotics

Tasman District councillors in December 2019 were asked to approve a draft plan for public consultation that proposes retiring the land from commercial forestry and replanting it.

Kingsland Forest covers about 150 hectares behind Richmond, on the flanks of the Barnicoat Range.  It may be replanted in natives and permanent woodland.

Read more

NZ: Overseas forestry investment rules to be tested - Jones

Minister Shane says he's not convinced new rules are creating a "Klondike effect" that is distorting land use patterns.

Officials will look in the new year at whether recent changes to foreign investment rules for forestry need to be "tweaked" to deliver better land use outcomes, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says.

Planting for expansion of the country's forestry industry and as a carbon sink to help meet the country's emission reduction targets depends on getting the right trees in the right places, he said.

Read more

Te Uru Rākau Feedback: A Forest Strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand

Te Uru Rākau is looking at how to harness the collective vision of New Zealanders to cultivate the forests of the future.  To do this, they’re developing a Forest Strategy that will guide us over the next 30 years, and beyond. 

Te Uru Rākau are asking for shared views on what a forest strategy means to you, why it matters, and what a great forest system would look like.  Refer to the online feedback form.

If you want to get in touch with Te Uru Rākau about the Forest Strategy, or to be added to the mailing list so you can keep in touch with what’s happening, then email foreststrategy@mpi.govt.nz.

Details are in the Forest Strategy page.

More trees mean fewer wasps - study

Researchers from Auckland University say fewer wasps are found near forest cover with more near farms, weeds and plants.

Read more

Australia: NSW poised to privatise state forests to raise $1bn for infrastructure projects

The New South Wales government is poised to privatise the state’s plantation forests as part of a fresh round of sale and lease arrangements in 2020 to fund ambitious infrastructure projects.

The long-term lease of Forestry Corporation’s 230,000 hectares of softwood plantations is expected to be one of the first assets off the block in the new year.

Read more

NSW forests sell-off value singed by bushfires

Free Workshop: Microbiology of Planted Forests:

Event: An introduction to microbial ecology and processes for planted forest owners

Date: 26^th March, 9.30 am – 3.30 pm,

Venue: Scion, 49 Sala St, Rotorua.

Background and objectives

Radiata pine forests are highly productive ecosystems founded on a dynamic and complex ‘ecosystem microbiome’. This microbiome is a community of fungi and bacteria associated with plants and soil that includes mycorrhizae, beneficial bacteria, pathogens and many others. The organisms within the microbiome contains genes that drive their interactions with plants, soil and each other. This process maintains the function of our forests under a wide range of environmental conditions.

Understanding the microbiome and its role in determining productivity for New Zealand’s forestry sector is key for continued improvement of forest management practices. Advances in molecular analysis enables characterisation of the microbes that play critical roles for tree growth and health. The potential to enhance key microbes in different environmental conditions may help with cost-effective manipulation of management practices while also maintaining or improving forest productivity.

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together stakeholders interested in learning the fundamentals of microbes, genes and hormones in forests and how they interact to regulate forest function. The workshop will include practical demonstrations of useful molecular techniques and activities designed to provide attendees with an appreciation of this important area of forest management, along with a pathway to begin developing strategies to more effectively integrate and use microbial processes in forest management. A detailed agenda will be circulated by mid-March 2020.

Registration

Participation in the workshop is free and is organised by Scion as part of the interim ‘Resilient Forests’ research programme (Oct 2019 – Sep 2020) that is jointly funded by Forest Growers Levy Trust and MBIE through the Strategic Science Investment fund (SSIF) Forest Systems Platform. Please email Annette.Brockerhoff@scionresearch.com to confirm your attendance for planning and catering purposes.

Event: Tree Crops Association's National Conference

Date: 27-29 March 2020

Venue: Danish House, 6 Rockridge Avenue, Penrose, Auckland

Theme: Celebrating Diverse People, Crops and Food...  Providing Food Security in a Changing Climate

Check the Conference Website for more information and registration

Events: MFE Consultation meetings on Reforming the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme: Proposed settings

The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) is the Government’s main tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The government plans to improve the current scheme by introducing a ‘cap’ on emissions covered by the scheme. The cap will reduce over time and help set Aotearoa New Zealand on a trajectory towards meeting our emissions reduction targets.

You can read about the proposals on the consultation website.

We are keen for feedback on the specific NZ ETS settings that are being proposed, including unit supply and price controls, that will be set through regulations in mid-2020. Please see details below on consultation meetings we are holding.

Auckland

Monday 3 February, 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Register here

Rotorua

Tuesday 4 February, 10.00am – 1.00pm.
Register here

Wellington

Tuesday 11 February, 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Register here

Christchurch

Wednesday 12 February, 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Register here

Online Webinar

For those who are unable to attend in person, we will be holding a webinar on Thursday, 13 February from 5.00pm – 7.00pm.  

Register here

Agenda

An agenda will be forwarded to registrants prior to the meeting.

Officials will be available after the session to answer questions.

A light morning / afternoon tea will be provided.

 Please register for these meetings no later than 3 February (today) 

Ngā mihi nui

Matthew Cowie

Manager, NZ ETS Policy

Ministry for the Environment

Event: Conference and Celebration for 50 years Canterbury School of Forestry

On behalf of Bruce Manley, Head of the School of Forestry, we are pleased to announce a conference and celebration in recognition of 50 years at the University of Canterbury (1970-2020).

The celebration will include a two-day conference and field trip together with organised social events between 15-17 April and the opportunity for graduating year groups to organise their own reunions from the evening of 17th April into the weekend of 18/19 April. The event will be held at the University of Canterbury based in the fantastic Haere-roa Student Association building which opened earlier this year.

Conference costs include the Wednesday evening Quiz Night, the conference and the field trip to Port of Lyttelton and Summit Road native restoration sites. The Quiz Night will be hosted by Future Foresters and is limited to 100 people with registrations on a first in, first served basis; the bus trip is limited to the first 100 people.

The dinner will have a limited number of seats and is charged separately, with a maximum of two tickets per conference registrant.

For information on the conference, the link to the registration site (Eventbrite) and other details, please go to the conference news site.  The site includes a dedicated email address which is included in this message header.  For graduating year groups, there is a sub-section on the conference page (Graduating Year Reunions) where we can provide an organisers’ contact name and email address so you can organise your own graduating year reunions. You can see the level of detail we provide in that sub-section already with a volunteer for the 2013 group already named. If you would like to be the contact person for your year, please email Forestry50@canterbury.ac.nz.

SOF 50th Facebook Events Page

Jeanette Allen

Canterbury School of Forestry

Event: Bioenergy Association Workshop: The Evidence for Delivering Wood Energy to New Zealand

Date: 25^th February 2020

Venue: Copthorne Hotel Wellington, Oriental Bay, Wellington

Government is developing policies relevant to the wood energy sector and seeks evidence of what the sector can contribute and what would assist achievement of the extensive benefits of using wood and other biomass resources as a source of energy.

Government agencies are also considering the opportunities from using wood and waste biomass to replace fossil fuels in communities and industry.

Bioenergy Association has identified that with transformational policies for renewable fuel use by industry that 1 Mt CO2-e pa of greenhouse gas emission reductions could be achieved by 2035, and 1.8 Mt CO2-e pa by 2050.  This is a replacement of 20PJ of fossil fuels.

This workshop is to share evidence from the wood energy sector with industry and government of why use of biomass energy is growing, identify those aspects which make projects successful, and identify barriers where new policies or assistance would assist get quicker replacement of fossil fuels by industry and the community.

Programme and Registration details here.

IN THE NEWS - CONTINUES

Australia: NSW poised to privatise state forests to raise $1bn for infrastructure projects

The New South Wales government is poised to privatise the state’s plantation forests as part of a fresh round of sale and lease arrangements in 2020 to fund ambitious infrastructure projects.

The long-term lease of Forestry Corporation’s 230,000 hectares of softwood plantations is expected to be one of the first assets off the block in the new year.

Read more

NSW forests sell-off value singed by bushfires

Free Workshop: Microbiology of Planted Forests:

Event: An introduction to microbial ecology and processes for planted forest owners

Date: 26^th March, 9.30 am – 3.30 pm,

Venue: Scion, 49 Sala St, Rotorua.

Background and objectives

Radiata pine forests are highly productive ecosystems founded on a dynamic and complex ‘ecosystem microbiome’. This microbiome is a community of fungi and bacteria associated with plants and soil that includes mycorrhizae, beneficial bacteria, pathogens and many others. The organisms within the microbiome contains genes that drive their interactions with plants, soil and each other. This process maintains the function of our forests under a wide range of environmental conditions.

Understanding the microbiome and its role in determining productivity for New Zealand’s forestry sector is key for continued improvement of forest management practices. Advances in molecular analysis enables characterisation of the microbes that play critical roles for tree growth and health. The potential to enhance key microbes in different environmental conditions may help with cost-effective manipulation of management practices while also maintaining or improving forest productivity.

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together stakeholders interested in learning the fundamentals of microbes, genes and hormones in forests and how they interact to regulate forest function. The workshop will include practical demonstrations of useful molecular techniques and activities designed to provide attendees with an appreciation of this important area of forest management, along with a pathway to begin developing strategies to more effectively integrate and use microbial processes in forest management. A detailed agenda will be circulated by mid-March 2020.

Registration

Participation in the workshop is free and is organised by Scion as part of the interim ‘Resilient Forests’ research programme (Oct 2019 – Sep 2020) that is jointly funded by Forest Growers Levy Trust and MBIE through the Strategic Science Investment fund (SSIF) Forest Systems Platform. Please email Annette.Brockerhoff@scionresearch.com to confirm your attendance for planning and catering purposes.

Event: Tree Crops Association's National Conference

Date: 27-29 March 2020

Venue: Danish House, 6 Rockridge Avenue, Penrose, Auckland

Theme: Celebrating Diverse People, Crops and Food...  Providing Food Security in a Changing Climate

Check the Conference Website for more information and registration

Events: MFE Consultation meetings on Reforming the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme: Proposed settings

The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) is the Government’s main tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The government plans to improve the current scheme by introducing a ‘cap’ on emissions covered by the scheme. The cap will reduce over time and help set Aotearoa New Zealand on a trajectory towards meeting our emissions reduction targets.

You can read about the proposals on the consultation website.

We are keen for feedback on the specific NZ ETS settings that are being proposed, including unit supply and price controls, that will be set through regulations in mid-2020. Please see details below on consultation meetings we are holding.

Auckland

Monday 3 February, 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Register here

Rotorua

Tuesday 4 February, 10.00am – 1.00pm.
Register here

Wellington

Tuesday 11 February, 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Register here

Christchurch

Wednesday 12 February, 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Register here

Online Webinar

For those who are unable to attend in person, we will be holding a webinar on Thursday, 13 February from 5.00pm – 7.00pm.  

Register here

Agenda

An agenda will be forwarded to registrants prior to the meeting.

Officials will be available after the session to answer questions.

A light morning / afternoon tea will be provided.

 Please register for these meetings no later than 3 February (today) 

Ngā mihi nui

Matthew Cowie

Manager, NZ ETS Policy

Ministry for the Environment

Event: Conference and Celebration for 50 years Canterbury School of Forestry

On behalf of Bruce Manley, Head of the School of Forestry, we are pleased to announce a conference and celebration in recognition of 50 years at the University of Canterbury (1970-2020).

The celebration will include a two-day conference and field trip together with organised social events between 15-17 April and the opportunity for graduating year groups to organise their own reunions from the evening of 17th April into the weekend of 18/19 April. The event will be held at the University of Canterbury based in the fantastic Haere-roa Student Association building which opened earlier this year.

Conference costs include the Wednesday evening Quiz Night, the conference and the field trip to Port of Lyttelton and Summit Road native restoration sites. The Quiz Night will be hosted by Future Foresters and is limited to 100 people with registrations on a first in, first served basis; the bus trip is limited to the first 100 people.

The dinner will have a limited number of seats and is charged separately, with a maximum of two tickets per conference registrant.

For information on the conference, the link to the registration site (Eventbrite) and other details, please go to the conference news site.  The site includes a dedicated email address which is included in this message header.  For graduating year groups, there is a sub-section on the conference page (Graduating Year Reunions) where we can provide an organisers’ contact name and email address so you can organise your own graduating year reunions. You can see the level of detail we provide in that sub-section already with a volunteer for the 2013 group already named. If you would like to be the contact person for your year, please email Forestry50@canterbury.ac.nz.

SOF 50th Facebook Events Page

Jeanette Allen

Canterbury School of Forestry

Event: Bioenergy Association Workshop: The Evidence for Delivering Wood Energy to New Zealand

Date: 25^th February 2020

Venue: Copthorne Hotel Wellington, Oriental Bay, Wellington

Government is developing policies relevant to the wood energy sector and seeks evidence of what the sector can contribute and what would assist achievement of the extensive benefits of using wood and other biomass resources as a source of energy.

Government agencies are also considering the opportunities from using wood and waste biomass to replace fossil fuels in communities and industry.

Bioenergy Association has identified that with transformational policies for renewable fuel use by industry that 1 Mt CO2-e pa of greenhouse gas emission reductions could be achieved by 2035, and 1.8 Mt CO2-e pa by 2050.  This is a replacement of 20PJ of fossil fuels.

This workshop is to share evidence from the wood energy sector with industry and government of why use of biomass energy is growing, identify those aspects which make projects successful, and identify barriers where new policies or assistance would assist get quicker replacement of fossil fuels by industry and the community.

Programme and Registration details here.

Forestry Industry Safety Council (FISC)

Worker involvement in health and safety will be a focus for Safetree in 2020 and as part of a pilot with WorkSafe, they have hired two champions to help lead this work. They are Richard Stringfellow and Wade Brunt. FISC are calling these two champions Toroawhi, which means ‘together we create change’.

They will work with crews and others in forestry to help get workers more involved in health and safety decision-making. When workers are involved like this, health, safety and business performance all improve.

Richard is based in Taupo and will cover the Central North Island, while Wade is based in Gisborne covering the Gisborne/Tairāwhiti region.  They started on 20 January 2020 and FISC will be introducing them to their regions.  If the pilot is successful they’re keen to expand this initiative to other regions of New Zealand.

https://www.fisc.org.nz/

MBIE Submissions; Accelerating Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has released a discussion document Accelerating Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency and is seeking submissions. 

Close of submissions is 5pm, 28^th February 2020.

The WoodWorks 2020 Conference - 20th – 21st October, 2020

Date: 20^th – 21^st October, 2020

Venue: Jet Park Auckland Airport Hotel, Auckland

The WoodWorks 2020 Conference continues to showcase the practical experiences of a range of building professionals including architects, project managers, designers, fit-out specialists, quantity surveyors, BIM specialists and engineers.

The program has a focus on completed projects from New Zealand and Australia. Each year we also showcase an inspirational wood expert from leading tall timber exemplar building projects overseas. For 2020 a world class architect from the iconic Brock Commons building in Vancouver will be our keynote speaker.

Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities:  The WoodWorks conference offers an opportunity for companies involved in wood engineering to be a part of the future of timber use in New Zealand construction.  Exhibition spaces will be made available to sponsors of this conference and partners of WoodWorks.  These booths will provide a unique platform for promoting your products and services to the industry.

To ensure you get a place at either event, if you’d like further information or if you haven’t yet seen a Sponsorship & Exhibition Pack, please contact

John Stulen, Director, (+64) 7 921 1382 or (+64) 27 275 8011, john.stulen@innovatek.co.nz.

Forest Industry Safety & Technology 2020 Conference Series

MPI’s Sustainable Forestry Bulletin

MPI’s Sustainable Forestry Bulletin is available through the subscription link.  

Royal Society New Zealand

The NZ Institute of Forestry is affiliated with the Royal Society, with many co-memberships.  For those interested in receiving their newsletters and other alerts, please follow the link https://royalsociety.org.nz/

IN THE NEWS - WORLD

World: Planting trees is only a good news story if it’s done right

In the fight against global warming, we’d be better off preserving natural forests than planting new monoculture plantations.

Read more

World: To Combat Climate Change, See the Forest for the Trees (Scientific American)

As the world scrambles to combat deforestation, experts warn our efforts could have far fewer benefits than we think.

Read more

World Future: 10 Big Changes for Forests Over the Last Decade

by WRI Forest Experts - January 10, 2020

A lot changed for the world's forests over the 2010s, but much remains to be done.

The last decade was pivotal for the world's forests. The 2010s saw the rise of unprecedented new commitments — from governments and the private sector alike — to bring deforestation to heel. The UN REDD+ framework, the New York Declaration on Forests and the Sustainable Development Goals set out ambitious targets to conserve and restore millions of hectares of forests.

But as this decade ends and a new one begins, it is also clear the world has fallen short on achieving its forest goals. While the impacts of climate change are being felt around the world, forests — an invaluable climate mitigation tool — are still being lost at high rates. Leaders in key countries are back-tracking on forest protection.

All of this has shaped the forest landscape today and will propel the world into an uncertain new era. Here, WRI's forest experts reflect on 10 major changes for forests from the last decade, and what we should expect in 2020 and beyond.

1. Global Primary Forest Loss Remained High
2. New Technologies Made It Easier to Monitor Forests…
3. …but Biodiversity Monitoring Technology Lagged Behind
4. Climate Change Battered Forest Ecosystems
5. Forests and People Became Increasingly Intertwined
6. REDD+ Experienced a Renaissance Despite a Rocky Start
7. Commodities Became "De-Commodified"
8. Restoration Pledges Proliferated, but Action Was Insufficient
9. Indigenous Peoples Assert Their Forest Rights

Read more

US: Wildwood – a thriving example of sustainable forestry

Merv Wilkinson's 77-acre Wildwood forest has more timber now than when logging began in 1945.

Wildwood is unique in the Pacific Northwest for being commercially logged since 1945. On its 77-acre patch of old growth forest, Douglas firs soar into the sky, the rat-a-tat of pileated woodpeckers echo through the trees, and emerald-green moss blankets the ground.  The forest illustrates the diversity of nature, where myriads of species have intermingled and evolved over millions of years to form an incredibly complex web of life.  It is in stark contrast to the moonscape clearcuts of modern industrial forestry.  At Wildwood, nature rules – while also yielding a harvest for human use.

Read more

US: Oregon Counties Win Billion-Dollar Forest Battle Against The State

A jury in Linn County, Oregon, found the state government had breached its contract with 13 counties and dozens of local taxing districts by failing to generate sufficient revenue through logging on state forests.

In a precedent-setting case, a jury in Linn County, Oregon, found the state government had breached its contract with 13 counties and dozens of local taxing districts by failing to generate sufficient revenue through permissions for logging on state forests.

The jury, relying on language in a 1941 agreement, awarded the plaintiffs $1.06 billion.

..

Counties deeded many abandoned, cut-over, or burned-out forest lands within their borders to the state, signing an agreement in 1941 requiring the state government to manage 745,000 acres of forests for “the greatest permanent value of those lands to the state.” Under the agreement, the state manages the forests, and counties get a cut of the profits.

…… (Ed. What is ‘permanent value’?)

Given that the lands came from the counties, they were to be managed primarily to benefit the counties, not the state as a whole, and this could only be done through more logging than state management plans have allowed over the past couple of decades, the plaintiffs argued.

In the 1990s, the Oregon Department of Forestry adopted new management goals that deemphasized revenue generation and timber production, instead managing the lands primarily to produce clean air and drinking water, preserve wildlife habitat, and increase recreational opportunities.  Revenues declined.  The state contended managing its forests for balanced uses, not placing a priority on timber sales, benefited the entire state and by inference the counties.

The plaintiffs contended those goals illegally altered the priorities for management of the affected forests in violation of the 1941 agreement.

Read more

Opinion: Our forests’ future depends on our working together

Oregon’s 3 biggest environmental stories of 2019 promise to play out in 2020

Looking back on the environmental news that dominated headlines in 2019, it’s easy to see that in Oregon and Southwest Washington, three topics — forestry, climate change and fights over fossil fuel facilities — drove much of the coverage. Here’s a closer look at how they dominated environmental news this year and are sure to animate debates over energy and environmental policy in 2020:

Read more

IN THE NEWS _ WORLD CONTINUES

PNG loggers say new govt tax spells disaster for the industry

Papua New Guinea's Forest Industries Association is warning of disaster for its sector due to new taxes.

New taxes on the forestry sector, introduced in the government's 2020 Budget, came into effect this month

The Association's executive officer, Bob Tate, says there was no consultation with the industry ahead of the move.

Mr Tate spoke to Johnny Blades who asked what impact the new export tax on logs would have on this major industry in PNG.

Read/listen more

Planetary boundaries: Interactions in Earth system amplify human impacts

Transgressing one planetary boundary can amplify human impacts on another one. For the first time, an international team of scientists now quantified some of the planetary-scale interactions in the Earth system. These biophysical interactions have in fact almost doubled direct human impacts on the nine planetary boundaries, from climate change to freshwater use. This insight can now be applied in policy design for safeguarding the livelihoods of generations to come.

What we do to one part of our Earth system does not just add to what we do to other parts: "We found a dense network of interactions between the planetary boundaries," says Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-author of the study. Two core boundaries -- climate change and biosphere integrity -- contribute more than half the combined strengths of all the interactions in that network, the scientists find. "This highlights how careful we should be in destabilizing these two," says Rockström. "The resulting cascades and feedbacks amplify human impacts on the Earth system and thereby shrink the safe operating space for our children and grand-children."

Read more

 Global warming is the kindling that caused extensive wildfire

Researchers identified Arctic Oscillation as the cause for the recent wildfires in Siberia. Their study forecasts wildfire activity in spring, helping to prevent carbon release and global warming.

In November of last year, the wildfire that started in California, U.S.A burned areas that amount about the size of Seoul and destructed over 500 buildings for two weeks. In 2018, six fires started simultaneously in southern California and spread out to the neighboring areas, burning total of 405 km2 with 86 fatalities and 200,000 victims for three days. Also, large-scale wildfires often occur in the northern inland of Russia. The forest fire occurred in July 2018 burned the total area of 3,211 km2 which is 5.3 times bigger than the city of Seoul and, the wildfire, in May 2019, started to spread out and burned down even greater land. So far, extensive wildfires such as the mentioned events are believed to be mostly caused by dry wind, however, the recent study explains that global warming is the kindling that starts such fires.

Jong-Seong Kug, a professor of Division of Environmental Engineering at POSTECH and Jin-Soo Kim, a postdoctoral researcher of University of Edinburgh jointly collaborated with Su-Jong Jeong of Seoul National University, Hotaek Park of Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and Gabriela Schaepman-Strub of University of Zurich and, they identified a cause of wildfires in the permafrost region of southeastern Siberia which is related to the Artic Oscillation. Their research is published on the international journal, Science Advances on the 8th of January.

Read more

Climate may play a bigger role than deforestation in rainforest biodiversity

Small mammals in South America help scientists see forest-wide patterns

In a study on small mammal biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest, researchers found that climate may affect biodiversity in rainforests even more than deforestation does.

"Save the rainforests" is a snappy slogan, but it doesn't tell the full story of how complicated it is to do just that. Before conservationists can even begin restoring habitats and advocating for laws that protect land from poachers and loggers, scientists need to figure out what's living, what's dying, and which patterns explain why. Tackling these questions -- in other words, finding out what drives a region's biodiversity -- is no small task.

The better we measure what's in these rainforests, the more likely we are to find patterns that inform conservation efforts. A new study in Biotropica, for instance, crunched numbers on a behemoth dataset on small mammals in South America and found something surprising in the process: that climate may affect biodiversity in rainforests even more than deforestation does.

Read more

Fungal diversity and its relationship to the future of forests

If you indulge in truffles, or porcini and chanterelle mushrooms, you have enjoyed a product of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Forming symbiotic relationships with plants -- including pine, birch, oak and willow tree species -- these fungi have existed for millions of years, their sprawling filaments supporting ecosystems throughout their reach.

According to research from Stanford University, published Jan. 21 in the Journal of Biogeography, by the year 2070, climate change could cause the local loss of over a quarter of ectomycorrhizal fungal species from 3.5 million square kilometers of North American pine forests -- an area twice the size of Alaska.

"These are critical organisms for the functioning and the health of forests," said Kabir Peay, associate professor of biology in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences and senior author of the study. "We have evidence to suggest that these fungi are as susceptible to climate change as other kinds of organisms and their response may be even more important."

Read more

 Gambia, Africa: Thousands of Hectares of Forest Transferred to Communities

The Director of Forestry Muhammed Jaiteh said over 40,000 hectares of forest has been transferred to communities for them to manage.

Mr. Jaiteh made these revelations during the opening ceremony of the second edition of National Forest Trade Fair which brought together different people who work on forest products that are environment friendly and adaptive to the country’s eco-system.

Mr. Jaiteh said they have 220 communities that were awarded certificate of ownership of both their forest and the land itself and they are presently working with twenty seven communities by assisting them in the management of their forest parks; that these committees and their co-management partners represent more than 533 rural communities and an area of more than 40,000 hectares of community forest and forest parks.

Read more

Fires in Indonesia burn 1.6m ha of land, mostly former forests: Satellite

 Read more

IN THE NEWS - WORLD CONTINUE 2

Smart management of wildfires can help curb global heating (United Nations)

Extensive wildfire disasters, such as recently reported in Australia, Indonesia and the United States, adversely affect communities, economies and ecosystems. More generally, they contribute to air pollution and global warming, and indicate that existing mechanisms to deal with wildfire, centered around disaster risk management, are insufficient.

Read more

So long tumultuous teens: High hopes for forests in the 2020s (CIFOR)

Potential for protective green economy and government policies offer promise.

Throughout the last decade (2010-2019), tropical deforestation escalated at an alarming rate despite a raft of international commitments, including the New York Declaration on Forests, the U.N. REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) agreement, the inclusion of forests in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Aichi targets under the U.N. Convention on Biodiversity.

All of these agreements recognize the vital role forests play in climate change mitigation, but they have not reached their full potential due to weak commitments by governments who do not realize their potential as carbon sinks, according to forestry experts at Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI) in a recent article (see above. Ed) summarizing a “top 10” of big changes for forests over the past decade.

Read more

California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection

California has a new tool in its efforts to build wildfire resilience and improve long-term forest management in the face of climate change.

The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has certified a new program that will help minimize wildland fire risk across the state while ensuring the highest level of environmental oversight.

The California Vegetation Treatment Program will create efficiencies within the regulatory process to scale up fuel treatment and forest restoration projects toward meeting the state’s goal of treating 500,000 acres of nonfederal lands annually.

Read more

Event: Oak Action Group Open Days

Date: Saturday 25 April to Sunday 26 April 2020 

Venue: Hackfalls Arboretum and Eastwoodhill Arboretum, the National Arboretum of New Zealand

Join the Oak Action Group on Saturday 25 April to Sunday 26 April 2020 for a two-day event to visit the legendary Hackfalls Arboretum and Eastwoodhill Arboretum, the National Arboretum of New Zealand.

The event is being organised jointly by the International Oak Society and the newly formed NZFFA Oak Action Group.

Both these arboreta contain world-class oak collections, featuring Mexican oaks, American and European oaks, and a day will be spent in each.  Our focus on oaks will of course not blind us to the many other treasures these arboreta have to offer.  Accommodation will be nearby in Gisborne so we will spend most of the time looking at trees rather than travelling. Join tree enthusiasts from New Zealand and around the world for this two-day event.

If you have questions or would like to register your interest, please email Kathy.hurr@gmail.com

The Institute of Chartered Foresters

The ICF provides a newsletter with news and blogs as well as relevant information for members through this link.

'We're going to see more of this': Spring flooding in B.C. may be worsened by logging practices

Logging companies not legally required to consider downstream flood risks when harvesting, reports suggest

Read more

#GreenDeal needs plantation forests

The European Commission’s new Green Deal brings a new context, a new approach and importantly a new political narrative. The momentum has come, now we need to make use of it. This was the main message of the ThinkForest event on ‘The future of plantation forests in Europe’, which was held in Brussels on 17 December.

Participants heard from Michail Dumitru from the DG for Agriculture and Rural Development about the importance of forests for sustainability and EU climate priorities, and how they are essential for the achievement of the main EU objectives in the Green Deal.

Peter Freer-Smith of University of California Davis, shared the conclusions of the new EFI From Science to Policy study, Plantation forests in Europe: challenges and opportunities. He emphasized that plantation forests can play a key role in meeting the current demands on forests. In Europe, the area of plantation forestry is increasing, together with the proportion of roundwood and other ecosystem services provided. There is new science evidence that the sustainable management of plantations, particularly as part of a landscape-scale mosaic, has strong potential to deliver against Europe’s emerging policy priorities.

However, when it comes to policies, there is no one-size-fits all solution, as the differences in European countries in circumstances are huge. This has implications for the design of new instruments, for example those implementing the new Green Deal. ThinkForest President Janez Potočnik also highlighted that the success of initiatives like the Green Deal very much depended on how well the social story is integrated and how much ownership it is able to create among the stakeholders.

Public and social perceptions of plantation forests are changing, as the forests themselves evolve, and also with new societal awareness about climate change. Panellist Jo O’Hara from Scottish Forestry emphasised that we need to find the middle ground, connecting emotionally with people as well as scientifically. Good landscape design was important, as was interaction with stakeholders.

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Massive effort to document the genetics of European forests bears fruit

Faced with deforestation, climate change, invasive pests, and new diseases, many trees are in trouble. Foresters and conservationists are scrambling to save them, but can’t protect every stand of woods. And prioritizing which places—and even which individual trees—warrant preservation has been a challenge. For example, “You want a lot of genetic diversity in a conservation area. … The higher the diversity, the more the chances that the population will survive,” says F. A. (Phil) Aravanopoulos, a forest geneticist at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. But robust data on the genetic diversity of trees can be scarce.

Now, a 4-year, $7.7 million effort to document the genetic diversity of forests in Europe is helping fill that gap. In a project dubbed GenTree, researchers from 14 countries measured, cored, and took DNA samples from 12 important tree species across Europe. No other continent’s forests have been documented so broadly and so comprehensively, says Nathalie Isabel, a forest geneticist and forester with Natural Resources Canada. “The sampling is amazing.”

The results, reported at a forest genetics conference this week in Avignon, France, could help conservationists, tree breeders, forest managers, and researchers trying to understand how forests will cope with climate change.

Read more

Save the Redwoods, Scientists Debate Burning and Logging

Some scientists question whether controlled burns and logging are really the best way to preserve California’s redwoods.

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Some forests crucial for climate change mitigation, biodiversity

Researchers have identified forests in the western United States that should be preserved for their potential to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration, as well as to enhance biodiversity.

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Tropical forests losing ability to absorb CO2, study says (Science)

The world’s tropical forests are losing their ability to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, while boreal forests are absorbing emissions at an increasingly fast rate, a study finds.

The new analysis uses a combination of remote-sensing data and modelling to create a detailed picture of carbon loss and gain across all of Earth’s biomes from 1992 to 2015.

It shows a diverging picture in the world’s two most important ecosystems for storing carbon on land: tropical rainforests and “boreal” forests, which are found in the cold climate of the high latitudes.

The chief driver of carbon loss in tropical forests over the study period was deforestation. Particularly affected areas are likely to include the Amazon, Indonesia and southeastern Asia, the lead author tells Carbon Brief.

It is not fully clear what is driving carbon gains in boreal forests, another scientist tells Carbon Brief. However, one likely driver is the “CO2 fertilisation effect” – a term describing how increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere can boost plant growth.

Overall, the findings paint a comprehensive picture of a “worrying” shift in the ability of tropical forests to absorb CO2 emissions, she adds.

Read more

It’s time to go Dutch and make our forestry about more than just wood

We know woodlands can make money and help the environment, but the Netherlands have shown that with a bit of lateral thinking, forestry can also play a big role in keeping rural communities on the land.
Ireland and the Netherlands have a similar percentage forest cover, the lowest in Europe, but Dutch woodlands play a significant social role for their population.
The woodlands they have on suitable lands with appropriate species have been shown to be economically and environmentally sustainable.
The third pillar of sustainability, social sustainability, is often questioned in Ireland in the context of forestry.
Studies have shown that forestry is economically sustainable on suitable marginal lands as referred to in the recent report on the Socio-Economic Impact of Forestry in Leitrim.

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Canada’s forestry sector transitions to meet climate demands

The forestry sector says it’s transforming amid Canada’s shift to a low-carbon economy.

Bob Larocque, the senior vice-president of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), said the industry has begun to diversify its products to develop more environmentally-friendly materials.  The result, he said, has been the emergence of new sector of bio-economy jobs.

Read more

‘Blatant manipulation’: Trump administration exploited wildfire science to promote logging

Revealed: emails show Trump and appointees tried to craft a narrative that forest protection efforts are responsible for wildfires

Political appointees at the interior department have sought to play up climate pollution from California wildfires while downplaying emissions from fossil fuels as a way of promoting more logging in the nation’s forests, internal emails obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The messaging plan was crafted in support of Donald Trump’s pro-industry arguments for harvesting more timber in California, which he says would thin forests and prevent fires – a point experts refute.

Read more

California’s trees could shift as global warming forces birds to move out

Song surveys show that species key to spreading seeds are shuffling up and down the mountain.

In Northern California's Klamath National Forest, birds are moving to higher elevations to escape rising temperatures.

Forests are critical to slowing climate change because they soak up huge amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Birds help keep forests healthy by eating insects that spread tree-killing diseases. Birds also scatter seeds that give rise to new trees. If birds leave, the forests could be in trouble.

 “Without birds, forests would be more vulnerable to disease, and it would be much harder for them to naturally regenerate after fires,” says Brett Furnas, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Read more

Mediating conflict helps community forestry schemes succeed

Empowering people to manage the forests near their homes is one tool of sustainable development. Widely known as “community forestry,” the notion originated in the 1970s with the dream of fair, equitable, and sustainable forest use.

But achieving those aims isn’t easy. Schemes have to go beyond preserving trees or boosting the local economy, experts say, to alleviate poverty by serving a diverse array of local people, rather than just one gender or class. And the key to ensuring and widening diversity, according to a recent study in World Development, may actually be mediating between stakeholders and resolving conflicts to enable many different groups to participate.

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Woodland back to ‘medieval levels

The rewilding of Britain has reversed centuries of decline and there are more trees to come.

Britain’s woodland cover has returned to medieval levels thanks to 20th-century forestry and the “rewilding” trend.

The area of woodland is about 3.19 million hectares, according to the Forestry Commission. This represents 13 per cent of the land area, or 10 per cent in England, 15 per cent in Wales, 8 per cent in Northern Ireland and 19 per cent in Scotland.

That is up from 5 per cent nationwide in 1919, when the commission was established, and is equivalent to levels of cover during the Middle Ages, which ranged from 15 per cent of England at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, to 6-10 per cent by 1300.

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'It's a food forest': Amazon villagers face down Bolsonaro threat

Volunteers outside a solar-powered fruit pulping facility in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in Para, Brazil. Photograph: Attilio Zolin/The Guardian

From space, the Amazon rainforest resembles a giant dark-green lung veined with blue rivers that is steadily succumbing to the disease-like spread of grey fires, orange roads and square-cut farms. What the satellite images cannot show is how most of the remaining bands of verdant, healthy foliage are defended on the ground by forest dwellers who act as antibodies to drive out malignant invaders.

Among the most impressive of these is the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in the state of Para in northern Brazil, where residents are trying to bolster their economic resistance with a series of new agro-forestry and solar power projects.

Read more

Why the province’s working forests aren’t working

Industry leader calls for a B.C. working-forest designation with rigid regulatory goalposts

As forestry companies run out of easy-to-access timber, loggers are forced to move higher, which requires specialized steep-slope logging equipment | Submitted

Anyone who has ever flown from Vancouver to Prince Rupert, Prince George or Fort Nelson and looked out the window may have wondered to themselves: “How can B.C. possibly be running out of trees to cut?”

B.C.’s forest sector was beaten to a pulp in 2019, as a “perfect storm” of market, policy and natural forces converged, triggering multiple sawmill closures and curtailments, and spurring anger among laid-off workers towards politicians and conservationists.

When the Sierra Club and Wilderness Committee tried to hold an event in Campbell River on November 25, it was shut down by the city and police, for fear of confrontation. What was supposed to be a town hall talk on old-growth forests and climate change turned into an impromptu pro-logging rally, according to the Campbell River Mirror.

 “It’s not a very popular time to be an environmentalist,” said Mark Worthing, a climate and conservation campaigner for the Sierra Club.

Nor is it a popular time to be a BC NDP cabinet minister in ridings where sawmill workers and loggers are now struggling to meet mortgage and car payments.

Read more

The multiple hits to the BC forest system documented

Calls for end to ‘high-grading’ B.C. forests

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ADVERTS

FOR SALE - Ngaruawahia Forest, Herekino, Northland

Mixed age class forest

A total freehold area of 1,126.0 hectares* with a net stocked area of 757.3 hectares* consisting of Pinus radiata, Ngaruawahia Forest’s proximity to two ports and multiple domestic processors ensures its appeal as a large standalone forest or in addition to a larger estate.

• 3ha* Net Stocked Area
• Established in 2001-2010 with a weighted average age of 12 years*
• Up-to-date mapping and inventory available
• Two ports + multiple competing processors under 136km* cart
• Clear instructions from the vendors to sell

 *Approximately 

DEADLINE OFFERS
Thursday 13 February 2020 at 4.00pm (unless sold prior) 

CONTACT

WYATT JOHNSTON
027 8151 303
wyatt.johnston@cbre.co.nz

JEREMY KEATING
021 461 210
jeremy.keating@cbre.co.nz

www.cbre.co.nz/224295Q49 

FOR SALE - Twin Valley Forest, Herekino, Northland

Near mature forest

Twin Valley Forest is a medium-scale, near mature forest located in the Far North District of New Zealand. Offering a total freehold area of 284.1 hectares and a net stocked area of approximately 211ha consisting of Pinus radiata established in 1998. An additional 340 hectares** of farmland, which runs adjacent to the Twin Valley Forest, is also available for sale. 

Contact CBRE today for a detailed Information Memorandum or to arrange an inspection.

·        284.1ha Total Freehold Area

·        211ha* Net Stocked Area

·        Pinus radiata crop established 1998

·        Predominantly ground-based contour

·        Majority pruned and thinned - recent inventory and mapping

·        Post-89 land

·        Adjoining 340ha** of farmland also available for sale

·        Clear instructions from both vendors to sell 

*Approximately

** Subject to Survey

DEADLINE OFFERS

Thursday 13 February 2020 at 4.00pm (unless sold prior) 

CONTACT 

WYATT JOHNSTON
027 8151 303
wyatt.johnston@cbre.co.nz 

JEREMY KEATING
021 461 210
jeremy.keating@cbre.co.nz

 
www.cbre.co.nz/224292Q49

FOR SALE - Adamson Forest, Herekino, Northland

 Medium-scale forest

With a total freehold area of 786.8 hectares* and a net stocked area of approximately 427.1, Adamson Forest is a medium-scale, mixed age class forest. Of the stocked area, some 296 hectares* was established in 1996-1997 providing for imminent harvest volume.

Contact CBRE today for a detailed Information Memorandum or to arrange an inspection.

•  786.8ha* Total Freehold Area
• 471ha* Net Stocked Area
• Pinus radiata crop with 296ha* established 1996-1997
• Mapping and current inventory available via data room
• Proximity to competing domestic users
• Clear instructions from the vendors to sell 

*Approximately 

DEADLINE OFFERS
Thursday 13 February 2020 at 4.00pm (unless sold prior)

 CONTACT 

WYATT JOHNSTON
027 8151 303
wyatt.johnston@cbre.co.nz

JEREMY KEATING
021 461 210
jeremy.keating@cbre.co.nz

www.cbre.co.nz/224293Q49

 © 2018 CBRE (Agency) Limited, Licensed Real Estate Agent (REAA 2008)

FOR SALE - Twin Ridge Farm, Herekino, Northland

Farm Land for Sale

As part of a larger farming operation, Twin Ridge Farm comprises 63.6ha* of pines established in 2019, 30ha* of near-mature pines in three separate woodlots, and a further 225ha* reserved for planting in 2020. Strategically located next to the Twin Valley Forest, this farm land is available for sale by deadline offers closing 13 February 2020 (unless sold prior).

Contact CBRE today for a detailed Information Memorandum or to arrange an inspection. 

·        Freehold land area of 1,932ha*

·        340ha** Total Freehold Area

·        63.6ha* established 2019, 225ha* reserved for planting in 2020

·        30ha* near mature Pinus radiata woodlot

·        Post - 89 land - Carbon earning potential

·        Contour to suit a mix of ground-based and hauler

·        Adjoining 284.1ha* forest 

*Approximately

** Subject to Survey

 DEADLINE OFFERS

Thursday 13 February 2020 at 4.00pm (unless sold prior)

CONTACT 

WYATT JOHNSTON
027 8151 303
wyatt.johnston@cbre.co.nz

JEREMY KEATING
021 461 210
jeremy.keating@cbre.co.nz

 www.cbre.co.nz/224342Q49

 © 2018 CBRE (Agency) Limited, Licensed Real Estate Agent (REAA 2008)