Farm Forestry New Zealand

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Growing Confidence in Forestry’s Future (GCFF) Research Newsletter

Carbon stock look-up tables update

The New Zealand Planted Forests Portal

Phase 2 Redwood Genetics trial for New Zealand

President
Dean Satchell dsatch@gmail.com
-Far North
-Mid North

Newsletter editor
Dean Satchell
dsatch@gmail.com

National Office
Association Manager Glenn Tims
glenn.tims@nzffa.org.nz
Phone: 04 4720432
 

Executive
 

Angus Gordon angusg@xtra.co.nz
-Taupo & Districts
-Middle Districts
-Hawkes Bay

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

Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz
-Gisborne East Coast
-Wairarapa
-Wellington

Patrick Milne patrick@cypress.co.nz
-West Coast
-Central Canterbury
-North Canterbury

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

Don Wallace
don@wallace.gen.nz
-Taranaki
-Marlborough
-Nelson


 

Notices

Managed Investment schemes: The Financial Markets Authority has now made its decisions affecting forestry schemes that are managed investment schemes. The attachment gives an update on those decisions and the support we are giving forestry schemes that are managed investment schemes with their new obligations under the Financial Markets Conduct Act. The licensing guide explains what to consider in deciding whether a scheme is a managed investment scheme and subject to the FMC Act.

Ainsley Simmonds
Senior Solicitor, Regulatory Policy
Financial Markets Authority

Latest headlines

Timber industry ready to contribute to home building catch-up
The timber industry believes the government’s announced boost to home construction, through a Housing Infrastructure Fund, needs to have a timber focus. Woodco chair, Brian Stanley, says the volume of… more >>

ETS subsidy removal could deliver efficiency
The New Zealand Wood Council says the government decision to phase out a polluters’ subsidy in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a step in the right direction, but… more >>

Report: Pathways to Building Code compliance for farm-totara timber
Backed by the Sustainable Farming Fund, Tanes Tree Trust and NZFFA, this report explores opportunities for Building Code compliance that would lead to market development and greatly increase the potential… more >>

The Forest Industry Safety Council What is it up to?
Ian Jackson New Zealand Tree Grower, May 2016. On March 16 at the Forestwood conference in Auckland, on behalf of NZFFA, I signed the charter for the Forest Industry Safety… more >>

Update on SFF Paropsis biocontrol project May 2016
The Tasmanian parasitoid wasp, Eadya paropsidis, is being investigated as a potential biological control agent for Paropsis charybdis, the Eucalyptus tortoise beetle. The first year of the three year Sustainable… more >>

Fire and Emergency New Zealand
The NZ Farm Forestry Association (NZFFA ) welcomes the Minister of Internal Affairs’ (Peter Dunne) announcement that Budget 2016 will include $303m to modernise and combine New Zealand’s urban and… more >>

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Events

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

• NZIF Hawkes Bay local section meeting, Water Bar Napier, 10a West Quay, NAPIER (the old ‘round house’ tavern), 27 July , 5.30pm to 7.30pm (approx.). Topic: Update on FISC and my approach to Health & Safety, Speaker: Fiona Ewing; National Safety Director of the Forest Industry Safety Council
• North Canterbury branch mid-winter dinner, Friday July 29th, Hurunui Cafe and Bar, 6pm
• West Coast Field Day, Saturday, 20th August, Omotumotu Valley and Kaiata, 10:00am
• Middle Districts Forest Growers Levy Roadshow, Tuesday, 23 August, 2016, St Johns Hall, 35 Bowen Street, Feilding, 1:30pm to 4:30pm
• NZIF annual conference - Dunedin, Town Hall (Moray Place, Dunedin), 30, 31 August 2016 and 1st September. Conference Registration now open - click here >>
• Australian Forest Growers National Conference 2016. Sunday 23 to Wednesday 26 October 2016, Launceston, Tasmania.

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Blogs

Our Land is not an Industry
"To heal is to make whole.  This applies as well to the 'industries' of landscapes: agriculture, forestry & mining.  Once they have been industrialised, those enterprises no longer recognise landscapes as wholes..."... more >>
Chris Perley's Blog

What's wrong with wilding trees?
Having been a high country forester all my working life and spent much of the later years dealing with wildings, I have long pondered on the pro's and con's of wilding trees... more>>
Nick Ledgard's blog

Also... from Tim Payn's talk at the GCFF conference:

Forestry: Reasons to be cheerful

• Increasing wood supply
• Increasing demand globally
• Increasing world population
• New carbon markets
• Good governance and investment environment
• Stable environmental regulation — RMA
• Low biosecurity risks
• Low fire area impacts
• Low wind damage
• Good quality resource
• Improving genetics and productivity

More reasons to be cheerful

• New Zealand Forest Accord
• New Zealand Climate Change Accord
• Principles of Plantation Management
• Environmental Code of Practice
• NZIF Forestry Handbook
• FOA Harvesting Manual
• Primary Sector Water Partnership
• National Environmental Standard for Planted Forests
• New Zealand Forestry Standard NZ4708
• Forest certification
  - 51% of planted forest area
• PromotIng benefits
  - NZ Wood
  - Montreal Process C&I reports
  - GHG footprinting
• Public Goods - ecosystem services for the wider community

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

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Reports (Members Area)

Executive minutes April 2016

Executive minutes June 2016

NZFFA Annual General Meeting 18th April 2016

FOA Executive meeting 14 June 2016

Joint FOA/NZFFA Promotions & Membership Committee 13 June 2016

WoodCo meeting May 9th 2016

News snippets

Seeing wood for trees
The Government's drive to research forestry species other than pine has been welcomed by the region's foresters.
"This is what farm foresters have been screaming for ever since I've been involved with forestry," Whanganui farmer and forester Dougal McIntosh said. He was wrapping up a presentation by Marco Lausberg from Future Forests Research. more>>

New Zealand Forestry and Wood Products Report 2016
Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) assessment of commodity and trade issues. More>>

THE EFFECTS OF GENETIC IMPROVEMENT ON RADIATA PINE WOOD DENSITY
Density is a key wood quality trait and has been the focus of selective breeding efforts in radiata pine. The aim of this Scion study was to quantify realised genetic gain in radiata pine wood density and to incorporate it into existing modelling systems for predicting growth and wood quality. More >>

Using carbon credits to reforest our hills
Piers McLaren
Many people don’t understand how trees “sequester” carbon. Sometimes they think that any forest will do the job.
The reality is that all plants extract carbon out of the air as their basic food source, but they also put carbon back into the air, either directly or indirectly when they decompose. The balance is critical. If they are exporting more carbon than they are absorbing, forests can actually be emitters... More >>

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Growing Confidence in Forestry’s Future (GCFF) Research newsletter

Issue 5, May 2016

• Improving our ability to predict fertiliser response in planted forests
  The inability to predict growth responses to nitrogen fertilisers has been a significant barrier to the use of these products in planted forests...
• New spray treatments are showing some early promise
  Research into new and practical options for increased growth of mid-rotation stands has given some early insight into possible new options...
• Spatial optimisation of plantation productivity and value
  Two of the key end-uses for forest plantation products are clearwood timber, where the lower branches of the trees are removed (pruned) and structural grade timber (unpruned trees). Forest managers in many plantation growing regions have to determine the relative profitability of growing for clearwood or structural grade to ascertain whether pruning will be cost effective.
• UAV developments support GCFF
  Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an exciting and rapidly developing technology that is set to transform many fields of research and facets of our everyday lives...
• Remote sensing for phenotyping trees
  Methods to characterise individual trees using remote sensing are powerful phenotyping tools for tree breeders, showing the effects of genetics, environment and silviculture on tree growth and quality...
• New frontiers in forest soil research
  Scion’s ability to examine the composition of soil microbial communities and understand how their activity can affect forests has vastly expanded with the GCFF programme’s support of soil molecular research...
• Developing NuBalM into a nutrient management tool for the forestry sector
  Improved ability to manage soil nutrient dynamics is critical to the ongoing success of the forestry sector in New Zealand. The GCFF programme and the Forest Growers Levy Trust have supported activities that will enable Scion’s NuBalM (Nutrient Balance Model) platform to be utilised by sector stakeholders to achieve this goal...
• New nursery management trials at Tokoroa Arborgen
  The generous provision of in-kind support by Arborgen has enabled the GCFF programme to install two operational scale trials at the Tokoroa Arborgen nursery. These trials cover 2.4 km of seed bed, and are testing the impacts of alterations in nutrient use and fungicide exposure on seedling health and growth...
• Cumulative effects of herbicide use project
  Dr Dan Neary from the USDA Forest Service spent five months at Scion in 2015 on an OECD fellowship. Dr Neary worked with Dr Brenda Baillie on the development of a model to assess the cumulative effects of herbicide use (terbuthylazine and hexazinone) on water quality in the Rangitaiki River catchment over a two year period...

Carbon stock look-up tables update

In 2015, MPI proposed extending the carbon stock values in the default look-up tables used by ETS participants with forest land comprised of exotic hardwoods registered in the ETS, or in the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative. This extension was required as the tables did not cover exotic hardwood trees more than 25 years old. Some post-1989 forests will be reaching 26 years in 2016.

In addition, owners of pre-1990 forests older than 25 years that are intending to deforest also required correct carbon stock values. This extension has now come into force, and the updated look-up tables are now available online. The tables for Post-1989 forests can be found here and for Pre-1990 forest here.

The New Zealand Planted Forests Portal

The aim of this portal is to bring together the often disparate sources of current and historical information that relates to New Zealand’s planted forests and their context within New Zealand’s total forested estate. A major goal is to provide the evidence base for people to better understand the forest sector’s performance and sustainability. It draws on a range of publicly available information sources. More >>

Phase 2 Redwood Genetics trial for New Zealand

From NZFFA member Wade Cornell:

Some of you may recall a Genetics trail that was established a few years ago that involved Professor (Emeritus) Bill Libby of UC Berkeley and Dr. Pascal Berrill  of UC Humboldt. The Project was funded by the NZ Institute of Forestry and the US Department of Agriculture. Our mutual goal was to collect seed from the hottest and driest areas within the natural redwood range of California. Progeny from this elite collection were planted at a number of NZ test sites in 2012 with the intention of further selection from the best Growth and Form (G&F) trees for cloning and further breeding and selection.   

In California this collection was spurred by dieback that may be the result of Global Warming. The collection in the USA is their insurance that better adapted redwoods can be replanted quickly if much of the fog belt area is lost. It may also allow areas not currently in redwoods (Sierra Nevada foothills) to be planted. 

In New Zealand we don’t have California’s fog belt and have very high evapotranspiration rates in summer. So selection for lack of fog and hot dry conditions best match our conditions.  

The 2012 trials were assessed last year with cuttings taken and grown from the best of the best. Copies were also put into tissue culture. We are now ready for the most important phase of this trial in seeing which of these potential clones are well adapted to specific areas or the whole of New Zealand. Having a single tree that has grown well in one spot doesn’t guarantee it will grow well anywhere else. This is when and where we find the real winners.

We are inviting anyone who has a minimum area of 700 square meters available to participate in this trial. The numbers of clones for planting are very limited; however there are higher numbers of some clones which means that a few larger trails could also be accommodated. The selected seedlings from which these cuttings have been taken are now four years old. In another two to three years they will be ready for wood property assessment. By that time participants will have a good idea which of these clones will suit your area and hopefully some will have outstanding wood properties.  

Participants will buy their clones directly from the nursery at a cost of $2.50 each (+GST and shipping).   

Domesticating redwoods for New Zealand from the best genetics has been a long term goal. The wood properties of these NZ grown mother trees will be assessed within three years. This will best ensure few/no surprises when we come to final selections. We would be pleased to have your participation as the more trial sites we have, the better the confidence will be for achieving success.

To participate or obtain further information please contact Wade Cornell
E-mail:  cornell@orcon.net.nz

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