Farm Forestry New ZealandDecember, 2021
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About Tenco
Tenco is one of New Zealand’s largest exporters of forest products. We have built to this position since 1991 when the company was set up to export lumber to growing Asian export markets. Experience and reputation count; from small beginnings Tenco has become the largest independent exporter of New Zealand lumber and New Zealand’s 4th largest log exporter. Tenco has a regular shipping program of their own log vessels and in combination with these and other ships currently calls at 7 New Zealand ports (5 North Island and 2 South Island).
Tenco buys standing forests. Tenco regularly buys smaller tracts of forest to harvest immediately or immature forests to hold until harvest time. A deal with Tenco is a certain transaction. The owner and Tenco will agree on a value of the tree crop and then Tenco will pay this amount to the owner either in a lump sum amount or on rate per volume unit out-turn from the forest depending on the nature of the tree crop. Tenco is actively interested in buying harvestable forests or trees from areas including all the North Island (except the Gisborne and East Coast districts) and Nelson & Marlborough in the South Island . If you own a forest in this area (16 years and older) and are ready to enter into this kind of agreement Tenco is interested to develop something with you. Please contact: Josh.Bannan@tenco.co.nz Work: +64 7 357 5356 Mobile: +64 21 921 595 www.tenco.co.nz |
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Changing causes and impacts of unwanted fires in our forest and rural landscapes
Commercial forests and climate change are regularly cited as contributors to an increase in unwanted rural fires in New Zealand. However, evidence suggests other factors are exacerbating the causes and impacts of fires. The New Zealand Institute of Forestry is concerned. It is calling for current Crown land management policies to be re-examined to improve prevention rather than cure.
For the past decade throughout New Zealand, significant unwanted fires have originated beyond forests, but impacted our forest lands. Examples include the 2017 Christchurch Port Hills fires (suspected cause being ignition by powerlines) and in 2019, the Pigeon Valley fire in Tasman district (started on farmland by cultivation activities in extreme fire hazard conditions) which spread to an adjacent commercial forest. In October 2020, the Lake Ohau fire’s suspected cause of ignition was powerlines again. This fire spread into areas of unmanaged wilding pine. In August 2020, Lake Pukaki region saw a fire spread to unmanaged wilding pines – that fire originated from a campfire.
A 2020 research project assessed New Zealand’s historical fire weather behaviour indices (such as fire rate of spread, drought levels and fuel available to burn). It found these had barely changed over the last four decades. But the management of land use has changed. For example, in the Lake Ohau and Lake Pukaki areas wilding pines are well established. Other examples of changes to land use include the removal of grazing from tussock grasslands in Central Otago and inland Canterbury. Fuel loadings on tussock grassland have increased, as lands under tenure review have been retired from grazing. One such example is the 2019 Te Papanui Conservation Park near Middlemarch, where more than 5,000 hectares of tussock grasslands were burnt.
Unlike other countries, the Department of Conservation has no plans to reduce fuel loadings on the Crown tussock grasslands through controlled burns. Following the extreme 2019/20 bush fires in Australia, an official inquiry received submissions. Australia’s Institute of Foresters submission pointed to the misguided focus of fire suppression strategies.
New Zealand’s Institute of Forestry concurs with the Australian Institute’s view: it’s about greater prevention efforts. President James Treadwell says “We believe New Zealand must focus on reducing the incidence and impacts of unwanted fire through better land management practices. Changes like fuel reduction burning, restrictions or prohibition of high-risk activities during very high or extreme fire danger periods, and further research to support a science-based approach to risk reduction and readiness, will get better results.”
Until the increased exposure to unwanted fires in the forest and rural landscape is minimised through better land management practices, New Zealand will continue to see a build-up of fuel loadings in the hill and high country landscape. Unwanted fires will continue to damage our rural landscape and be costly to extinguish. A review in land management practices is urgently required.
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