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Silviculture and forest management

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Tree Grower Articles

  • To prune or not to prune - That is the question (Access: NZFFA membership)
    Don Wallace, August 2021
    About 15 years ago, my wife and I purchased a 50-hectare forestry block, most of which had been recently logged. We had the harvested area re-planted in radiata pine and…
  • The time for extended rotations has arrived (Access: unrestricted)
    Stuart Orm, November 2019
    Before corporatisation and the reshuffle of the Forest Service the rotation ages for trees in Kaiangoroa Forest often hit 70 years. With the sale of forests to companies which needed…
  • Continuous cover forestry (Access: unrestricted)
    Rachel Rose, November 2019
    There is a lot of erosion prone land in the Manawatu-Whanganui region, plenty of existing forestry and like other parts of the country, growing and organised opposition to the conversion…
  • Selection harvesting of radiata pine (Access: unrestricted)
    John Wardle, November 2019
    Judging by the number of articles which have appeared in the February and May issues of the Tree Grower, there is obviously a certain amount of interest in selective harvesting…
  • Target diameter harvesting – beyond the transition (Access: unrestricted)
    Howard Moore, May 2019
    The short paper on target diameter harvesting in February’s Tree Grower was supplemented by the excellent field day at Tinui Forest Park in the Wairarapa, where around 45 people turned…
  • Wensleydale 2016 woodlot harvest of an agro-forestry block (Access: unrestricted)
    Nick Seymour, May 2017
    We planted three agro-forestry woodlots with trees at a spacing of ten by eight metres equivalent to 150 trees a hectare. The first woodlot was planted in 1986 with GF…
  • Forestry management around transmission lines: Avoid the shock with prudent planning (Access: unrestricted)
    Geoff Wishart, November 2016
    For small-scale forest owners, nothing eats into profit more than special felling requirements at harvest time or having to fell mature edge trees. This could be in a hard to…
  • The good wood (Access: unrestricted)
    John Moore and Michelle Harnett, August 2016
    Two important questions that foresters want to know the answers to are – How much extra value do I get from planting genetically improved radiata pine tree stocks? What level…
  • The science or art of forest inventory (Access: unrestricted)
    Alan Bell, August 2016
    Measuring trees should be easy enough. You plant so many per hectare and there are so many hectares. So what is all the fuss about? Well, trees have a habit…
  • Will Hull’s contribution to radiata pine plantation management (Access: unrestricted)
    Wink Sutton, November 2012
    Farm forestry has made a considerable contribution to forestry research. When he was alive our founder, Neil Barr, contributed much. Another important contributor was Wairarapa’s Will Hull. To fully appreciate…
  • Lincoln University agroforestry experiment findings (Access: unrestricted)
    Don Mead and Dick Lucas, February 2008
    Since the Lincoln University agroforestry experiment was established in 1990, over 30 scientific papers have been published. However, as most of these have been in overseas journals where they are…
  • Wide planting does not work (Access: unrestricted)
    Ken Jones and Neil Cullen, February 2008
    In the 1980s the wide spacing of radiata pine was a popular strategy with farm foresters. The advocates of this system believed that the reduced establishment and tending costs and…
  • Plantation silviculture at the crossroads (Access: unrestricted)
    Euan Mason, May 2007
    What do you think of New Zealand? The classic question reputedly asked of so many visitors has provoked a variety of answers. John Lennon replied that after 10 minutes on…
  • Coast redwood silviculture in New Zealand (Access: unrestricted)
    Mark Dean, February 2007
    Californian coastal redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, has proved to grow well in New Zealand when correct siting and establishment practices are attended to. On good quality sites – warm, sheltered and with…
  • Pruning and thinning eucalyptus - Stringybark eucalypt silviculture (Access: unrestricted)
    Dean Satchell, November 2006
    Equipped with a harness, pole-pruner and ladder Silviculture of eucalypts for solid-timber requires some understanding of the tree and the timber. That is, a level of skill and knowledge guiding…
  • Pruning young poplars (Access: unrestricted)
    Sarah Hurst, Ian McIvor, Carlo van den Dijssel, Steve Green, Lindsay Fung, Grant Douglas and Lex Foote, May 2006
    Since the 1950s over six million poplars have been planted throughout New Zealand. Planting reached a peak during the 1970s in response to government incentives for soil conservation. Unfortunately many…
  • Tools for pruning radiata pine (Access: unrestricted)
    Chris Meads – Levin Sawmakers, August 2005
    If you have decided to prune, then use the right pruning equipment. The two most common methods of pruning are with manual loppers and saws, or a petrol-driven top-handled chainsaw.…

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Reports

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Blogs

  • Why pruning/clearwood is one of our major competitive advantages: Denis Hocking's blog, June 14, 2022
    Most members will be only too aware of this, but sometimes I feel it is worth restating and discussing the obvious. I will start by pointing out that knot free…
  • Why I became, and remain, a clearwood advocate: Wink Sutton's Blog, October 04, 2019
    Only recently have I become aware of the concept of unique special product or proposal. However, I now realise that for most of my forestry life I have been seeking…
  • Live radiata pine stem needles must be removed at pruning: Wink Sutton's Blog, November 28, 2018
    On a recent Bay of Plenty field day, questions were asked about the need to remove live stem needles at the time of pruning. If live stem needles are not…
  • Is there a case for timely pruning?: Wink Sutton's Blog, May 29, 2018
    Two principles have emerged from a lifetime of plantation management research − That the size and the quality of trees at harvest are determined by the decisions at the time of…
  • Ringbarking as a method for thinning trees: Dean Satchell's blog, April 13, 2018
    Radiata pine, because of a long history of genetic improvement, is often planted at stockings of less then 1000 stems per hectare. Douglas fir, on the other hand, is often…
  • Thoughts on silviculture: John Purey-Cust Ponders, June 12, 2014
    My last effort was on the vexed question of whether or not to prune and thin radiata pine. There I think I concluded helpfully that in the end its over…
  • The everlasting argument: John Purey-Cust Ponders, March 06, 2014
    The everlasting argument, whether to prune or not to prune , depends on you. No one who gives you advice knows any better than you, whatever their experience. They can…

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