Forestry

1. Forestry The science and art of cultivating, maintaining and developing forests for commercial production

3. Economy • New Zealand is a small player in the international forestry industry, accounting for 1.1 percent of the world’s total supply of industrial wood and 1.3 percent of the world’s trade in forest products.   • However, New Zealand supplies almost 9% of the Asia Pacific forest products trade volume, representing nearly 20% by value.  • Forestry is therefore a significant industry in New Zealand, contributing an annual gross income of around $5 billion, 3 percent of New Zealand’s GDP and directly employing around 20 000 people.   • Wood products are New Zealand’s third largest export earner behind dairy and meat.

4. Economy • The sector is entering an exciting new phase, as wood production volumes are expected to increase significantly in the coming years as forests planted in recent decades reach maturity.  Our forests are also at the centre of New Zealand’s climate change response efforts, and there is also increasing realisation of the environmental and social benefits delivered by forests.

5. NZ Forestry • The industry is based around sustainably managed exotic plantation forests, covering 1.751 million hectares – approximately 7% – of New Zealand’s land area. • 90% of the exotic plantation area comprises radiata pine (Pinusradiata), with Douglas fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii) accounting for 6%and the remainder of the estate made up of eucalyptus and other softwood and hardwood species.

6. Pine Forest • The Radiata Pine forest is characterized by its high productivity, which on average reaches 22 m3 per hectare per year, with a growth rate up to 4 times higher than the northern hemisphere. The aim is to maximize the economic return of the forest, for which an intensive silvicultural management is performed consisting of pruning treatments at different heights, in order to get pieces free of knots, which are of a higher commercial value, to be used in the remanufacturing industry.

7. Pine Forestry • Pruning is accompanied by thinning operations, to concentrate the site potential wood volume in the best trees of the forest. The industrial logs which are not pruned, are used as structural timber as well as a complement to the production of finished or semifinished products with a high added value, (parts and pieces of furniture, doors, mouldings, among others etc.). Logs of smaller diameter and lesser quality are intended for the pulp and paper industry.

8. Production Cycle • This diagram shows the steps involved in growing a plantation pine, from preparing the planting site to the harvest of the tree for its timber some 25–30 years later. • First, land is prepared before planting by clearing away competing shrubs and weeds. • Young plants, about 30 centimetres high, are planted out in winter months. • The young trees are pruned one to three times. The lower branches are removed when they are young to produce knot-free timber. • The stand of forest trees is thinned to around 300 trees per hectare, giving the best specimens more space to grow well. • Most pruning and thinning occurs within the first 12–15 years, and for the next 10–15 years the remaining trees are left to grow until harvest. • The trees are felled and delimbed, and the logs are transported to a timber mill or port for shipping overseas.

9. Production Outputs

10. Land and Climate • Radiata pine was first introduced to New Zealand in the late 1850s to see if would be a good candidate for widespread planting. Its excellent growth rate prompted seed imports from California in the 1870s, mainly for shelter belts and woodlots. • By the first forestry planting boom in the 1920s and 1930s, it had been adopted as the species of choice. It proved to be versatile and grew well throughout New Zealand on a variety of soil types, including coastal sands, heavy clays, gravels and volcanic ash deposits. • Farmers can make marginal land productive by planting pine forest where grazing or cropping are not viable options.

11. Economy

12. Economy • Greens slam 'economic stupidity' of forestry sale http://www.3news.co.nz/Greens-slam-economic-stupidity-of-forestry-sale/tabid/421/articleID/296134/Default.aspx

13. Technology • To improve the quality of radiata pine, a genetic research programme was started in the 1950s. Trees of superior growth and form were selected and propagated by grafting. The grafted pines were planted out at wide spacing in seed orchards away from other plantations, to prevent pollen contamination. The first improved radiata pines were planted in forests in 1970.

14. Technology • Thousands of genetically identical radiata pine trees can be produced using cultured tissue. When seed embryos are placed on a special growing medium in a Petri dish, they develop many little shoots. Each of these shoots can be cut off, grown and induced to form roots. The little plants are then transferred from Petri dishes to pots in a glasshouse until they are large enough to transfer outside to a nursery.

16. Technology • Improvement programmes have continued, with selection criteria becoming increasingly complex and the testing of parent stock more stringent. Through controlled cross-breeding, hybridisation and advanced plant propagation techniques, scientists have developed breeds that: • are adapted to particular climatic zones and soil types • are resistant to foliage diseases such as dothistroma needle blight • produce wood that is stronger or more durable.

17. Politics

18. Politics • After reading your pages, what can you say about: • Reasons we should protect out native forests • How Maori freehold land contributes to protecting our forests • What the forest means to Maori • How native forest affects New Zealand’s plants and animals

19. Future Forestry? • THE POTENTIAL FOR REDWOOD UTILISATION IN NEW ZEALAND • Several factors contribute to our decision to focus on the future of redwood in New Zealand. The timber is light, durable and stable; the plantation production cycle is on average 35 years, as opposed to the Californian average of 60 years; and trial exports have demonstrated that a receptive market exists offshore. • Redwood has, in fact, been planted in localised areas in New Zealand for some time, but these plantations have lacked management input. Our research and analyses lead us to predict that, with correct management procedures, real rates of return exceeding 10% can be achieved.

20. Politics • EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME • The ETS began in 2008. • Forestry was the first sector covered. Those covered by the scheme have to either pay the government $25 on their 2008 – 2012 emissions or acquire and surrender carbon credits. The cost of that is the ETS's incentive to change behaviour and cut emissions. • In 2010 liquid fossil fuels, stationary energy and industrial processes were included. • Agriculture will not join until 2015 at the earliest.

21. Politics • New Zealand's target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% from 1990 levels by 2050. On today's trends – up 22% on 1990 levels by 2007 – New Zealand will not achieve that.

22. Environment • Pine plantations are the most efficient way of absorbing carbon dioxide of any major land use in New Zealand. • The graph illustrates the efficiency of pine plantations in capturing carbon dioxide during their active growing phase. The average pine plantation is twice as efficient at capturing carbon as regenerating scrublands dominated by mānuka and kānuka.

23. Environment From NZJF 1997 Understoreybiodiversity Although it's New Zealand's natural forests where we expect to find the most biodiversity, radiata pine plantations are not "bio- logical deserts" but in fact contain a large variety of understorey plant species (Allen 1995a,b, Ogden 1997). The composition of understoreys is very dependent on the geographic location of the forest and on the stage of plantation development. For example, new plantings on coastal sands will likely only have a very few species present, whereas forests on the central volcanic plateau may have rich understoreysof both exotic and indigenous species. In recently planted radiata pine in Kinleith Forest, Allen et al. (1995a) found up to 35 vascular plant species, 67% of which were indigenous. They also found that the proportion of indigenous species present in the understorey increased with time from plant- ing to 82% in a 29-year-old stand This level of species richness was greater than for many natural New Zealand forests (Allen et al. 1995b). Ogden et al. (1997) reported similar results from another Kinleith Forest study. The more recent study included a 67-year-old radiata pine forest, which had a fern understorey structure similar to that of native podocarp and kauri forests.

24. Environment Forestry can still have negative effects on native animals. In New Zealand some of our most endangered species are forest dwellers who are very sensitive to the effects of forestry run-off and deforestation. Archey's Frog Hochstetters Frog New Zealand’s native frogs are listed as critically endangered due to deforestation, introduced predators and chytrid disease. These unique animals are from an ancient lineage of frogs. They are mute, give birth to live young and fathers carry young on their backs for weeks.

25. Labour Forestry may be for you if you are interested in: • plants and trees • outdoor and physical work • working with tools, machinery and equipment • conservation and the environment • managing forest operations including managing staff, contractors and budgets.

26. Labour • Pay varies, but forestry and logging workers usually earn between $28,000 and $60,000 a year. • Trainees usually earn between $28,000 and $40,000. • Experienced forestry and logging workers usually earn between $40,000 and $60,000 a year.

27. Labour Working conditions Forestry and logging workers: • usually work regular business hours, and may work Saturdays • work in forests, bush and scrubland in rural or isolated areas, and may have to travel up to an hour to their workplaces • work in all weather conditions and their working environment may be hazardous and noisy. http://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs/forestry/forestry-and-logging-worker/about-the-job

28. Social Case Study: MURUPARA Murupara

29. Social Case Study: MURUPARA • In the early 1950's Murupara was a small village with a post office and three stores. It was a service centre for Maori belonging to the Ngati Manawa tribe and the dairy farming community of the district. • The State Forest Service had provided jobs for growing numbers of people in the area since 1918. • Forestry workers residing at Murupara worked in the township itself, at a State mill eight miles westward, and at two bush camps to the north.

30. Social • In 1954 the Government and Tasman Pulp and Paper Company Limited formed a private company, the KaingaroaLogging Company Limited, to handle clearfelling operations and extract the logs from the KaingaroaForest. • The Government built over 200 houses and a single men’s camp at Murupara, and another 50 houses nearby at the Forest Service settlement of Kaingaroa, to accommodate the workforce. • Murupara during the 1960's was described as “a booming town”, “a place where you came, you worked, made your dollars and left” and “peaceful”. Residents had high incomes and the town had many of the facilities that existed in Rotorua.

31. Social • Restructuring of the Forest Service in 1987 and the rationalisation of the operations of the Kaingaroa Logging Company, which began in 1981 and resulted in the loss of over 250 jobs over a five year period, an outflow of population from Murupara and a downturn in the local economy.

32. Social • As a result, there was a growing incidence of welfare dependency, unemployment, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime and other social problems within the community. • Many workers who were laid off by the Kaingaroa Logging Company or the Forest Service during the 1980's were left with mortgages and outstanding debts they had to service on a much reduced income. • Some families were devastated. They found it difficult to cope with their changed circumstances, and marital break-ups occurred when they were unable to meet their financial commitments. • Today there are people who are still working through the events of this period. Another effect of the loss of employment was low self-esteem amongst both men and women which sometimes manifested itself in suicide and alcohol abuse. • The men’s anger was transmitted to the women. They joined their husbands drinking, the children were left alone, and “it becomes a cycle”. There is now a third generation of unemployed people in Murupara, young people with grandparents who were made redundant, who have grown up in an environment of welfare dependency.

33. Social • http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/feature-archive/466138/Murupara-follows-the-dream-pics