Issue 96

6283

AFS/01-10-01 www.forestrystandard.org.au

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issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 1

Knock-down closer

This Issue

Hunt for buyers gains momentum as asset team widens discussions

•W ild claims from the wilderness • House shifting for Queensland Forestry

By JIM BOWDEN

THE sale of Queensland’s 200,000 ha forest plantations estate – a state asset dispersal that has the support of the timber industry – is gaining momentum as the Government’s commercial transaction team negotiates with prospective buyers.

A consortium comprising the Royal Bank of Scotland, Rothschild and Merrill Lynch is advising on the planned disposal of $15 billion in state-owned assets, including parts of both Queensland Rail and Queensland Motorways, and Forestry Plantations Queensland.

Members of the assets sales team will be given a ‘hands-on’ view of plantation processing facilities in southeast Queensland on October 14 and 15 in a detailed inspection tour

AFI pushes for national N land management policy on bushfires • SA water policy threatens $1.2bn plantation industry • Windmill replica: a good turn for recycled timber • New technologies on show at ForestTECH 09 • $32m woochip mill officially opened at Myamyn, Vic



State asset sales team will get ‘hands-on’ view of plantation processing in southeast Queensland.

guided by Timber Queensland chief executive Rod McInnes.

The commercial transaction group, based in Brisbane’s city centre at 200 Mary Street, is working closely with the timber industry and has started oneto-one meetings with FPQ

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customers.

“Dialogue between industry and the asset sales team has been very positive,” Mr McInnes said.

“We have expressed exactly what the issues are so there Cont Page 4

issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 1

ISSUES

Wild claims from the wilderness Industry’s carbon neutrality record under attack

By JIM BOWDEN

THEY won’t give up – and scientific fact won’t convince them.

After reason-shattering statements that allowing foresters to manage forests is like giving Dracula a key to the blood bank, and that forest roads contribute to bushfires, the Wilderness Society is shooting its green arrows in to the very heart of the timber industry – its carbon neutrality record.

Veteran forester Dr Gary Bacon has attacked “the usual wild, unsubstantiated stools of misinformation” on the Wilderness Society website that debunk advertisements sponsored by Forests and Wood Products Australia. These ads contend that carbon dioxide stored in trees is locked up when they are logged and converted into wood products, and that forestry is one of Australia’s most greenhouse-friendly industries.

‘Forests and wood play manifold roles in climate change mitigation’ – United National Economic Commission “There are none so blind as those lost in the wilderness of ignorance and deceit,” Dr Bacon said.

Dr Bacon, who has held senior management positions in New South Wales and Queensland state forestry agencies, is Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Forestry and Horticultural Research at Griffith University.

Griffith has led environmental science, education, research and practices for more than three decades and launched Australia’s first environmental science degree in 1975, well before the environment was on the global agenda.

The Wilderness Society, with the assistance of Victoria’s

Page 2 | issue 96 | 05.10.09

The Wilderness Society .. attacking the contribution of forestry and wood products to climate change.

Environmental Defenders Office, has lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding logging industry advertisements claiming that wood is carbon positive.

The society says the advertisements are misleading and unsubstantiated, claiming they don’t distinguish between native forest and plantation logging and that only a fraction of the actual carbon stored in native forests is removed after logging, FWPA managing director Ric Sinclair said the Wilderness Society complaint was baseless, citing a Federal Government report in 2005 that found forestry was Australia’s only carbonpositive industry.

“As usual, the Wilderness Society has been caught short,” Dr Bacon said.

“As reported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, forests and wood play manifold roles in climate change mitigation: they sequester carbon from the atmosphere when they grow, produce wood energy to substitute fossil energy; deliver wood as renewable raw material which reduces greenhouse gas emissions when it substitutes more energy intensive material;

Dr Gary Bacon .. none so blind as those lost in the wilderness of ignorance.

and wood products store carbon, keeping it from release to the atmosphere.”

Christopher Prins, chief of the UNECE/FAO Timber Section, explained at a wood products and climate change workshop in Geneva last month that including wood products in the carbon reporting and accounting under the Kyoto Protocol in the framework of land-use, land use change and forestry should ensure that: • Countries already accounting for forest management should also account for harvested wood products in order not to penalise sustainable forest management.

• Countries choosing to account for harvested wood products

should also account for forest management in order not to compromise sustainable forest management.

• Countries choosing a harvested wood products accounting approach which includes imports have to ensure that the imports come from sustainable sources to avoid perverse incentives.

More than 100 delegates attended the workshop which was jointly organised by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, the UNECE/ FAO Timber Section, and the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe Liaison Unit Oslo.

Green Paper: Forestry and logging the only sector that was not a net greenhouse gas polluter Dr Gary Bacon also referred to the Federal Government’s Green Paper on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme which contained a detailed analysis of the emissions attributed to 115 local industry sectors covering the whole of the national accounts input-output tables; ”The forestry and logging industry was the only sector that was not a net greenhouse gas polluter.” Dr Bacon noted.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

NAFI pushes for a national land management policy on bushfires AS we approach another bushfire season, there is renewed debate about bushfire prevention with the usual disparity of opinion and policy among the states.

The National Association of Forest Industries has been actively pushing for the Federal Government to develop a national system of land management-based bushfire management policy to ensure consistency across the country.

But let’s not get so caught up in this ongoing debate that we forget that there are thousands of families in dozens of communities that are still reeling from the effects of the last bushfire season.

Rebuilding continues in fire-

ravaged Victoria following the devastating Black Saturday bushfires.

NAFI has been actively involved in supporting the rebuilding and recovery process through the establishment of the Forest Industries Community Relief Fund.

This was established to provide much-needed funds and assistance to residents of affected timber communities, including short-term relief such as emergency shelter and food supplies, but also the long-term assistance with rebuilding communities and infrastructure.

Unfortunately for many timber workers affected by the devastating bushfires, it was not just property they lost, but

By ALLAN HANSARD Chief Executive National Association of Forest Industries

also their livelihoods. Many of the communities affected by the Victorian bushfires rely on the timber industry for employment; and with a massive area of production forest destroyed it will be years

before they are working at full capacity again.

I’m proud to say the fund has received more than $100,000 in donations which is being distributed into the community where it is needed through the timber community and Forest Industry Bushfire Recovery and Rebuilding Centre in Healesville, Vic, run by Timber Communities Australia.

The Recovery and Rebuilding Centre is possible largely due to funding provided by the Federal Government. Forestry Minister Tony Burke visited the area after Black Saturday and acknowledged the fundamental need for communities to be supported during the recovery.

Over the past few months the Cont Page 8

FWPA recites new ideas

Highlighting R&D technologies and innovations

FWPA will be holding an ideas fair designed to highlight the vital contribution R&D makes to the industry. The ideas fair will give key researchers the opportunity to discuss their activities and the benefits to industry.

DATE: Tuesday 20th October, 2009 VENUE: MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE Cnr Southbank Boulevard & Sturt Street Southbank, Victoria

The ideas fair will be followed by the company’s second annual general meeting and the Australian Timber Design Awards.

IDEAS FAIR: 1:30pm to 3:30pm AGM: 3:30pm to 5:30pm AUSTRALIAN TIMBER DESIGN AWARDS: 5:30pm

Attendees of the Ideas Fair will receive complimentary tickets to the Australian Timber Design Awards, valued at $44 but places are limited so book now.

To RSVP or for further information, please contact Amarjot Kaur: info@fwpa.com.au or 03 9614 7544

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issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 3

INDUSTRY NEWS

Buyer must expand the plantation estate and grow with the industry From Page 1

is no risk that the advisors to Government aren’t getting the full industry picture.”

Hopefully, the industry’s stance on the sale of plantations will be transformed into a recommendation to the Government.

“The industry’s view is that FPQ assets should be sold,” Mr McInnes said. “We are not enamoured by the current managers of the estate.”

Sections of industry have expressed concerns over how the resource will be divided up after they are sold.

“The position we have put to Government is that we want a buyer, whether in Australia or from overseas, with experience in managing significant woodlands,” Mr McInnes said.

“We want someone who will expand the estate and grow with the industry – and the state.

“Currently, we are about 80% self-sufficient in timber. We need the new owners of FPQ to start acquiring land and adding to the plantation estate to maintain that level of selfsufficiency going forward, otherwise we are going to be 60% self-sufficient in 20 years.”

Mr McInnes said he expected the Government to give open access to the resource in any agreement.

“Our view is that we want to see an independent organisation buy the plantations and continue to manage them effectively as plantations,” he said.

“The industry has a billion dollars invested in processing

Rod McInnes .. positive dialogue on sale of forest plantations.

facilities in the plantation sector and 20,000 jobs are tied to it.

“Most of these jobs are in plantation processing and upstream fabricating. It would be in everyone’s interest to make sure there wasn’t any economic fall-out in the process.”

The industry understands the

intention of Government in the plantations sale is to make the land available on a 100-year lease on the basis that the land is only used for forestry production.

Meanwhile, four out of every five Queenslanders in a survey say they don’t trust Premier Anna Bligh. The Sunday MailGalaxy Research poll says the result follows widespread anger at asset sales and removal of the fuel subsidy.

The survey revealed only 16% of Queenslanders believes Ms Bligh and Labor will be reelected at the next election, due in March 2012.

Ms Bligh said the survey results “confirm that politics is not for the squeamish or fainthearted”.

    •  •  •  •  •  •  

 •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 

 

Page 4 | issue 96 | 05.10.09

     

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events

WHAT’S ON?

OCTOBER 09

6: FSC Australia illegal logging forum.

Mercure Hotel, Spring Street, Melbourne. 5-7 pm. Global experts will discuss the illegal logging trade, the difficulties it creates in producer countries as well as solutions being pursued in consumer countries.

Tel: (03) 8636 2661.

Email: ashleigh@fscaustralia.org 7: ATFA Advanced Timber Flooring Workshop.

9am-4pm. Sydney Home Ideas Centre, 61-63 O’Riordan Street, Alexandria. Workshop leader Dave Hayward. Course is for those who through experience already have a good understanding of timber flooring, are concerned with providing floors that perform and want to know why certain issues appear with some floors and not others. Fees $330 pp (inc gst).

Non-members $440 pp (inc gst).

Contact: Australian Timber Flooring Association. Tel: (07) 5492 8696.

Email: admin@atfa.com.au 8-9: New Zealand Pine Manufacturers Assn Inc. 19th AGM and conference – ‘Global Storm Clouds: Identifying the Silver Linings’.

Holiday Inn, Wellington.

Tel: +64 3 544 1086.

Fax: +64 3 541 0187.

Email: lawrie@pine.net.nz 8-9: NZ Forest Owners Association/WPA conference.

Seifrieds Winery and Vineyard Conference Centre, Redwood Road, Appleby, Nelson. Inaugural event focuses on global trends, the challenges presented by the current trading environment, and ways to improve productivity, increase energy efficiency and create new marketing opportunities.

Keynote speakers: Minister for

Forestry David Carter; Jim Carle, UNFAO; Andre de Freitas, head of FSC International. Register at www.forestwood.org.nz Contact conference manager Kylie Riley.

Tel: 021 300 611.

Email: kylie@forestwood.org.nz

10: Frame and Truss Manufacturers Association national awards dinner. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Contact: Kersten Gentle, FTMA Executive Officer 0418 226 242 Web: www.ftmaaustralia.com.au 13: FSC Australia industry breakfast forum. Co-presenters Timber Queensland and WPC Group. Special guest speaker Andre Giacini de Freitas FSC International executive director.

Victoria Park Golf Course, Brisbane.

Contact: Amanda Boyd.

Tel: (03) 8636 2661.

Email: amanda@fscaustralia.org

15-16: FICA Annual Conference 2009, Kingsgate Hotel, Whangarei, NZ. www.fica.org.nz 16-18: HIA Build Green Expo - Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Exhibition and Events Association of Australia. Tel: +61 2 9413 9520.

Web: www.eeaa.com.au 16: Australian Timber Design Awards regional.

Cullity Gallery, Perth. Contact Timber Development Association (NSW) Tel: Laurel Clarke on (02) 9279 2366.

Email: info@timberawards.com Web: www.timberawards.com.au 20: Australian Timber Design Awards regional.

Melbourne Recital Centre. Contact Timber Development Association (NSW).

Tel: Laurel Clarke on (02) 9279 2366.

Email: info@timberawards.com Web: www.timberawards.com.au

13: ATFA Advanced Timber Flooring Workshop.

9am-4pm. Brisbane Home Ideas Centre, 66 Merivale Street, South Bank. Workshop leader Dave Hayward. Course is for those who through experience already have a good understanding of timber flooring, are concerned with providing floors that perform and want to know why certain issues appear with some floors and not others.. Fees $330 pp (inc gst).

Non-members $440 pp (inc gst).

Contact: Australian Timber Flooring Association. Tel: (07) 5492 8696.

Email: admin@atfa.com.au

20: ATFA Advanced Coatings Technology Workshop.

9am-4pm. Melbourne Home Ideas Centre, 1686 Princes Highway, Oakleigh East. Worshop leader Phil Holgate. Course will be ideally suited to sanders and finishers, training instructors, flooring inspectors, manufacturer technical and sales personnel, key contractors, wholesalers, suppliers and industry technical committee personnel. Fees $330 pp (inc gst).

Non-members $440 pp (inc gst).

Contact: Australian Timber Flooring Association. Tel: (07) 5492 8696.

Email: admin@atfa.com.au

14: FSC Australia 2nd annual awards dinner. Atlantic at Central Pier, Docklands, Melbourne. Key speaker FSC International executive director Giacini de Freitas.

Contact: Amanda Boyd.

Tel: (03) 8636 2661.

Email: amanda@fscaustralia.org

31: 2009 Queensland timber industry gala function. World class entertainment and an A-list invite list.

Contact TABMA Queensland (07) 3847 4637 Email: karen@tabma.com.au

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SUSTAINABLE. RESPONSIBLE. The National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) is striving for an ecologically sustainable Australian society achieved through dynamic, internationally competitive forest industries.

NAFI’s mission is to represent the interests of members by promoting the environmental sustainability and the prosperity of Australian forest industries.

National Association of Forest Industries Ltd (Est. 1987) PO Box 239, Deakin ACT 2600 Tel: (02) 6285 3833.

Fax: (02) 6285 3855 Web: www.nafi.com.au

issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 5

INDUSTRY NEWS

Forestry shifts house in a sad ‘fragmentation’

By JIM BOWDEN

THE last vestiges of Queensland forestry as we knew it go out the front door of Brisbane’s Forestry House at 160 Mary Street sometime this week.

For some time it has housed Forest Products, a business unit within the Department of Environment and Resource Management.

Forestry Plantations Queensland departed the building in 2006 to be relocated at South Brisbane.

The brass shingle ‘Forestry House’ will remain – it was attached in the 1988 bicentenary year – but the building will no longer have a connection with forestry, other than historically.

Queensland has been involved in commercial forestry production for more than 100 years – since George Leonard Board became the first Inspector of Forests in 1900, beginning an era of official forest stewardship for the state.

In name only .. forestry moves out of Forestry House.

Three years ago, the operations of commercial plantation forestry and commercial native forests were split with the former managed by the state’s plantation forestry corporation Forestry Plantations Queensland and the latter by Forest Products.

At one time, the Queensland Forestry Department had responsibility for almost all forest-related activities, including national parks. Forestry administration is now scattered across several government

Page 6 | issue 96 | 05.10.09

All the signs are there .. section of the foyer at Forestry House.

departments and agencies.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management, along with its forestry unit, will move into 400 George Street, one of the new generation of office towers in Brisbane’s CBD that was awarded a 5 Star Green Star office design rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

Graham Livingstone, a director of joint developer Grosvenor, says the landmark 34-storey building will offer employees 50% more fresh air than a typical office block.

But the forest fraternity is saddened by what it sees as the continued ‘weakening’ of the profession’s base in Queensland.

A retired forester said the moveout at Forestry House mirrored what had happened to forestry over recent years – “split and shredded into bits and pieces and cast to the four winds”.

“If you can find a professional forester in Queensland, please tell me which door to knock on and where that door is,” he said.

“Once, when you walked into Forestry House, it was all there – information about a tree, a wood product, and everything in between.”

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TIMBER APPLICATION

Queensland’s Minister for Public Works Robert Schwarten (centre) congratulates Q-Build construction students and their supervisors on the completion of a windmill built from recycled timber.

Another turn for recycled timber

Old power poles used to build replica of 19th century windmill RECYLED hardwoods have been used to build a replica of a windmill that was shipped from the US to Queensland in the 1800s.

The windmill has been erected near the TAFE College in Toowoomba on Queensland’s Darling Downs using recycled iron bark and spotted gum recut from redundant power poles.

The completed windmill, built

by Q-Build students, was recognised as a Queensland 150th anniversary celebration project by the Minister for Public Works Robert Schwarten at a special ceremony in September.

The windmill was a project of Q-Build, a business unit of the Department of Public Works, with help from SkillsTech Australia and the Cobb & Co museum.

The first mill of this type, an Economy windmill, was imported into Queensland in December 1875 by the Department of Public Works for use on the southern and western railway.

The windmill was made by William Isaac Tustin in San Francisco.

Erection of the windmill at Gowrie Junction, outside Toowoomba, was completed in February 1876.

Among pastoralists

who also imported mills of this type was Joshua Peter Bell of Jimbour station.

From 1880, copies of the imported mill were made on Jimbour using castings from the Toowoomba Foundry and timber cut in the Bunya Mountains which formed the northern boundary of Jimbour.

One of these copies survived until 1950 on a property Strathdoon, which was originally a part of Jimbour. When the mill was pulled over, the castings and other components were saved and in 1970 a model was made by Graham Schelberg, the owner of the property.

Mr Schelberg offered the castings to the Queensland Government for construction

of a replica. Drawings for the reconstruction were prepared by the architect Russell Hall with advice from Colin MacKenzie, Timber Queensland’s timber applications and use manger.

Reconstruction commenced in March 2009 in the Toowoomba workshop of Q-Build, the Department of Public Works construction division.

Len Pearson was foreman in charge and various apprentices in the office worked on the project.

Recycled Queensland hardwood – mostly Class 1 durability spotted gum – supplied by Kennedy’s Aged Timbers was used for the tower and mast. The timber was graded to the new industry standards for recycled timber.

SA water policy risks $1.2bn plantation industry THE South Australian Government must delay new Natural Resources Management legislation to licence forest water use until its economic, social and environmental impact can be assessed and appropriate amendments made, or risk the long-term viability of the plantation forest industry, cautions the National Association of Forest Industries.

Chief executive Allan Hansard said it was crucial that the SA Government got this legislation right for the future of the plantation industry in the state, and probably in other states as well.

The policy also has significant implications for other dryland crops, such as lucerne and improved pastures.

“If we have to be in a licence

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scheme it should be equitable and sustainable and include other dryland crops that, like trees, are not irrigated but use rainfall or groundwater. This means including the 1.4 million ha of modified pasture, 140,000 ha of livestock grazing and 131,000 ha of cropping in the southeast of the state. All these crops use water but are not accounted for in the Government’s scheme,”

Mr Hansard said.

“I would rather see the SA Government work on improving the efficiency of water use by irrigators, who are by far the largest users of water, rather than putting a licence on dryland crops like forestry that are essentially very efficient water users.

“Plantation forests are a $1.2 billion industry in southeast South Australia.”

issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 7

INDUSTRY NEWS

Funding focuses on Have you tried community projects and failed in From Page 3

distribution of the fund has focused on individuals and families, helping them with their immediate needs. But that urgency has eased and the focus has shifted to community projects.

TCA has appointed a community liaison officer who will work ‘on the ground’, ensuring the funds are put to the best use, identifying potential community rebuilding projects and helping to get them under way.

The process of recovery for bushfire affected communities will not be swift; it will take years to replace the lost infrastructure

and assets. And let us never forget the tragic loss of life that no amount of rebuilding will recover.

I’m hopeful federal and state governments can work together to develop a national bushfire policy that will prevent other communities having to endure the devastation that uncontrollable bushfire brings.

The Forest Industries Community Relief Fund is still calling for much needed donations.

Anyone wishing to make a tax deductible donation can call toll free on 1300 134 494.

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The Forest Industries Community Relief Fund continues to help the rebuilding and recovery process after the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria.

Fresh call for bushfire summit TIMBER Communities Australia chief executive Jim Adams has again called on the Federal Government to convene a national bushfire summit in the wake of the tragic Victorian Bushfires.

“With this year’s fire season fast approaching TCA members across Australia are hoping that no part of Australia will experience a repeat of last year’s tragic Black Saturday bushfires,” Mr Adams said.

“It has long been known and reinforced through the recommendations of every prior

bushfire inquiry, including the Stretton Royal Commission after the 1939 Victorian bushfires, that of the factors that influence the ignition and intensity of a bushfire the only one which can be managed is the fuel load and that this is far more effectively done in advance of a fire than during the event.

“Despite this we have continued to witness the systematic failure of governments to resource and audit proper fuel management practices across all land tenures.”

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Weak pulp market forces decline in woodchip exports WOODCHIP exports have declined 28% in 2009 but Australia is still the largest chip exporter in the world, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly.

Eucalyptus and pine chip exports were reduced substantially due to weak pulp markets in Japan. In the domestic market, pulpwood prices have increased over 13% in US dollars this year as the Australian currency has strengthened.

The biggest decline was in softwood and hardwood chips to Japan, which were down 31% and 36% respectively compared to the same period in 2008.

As a result of the reduced production of pulp in Japan the past year, demand for imported wood fibre has fallen and countries that export, such as Australia, have had to try to find alternative markets. In 2009, eucalyptus chips destined for Japan were down to 74% of all Australian hardwood chip exports as compared to 86% in the previous year.

Other increasingly important markets include Taiwan, South Korea and China.

The brightest spot for chip exports the past year has been China, which has more than doubled the import volumes from Australia this year, reaching over

470,000 tonnes during the first eight months, mostly hardwood.

Although eucalyptus exports have declined, the domestic consumption of plantation eucalyptus wood fibre in Australia has been increasing steadily as fast-growing plantations have matured. In the second quarter this year, there were 21% more eucalyptus chips traded compared to the same period last year.

Domestic prices for both softwood and hardwood fibre were slightly lower in the second quarter in Australian dollars, but substantially higher in US dollar terms as a result of the strengthening Australian currency.

Eucalyptus pulp log prices were up 14% and eucalyptus chip prices for domestic pulp mills increased by 13%, according to the report.

Australian softwood chips were close to the lowest cost chips delivered to Japan, only slightly higher than the price for Douglas fir chips from the US. Radiata pine from New Zealand and spruce pine fir chips from Canada are currently the highest cost fibre delivered to Japanese pulp mills. * South West Fibre opens $32 million blue gum chip mill at Myamyn, Page 12.

Woodchip exports hit by weak pulp markets in Japan.

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issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 9

EVENTS

New forestry technologies on show at trans-Tasman ForestTECH series

Workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, field visits NEW and emerging technologies in the forest industry will be presented at the ForestTECH 2009 series in Albury, NSW, and Rotorua, NZ in November.

The conferences will comprise an integrated series of practical workshops, managed exhibitions, demonstrations and field visits. Major themes include forest sampling and inventory; data collection tools; remote sensing; forest management; and assessment of wood and stand quality.

Findings from recent trials by local forestry companies will be presented along with recommendations for future operational applications.

ForestTECH 2009 is an innovative technology transfer program, developed and fine tuned from the two previous events in 2007 and 2008.

“We’ve been working with a wide cross section of forestry companies over the past six months to design this new technical program,” says FIEA director Brent Apthorp.

“Instead of covering a broad range of in-forest technologies – from site preparation and plantation silviculture through to

Page 10 | issue 96 | 05.10.09

Technologies in the forest .. big ForestTECH program in Australia and New Zealand.

pre-harvest inventory – the focus for the 2009 series is on forest data capture, sampling and inventory and forest management information systems. These are essential tools that foresters and forest managers are telling us should be adopted to collect,

manage, view and model data for their forest estate.”

Geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) have both become mainstream tools used by foresters in conjunction with spatial information like

maps and aerial photographs.

However, recent rapid advances in remote sensing technologies have revolutionised spatial data capture in forests. It’s being labelled ‘precision forestry’.

Precision forestry incorporates a range of integrated tools such as satellite navigation systems, GIS and digital data capture. In particular, the latest generation of high-resolution remote sensing tools are impacting on forest planning and how today’s forests are managed.

The growing availability and reduced pricing of remote sensing tools has led to a rapid expansion in forestry applications world-wide. Forest managers in Australia and New Zealand are all now evaluating airborne optical sensors, satellite optical sensors and airborne laser scanners for applications such as forest change detection, catchment hydrology studies, infrastructure mapping, biomass and carbon accounting, weed infestation assessment and forest health monitoring.

ForestTECH 2009 will be detailing what remote sensing tools are commercially available, how they Cont Page 11

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EVENTS

Airborne laser scanners hone in to assist forest harvesting operations From Page 10

can be best used and practical management and operational considerations in applying the new technologies.

Forestry Tasmania and Forests NSW will be presenting results from recent trials on their forest estates.

Forestry Tasmania has just completed a major LiDAR feasibility study that has looked at the technical and financial feasibility of applying (airborne laser scanners) LiDAR across its entire forest estate, some 300 sq km of native forest and plantations. It has been used to assist in a wide range of roading, harvesting and other operations over a two-year period.

Forests NSW is trialling the use of LiDAR to estimate current wood resources in their softwood plantations. The PARIA study covers 5000 ha of radiata pine plantation in Green Hills state forest, 20 km north of Tumbarumba in southern NSW. The remote sensing trial utilises various methods to automatically detect individual tree crowns and extract height values to predict stem volume. Key findings from the study will be presented as well as recommendations for future operational applications.

The very latest measurement tools, field computers, mobile computing and wireless

Field trips feature of ForestTECH 2009 at Albury and Rotorua.

communications for use out in the forest will also be demonstrated at ForestTECH 2009.

GIS technologies have moved on from just providing more accurate timber inventories to providing the foundation for new decision support tools used in all areas of integrated forest management.

US-based forestry manger for leading GIS software company ESRIs Peter Eredics will provide an overview of international global geo-spatial technology developments and their application in this part of the world.

In addition to data capture and inventory, forest management

information systems, estate planning and wood and stand quality assessments will be covered.

Linking wood quality resource descriptions to future forest management is increasingly being used by forestry managers.

In addition to using acoustics to segregate wood to meet end users requirements, the Forest Products Commission has just completed studies in Western Australia that look at salvaging timber damaged by wildfires.

Acoustics are being used to assess the rate of degrade after fire (with intensity) and to monitor degrade so that vulnerable areas are salvaged. This enables forest owners to maximise their returns through salvage operations.

ForestTECH 2009 runs in Rotorua from November 10 to 12 and in Albury from November 16 to 18. Full details: www. foresttechevents.com

A3P key Issues up on website THE key issues section on the A3P website has been re-designed to be in-line with council’s annual plan for the 2009-10 financial year.

The page now provides information on A3P’s seven top priority issues: climate change, renewable energy, trade, timber market development, pulp and paper, Paper Strategic Review

and Plantation Investment and Product Stewardship.

These pages will be kept upto-date and include information about the issue, recent submissions and documents and relevant links. The key issues can be found at www.a3p.asn.au/keyissues/ index.html

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issue 96 | 05.10.09 | Page 11

INDUSTRY NEWS

South West chips in $32m for new Myamyn bluegum processing mill CLOSE to half of the Green Triangle’s annual bluegum harvest could be chipped at the $32 million South West Fibre mill which was officially opened at Myamyn, near Heywoodw, 357 km west of Melbourne, on September 25.

“South West Fibre is to be commended for its foresight in developing the mill – the region’s first bluegum processing facility – and having it operational and ready to take advantage of increasing economic activity as the Australian and global economies emerge from the recession,” National Association of Forest Industries chief executive Allan Hansard said.

“The mill will play a critical role in processing the rapidly increasing volume of plantation logs from the Green Triangle

Up and running… the new $32 million bluegum chip mill at Myamyn, Victoria.

for export markets or domestic markets. Estimates are that the availability of plantation logs from the region will increase from its current level of around

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Page 12 | issue 96 | 05.10.09

1 million tonnes to 3-4 million tonnes by 2012.”

Mr Hansard said the new mill was a significant investment milestone for the forest industry as it continued to work toward the development of more than $6 billion worth of new processing facilities and the creation of 6000 new jobs throughout rural and regional Australia.”

West Fibre Pty Ltd, based at Portland, Vic, is a joint venture between Midway Ltd and Mitsui Bussan Woodchip Oceania Pty Ltd. Infield chipping and log production operations harvest blue gum plantations for both small private and large industrial growers and investors. Chip is exported from the Port of Portland GrainCorp terminal.

The opening of the mill shows that although Timbercorp and Great Southern are in disarray, the hardwood industry is moving forward.

Glenelg Shire Mayor Geoff White said the bluegum harvest had now begun “in earnest”, disproving scepticism about the benefits of the hardwood industry, which would generate 1000 direct jobs and more in maintenance and transport.

“The Port of Portland will become Australia’s largest

bluegum woodchip handling port,” he said.

South West Fibre and Midway chairman Greg McCormack said he expected to see resource from across the Green Triangle flowing to the site, where 1.3 million tonnes of the region’s three million tonne annual hardwood harvest could be processed within three years.

The company had developed numerous partnerships with growers to secure resources for chip exports to Japan-based partner Mitsui, he said.

“Portable units will also chip some of the region’s harvest, but have a capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year each, leading to logistical challenges.

The 100 ha site is designed to incorporate another chipping line to double capacity in future.

More than $60 million been spent on associated harvest and haulage equipment to deliver trees to the site and chips to the port.

Mitsui chairman Atsushi Oi said his company had doubts about the suitability of the region for its plantation expansion during past droughts, but was now confident the area could help meet the demands of Japan and Asia.

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