Rencon Forestry Spring 2017 newsletter by Nick Reynish

Issue# 001

'Providing services in the Australian Forestry Industry since 2005'

Compliance & New Tech

16th October 2017

What's Inside?

By Nick Reynish As a service provider in the industry we have had increasing pressure applied from both the government and private client ends. This is naturally generating more administration type work in the back-end not only for staff in the field but for supervisors and managers in the office which in turn drives up internal costs. To help alleviate some of this pressure we have developed and built in alliance with our sister company Fortuitous Group in Melbourne an innovative app and online service called Quick IMS (Quick Information Management System). The system allows the manager in the office to quickly build a form from scratch or copy off an existing paper version in the back-end then sync with the field users app. We have been successfully testing our new software in the field for over 6 months now with very positive results. There are a bundle of new features set for development in the coming months and it will be available for commercial use and purchase in the first quarter of 2018.

Operations Manager Report Inventory & New Tablets for spotters Silviculture: Coppice Thinning, Shield Injecting & fire season updates Technology & New Products Industry Edge Report

From the director - Nick Reynish

Welcome to our spring newsletter for 2017! It’s been a while since we have sent out any updates so we thought Spring time was an opportunity especially with the weather supposedly getting better (not showing many signs down in VIC however!)

New staff ID card's We are in the process of rolling out new ID cards for each member of staff. The cards will be carried onsite with staff whilst conducting field work. The cards will have employees name, photo, client & internal induction expiry, relevant course accreditation's, including the likes of first aid, fire qualifications & chainsaw credentials. Upon audits staff will be able to produce their card for inspection.

The seasonal operational focus is now shifting from establishment to the upcoming fire season, summer activities and beyond. Over the last couple of years, we have turned to technologies and new emerging products to aid us with data reporting from the field to help better improve operations as a service provider and as an internal business model.

Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd | ACN: 143 849 227 | www.renconforestry.com.au | Office locations: Melbourne, Casterton & Hamilton Victoria

Operations Manager Report By Jo Anderson

Inventory

It has been a challenging winter on the operations front. The prolonged wet conditions have made some activities difficult on occasion but also at times a lot of fun. Our new UTV is certainly making life a lot easier. Our new test pilot thermal camera is definitely a promising tool. We are currently conducting field trials and gaining some positive results. The miniature camera attaches direct to your smart phone or tablet and via the app converts your device into a thermal camera turning night into day.

With the recent addition to the fleet, our new Honda side x side has been an invaluable asset this season to get staff around some of the wettest plantations to conduct inventory.

New tablets for Spotters The new thermal camera attached to a smartphone, its lightweight, portable and draws minimal battery from the device.

With multiple options available for viewing objects in constantly changing light conditions and temperature variances, the camera and app can display different colour palettes to suit your needs.

Success Story This female koala had a negative interaction with a harvester. With some prompt veterinary attention and lots of TLC from the Carer this lady is happy to be back in the plantation and doing very well. The koala team will continue to track and monitor her progress.

In line with compliance and recent mobile technologies developed, this month we have rolled out new rugged cellular tablets for our Koala Spotters. These now enable us to monitor each staff member whilst working on the harvest site. As well as providing them with ‘company data’ which is also monitored, it improves reporting time back to our clients for forms such as incident reports, time-sheeting and daily compliance reports.

Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd | ACN: 143 849 227 | www.renconforestry.com.au | Office locations: Melbourne, Casterton & Hamilton Victoria | Free call 1800 TREE OP

Silviculture Operations

with Darren Murrell

Coppice Thinning

Shield Injecting With our busiest establishment season for many years, our shield crews have nearly completed their programme, currently waiting for waterlogged plantations to dry up. After shifting our focus from planting, our establishment season (Winter) is now focused on Shield injecting.

Andy Cusack from LITA in Mt Gambier conducting onsite pole-saw training for Silvicture Crew Staff.

Our coppice thinning operations have been going strong since 2010. We have thinned approx. 2.1 million stumps since our first contract with the then Elders Forestry. After trailing a number of different methods of cutting early on including the 3 tonne CAT excavator with patented cutting head by AACPS and the electric polesaw by French company Pelenc, we decided to go back to traditional and more reliable means using 2-stroke modified polesaws.

For those of you who have not had much to do with ‘Shield’, Shield is a systemic product produced by Sumitomo in Australia for the control of leaf feeding insects in forestry. 5ml of mix is injected close to the root-ball of blue gum seedlings which is then up-taken by the plant. It is not a cheap exercise however the results speak for themselves and the application is well worth it as second rotation crops attract a variety of leaf feeding insects, if not controlled can lead to widespread devastation. For more information please visit http://www.sumitomo-chem.com.au/shieldsystemic-insecticide

Although the other methods had merit a combination of power, speed, efficiency and capital cost came into balance and the petrol/human means came out on top and still does. Today its about managing human fatigue, safety quality of the workmanship on the ground.

Upcoming fire season

A Rencon Forestry staff member injecting shield near Mumbanner VIC in a 2R blue gum plantation.

With our neighbours up in NSW having already started their fire season earlier than normal with very dry conditions, its hard to imagine the Green Triangle would be even close to entering. However it will come around soon enough and I am sure all are starting preparations now or at least starting to think about it. For the Green Triangle Region its looking like forecasters are predicting a normal season, however other areas have above normal indicators. For further information visit https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/hazardnotes/38

Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd | ACN: 143 849 227 | www.renconforestry.com.au | Office locations: Melbourne, Casterton & Hamilton Victoria | Free call 1800 TREE OP

Technology & New Products Tablet-Ex-Gear Australasia

Quick IMS™ (Quick Information Management System)

Quick IMS was ultimately born out of frustrations in the field by Rencon Forestry's staff and management's needs and developed to minimise reporting time and transfer from the inefficiencies of paper for incidents and form based reports from the contractor in the field to the client based in their office. Quick IMS™ has now become that and more. The team at Quick IMS™ have realised the daily challenges forestry people are faced with such as remote locations and harsh working environments and have developed features to suit the needs of everyday workforces. To learn more please visit https://quickims.com About two years ago I made contact with a Canadian Forester by the name of Brian Saunders who resides on the beautiful Vancouver Island. When the North Americans first started using Tablet Computers in the field (probably about 2 years before us) Brian realised there was a problem that the traditional inventory vest could not solve, to carry and support ergonomically a somewhat heavy tablet computer, especially the bulky Panasonic Toughbook. So Brian being the innovative type decided this problem needed solving and came up with the Tablet Computer Chest pack range. Rencon Forestry has been selling these through its online store for almost 1.5 years now throughout Australia & New Zealand. We are currently working on plans to extend its reach and strengthen the partnership with Brian. Fore more information please visit our website https://www.tablet-ex-gear.com.au

Elmia Wood 2017 - Sweden

Francis Weston - Head of Solutions Delivery & Partner of Quick IMS™ demonstrating the functionality and simplicity of the back-end to a Scottish Forestry Company at ElmiaWood 2017 in Sweden.

In June earlier this year I made the trek for the first time to ElmiaWood 2017 in Sweden. Representing our digital agency ForestryConnect, we exhibited there to research the viability of our services and apps such as Quick IMS™, Webforestry Intell and Tablet Computer Chest Packs (Tablet-Ex-Gear). Apart from the weather (it rained for a good part of it) the expo was a success especially in terms of positive feedback and sales to forestry people all over Europe. The Swedish really know how to put on a show, they don’t do things by halves. On a forest site to the south of Jönköping in Sweden were 555 exhibitors from 28 countries of which 200 where there for the first time to show off their latest wares. To add to this impressive list there were over 200 accredited journalists form 24 countries, 7 kilometres of forest trails, 85,000 square meters of stand space and 131,000 square meters of demo areas where machine operators were able to display their company’s latest innovations. For myself and our team not only did we gain valuable information about our European customer base but we got to see how the Northern Hemisphere do forestry - and we would certainly do it again. It was a great experience and I can highly recommend attending the next event in 2021.

Left to right: Nick Collins, Francis Weston, Nick Reynish, Brian Saunders, Julian Cassin

Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd | ACN: 143 849 227 | www.renconforestry.com.au | Office locations: Melbourne, Casterton & Hamilton Victoria | Free call 1800 TREE OP

Australia’s Hardwood Chips and Softwood Logs Head to China – it’s a Boom. Exclusive report for Rencon Forestry Clients. As with so much in the modern mercantile world, China is everything in the booming hardwood chip and softwood log export trades, at least from Australia’s perspective. IndustryEdge’s latest analysis shows China’s demand has driven Australia’s export growth over the last four years. With China’s imports of hardwood chips totalling 11.8 million bdmt (bone dry metric tonnes) in 2017, its imports have risen an average 27.8% per annum over the last decade, having totaled just 1 million bdmt in 2007.

Chinese Hardwood Chip Imports by Country of Origin: 2007 – 2017 (Mbdmt) Australia’s position as a major supplier of hardwood chips to China has grown very strongly over just four years. Australia is second only to Vietnam and delivered almost one-third (32.2%) of China’s total imports in FY17. Because of the superiority of supply from Australia’s eucalypt species, the size of the harvestable resource and the quality of the national supply chain, it is difficult for any but the cheapest – and invariably lower quality – suppliers to replace Australian suppliers. That will not happen any time in the next five years.

Australian Log Exports by Country of Destination: 2007 – 2017 (‘000 m3)

The situation is just as dramatic for Australia’s softwood log exports, which have exploded in recent years. Exports in FY17 were up 26.1% on the year prior, totalling a massive 4.076 million m3. Perhaps more remarkable, is the volume of those exports delivered to China, as the chart to the left shows.

IndustryEdge is Australia’s leading forestry and wood products trade support and market analysis firm. Every month, IndustryEdge publishes Wood Market Edge, providing the pulse of the national and global market for all forms of wood products.

Tim Woods - Managing Director - Industry Edge

www.industryedge.com.au

As the chart shows, other than small quantities to Korea and occasional supplies to India, Taiwan and a few other countries, China receives almost all of Australia’s exports of softwood logs. The sustainability of Australia’s hardwood chip and softwood log exports to China is regularly under scrutiny. Regardless of how long it lasts, the Australian wood fibre export boom is very much a China thing. Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd | ACN: 143 849 227 | www.renconforestry.com.au | Office locations: Melbourne, Casterton & Hamilton Victoria | Free call 1800 TREE OP

Special Feature - To comply or not? The forestry industry in Australia employs over 7,000 workers and has one of the highest fatality rates of all industries. The physical demands of the job, the use of heavy machinery and unpredictable conditions defines it is a high-risk industry.

There are many hazards that make forestry work dangerous, the big ones include; hazardous manual tasks exposure to chemicals falling objects falls from height the operation of plant and equipment.

A snapshot of fatalities from 2003 to 2015: • 43 forestry workers were killed. • All 43 fatalities were male workers. • 19% of forestry workers deaths were caused by vehicle accidents. • 58% of forestry workers died as a result of being hit by falling objects.

Aside from Occupational Health & Safety, compliance in general is unfortunately not a choice in any business. Understanding our role in compliance and staying ahead of federal regulations is challenging, but it’s undoubtedly preferable to the fines, dealing with a potential fatality and other costs associated with non-compliance. Creating a culture of compliance in an organisation isn’t something that you can deal with down the track, or assume responsibility of parent companies. In the current business climate, every business, regardless of size, is held accountable for compliance, and regulators are examining compliance policies more closely than ever. Main regulatory departments currently influencing business in the Australian forestry industry include; DELWP (VIC), Local Shires & Councils, FSC, PEFC, Fair Work Commission, ATO, State Revenue Office, Department of Agriculture & Water Resources plus many other state specific regulators.

Maintenance Possibly one of the most important steps toward maintaining compliance is staying informed and keeping ahead of the everchanging regulatory environment. Being ‘in the know’ and taking proactive steps to stay ahead of changes is the best way to avoid being caught unaware. Below are some tips of staying one step ahead: • Follow industry news via social media and online publications. • Subscribe to bulletins and updates from the ATO and Fair Work Commission. Accountants should be informing their clients of any federal financial commitments subject to change however not all are proactive in this sense so it pays to ask ahead of time what is in-store for the next financial year. • Consult with agents, advisors or work colleagues about the issues and regulations that affect your company and activities, and seek guidance on any updates that seem to apply. • Attend conferences and industry events related to compliance. In the end its better to be proactive than reactive. Monitoring and maintaining, is far cheaper than being audited then found negligent and being handed a hefty fine.

Article by Nick Reynish References: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/ Bill Carmody - Trepoint

Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd | ACN: 143 849 227 | www.renconforestry.com.au | Office locations: Melbourne, Casterton & Hamilton Victoria | Free call 1800 TREE OP

Rencon Forestry Pty Ltd ABN: 70 143 849 227 ACN: 143 849 227 Rural Office & Depot: 38 Henty St Casterton 3311 VIC Melbourne Office: 39-41 Mount St Prahran 3181 VIC Satellite Offices: Hamilton VIC & Kangaroo Island SA www.renconforestry.com.au admin@renconforestry.com.au 1800 TREE OP (1800 873 367)

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