15 minute read
Plantations 18
Plantation Management Maintaining the resource a key issue for Tasmania
Private forests cover an area just shy of 1.1 million hectares, which is about a third of the total forest estate in Tasmania.
Private plantation forest occupy about a quarter of that total forest area and 82% of Tasmania’s total plantation area.
And the private plantations are around 70/30 hardwood to softwood and some of the total private forest bringing about 4.07 million logs to market per annum, which is nearly three quarters of the estate’s total forest production.
And 93% of those logs coming to market off the private estate come from plantations.
But unfortunately the private plantation area is reducing. It’s down about 5000 hectares overall from the previous reporting year.
Hardwood is mainly driving this down 7,000 hectares while softwood has slightly offset that with a slight increase. And the downward trend reflects a combination of consolidation of second rotations around the high performing sites closer to markets, non-replanting of some uneconomic ex managing investments scheme plantations, and conversions of ex MIS plantations back to pasture or cropping.
Tasmania established a pilot hub in the Northern half of this estate in 2019. It was put together with an industry/government collaboration and involved consultation with industry, community and government stakeholders.
One of the key things identified by stakeholders was access to land and land-use policy for plantation forest investment.
A report commissioned to assess and analyze the access to land issues in Northern Tasmania was finalized in 2020 and drawing on data and information from Private Forests Tasmania, information from some of our existing engagement programs and existing research from a range of collaborations and stakeholder input basically has pulled together an analysis and summary of the factors affecting the forest growing and processing sectors in Tasmania.
In Northern Tasmania, plantation forestry occupies 30% of the available agricultural land, which is pretty high.
It’s around about 0.5% on average in all the jurisdictions in Australia.
The area of agricultural land potentially available for plantation is 37,000 hectares and available in that context means modeling was undertaken to look at land that was both suitable and available, not competing with other existing crops or enterprises and able to support plantations integrated with other land uses and able to grow commercially viable plantations.
However, all of this still identified that there’s a downward trend in the plantation area, which is expected to continue over the next five to 10 years. So clearly maintaining the resource is a key issue. There’s neither the commercial will, nor social license to support industrial scale expansion into prime agricultural land in Tasmania.
And the report unsurprisingly found that the immediate priorities are to focus on maintaining the current plantation footprint with expanding the plantation footprint in an economically, commercially and socially feasible way, being more of a medium to longterm prospect.
The priority therefore is to identify and drive smaller scale expansion opportunities integrated into the agricultural landscape.
And both of those priorities rely on recognizing that landowners have a range of motivations.
Critical success factors that were identified in the report would be improving smaller growers’ knowledge of supply chain and markets. Improving their knowledge and acceptance of the integrated benefits of trees on farms.
Definitely improving the business model, particularly offsetting the cost of establishment and simplifying the policy and regulatory environment.
The regulatory barriers were identified as quite high. In Tasmania, the institutional investment model favors mid-rotation acquisitions over greenfield establishment. And there’s a consequent dependence on integrating small scale plantations into the agricultural landscape if we want to both maintain, or expand plantations.
Other complications in Tasmania is that the agricultural community is at best agnostic to plantations and more often firmly opposed.
Forestry supply chains, markets and pricing are viewed as complex and lacking transparency by the agricultural sector.
There’s volatility in demand and pricing, which creates uncertainty about future returns particularly compared with the annual decisions in the agricultural sector.
Traditional investment economics also do not support greenfield establishment. However, the opportunities in Northern Tasmania as the report has modeled (indicates) there’s potentially 37,000 hectares that are suitable and available and competitive with other uses and economically viable for plantations in the Northern part of the state.
There’s an opportunity for development of further tools and systems for nonwood values to improve acceptance. The forest industry in Tasmania already recognizes the importance of working with smaller, independent landowners in terms of developing the private results. There’s opportunities to further develop effective practical arrangements between industry and landowners through partnerships and campaigns, such as the Tree Alliance Marketing Campaign.
We already have significant goodwill from both the state and federal governments. This includes an existing positive policy settings to support integration with agricultural land. We have opportunities to capitalize on the emerging opportunities for solid wood processing of hardwood plantation products, as well as optimizing the transition where it’s relevant from short rotation to long rotation plantations.
And we have the opportunity to continue to build on recent improvements to the Commonwealth Carbon Farming Initiative, especially to assist small to medium growers to enter the carbon market.
Penny Wells
Chief Executive Officer, Private Forests Tasmania
Key Points
•There’s a downward trend in the plantation area, which is expected to continue over the next five to 10 years. •In Tasmania is that the agricultural community is at best agnostic to plantations and more often firmly opposed. •Traditional investment economics also do not support greenfield establishment. •Picture: FWPA
Sixty million years of separation leave a mark
Anew eucalypt genome has been assembled and publicly released following a decade-long project involving 22 scientists from Australia, USA and Brazil, including Associate Professor David Lee from USC Australia’s Forest Research Institute. The genome of the spotted gum Corymbia citriodora subsp. variegata is the second fully assembled reference genome published for the eucalypt group and will be the reference genome for the genus Corymbia, known as the bloodwoods.
The Corymbia reference genome was published in the Nature journal Communications Biology and is hosted alongside the Eucalyptus reference genome by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute for access by scientists worldwide.
Dr Lee said Corymbia is the closest lineage to the main eucalypt lineage (genus Eucalyptus), which comprises over 750 species and dominates most of Australia’s forests and woodland.
He said by comparison there are about 100 species of Corymbia, primarily in
PURPOSE-BUILT EQUIPMENT FOR THE WILDEST FORESTS
Developed with your needs first, WesTrac have partnered with Weiler to deliver a full forestry solution. Alongside our Cat® range, we now offer one of the largest selections of high-performance forestry machinery available, designed to tackle any application.
northern and eastern Australia.
“The species chosen for sequencing grows naturally along the north-east coast of Australia and is grown in plantations in Queensland, northern New South Wales and other countries such as China, Brazil and South Africa,” said Dr Lee, who has led the Australian breeding efforts with the bloodwoods,” Dr Lee said.
“This reference genome will be invaluable for future gene discovery and help the breeding of bloodwoods for uses including timber and biomass production, carbon sequestration and even essential oil and charcoal production”.
The research project was initiated in Australia and involved researchers from the University of Queensland, Southern Cross University, University of the Sunshine Coast and University of Tasmania.
The major task of refining the genome assembly, however, was completed in the USA when the lead scientist, Dr Adam Healey, moved to the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology after working on the project as part of his PhD at the University of Queensland.
Professor Brad Potts from the University of Tasmania described achieving a full genome assembly as completing a “mega project”.
“It is one thing to sequence a genome but quite another to stitch the millions of tiny bits of sequence together into chromosomes and reliably position genes – especially when done independent of other genome assemblies to allow comparative studies,” he said.
Corymbia and Eucalyptus are thought to have diverged about 60 million years ago – after the last mass extinction of the world’s plants and animals, including the dinosaurs – when Australia was still linked with Antarctica.
Dr Jakob Butler, whose PhD work at the University of Tasmania helped with the genome assembly, said: “These eucalypts show extensive similarity in genome structure despite their ancient separation, which while surprising is useful from a practical perspective for transferring information on which genes affect which traits – but we did discover key structural differences for the first time between these genera”.
Some of the differences found between Eucalyptus and Corymbia were in gene families related to disease inhibition and aridity adaptation.
Dr Jules Freeman of Scion New Zealand and previously of the University of Tasmania said: “The assembly and annotation of the bloodwood genome helps cement the eucalypts as a model group for genomic research in forest trees”.
•Associate Professor David Lee
Scan the QR code to view our range. Visit westrac.com.au or call 1300 88 10 64.
© 2021 WesTrac Pty Ltd and Caterpillar. All Rights Reserved. CAT, CATERPILLAR, LET’S DO THE WORK, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Corporate Yellow”, the “Power Edge” and Cat “Modern Hex” trade dress as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission.
•OneFortyOne Nursery Manager Craig Torney.
Key Points
•$7million investment. •New bench and tray system to accommodate growing an additional 4 million seedlings per season. •New irrigation system will deliver efficiencies in irrigation, fertigation, and pest control – using less water and less chemicals. •New automatic vacuum seeding will increase efficiency allowing trays to be filled, seed sown and covered in one pass. •New shedding for all operations except growing to occur under roof, improving conditions for staff. •Upgrade will include internal roads and nursery presentation.
Tough, Professional Tools
Australia-wide delivery! Haglof Forest Measurement
New Vertex V Vertex Laser Geo
Haglof Tree Calipers
Strong, lightweight Swedish made aluminium tree calipers
Spencer Logging Tapes
Tough US made logging tapes 15m, 25m length tapes and 30m+diameter
Diameter/Girth Tapes
Large range of steel & fibreglass diameter tapes from $22 Tree Planting Equipment
Clinos/Height Meters
Suunto Tandem Compass/Clino
Nikon Forestry Pro II
Huge range of tree planting, pruning and measuring equipment!
Swedish made Pottiputki tree planters
Models 45/55/63/75 Kidney trays, planting belts, spades & Hamilton planters
Pro-Pruner
New Zealand made lopper designed for lift pruning of pine & eucalypts. Also Razorback, Bahco, Felco & Barnel
$7m upgrade for Glencoe nursery
OneFortyOne has committed to a $7 million dollar investment at its nursery in Glencoe, to increase container capacity, and improve working conditions across the site.
The Glencoe Nursery has been in operation since 1982 and supplies over 10 million trees for OneFortyOne and other forest growers in the region.
OneFortyOne Nursery Manager Craig Torney said the upgrade will improve efficiency, capacity, and working conditions for employees and contractors.
“It’s an exciting project,” Craig said.
“Plans began over 4 years ago, with the aim to improve the sustainability of the current site and the wellbeing of our workforce.”
“By introducing technology to assist and streamline the process, the upgrade will increase container growing capacity 3-fold with the potential to grow an additional 4 million container seedlings per year.”
“Instead of needing to bend or crouch down to work at ground level, we’ll have a process where trees will be grown in trays at a bench set to a more ergonomic height.
The upgrade will move almost all winter production under cover and will also include improved facilities such as new amenities and lunchroom.
Also part of the upgrade is a new irrigation system which will improve efficiency, use less water, and result in less chemicals required during the establishment stages of new trees.
“The move away from field growing into bench supported containers will improve our working conditions, site safety and sustainability, and ultimately result in a better end product for forest growers and local timber processing customers across the region,” Craig said.
“The investment is a sign of OneFortyOne’s confidence in the future of the industry and our commitment to remaining part of our local community.”
The nursery upgrade is scheduled to begin in July 2021, and is due for completion in 2023.
Insect Invasion expert wins Fulbright
AN insect invasion expert from USC Australia will soon travel to the United States on a prestigious Fulbright Future Scholarship to help boost biosecurity between the two countries.
Dr Helen Nahrung, from USC’s Forest Research Institute, is the first researcher to receive the honour while employed at USC, one of Australia’s fastest-growing regional universities.
The scholarship will allow Dr Nahrung to travel to the US in May 2022 to examine the accidental importation of insects between Australia and the US, part of an “unwanted reciprocal exchange” of invasive species that each year costs Australia $14 billion and the US $210 billion.
“Invasive species, including pathogens and weeds, are the biggest driver of extinction, more so than climate change and habitat loss, so the impact on the economy and environment in each country is huge,” said Dr Nahrung.
“Invasive insects alone cause severe economic and environmental impacts globally, moving accidentally via trade and travel.
“The cottony cushion scale, for example, nearly destroyed the Californian citrus industry, while bark beetles that originated in America continue to cause ongoing losses to Australian forestry.”
The importance of this work was highlighted recently when the Australian Government allocated $370 million in its Federal Budget to boost biosecurity.
Dr Nahrung hopes findings from her visit to the United States could be used to influence trade or travel policy.
“We plan to use our improved bilateral understanding of insect movement between our respective countries to identify strategies to reduce the likelihood of future damaging invasions,” she said.
Dr Nahrung will be based for three months in West Virginia where she will work alongside a leading US invasion biologist looking at border interception data – the first time this data has been made available for this purpose.
Virtual Reality technology is being used as a tool to attract the next generation of foresters to the Green Triangle.
New two-minute career snapshots of foresters and ecologists working in the field have been filmed using innovative 360-degree cameras in recent weeks, creating immersive learning experiences that will soon be shared in high school classrooms across Australia.
The footage allows students to step into a VR world, walking through the estate alongside featured foresters, Courtney Pink of SFM (Sustainable Forest Management) and Jack Carter from ABP (Australia Bluegum Plantation), to learn about a day in their working life.
The Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub in partnership with ForestLearning, the country’s peak forest and wood product education portal, produced the latest 360-degree video experiences to highlight the variety of career pathways and diverse work tasks within the forestry field.
This ForestVR technology debuted nationally in classrooms last year with a catalogue of footage taking students on virtual excursion to difficult to access locations highlighting forest and timber processing in the region.
The free experiences, which were produced via a productive partnership with peak teacher association groups and industry, can be accessed using digital and cardboard VR headsets, iPads, laptaps or smart boards for whole of class activities, making it accessible for classroom environments.
Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub chair Ian McDonnell said it was hoped the promotion would inspire a new generation of foresters to the field, highlighting the sustainable and diverse nature of the work.
“The industry is faced with a national shortage of foresters, with local growers often forced to look globally to recruit staff,” Mr McDonnell said.
“Forestry provides a longterm secure career path for people who are interested in building their scientific and business expertise, are data and technology driven and enjoy working outdoors.
“Demand for these roles is going to grow in the future as we look to expand the forestry estate and gain more timber from existing plantations to meet growing domestic and global demand. The next generation, who have excellent technology skills, are going to be pivotal in achieving our strategic vision.”
Ms Pink, a regional forester based in Mount Gambier who studied a Bachelor of Forest Science and Management at Southern Cross University, said her love of nature and being outdoors inspired her career path.
“Forestry provides a lot of freedom. I love being able to work freely indoors or outdoors,” she said.
“We have peak intense periods of operations and other times we get to breathe in the fresh air that we create by growing trees. I love that its strategic and all about problem solving - plus I get to play with some cool toys like helicopters, drones and heavy machinery.”
A Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in zoology and a sub-major in Spanish, led Jack Carter to his environmental forester position at ABP, based in Hamilton. He started working as a silvicultural assistant as an allrounder undertaking survival counts, inventory and soil collection before being promoted to his current position.
Mr Carter’s role includes habitat monitoring and conservation management, revegetation and restoration works, protecting threatened species and their habitats, certification assessments and firefighting.
“I work to make sure that the industry remains sustainable and provides a positive return for both the environment and the community,” he said, noting he loved working outdoors in the field.
“Whether that be working with a team to plant a few thousand native seedlings or walking through the bush searching for traces of threatened species by way of diggings or even scat.
“One of the most exciting moments is flicking through the photos captured by the wildlife camera and coming across a rare or threatened species we didn’t know was there.”
The Australian Government, through funding from the National Forest Industries Plan and in partnership with Forest & Wood Products Australia and industry organisations around Australia including the Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub, has expanded the ForestVR toolkit to develop five new ForestVR experiences showcasing careers in forest and wood products, Forest Science Explorers, and Agroforestry. All new experiences will be accessible for schools and the general public by Term 4 via the ForestVR app, ForestLearning website as well as peak education career websites such as Education Services Australia’s myfuture.edu.au.
To learn more about Forest Learning’s Forest VR toolkit for schools visit the Forest Learning website.
•Courtney Pink, SFM regional forester, at the Glencoe Nursery filming the new forest VR footage.
•Jack Carter, an environmental forester from ABP, filming the new VR school promotion footage using 360-degree cameras.
