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April 2012 Issue 2, Vol. 21 • P: (03) 9888 4834 • F: (03) 9888 4840 • E: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au • www.timberbiz.com.au

AUSTimber 2012

... the event the industry has been waiting for !

A

USTimber 2012, billed as SHARPER. SMARTER. GREENER, really is the epitome of events for the forestry and timber industry. The fouryearly event is the world’s only combined softwood and hardwood plantation expo and the biggest forestry and timber expo in the Southern Hemisphere. This year’s event, to be held near South Australia’s forest capital Mount Gambier, will showcase the latest in technology, machinery, products and services for the forest and timber industry. AUSTimber general manager David Quill says AUSTimber 2012 is a crucial event for the industry and it comes at a crucial time. Australian Forests & Timber News, as the official media partner of AUSTimber 2012, brings you a 21-page special preview of the big event. That’s in this edition, and then it will be followed by a multi-page post-event coverage in our next edition.

1200 forestry experts can't be wrong Anti-forestry elements crying wolf

T

HE VIEW of 12 scientists pales in significance to the expert opinion of 1200 forest specialists when it comes to support for use of native forest residues for energy generation, according to Coalition Forestry Spokesman Richard Colbeck.

“As the Chief Scientist told us at Senate Estimates, the opinion of specialists in a field carries more scientific weight than a group with a scientific qualification and so it is in this case,” Senator Colbeck said.

“These 1200 experts are members of the Institute of Foresters of Australia – an organisation strongly committed to sustainable forest management, sustainable use of biodiversity, conservation and the provision of sustainable livelihoods.

“It is quite clear the overwhelming weight of science supports the use of native forest biomass for energy generation.

“The vocal minority should get in touch with the IFA and get the facts about greenhouse gas emissions, wood waste and native forests.

“These 1200 forestry experts strongly oppose the exposure draft regulations that exclude

native forest biomass as an eligible renewable energy source under the Renewable Energy Target (RET), and the weight of their highlyqualified opinions cannot be under stated.

“Using wood waste for energy generation makes sense. It takes a waste product – one that emits greenhouse gas regardless - and generates energy in a way that has far less carbon emissions than fossil fuel-produced energy.

“Plantation timber residue used in this way rightly qualifies as renewable energy. It should not be different for native timber residues.

“Alarmist nonsense that qualifying native wood waste as a renewable energy source will lead to destruction of Australia’s forest is rubbish. As usual, anti-forestry elements are crying wolf and distorting the facts.

“Australia currently has strict arrangements in place that ensure our native forests are appropriately protected and managed.

“Federal Labor could put this nonsense to bed by acting on Recommendation 15 of Seeing the forest through the trees, the House

World Forestry Day WORLD FORESTRY Day has been celebrated around the world for more than 40 years to remind communities of the importance of forests and the many benefits we gain from them.

The concept of having a World Forestry Day originated at the 23rd General Assembly of the European Confederation of Agriculture in 1971.

Later that year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture

Organisation gave support to the idea believing the event would contribute a great deal to public awareness of the importance of forests and agreed that it should be observed every year around the world.

March 21, the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere was chosen as the day to be celebrated offering information about the three key

facets of forestry, protection, production and recreation.

To commemorate the day AFPA is hosting a seminar at the MCG in Melbourne. The forest industry seminar in the afternoon will give AFPA members and other stakeholders the opportunity of hearing some very useful research observations on plantation development and the way in which another sector has addressed the issue of biomass, and provide some feedback.

of Representatives parliamentary report tabled last November. It states: “The Committee recommends that, under any version of the RET (or similar scheme), bioenergy sourced from native forest biomass should continue to qualify as renewable energy, where it is a

true waste product and it does not become a driver for the harvesting of native forest.”

“There is currently untapped potential within our forests. Without cutting down a single extra tree, Australia could generate up to 3000 gigawatt hours of energy using wood waste,” Senator Colbeck said.

We welcome you to the ForestWorks Precision Forestry in Action conference at AUSTimber 2012 Visit us at our exhibition stand at the AUSTimber Expo

1800 177 001 www.forestworks.com.au

ForesWorks’ activities are assisted by funding provided by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

New Ideas and a lot of fun Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

See it all at AUSTimber 2012

• Mount Gambier • South Australia • March 29-31

It’s on! The biggest timber industry expo in the Southern Hemisphere will host equipment suppliers and industry professionals from around the world.

The site compares with the best anywhere in the world.

All in-forest equipment demonstrators are ready to go.

The conference speakers are tweaking their words.

Processing technology suppliers are ready to show their wares.

See you there! – www.austimber2012.com.au

Forestry and space science?

AUSTimber Welcome Function

A top line up of international speakers to inform and challenge your thinking on how to improve your productivity.

This premier industry networking event will welcome all international, national and local visitors to the AUSTimber 2012 Conference and Expo.

The AUSTimber Welcome Function is proudly sponsored by Caterpillar.

At the conference, learn (amongst other things) how forestry resources can be managed from space.

Learn why a forestry company is working with the European Space Agency and what 3D Forest measurement is all about.

Major Sponsors

Olympic and Paralympic gold medallist and Australia’s fastest skier, Michael Milton, will be the celebrity guest speaker for our charity auction with opportunities including: • A half day skiing with Michael for four people.

• A villa on the Mediterranean.

• A boat cruise.

• And more – but you have to be there to find out.

Sponsors

Partners

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 3

Battlers left in the lurch by Govt S

OUTH WEST Queensland has copped more than its fair share of rain in the past 18 months and it continues to pose major problems for the area.

Rod McInnes, chief executive officer of peak industry body Timber Queensland, said major job losses were imminent with flood affected businesses in South West Queensland poised to close after being largely ignored by Government.

“The Queensland Government must provide immediate short term financial support to help small businesses help themselves.

“People are crying out for help to avoid further social and economic upheaval and they aren’t getting answers,” McInnes said.

He said timber businesses that had already been struggling were now facing ruin.

“Take the case of family-owned sawmiller, N.K. Collins Industries.

They have five mills in South West Queensland providing Cypress Pine to domestic and international markets. The GFC and local building slump has reduced their market demand by more than 50%,” he said

“Just when some local orders turn up so does the rain and flooding cuts roads, shuts forests and generally makes life difficult for business owners and employees alike.”

With one mill (Mungalala) functioning, N.K Collins has been daily transporting employees from Mitchell to Mungalala and trucking the logs from Tambo (450km away) where flooding has been of lesser impact.

“This costly, logistical dance is a grave attempt to generate some cash flow to keep the business

afloat, no pun intended,” said McInnes.

He said N.K. Collins had been seeking some financial assistance to meet at least some of these additional logistical costs until other mills were usable and flooding has subsided.

“Even the QRAA Grant of $25,000 that could help the business keep going has been refused – too many employees and not enough damage – apparently!

“The likely outcome of this will be permanent mill closures, significant job losses -up to 100 and

 Rod McInnes.

a 65-year-old business gone to the wall. And others will likely follow.

No wonder Australian industry is in such dire straits.”

Rob de Fégely appointed President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia WELL KNOWN forest industry consultant Rob de Fégely has been appointed the new President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia. He replaces Dr Peter Volker who retired last year having served as President since 2005.

“We are extremely pleased that Mr de Fégely has accepted the role as President as he brings over 30 years of experience in not only all the states of Australia and across all industry sectors, but he has also worked in New Zealand, Asia, North America and Europe,”said chief executive officer Cassandra Spencer.

“Apart from managing his own farm, forest and consulting company he is also Chairman of Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry Ltd in Papua New Guinea and on the Advisory Board of Craigmore Sustainables Ltd in New Zealand.

“Mr de Fégely was also Managing Director of Jaakko Pöyry Consulting in Australia and part of its Asia Pacific management team from 1996 to 2006. The early part of his career was spent in softwood plantation development but started consulting to the industry in 1990. His consulting experience is broad and covers the major industry reviews such as the Resource Assessment Commissions Forest and Timber Inquiry, the Regional Forest Agreements, Plantation

privatisations and assisted in the development of various company, industry and government forestry strategies,” she said.

Speaking in Canberra, de Fégely said “it is a great honour to be President of the Institute of Foresters and I am humbled to be following a long line of distinguished people who have made a significant contribution to forest conservation and development in Australia over many years”.

The Institute represents professional foresters many of whom who have spent at least four years at University learning their trade with ongoing experience in field. The concept of sustainability is nothing new to foresters as it is the most basic principle of their craft. Every day they aim to manage all the benefits and uses of forests and forest products in perpetuity and unfortunately many in the community underestimate the technical and environmental challenges that foresters confront to achieve this.

“Foresters can be very proud of what they have achieved in Australia whether they are working in National Parks, Production Forests, Plantations, Agro Forests or Water Catchments and if it was not for the work of early foresters such as Jolly, Lane Poole and Swain who are not household

names however, these men saved our forests from clearing for settlement early last century and ensured we have the magnificent natural forests of today,” de Fégely said.

Rob has a Bachelor of Science (Forestry) from the Australian National University and a Master of Science (Forest Business Management) form Aberdeen University in Scotland. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Program and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Leading industry print magazines Timber Training now online Creswick LTD. AUSTim ber 201 ENTER th

KOM ATS

e

U FOR EST

S Forwarde r competitio n at AUSTimbe r

Entry form inside or click here if onlin e

FOLLOWING 21 years as the major Australian forests and timber industry magazine and in line with current publishing trends, Australian Forests & Timber News is now available in both print and online on the forest and timber industries’ leading web portal, www.timberbiz.com.au.

Readers will now have the convenience of being able to read Australian Forests & Timber News in a PDF format online as well as in print. The online version will allow readers to view digital edition pages, individual stories and advertisements with zoom options.

At the same time the company’s sister industry Australian Timberman, now published for over 30 years, will also be made available in both print and digital formats.

Publisher Hartley Higgins said that following research into a variety of online publishing programs, it had been decided to use the ISSUU program which offers ease of navigation and the ability to link through to websites that are stated within the text.

“This is an exciting development where links to supplier websites

April 2012 Issue

Sharper .

Smarte r.

Greener . ... the

A

1, Vol. 22 •

P: (03) 9888

4834 • F: (03)

9888 4840

• E: lmartin@ forestsand timber.com.au

• www.timb erbiz.com.au

2

event the in dustry has been waitin g for !

USTimber yearly even 2012, billed as SHA t is the wor RPER. SMA Hem ld’s only RTER. com products isphere. This year and services ’s event, to bined softwood GREENER, really industry and be held near is the for the and South Aus hardwood plantatio epitome of even special prev it comes at a crucforest and timber ts for tralia’s fore n indu iew of the ial st capital expo and the bigg the forestry and big event. time. Australian stry. AUSTimber timber est fore That’s in Fore general manMount Gambier , will show stry and timber industry. The four this edition, sts & Timber ager Dav expo New case and then id it will be s, as the official med Quill says AUS the latest in tech in the Southern nolo Tim followed by a multi-pa ia partner of AUS ber 2012 is a cruc gy, machinery, Tim ial ge post-eve nt coverage ber 2012, brings event for the you a in our next edition. 20-page

1200 fore can't be wstry experts rong T Anti-forestr elements y crying wolf

HE VIE W of 12 pales in significancescientists native expert fores to specialists opinion of 1200 the renewable t biomass as an eligi energy sour fores ble of for use when it comes to supp t Renewable Representati of Energy ce under the repo ves for energy native forest resid ort and the weight of Target (RET), state rt tabled last parliamentar y true ues qual gene ratio November. to Coalitio their high waste prod s: n Forestryn, according state ified opinions cann lyIt beco Richard Colb “The me a driv uct and it does not ot be unde d.

Spok esm er for the eck. an r that, undeCommittee reco of native “Using woo “As the Chie harvestin mme forest.” r any vers g d waste (or ion of the nds generatio “The Senate Estim f Scientist told simi for ener lar n mak RET pote re is currently us at a ates, the specialists waste prod es sense. It takegy sourced from scheme), bioenerg ntial with untapped opinion in nativ uct of s a field – one e forest biom y cutting dow in our forests. With shou gree scientific weight than carries more genenhouse gas rega that emits rene ld continue to n a sing ass Aus le extra out a scientific trali rdles wab qual a rates grou a could s le ify tree, p ener energy, whe as giga in this case qualification and with far less carb gy in a way that and watt hour generate up to 3000 re it is so it is on emission ,” Senator has s a of woo fuelener d waste,” Colbeck said “These 1200 s than fossi produced Senator Colbgy using l of the Insti experts are mem .

“Plantation energy. eck said. bers in tute of Australia this way timber residue used Foresters – rightly qual committed an organisation stron of renewable ifies as energy. gly diffe managem to sustainable rent for nativ It should not be ent, susta fores e timber resid biodivers inable use t “Ala ity, conserva ues. of qual rmist nonsense provision tion ifyin and g of sustainab nativ that le livelihoo the renewable ener e wood waste as “It is quite a gy sour weight of clear the over whe ds. to destruct lming is ion of Aus ce will lead science supp of native tralia’s fores rubbish. forest biom orts the use elements As usual, anti-fores t generatio ass for ener n. are try gy disto “The voca rting the crying wolf and touch with l minority should “Australia facts. get the curr in IFA ently arrangem and get the about gree ents in plac has strict wood wast nhouse gas emis facts our native e that ensu fores sions, prot e and nativ re e forests.

“These ected and ts are appropriately strongly 1200 forestry expe “Federal managed. draft reguoppose the expo rts nonsense Labor could put to bed this sure Reco lations by that excl ude fores mmendation 15 of acting on t through Seeing the the trees, the House

World Fore stry

Day

WORLD been celeFOR EST RY Day wor ld for brat ed arou nd has Org anis atio n gave supp the idea to rem ind mor e than 40 ort to the year s cont believin g the face ts of imp orta nce com mun ities of even t wou ribu te man y ben of fore sts and the awa rene ss a grea t deal to pub ld prod uction fore stry, prot ecti on, and recr of the imp efits we lic the them .

To com eation. orta gain from fore sts and agre ed that it nce of is hosting memorate the day be obse rved The conc shou AFPA a ept ever of y year arou ld in Melbourn seminar at the the hav Fore stry wor ld.

MCG Day orig ing a Wor ld e. The fores nd semi 23rd Gen inat ed at Mar ch nar in eral 21, the equ the after t industry Ass embly the autu give Eur ope an inox of mna l stake AFPA members noon will the Agr icul ture Con fede ratio n the Hem isph erein hold and Sou ther n ers othe of equ inox the and the of hearing Late r that in 1971. opportunityr vern al in the some year, resea Hem Nations Foo d and the Uni ted day isph ere was chos Nor ther n deve rch observations very useful on plantatio lopment Agr icul ture en as to be n info rma tion cele brat ed offe the another sectoand the way in which ring r has addr abou t the esse thre e key issue of biomass, and provide d the feedback. some ForesWo

We welco me you to the Fore Forestry stWorks Precision in Action at AUSTim conference ber 2012 Visit us at our at the AU exhibition stand STimber Expo

18 w w w.fore00 177 001 stworks.c rks’ activ of Industry, ities are assisted om.au Innovatio by funding n, Scien prov ce, Research

and key industry organisations means our readers will have even greater access to information to assist them with their daily business needs”, he said.

Initially the online version will be offered free as an introductory offer and then revert to being available exclusively to subscribers and industry recipients using a supplied security code.

Mr Higgins said that the digital

ided by and Tertiarythe Department Education

editions would be made available as the publication is going to print, up to a week before the print version is received in mail boxes.

“As a new offering we will be seeking feedback from readers after viewing their issue”, he added.

To view the digital copies of Australian Forests and Timber News and Australian Timberman, visit www.timberbiz.com.au.

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4 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

ISSN 1444-5824

April 2012

Forest operations management training programs T

Green Triangle Treefarm Project Officer Neil Winkley. More on this special piece on page 8.

Features Carbon........................................... 12 – 13 Finance.................................................. 14 Innovations & Ideas..........................15-16 Bioenergy...................................... 17 – 19 Fire Prevention......................................42 Appointments........................................44 Kilns................................................. 46-47 Opinion............................................48-50

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Australian Forests & Timber News is a member of Circulation Audit Bureau (CAB).

HE UNIVERSITY of the Sunshine Coast and CRC for Forestry have joined forces to find ways to fill Australia’s widening skills gap in forest operations management.

The joint scoping exercise will define the industry’s needs, and make recommendations on how to implement forest operations management training programs at USC within a national forest education network.

USC’s Mark Brown explains that specialised operations management training is lacking in Australia, a potentially serious problem given the complexity of modern forestry operations.

He says industry consultation meetings are taking place across the country under the leadership of Professor Loren Kellogg from Oregon State University.

“Forest operations research is integral to the industry’s success, but specialised training is not as evolved as it should be,” says Professor Brown.

“The consultation process aims to define what the industry’s training needs are in operations management, and how best to engage with existing postsecondary training.”

The results of the consultation process will form the basis of a draft strategy, to be implemented

by USC, for a forest operations management training program.

The program will complement the existing National Forestry Education Network, in which post secondary education providers examine new ways of sustaining forestry studies that are important to the industry but may not be able to attract enough

students to be viable subjects at a single institution.

The consultation period is being conducted through late March in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, NSW, Tasmania and Queensland.

Half-day consultation sessions will be held at nine locations, with additional time for one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders.

Professor Kellogg’s assistance was secured through a prestigious Fulbright grant. He is a leading expert in forest harvesting systems, project-level planning, and silviculture-harvesting interactions.

Attendees at the consultation meetings include senior forestry managers, forest operations managers and supervisors, contractors, as well as forestry training and education providers.

 Professor Mark Brown.

Charities suffer in wake of Tasmanian forestry debacle THE PLIGHT of those in the forestry and timber business in Tasmania is having far reaching effects in many areas, one being support for charities.

One prominent Tasmanianbased businessman, Graeme Elphinstone (managing director of Elphinstone weighing systems and logging trailers) has been at the forefront of charitable support for a number of years but that has now come to an end.

Graeme received a request to again support the Tasmanian Special Children's Christmas Party for 2012 but had to decline.

In his reply to the organization running the event, Graeme put the demise squarely at the feet of those trying to cripple the forestry industry.

“As you know we have for many years supported this very worthy cause and I would like to continue to but I am afraid that due to the destruction of our very well managed world class forest industry in Tasmania that our core business has been built on I am unable to do so this year.

“This destruction, caused by Bob Brown, Christine Milne, Nick McKim, Kim Booth and their extreme radical movement, has meant our business has suffered badly.

“We have had to let 30% of our employees go and have been losing a lot of money. We have had to spend money on developing new products for new markets to hopefully have our business survive and as a result have found we have had to withdraw

a lot of the support we have given to worthy causes like yours in past.

“I hope you understand our situation. I would appreciate if you could pass on to others what these destructive radicals are doing to the economy of our beautiful State.

These people have no idea how important the forest industry is to the economy of Tasmania plus the ongoing management of our forests.

“I have worked with the forest industry for 40 years; first in the forest as a bushman falling trees and equipment operator then as a logging supervisor and for the last 35 years as a designer and manufacturer of equipment for the transportation of forest products.

During this time I have helped and seen the industry go from average practices to world class

best practices. I have witnessed how our forests have improved and how our forest Industry has brought our forests back from being degraded as a result of just taking sawlogs and not good practices to making them into long term renewable healthy working forests.

“If these people get their way and stop our forest operations we are going to see our forests deteriorate plus we will see out-of-control bushfires. We have already seen the deterioration of some of the bush walk attractions that businesses like Gunns and Forestry Tasmania used to maintain. One that you can visit and see for yourself is Wielangta rain forest walk at Robertson Bridge, Wielangta Road, south of Orford. This has fallen into disrepair already,” Graeme said.

AFS seeks additional social and environmental expertise AUSTRALIAN FORESTRY Standard (AFS) is seeking to appoint two independent directors who bring to the Board additional expertise in environmental and social aspects of forest management and the supply of forest products.

Nominations should be accompanied by any relevant information to substantiate the experience and expertise of the nominee along with evidence that the nominee would be willing to accept the position if selected.

It should be noted that the Board of AFS Ltd does not determine the content of Standards. All Standards are developed by Committees made up of relevant expert representatives in accordance with Standards Australia procedures. The Board guides this process and ensures correct Standards development procedures are followed.

AFS Ltd will meet all out-of-pocket expenses associated with Independent Director’s attendance at Board meetings. There would generally be five

Board meetings each year, three face-to-face and two via teleconference. AFS Ltd does not have the capacity to pay sitting fees or preparation time for any Directors.

The objects of AFS Ltd are to: • promote sustainable forest management of Australia’s forests through an Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) owned by the Company; • support and maintain the development of the AFS, and other related or complementary standards and processes which make up the AFCS; • maintain accreditation as a Standards Development Organisation; • support and facilitate the use of the AFS, and any related standards, for forestry certification within Australia; and • maintain mutual recognition for the AFS internationally through the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC).

R ichard Stanton, AFS national secretary.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 5

Timber capital community digs in over forward sale conditions T

HE SOUTH Australian Government’s decision to forward sell up to three rotations of ForestrySA is still being met with hostility but the people in the south east of the State are bracing for the inevitable and are now seeking a better deal from the Government.

Mount Gambier Mayor Steve Perryman, in a letter to Premier Jay Weatherill, has put the cards on the table with the region playing for a higher stake.

Following is a copy of the Mayor’s letter...

With the recent closing of tenders by the South Australian State Government for the sale of forest forward rotations, I consider it important to again reinforce our community’s views on this matter.

You are aware of major community concern regarding the proposed sale via previous correspondence to the State Government, two community rallies in Adelaide and a major rally in Mount Gambier on 8 December 2011, which you addressed.

The community’s concerns have not lessened and our strong and vocal opposition to the sale remains.

As detailed in a letter to you of

13 December 2011, signed by the Mayors of District Council of Grant, Wattle Range Council and The City of Mount Gambier, we consider the concept of the forward sale to be critically flawed and not in the best

will “own land, water rights and carbon sink” rights; (iv) The ongoing (long term) sustainability of Radiata Pine plantations and timber processing be analysed and

Retention and development of expertise and experience developed through ForestrySA and other organisations in the South East. interests of the forestry industry, our community and the State of South Australia.

The City of Mount Gambier has recently re-affirmed its position on the forward sale and wishes to reinforce Council’s resolution on the matter of 21 June 2011: “Cr Maher moved: (a) t he report be received; (b) Council adopt the following as its expectations in respect of the South East Radiata Pine Forward Sale decision and the outcomes Council expects from the Roundtable: (i) Satisfactory clarification of a number of issues: • a clear definition of ownership - who owns the growing trees, and exactly what does “sale of harvesting rights” mean • clarification of the intended ongoing role of Forestry SA in the South East Radiata Pine Industry • timescales (5 years, 10 years and long term) • decisions on forest management • maintenance of silviculture practices and standards, review processes, ownership and maintenance standards for FSA native forests it controls • responsibility for the management and replanting of forests • development of the forest resources in line with existing Forestry plans and practice • retention of ForestrySA to continue all its current responsibilities other than the marketing of harvested logs (ii) E xisting log supply contracts (quantity, quality, pricing and all other contractual terms and conditions) to be guaranteed for at least 15 years after the sale date; (iii) E nvironmental issues to be fully analysed, documented and accounted for – for example, how the Government

reported, and recommendations for the future of the industry be agreed; (c) Council expects that part proceeds from the sale will be allocated to the three Lower South East Councils to ensure: • funding of (long term) community and economic planning for the South East, including options not dependent on the existing Radiata Pine resource • establishing a substantial “futures

fund” (possibly using the Riverland Futures model) • funding (long term) for the research and development of the region’s plantation estate • funding to assist employers and workers who have been displaced because of the sale of Forestry Rotations (d) Council strongly urges the establishment and resourcing of a Forestry Centre of Excellence (based on the Geddes Management Report of 2008), incorporating Southern Cross University and its degree programs providing a range of benefits including: Clear recognition of the fundamental role of forestry in the region Retention and development of the expertise and experience developed through ForestrySA and other organisations in the South East.

Establishment of the region as the National leader in plantation forestry research, education and training Provision of outstanding integrated training facilities for the South East and other Australian and International regions Provision of forest industry business incubator facilities and

 Mount Gambier Mayor Steve Perryman.

integrated community interpretative timescales (5 years, 10 years and long term) decisions on forest management maintenance of silviculture practices and standards, review processes, ownership and maintenance standards for FSA native forests it controls responsibility for the management and replanting of forests development of the forest resources in line with existing Forestry plans and practice (e) Council expects that “The Roundtable will examine the broader issues facing forestry in the South East and provide recommendations to the Treasurer and Minister for Forests”.

Council again urges the State Government to reconsider and halt the proposed forward sale to ensure the future prosperity of the South East region and the maintenance of current ownership and control of a critical State and community asset.

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6 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

If you would like to promote a forthcoming event, please email details (including contact numbers, email, etc) to: editorial@forestsandtimber.com.au or phone 08 8369 9500

AUSTRALASIA 2012 21 March 2012 ForestWood 2012 - Wellington, New Zealand. www.forestwood.org.nz/ 28 March AFCA Contractors Hall of Fame Induction Dinner, Mt Gambier 29-31 March AUSTimber (and conference) Mount Gambier, South Australia. www.austimber2012.com.au/ 29 March NZ FICA Regional Meeting - Northland 30 March NZ FICA Cable Logging Workshop – Northland 30 March Women in Forests and Timber Network, Mount Gambier. Contact Jillian Roscoe on info@wftn.org.au or 03 9611 9002 or visit our website www.forestworks.com. au/womensnetwork

Boost for forestry workforce program C

OUNCIL’S FORESTS Taskforce has been successful in its application for funding of a crucial workforce development program for the North Coast Forest area of NSW. The funding injection of $106,000 was obtained from the National Workforce Development Fund and will be used to support training and workforce development in areas of current and future skills need, within the forest and milling industry.

Economic Development Manager Trevor Sargeant said funds would assist in providing school-based apprenticeships and pathways for people to gain work within the local forest industry.

Other projects currently under way by the taskforce include community awareness of the forests and timber industry, point of sale differentiation and signifying the outstanding qualities of hardwood grown on the North Coast.

“This is an active and earnest industry Taskforce with a strong commitment to the sustainable future of their industry,” said Sargeant.

A strategic review recently undertaken by the Taskforce recognised a pressing need to build a resource network of experienced staff, groom new entrants to the industry and create ongoing employment opportunities.

“Mills are currently very short of skilled employees and this situation is likely to continue without an appropriate industry response,” Sargeant said.

The project, coordinated in partnership with the Taskforce, NSW Forests Products Association, North Coast TAFE, ForestWorks Industry Skills Council, Forests NSW and Council will see a number of local forest industry businesses participating in the program including Hayden’s Timbers, Boral and Australia Solar Timbers.

 Economic Development Manager Trevor Sargeant.

15-18 April 66th Appita Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne Park, Melbourne. http://www. appita.com.au/register-now 17-19 April Melbourne Materials Handling and Safety in Action Conference. Melbourne Exhibition Centre. safety@aec.net.au 26 April NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Nelson 27 April NZ FICA Cable Logging Workshop – Nelson 9-12 May DesignBUILD Queensland at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

 A couple of AST men working on the new processing line. Six men from this area will be undertaking training.

16-17 May Wood Preservation 2012, Rotorua. www.woodpreservationevents.com 18-20 May Brisbane Working With Wood Show.

RNA Showgrounds 23-24 May Wood Preservation 2012, Melbourne. www.woodpreservationevents.com 24 May NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Ohope 15-17 June Sydney Working With Wood Show.

Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park 16 June FTMA Australia National Awards Dinner, Park Hyatt in Melbourne 18-19 June Frame Australia (major national event for engineered timber and building prefabrication), Park Hyatt, Melbourne. http://www.frameaustralia.com/ 20-30 June NZ FICA Trip: Oregon & British Columbia Cable Logging Tour CANADA/USA 27-29 June DesignBUILD Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

1-4 July New Zealand Institute of Forestry Annual Conference. University of Canterbury 11-14 July AWISA. Solid wood timber and panel processing trade show. Sydney. www.awisa.com 16-19 July World Conference on Timber Engineering.

Auckland, New Zealand. www.wcte2012.com.

B lackbutt on the north coast.

C omboyne Peak Kendall, north coast of NSW.

 Matt Hughes - Lead Hand in Processing at Australian Solar Timbers. Matt will be undertaking training as well supervising several employees in his section who will also be taking advantage of training made possible through the National Workforce Development Fund.

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8 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

They said it ...

 Green Triangle Treefarm Project Officer Neil Winkley … “the GTP has successfully delivered on its agreed level of service”.

“The Government rejects any accusations that Ta Ann Tasmania has been harvesting or using timber in a way that contravenes the Intergovernmental Agreement.” - Simon Crean, Tony Burke, Joe Ludwig, Greg Combet, Sid Sidebottom in a joint statement following Ta Ann’s forced stand down of 40 workers.

"It does no favours that a head of state is vilifying a side of an issue as important as this to Tasmania." - leader of the Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown claiming there was no proof that tree spiking had ever been used as a tactic by Tasmanian environmentalists.

"We had a very safe, very peaceful rally today and no one was under any threat at any time, and nor would they be. I think that is pure propaganda. We fear for our livelihoods. We are fighting for our families, and that human element is just being overlooked by the green groups."

- Kelly Wilton, in response to claims

by Huon Valley conservationist Jenny Weber that she had avoided Huonville during a large pro-forestry rally in the regional centre yesterday because she feared for her safety.

It is the international timber markets, not environmental groups, that are hurting the Tasmanian forestry industry.

- Greens Leader Nick McKim. Nearly 96% want to see old-growth forest preserved but 37% did not want to see them saved at the cost of jobs.

Support for a pulp mill was nearly 50/50 although an additional one-in-four respondents say they would support a pulp mill if it was not at the Tamar River site. Only 37% of respondents say they are passionate about the forestry debate, with nearly 40% saying they are sick of it. – Included in the results from The Great Tassie Survey.

Two people and a banner are suspended from the side of Black Mountain Tower in Canberra as part of a global day of action for Tasmania’s native forests threatened by logging giant Ta Ann. The banner reads “Stop Logging Tassie Forests.” – Green Left “The assistance provided to the Australian steel manufacturers will help OneSteel and BlueScope to adapt and modify their business models to ensure their long term sustainability in a low carbon economy.” Greg Combet, Minister for Industry and Innovation, announcing a competitiveness assistance advance of $64 million, under the $300 million Steel Transformation Plan (STP), to OneSteel.

“Governments should act to ensure there is a level playing field for all power-generating technologies.” Grattan Institute’s Energy Program Director, Tony Wood.

“We would like students to walk away with a better understanding of the cycle of forestry and all the different professionals involved in that.” Shaney Emerson, of the Forestry Foundation, at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference in Anderson. More than 800 fourth graders visited the conference.

Green Triangle Treefarm Project to second rotation I

N TODAY’S economic climate, it is rare to find a blue gum business model that continues to survive 15 years on and although it’s not a big player in the blue gum market, the Green Triangle Treefarm Project has now entered its 16th year and harvested over 1 million green metric tonnes of woodchip.

The Green Triangle Treefarm Project (GTP) began in 1996 as a joint venture between landowners in the Green Triangle Region and international Joint Venture Partners Nippon Paper Resources Australia Pty Ltd and Mitsui Bussan Woodchip Oceana Pty Ltd. ForestrySA as project manager for the GTP uses its own expertise to provide management advice for the landowner.

The benefit of the GTP to local landowners with as little as 20 hectares available for planting comes in the way of a stable, reduced risk investment with a committed harvest at the end of the 12 year plantation rotation. Once the landowner has done the work in the first year by planting the land, it is a very low maintenance investment thereafter.

Confirmation of the benefits to landowners is evident now as the first rotations of blue gum plantings across the Green Triangle Region are being harvested, and many GTP landowners are approaching ForestrySA for advice and new agreements to put in a second rotation of trees on their land.

Green Triangle Treefarm Project Officer Neil Winkley said the GTP has successfully delivered on its agreed level of service over the last decade and a half despite facing the challenges brought on by the Global Economic Crisis in 2009, and the Japanese tsunami in 2011.

“The Green Triangle Treefarm Project gives all land owners the opportunity to participate in a renewable resource hardwood woodchip industry. With the challenges that have arisen in the last 16 years the GTP ‘Grower Agreement’ provides a level of certainty and has proven to be a risk reduction strategy that is worth considering,” Winkley said.

If you would like to know more information about the GTP, contact Neil Winkley at ForestrySA on 8724 2811.

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Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 9

Continual research of best operational practice ForestrySA’s plantation and research methods continue to set the benchmark

I

N ORDER for ForestrySA to grow its high quality forests across the State, it needs to give each fledgling plantation the best possible chance to flourish from the date of planting. The largest limiting factor to plantation survival and growth in southern Australia is soil moisture availability.

Rainfall is of course the largest influence for soil moisture, followed by the plantation’s soil type and topography and then the impact of weeds.

ForestrySA and other plantation growers can’t make it rain, or alter the landscape but ForestrySA can use its research and application of herbicide to significantly reduce the weeds competing with the pine seedlings.

In February and March of each year, ForestrySA’s in-house research group tours the Green Triangle and Mount Lofty Ranges Regions with local operational staff to identify which herbicide prescriptions are most suitable to apply at each individual plantation site. Chemical selection is based upon the types of weed present or likely to be present, terrain, potential environmental hazards and surrounding land use.

ForestrySA will then treat newly planted and one year old forest with herbicides either on the ground by tractors or by air with specialist helicopters during May to July 2012. ForestrySA’s herbicide use is based on more than 40 years of forest research and experience and any chemical used has been vetted for safety and operational efficacy by the highly qualified research staff.

ForestrySA’s participates in the ‘Australian Plantation Industry Herbicide Research Consortium’, which continues to make headway in securing

new herbicide chemistry options for forestry use.

Although the money spent by chemical companies for the agricultural industry as a whole is huge, the money invested in forestry specific chemicals is quite small by comparison. The Consortium is continuously investigating new chemicals and researching best operational practice to find lower impact, lower cost alternatives in its desire to minimise the forest industries environmental footprint while maintaining optimal plantation productivity.

This was recognised at a national level last October when ForestrySA hosted a two day field event to show case the latest in forest research to a mixture of forest industry experts, researchers, plantation growers and chemical company representatives from all over Australia.

ForestrySA’s Research Coordinator, Wayne Richardson said “ForestrySA’s plantation and research methods continue to set the benchmark for best practice in Australia. Our practices are subject to regular review to ensure they continue to meet legislative requirements while remaining practical, environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically acceptable. In addition, ForestrySA conducts rigorous and regular monitoring of its herbicide program in accordance with its Australian Forestry Standard accreditation requirements”.

Ultimately for each new plantation it establishes ForestrySA tries to ensure the appropriate chemical effort is put into first year weed control for the maximum result with the aim of reducing its chemical foot print in the second year.

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 ForestrySA will treat newly planted and one year old forest with herbicides either on the ground by tractors or by air with specialist helicopters.

10 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

ForestrySA wetland restoration helps vulnerable Brolga A

N OPPORTUNISTIC hydrological restoration effort has assisted a pair of Brolga birds to nest successfully in a wetland area surrounded by ForestrySA pine plantation.

Wetlands are areas of land where water wcovers the soil, and are important to the survival of many species of birds, frogs, fish, insects, mammals and reptiles. Wetland systems also remove sediment and even store carbon, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia has more than 900 nationally significant wetlands, and three of ForestrySA’s native forest reserves contain a number of them.

Surrounded by plantation, a degraded wetland east of Mount Burr has had its water levels increased thanks to staff from ForestrySA’s conservation and operational teams seeing an opportunity to create a weir within an existing drain. The drain was originally built in the 1930s to reduce the water levels and make the land more productive.

Ultimately the swampy land and overly wet soil was not conducive to optimum pine growth, and the drain-altered land was left alone.

Many wetland systems no longer work naturally because human activity has changed the way water flows in or out of them but ForestrySA staff has shown that an altered wetland can become a healthy system once again with effective rehabilitation. Although the most common form of wetland rehabilitation is to simply remove cattle and stop grazing, rehabilitation for this wetland came by way of staff creating a temporary weir by placing a small number of sandbags covered by a tarpaulin in the 80-year-old drain.

The weir then raised the water in the wetland by some 15-20 centimetres.

As a result of the increased water level a pair of Brolga birds with one young were later observed in the wetland area. Classified as having a “vulnerable” conservation status, these tall grey crane-like birds have now been provided with another safe place to nest.

Although it is unknown how often the Brolgas will use this wetland for breeding, staff are confident that the Brolgas will continue to regularly nest there thanks to the weir.

This wetland is also known to contain the regionally significant ‘Smooth Frog’ and a rare insect called the ‘Ancient Greenling Damselfly’.

ForestrySA’s Conservation Planner, Bryan Haywood said “the discovery of the Damselfly in November 2010 has raised the importance of this wetland not just at a regional level but now to a State one too.”

Other ForestrySA land in Wandilo, near Mount Gambier, is home to more than 12 other nationally significant wetlands.

ForestrySA recently received over $300,000 in grant funding over the next 5 years from the Native Vegetation Council to conduct rehabilitation and restoration works on 1,000 hectares of native forest reserves and wetlands in the Wandilo area. ForestrySA applied for the grant through the Significant Environmental Benefit Fund which is offered twice a year by the Native Vegetation Council to all landholders and community groups for works relating to biodiversity enhancement and environmental land improvements.

Rehabilitation for the 1000 hectares includes the mapping and control of weeds in native forests targeting weeds such as the invasive Blackberry and Gorse. Over a hundred hectares of land will be re-vegetated using local indigenous plant species.

ForestrySA will also create seed banks for various nationally threatened plants including the Swap flax-Lily, Gorse bitter-pea, Pale vanilla-lily and the Red-fruit cutting grass.

ForestrySA staff will be aided in this project by local schools,

contractors and volunteers and the local Birds Australia branch will monitor the diversity of birds.

Monitoring the diversity of birds, insects and frog species found throughout the area will provide an indicator of how the rehabilitation works are progressing.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 11

Industry partners in search of sustainable solutions Plantation mahogany industry faces many challenges in Australia

By Alex Lindsay

R

ESEARCH AND and developments on the rapidly expanding African mahogany plantings in northern Australia were the key topics of an African mahogany Plantation Industry Forum in Darwin.

More than 50 forestry researchers, policy makers and industry representatives attended the forum organised by the Northern Territory (NT) and Queensland Governments, whose forestry research groups have collaborated for more than 10 years trialling and breeding African Mahogany (Khaya senegalensis).

Highlights of the forum included discussions on breeding and cross-pollination experiments, provenance trials, production of improved seed, wood property studies, sawing and veneer peeling trials, clonal forestry and largescale nursery production.

Forestry Consultant Ray Fremlin stressed the urgent need to conserve the genes of Khaya in breeding trials before the species becomes virtually extinct in the wild due to deforestation and the declining state of the mahogany forests in Africa. Australia has established itself as a world leader in conserving Khaya genetics, which is vital to ensure the sustainability of this exciting new prospect for forestry in northern Australia.

NT Government Research Officer Don Reilly told the forum that the species had grown well in trials across the Top End, with great potential to expand upon the 10,000ha plantation estate established in the Douglas Daly region over the past five years.

Since 2008 the Queensland and NT Governments have partnered with CSIRO, industry partners and the University of the Sunshine Coast under the "Smart Forest Alliance" banner. Dr David Lee, of the University of the Sunshine Coast, emphasised the need for research providers and companies to align their research efforts with their relative strengths to manage long-term research programs, such as tree breeding and seed production.

Collaboration was the key to conservation, as keynote speaker Dr Garth Nikles shared his confidence that Khaya senegalensis could be greatly improved by continuing

the program of recurrent selection that the Queensland and NT Governments had implemented since 2000. Garth stressed that plantation grown mahogany wood was a different product to the mahogany from native forests in Africa and therefore needed to be differentiated in the market place.

Dr Kevin Harding, of the Queensland Government’s Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI), presented on the utilisation potential of wood from African mahogany trees for high value products. Planted around Darwin in the 1970s after Cyclone Tracy, the wood is currently providing the feedstock for the local fine furniture making industry. Future opportunities are also present, as Frank Miller of African Mahogany Australia explained that the greatest opportunity for the plantation mahogany industry lay in the utilisation of thinnings, which will be coming on line in the next few years.

The plantation mahogany industry faces many challenges in Australia, with Malcolm Cleland, of Cleland Management, stating it had to compete with other venture capital opportunities offering >20% total return on investment in a post-global financial crisis economical climate. In addition to contending for investors’ attention, Glen Samsa, of Plantation Management Partners, said Australia must compete with lower cost countries in south-east Asia, while promoting the positive aspects of plantation forestry to members of the public.

In terms of opportunities, a recent joint sawing and veneer peeling study conducted with the Queensland Government on

Australian plantation-grown Khaya determined that the young logs had good colour, texture and aesthetic appeal. In addition to machining well, 70% of sawn boards were graded as ‘select’ or ‘medium feature’ grade, with considerable variation in heartwood percentage between young trees from different seed lots suggesting potential to breed for this trait.

As part of the forum, NT Minister for Primary Industries, Kon Vatskalis MLA presented Trevor Hinchcliffe with a 'People's Choice Award' for the best woodwork, sponsored by Plantation Management Partners.

The Minister also presented Dr Garth Nikles with a locallymade African mahogany clock in acknowledgement of his lifetime of service to the plantation forestry industry in tropical and sub-tropical Australia.

An electronic network has been created to keep members informed of news and events related to the African Mahogany plantation industry. To join the ‘Mahogany network’, please email forum organiser and DEEDI Senior Scientist, Geoff Dickinson: geoff. dickinson@deedi.qld.gov.au The main sponsor of the 2011 African Mahogany Plantation Industry Forum was Forest and Wood Products Australia, which will publish online summaries of each talk from the event available for download in the coming weeks via their website: www.fwpa.com. au Alex Lindsay, Technician (Tropical Forestry) for Horticulture & Forestry Science at the Queensland Government's Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI.

 Plantation Management Partners sponsored an exhibition of mahogany woodcraft run in conjunction with the forum.

Pictured, Doris Marcsik is presented with a mahogany wine rack from Craig Phillips as a prize for voting in the People's Choice Award. (Photo: John Halkett)

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(Photo: Alex Lindsay)  NT Minister for Primary Industries, Kon Vatskalis (left), presented forum keynote speaker, Dr Garth Nikles, with a locally made mahogany clock in recognition for his services to the African mahogany industry in northern Australia.

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12 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

Carbon

Taxing concerns: Carbon cuts into forestry and timber

AFPA questions government plans to purchase millions of tonnes of carbon credits from foreign countries

By Ed Harris

J

ULY 1 is fast approaching.

Soon the Government will tax carbon emissions at $23 per tonne - fixed for three years, rising by 2.5% per annum in real terms and initially targeting the biggest companies. Thereafter, the carbon price is set to switch to an emissions trading scheme (ETS) with a base price of $15 per tonne and rules limiting the purchase of international permits.

The Government has stated forest industries will benefit from its plan for a clean energy future.

But Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has raised a series of industry concerns.

It’s an issue that echoes in media the world over.

Australia is not alone in its adoption of a tax on fossil fuels with a carbon taxes enacted across Europe (currently operating as an ETS), Central America, India and North America.

European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard recently noted that “greenhouse gas emissions from big emitters covered by the EU ETS have fallen by an average of more than 8% since the start of the system in 2005”.

Some Australian economists believe the carbon tax (CT) will cut emissions by encouraging people to rely less on highpolluting energy. Some disagree and others are undecided. But, beneath the bevy of figures and barrage of acronyms, what does all this really mean for Australia’s forest industries?

Australia’s government has stated that carbon pricing will increase the competitiveness of wood products. That argument hinges on the notion that direct competitors with wood, such as steel, concrete and fossil fuels, will be levied by the CT, while the attractiveness of timber products will increase over time as the world transitions to a low carbon future.

According to AFPA, the high level of trade exposure puts the timber and forestry industries at particular short term risk.

The increase in the cost of production will lead to a loss of competitiveness and ‘carbon leakage’ - Australian emissions decrease while global emissions do not, according to AFPA. The manufacturer of paper, pulp and panel boards is emissions intensive while solid wood manufacturers are vulnerable to electricity prices with a limited ability to pass on costs. The effect of the tax could cause a contraction in these business areas and therefore threaten the viability of growers.

The impact of carbon pricing will be vast and will hit sectors of the industry in the following ways, according to the AFPA. Pulp and Paper: will be covered by the carbon price mechanism. Under the Jobs and Competitiveness Program (JCP), pulp and paper ‘activities’ will receive permit allocations of 94.5% or 66% in the first year depending on emissions intensity; allocations will decay by 1.3% per year. These allocations are designed to reduce the impact of the carbon tax upon

some business which can seek permits to qualify for ‘carbon shielding’.

Panel Board: the ‘reconstituted wood products’ activity emissions intensity baseline is still being established, and may not qualify for JCP assistance.

Processing: trade-exposed industries that do not qualify for the JCP may have access to some grants under the Clean Energy Future package but the form and coverage of such assistance remains unclear.

No direct assistance to absorb cost increases for energy use will be provided to solid wood processors and woodchip manufacturers.

Furthermore, the competitive advantage that solid wood products should enjoy under a carbon price will be initially absent because competitor products (e.g. steel, concrete) will not reflect the carbon price due to their trade exposure.

Hope for foresters?

There is opportunity under the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) for foresters to receive Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for increasing carbon storage through activities conducted outside common industry practice.

This could mean growing trees for energy credits. Although, while the benefit of the CFI to farmers and landowners is clear, the government is yet to clarify which forestry activities qualify as going beyond common forestry practice, adding to confusion and uncertainty.

AFPA also questions government plans to purchase millions of tonnes of carbon credits from foreign countries. This will account for up to two thirds of the emissions abatement that the carbon price will stimulate - with this abatement occurring outside of Australia. AFPA sees this as a wasted opportunity for Australia to take advantage of commercial plantation forestry which struggles to be recognised under the scheme because of tough restrictions on forharvest plantations.

The Government disagrees, asserting that it makes no difference where emission reductions occur, as long as they do occur. There is no reason to favour abatement in one area over another, according to Government logic.

The Government’s goal is global mitigation.

In a bid to protect native forests Renewable Energy Target (RET), regulations are set to exclude biomass from native forests being used to gain RECs. This is to remove extra incentive the RET may provide for increased usage of native forest bio-energy.

In just one of many examples of political contention surrounding the CT, independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor have recently moved to block regulations. They wanted to stop rules banning the use of native forest bio-mass as renewable energy. This move has angered the Greens. Senator Christine Milne stated: “The forest furnaces now being proposed in several states would become a driving force for destruction of

Australian forests, woodlands and wildlife habitat, much the same as the export woodchip industry did after its establishment in the 1970s.”

Academic Judith Ajani of the Australian National University has published concerns, alarming to some, on the future of the native timber and forestry industries. She states that sales of native timber products are declining and this means the native timber industry will have to look at alternatives to improve financial viability. She found 85% of sawn timber and wood panels are plantation based and she claims that native logging is now only commercially viable for energy production.

It seems the carbon tax presents more problems than solutions. So, are we to believe that if the native forestry industry wants to remain competitive when the carbon tax kicks in the only option is to fire up the ‘forestry furnaces’? The Greens say this is not good. It’s not good for industry, manufacturers and the people they employ. But the carbon tax is law the environmentalists wanted. And they wanted it to protect native forests. But how did burning native trees come to be the native forestry industry’s only financially viable option? This is a tax, like many taxes, clouded by uncertainty and confusion. Many questions remained unanswered.

Exactly how will this tax impact on the timber and forestry industries?

We cannot say. The carbon tax will not be fully understood for a while, perhaps years. It will, however, confront everyone in this country very soon.

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February 2012, Issue 1 Vol. 20 Ph: (03) 9888 4820 Fax: (03) 9888 4840 Email: norm@timberman.net.au Web: www.timberbiz.com.au

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Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 13

Carbon

Taxing concerns: Big business and carbon

By Steve Holland & Ed Harris

T

HERE’S BEEN lot of talk about imminent woes facing Australia’s industry as businesses prepare for the Carbon Tax. ASX Top 500 companies are set to cop the brunt of the new tax and will have to cough up $23 per tonne of CO2 they emit from July 1.

David Henderson is the executive director of D & R Henderson. His company’s been in the timber business since 1964.

“This is one of the biggest challenges that our business has faced in the last 20 years, much worse than the GFC,” Henderson said.

With economies reeling from the global financial downturn, Henderson feels that the imposition of the carbon tax (CT) is ill timed.

“When the carbon tax comes in it’s going to be charging $23 per tonne for the first three years before emissions trading schemes start.

“The wood panels industry is applying to the Department of Climate Change and we’re expecting it be approved as an Energy Intensive Trade Exposed Industry and if that is approved we would get a 60% compensation for costs of the tax.

“But that’s still subject to approval.

“When the carbon tax comes in it’s going to hit everyone in Australia. I’m told that fuel prices will go up, so that means everybody’s cost on top will go up.

“We spend about $800,000 per month on freight.”

D&R Henderson is involved in the particleboard manufacturing business, a business that is emissions intensive.

Under the Government Jobs and Competitiveness Program the company may be able to claim financial assistance from the Government. Such assistance is designed to relieve costs resulting from direct emissions from machinery, equipment and processes which are integral to and essential for: the physical and/or chemical transformation of the product; waste heat recovery; consumed steam; reprocessing; sanding and other activities.

Business exposed Despite this assistance, exclusions under the scheme will leave sectors of Mr Henderson’s business exposed to increased energy costs passed on by energy providers.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m told the cost of transport will go up because of the cost of fuel going up.

“From a macro perspective it will affect everyone.

“When you look at top 500 companies like ourselves we will not only be paying the carbon tax but we will be paying higher costs passed on by energy and service providers,” Henderson said.

In a hint of what might be under the CT, an ExxonMobil spokesman said: “to the extent there are increased costs for carbon emissions in production of natural gas, we have to look at whether our contracts allow us to pass such levies and charges onto our customers.”

And what if ExxonMobil can’t pass on such levies?

Clearly, uncertainty surrounding the CT has raised concerns for the biggest companies.

“And what this means for a company like D & R Henderson, if we are unable to pass on these costs on to the market, we need to look at ways to reduce our costs internally and that could be reducing our cost base and reducing our production output,” Henderson said.

“The less we produce, the lower our emissions will be.”

Concerns of the CT ‘killing industry’ have been raised by business leaders and debated by analysts and politicians.

On a visit to an industrial

manufacturer’s plant, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said: "If the carbon tax goes ahead this kind of thing will still be manufactured, it just won't be manufactured here, it will be manufactured in China, under much worse environmental conditions."

Abbott also said there’s “a lot of scope for scamming if the carbon tax goes ahead”.

His comment was supported

by European studies on dodgy business spawned by the EU’s scheme to cut back on carbon.

And while many concerns are raised about the direct negative impact expected from the CT, those looking for solutions often encounter more problems.

“There are technologies out there that allow companies like ours to reduce costs.”

“A solution could be the investment of heavy equipment

Keep our forests healthy and take a

tabloid regularly!

Torrefied biomass demand could exceed 70 million tonnes a year by end of decade TORREFIED BIOMASS is on the brink of becoming a viable feedstock for utility-scale electricity generators, potentially displacing coal as well as some conventional untreated biomass and wood pellets.

Developers are aiming to capture a share of a market that could amount to many tens of millions of tonnes.

A new report by Hawkins Wright* forecasts that favourable renewable energy policies in Europe, North America and Asia would result in global demand of more than 70 million tonnes a year by 2020.

Torrefied fuels have already been successfully test fired at several power plants in the US, Europe and Japan. These have demonstrated the potential to displace coal in largely un-modified utility-scale power plants at high co-firing percentages and at minimal capital cost to the generator.

A number of developers have commercial scale plants either under construction or in the early stages of operation. Significant volumes of torrefied biomass are expected

to reach the market in the coming months. Several truly commercialscale torrefaction plants are likely to be operating by 2013.

Hawkins Wright has analysed the costs of each element in the biomass supply chain, from the supply of raw feedstock through to the end-user of the torrefied fuel. One of the main advantages of torrefied fuel is that its higher energy density reduces sensitivity to the cost of transport.

Each shipment of torrefied fuel carries about 40% more energy (by volume) than conventional white pellet and well over three times that of wood chip. Importantly, this means that torrefied fuel can compete with white pellet when shipped in smaller vessels, creating flexibility for suppliers and traders.

The carbon footprint of torrefied biomass is also significantly smaller than that of conventional wood pellets. This is due to reduced electricity consumption in the manufacturing process and to the lower transport emissions per unit of energy.

that would address our emissions but that type of equipment is very expensive and we are uncomfortable in gearing towards that when the state of the global economy is so unsettled.”

“Right now we’re trying to reduce our debt, not increase our debt.”

“In conditions like these it is difficult to manage the impact of the carbon tax in a commercially practical way.”

“The biggest issue for us is the threat of imports from countries that don’t have a carbon tax.”

“The Government should be putting in an import tax on countries that don’t have a carbon tax. If there’s a Carbon tax they should cop the import tax. That would make it a fair playing field in Australia and encourage those countries to implement a Carbon Tax.”

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14 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

Finance

Performance reporting importance

By Matthew Cummins

T

HE TRADITIONAL measurement of how most small to medium businesses performed for a period was to wait until well after the financial year end until you receive your financial statements and a tax bill from your accountant. You may briefly look at the net profit, compare it with the previous year, pay the tax bill and see your accountant again in 12 months.

In my opinion this is the accounting profession’s biggest downfall. It traditionally focuses on historical out of date data to prepare reports for the sole purpose of compliance to Government agencies (ATO, ASIC, OSR etc). Often these third party reports give little benefit to the business in the here and now. To use

a metaphor it is like trying to drive a bus forwards whilst only looking your rear vision mirror at where you have been.

Something that business owner rarely think about is the true cost of these compliance focused activities in terms of not only direct accountants fees but also the cost of computer systems to collate and maintain records, employee or bookkeeper wages etc., and then think of what benefit you receive from this significant investment in your business? The majority of the time the answer comes up as not much or not enough for the size of the outlay.

So how do you make an inefficient process for third parties more meaningful and useful for your business? The answer is to introduce some performance reporting principals and procedures into your data entry processes so that you can get RELEVENT, ACCURATE and TIMELY information on how your business is performing in the here and now as well as satisfying your compliance obligations.

Although this may sound a complicated, lengthy and expensive process the reality is it needn’t be.

Most generic accounting packages such as MYOB and QuickBooks already have the features, functions and reporting ability built into the programs but most businesses do not use these properly or at all. To be able to get your financial data organised within your accounting systems so that the outputs suit your businesses

 An example of a machine comparative performance report

needs (and not the tax office’s) can bring much greater benefits to your business than any additional cost that may be incurred.

So what are the benefits of performance reporting? The main benefit of performance reporting is that it will arm you with up to date and relevant information on the performance of your business that will enable effective and efficient decision making. There are as many different types of performance reports out there as there are different types of businesses and because the scope of performance reporting is vast and you should ensure that yours be tailored to report on what are the most important factors in your business - I like to term these Critical Success Factors. To give you an idea of some of the outputs that can be achieved from performance reporting below are just of some of the typical reports we have been able to assist clients to produce through developing a performance reporting system Where am I making money and where am I losing money – Many businesses are multi-facet and actually have two or more different operations within its main business. By being able to separate these operations and report on the performance of each you can identify underperforming parts of a business.

Machine comparatives – By being able to report on the productive and profitability of individual machines, trucks, operators etc., in your business you can identify which

are underperforming or inefficient and require attention/improvement/ replacement.

Product/Route comparatives – Reporting on the performance of a particular product type produced (or routes travelled for transport) you can determine which of these is more profitable for your business. This can not only give you a clear picture of what type of work to be chasing but also arm you with information to improve the performances of the other products/routes which may be underperforming.

assisting you in the contract tender costings.

Secondly the outputs of the system must be ACCURATE. The computer programming phrase of garbage in, garbage out definitely applies here. To ensure the outputs of your reporting is accurate and therefore reliable may require spending a little more time entering the data into the system so that it is in a particular structure to enable accurate reporting at the back end of the process. To use our softwood harvesting operation example from above this may require

Make it relevant Where is the money going – A common remark from business owners is “I made a profit last year but I don’t know where it went?” Most of the time the answer is back into the business (debt reductions, asset purchases etc) so by also analysing balance sheet movements you can determine where this money has actually gone and any increase in net worth of the business.

Before going any further on how to implement a performance reporting system into your business we should first identify the key elements of any successful performance reporting system.

Firstly it must be RELEVENT to your business. It must deliver results and satisfy needs that are unique to your business. This is the most crucial element of a performance reporting system. The outputs of the performance reports must be meaningful and help you make decisions in your business. In my experience the best way to ensure your outputs are relevant to your business is to identify what are the critical success factors in your business that significantly influence its profitability before you even start developing a performance reporting system. If we use an example of a forest harvesting business this may be the amount of tonnes processed through the head an hour, for log hauliers it may be lead distances to mills or load/unload times?

As you can see from the above couple of examples many of the critical success factors in a business are not income rates, expense dollars or GP %’s but real output based measures and it is when these output or productive measures are linked with accurate income and expense data that you can produce some really relevant reporting outputs for your business. A prime example of the above principal would be to use a softwood harvesting operation that tracks not only its tonnages cut per machine but also hours of operation; you can also track the income generated by each machine and costs incurred (fuel, maintenance, wages, repayments) the outcome of which will not only give you how much revenue the machine is bringing in per tonne or hour but also what it is costing to run per hour or tonne. This type of information is invaluable for comparing machines or operator’s individual performances and also

designing a system to split lump sum income payments from the forest owner into a format which can be applied to the particular machine which produced the income (which can be easily achieved from delivery dockets etc) and breaking up the monthly fuel account payment so that the expense is applied against the machines that used the fuel.

Thirdly, you must ensure that the outputs of the system are able to be produced in a TIMELY manner. To make effective decisions on your business you need to have up to date information. Generally we try to recommend aiming at having monthly (or quarterly) reports available by 21 or 28 days after the end of the period.

If something is not going right in your business you need to be able to identify it (and correct it) as soon as possible. It is much better to leak money for three weeks than six to 12 months! Although this may sound a little daunting and high pressure to report to deadlines, our experience is that once a process has formed of when and how things are recorded and entered into the accounting system it becomes almost second nature, almost routine and runs quite smoothly.

So how do you implement a performance reporting system? As mentioned previously most generic accounting packages have the capability to allow you to process your accounting data in such a way to be able to split and track revenue and expense items. The real process is to firstly identify what you wish to track and then develop a system to be able to obtain that information.

This may as simple as putting a 90c exercise book next to the bulk fuel tank to record how much fuel each machine or truck is using (to allocate fuel expenses) or recording delivery dockets in a spreadsheet to calculate how much income is produced by each truck. If you can measure it you can track it and therefore report on it; you just need to know how to capture that information and put it into a meaningful form.

If you would like to discuss how implementing performance reporting may assist your business please feel free to contact me or alternatively please seek out one of the Easdown representatives at AUSTimber.

Matthew Cummins CPA BBus (Acc), Easdowns Business Specialists.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 15

INNOVATIONS & IDEAS

 ( L-R) Jeremy Cookson (ForestrySA), Dr Tony McRae (STBA General Manager) Peter Buxton (STBA Pine Breeder), Dr Richard Kerr (PlantPlan Genetics Research Geneticist), Dr Chris Lafferty (FWPA R&D Manager) and Dr Greg Dutkowski (PlantPlan Genetics Quantitative Geneticist). Photo courtesy Southern Tree Breeding Association

TREEPLANning creates the best trees

By Matthew Lovering

S

ELECTING THE best tree for a specific location or economic situation is essential for a successful and profitable plantation, whether that is for sawn timber or pulp. This selection process is the key function of the TREEPLAN software, which in its latest version (V3) has been extensively broadened to cover all the common species used in Australian plantation forestry.

“Historically, breeding programs focused too much on research, rather than delivering on commercial and environmental outcomes. Balance is needed,” says Dr Tony McRae, general manager of the Southern Tree Breeding Association (STBA).

“However, in reality, breeding is an economic decision, rather than just a biological activity.”

The growth and economic performance of each tree is due to a complex interaction of genetics and environmental factors. “When you look at a plantation plot, only about 15% of the differences among trees for growth is due to genetics the rest is due to environment. When comparing trees tested at different locations it becomes even more problematic.

It’s why finding the best trees is not simple—there’s too much noise in the system,” says Tony.

Historically, tree breeders selected trees that seemed to grow well and looked good, tested their

offspring in field trials and then only bred from the trees that grew well and had good stem form. It’s a method that has worked—to a degree. A lot of the potentially valuable data breeders acquired had to be ignored as the amount of data was too great to be fully integrated into a multi-site, commercial scale process. This, however, is where TREEPLAN really shines.

TREEPLAN is a software program used for genetic evaluation of tree breeding data on an industry-wide basis.

Using advanced statistical and genetic models it summarises huge volumes of data from many genetics trials spread across different locations and years using a combined analysis.

The more global analysis looks at the information collected on each individual, and combines it with all information collected from grandparents, parents and offspring (and more distant relatives) across many generations, while using all the information on trial design in each trial, and how the different traits are related to each other.

It can also take into account the very complex interactions between genetics and environment (e.g. temperature, rainfall, soil characteristics and competition effects among neighbouring trees) that often mask the true nature of a tree’s potential productivity continued next page.

 Peter Buxton (STBA Pine Breeder) with a sky hook collecting scions.

Photo courtesy Southern Tree Breeding Association

16 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

INNOVATIONS & IDEAS continued from previous page. and economic properties. This all results in a much better understanding of the genetic potential of trees in the population and their value for deployment as well as for further breeding.

“TREEPLAN has the big advantage that it allows us to apply sophisticated data analysis on an industrial scale rather than a research scale,” says Tony.

“Smaller research trials—where you might run five to 10 trials, look at three or four traits scored on 20,000 individual trees—can use freely available software to analyse genetics data. However, for an industry growing trees across diverse environments we need more sophisticated and specialised data crunching methods.”

The Southern Tree Breeding Association (STBA), with funding from its members and Forest and Wood Products Australia—the forest industry research funding body (which includes matching funding from the Australian Government)—has extensively broadened its TREEPLAN V3 software.

TREEPLAN takes the raw data for trees in hundreds of trials and applies sophisticated statistical modeling to predict how its growth and wood qualities are affected by genetics and the environment.

TREEPLAN uses a type of analysis known as ‘best linear unbiased prediction’ (BLUP) for predicting breeding values. This technique originated in animal breeding for comparing bulls across generations and herds.

BLUP, with modification, is proving its value in tree breeding.

The software functionality now covers all of the species used in Australian plantation forestry, including Pinus radiata, Eucalyptus globulus, E. nitens, P. pinaster, as well as the sub tropical pines, P. elliottii, P. caribaea and their hybrids. TREEPLAN is also used to analyse data for the main plantation species in Sweden and France.

Other enhancements include modelling to remove biases associated with different operators assessing different trees in a trial, and better modelling across trials of a number of important biological effects such as inbreeding depression (where breeding of related individuals causes growth

losses), propagation effects for comparing trees grown from seedlings and cuttings, and nonadditive effects due to interactions among genes (for example, epistasis—where the effects of a gene are modified by the actions of other genes elsewhere on the chromosomes).

For the first time in forestry, TREEPLAN has operationally combined DNA-based data with measurements of growth, wood density and pulp yield to predict genetic values and the economic worth of E. nitens trees. The results show an increase in economic value by combining the DNA and measurement information, rather than considering each in isolation.

Breeders can now use both sorts of information in the combination that gives the best return for the money spent.

Predicted TREEPLAN genetic values are combined into a single economic index value using weights derived from bioeconomic models developed for different production zones and processing systems. So, for example, P. radiata destined for a structural timber market will have different economic parameters than trees destined for pulp or paper. The economic drivers for a forest grower and a processor of forest products are also different.

Using TREEPLAN companies can assess trees for deployment based on their specific costs, environments and markets.

Tony is justifiably pleased with the results to date from TREEPLAN. Since TREEPLAN was first adopted for national evaluations, the predicted marginal profit per hectare from using improved genetics on an average site has increased by more than $140 per year for radiata pine and $125 per year for blue gum, a cumulative gain over the past decade of $1400 and $1250 per hectare respectively. The enhancements to TREEPLAN V3 are expected to deliver an additional $10 million net present value (NPV) per year to industry through improved genetics for P. radiata, E. globulus and E. nitens.

With broader industry adoption in other species and programs the gain could be as high as $25 million NPV per year.

The STBA used TREEPLAN for a national genetic evaluation of radiata pine, where data from

P ine Breeder Peter Buxton climbs a tree with good genes. Photo courtesy Southern Tree Breeding Association

312,015 genotypes (genetically different trees) of varying ages from 159 trials spread across temperate Australia was analysed for 30 measured traits covering growth, form, wood properties, and resistances to pests and diseases.

In addition, genetic values were calculated for harvest age breeding objective traits: growth by region, branch size, timber stiffness and stem straightness.

The national genetic evaluation of blue gum (E. globulus) ran data for 244,277 genotypes from 141 trials spread across temperate Australia.

That study generated genetic values for 15 measured traits covering

Prestigious awards for trio JOHN WEBB (Norske-Skög), Brett Warren (formerly with Forestry Tasmania and now a consultant) and Fred Duncan (formerly of the FPA and now developing closer relations between Tasmania and South America) have received prestigious Tasmanian Forest Practices Authority awards.

“The Tasmanian forest practices system is complex and sophisticated – as those of you who know how the system works will agree,” said Peter Davies, Deputy Chair of the board. “It

takes skill and experience to apply the system when preparing, implementing or supervising forest practices plans.

“The forest practices system is based on continual improvement and cooperation between all parties. It’s the high standards achieved by those who implement the forest practices system which enables this co-operation and continual improvement,” he said.

Chief Forest Practices Officer Graham Wilkinson said the forest industry was going through hard times. “There are conscientious

workers continuing to do their best under trying circumstances,” he said.

“The FPA, as the forestry regulator, values excellence in the forest practices system. This is the third time we have held the Forest Practices Awards, which we initiated to publicly acknowledge a few of these inspirational people.”  Pictured with their awards (from left) Brett Warren, Fred Duncan and John Webb.

growth, form and wood properties, and disease resistance. Genetic values were calculated for the harvest age breeding objective traits of volume growth by region, wood basic density and kraft pulp yield.

These genetic values are multiplied by their respective economic weights to give an economic value for each situation.

New generation seed orchards are being established by forestry companies on an annual basis to capitalise on these advances. Seed and plants in nurseries are also being re-evaluated and deployed more strategically.

The advances in research

and programming benefiting Australian growers are also helping TREEPLAN become the benchmark for genetic evaluation in trees internationally. Skogforsk in Sweden uses TREEPLAN for its national evaluations in P. sylvestris (Scots pine), Picea abies (Norway spruce), P. contorta (lodgepole pine) and Betula pendula (silver birch).

After a successful pilot study in 2011, TREEPLAN is being used to analyse data from the French tree improvement cooperative for P. pinaster (maritime pine).

The benefits of TREEPLAN will profit the industry for generations to come.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 17

Bioenergy

Mobile biochar kilns for community use B

IOCHAR TECHNOLOGIES will supply its Series 1 style, model 250MG Carboniser at cost price to any community funded not-for–profit organisation in Australia keen to use a mobile biochar kiln for community use.

In return BioChar Technologies asks only for acknowledgement on the community organisation’s promotional media and for constructive feedback on performance of the Carboniser.

The model 250MG Carboniser has been developed in Adelaide

by BioChar Technologies for converting woody waste into biochar. Biochar is a type of ecofriendly charcoal used for soil improvement. A demonstration unit is currently operating at a test facility in the Adelaide Hills near Echunga.

“There is an opportunity to use this new technology to convert wood waste from vineyards, orchards, roadside trees, parks and gardens, nature reserves, demolition sites, building sites, timber manufacturing off-cuts etc., into biochar for use as a soil improver or into clean-burning charcoal as an alternative to nonrenewable energy,” says Brian Lewis, BioChar Project Manager.

“This new technology delivers a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by capturing carbon that would otherwise escape to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. If you are a land manager you may be entitled to claim carbon credits for biochar produced and sequestered on your land under the provisions of the Australian Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative,” he said.

 The photo shows the Series 1, Model 250MG Batch Carboniser at the demonstration site near Echunga in the Adelaide Hills.

Alternative energy found in timber

By Susan Collins-Smith MSU Ag Communications PRODUCING AND using alternative energy is more important now than ever before, and scientists at Mississippi State University are focusing on timber as a possible source for energy.

“Whether you buy into the idea of climate change or not, we are all interested in protecting the environment,” said Randy Rousseau, a forestry professor and specialist with the MSU Extension Service. “The only thing I can see that would prevent us going forward with the development of renewable biofuels is for us to find undiscovered reserves of fossil fuels and cleaner ways to use those fossil fuels.”

Ethanol, a corn-based biofuel, has been on the market for several years but has recently come under scrutiny because corn’s use as a fuel has driven up the price of this important food crop.

Scientists are now focusing on developing biofuels from other agricultural products, such as timber and switchgrass.

“We are trying to develop marginal land crops so that we don’t interrupt the food supply,” said Rubin Shmulsky, head of MSU’s Department of Forest Products.

“Using corn and soybeans as alternative energy sources can decrease the food supply and increase prices for other commodities. We are asking ourselves what else we could use that would not negatively impact prime agricultural land.”

Timber and timber products may be one answer.

“There are several types of biomass that can be used to produce fuel, including underbrush,

pine needles and tree branches,” Shmulsky said. “None of these have many other uses.”

Rousseau is now studying what type of trees can be grown quickly with a satisfactory yield.

“We are testing black willow, Eastern cottonwood and hybrid poplars in Mississippi and Missouri,” Rousseau said. “We are trying to identify which trees grow best on marginal agricultural

them, make clothes out of them, or build houses with them, but we may be able to use them as alternative energy sources.”

The research is still in its early stages, but Rousseau said he believes biofuels are the future of energy.

“Making biofuel from timber and timber products is definitely feasible,” he said. “KiOR, a company that has developed a proprietary process for turning

Biofuels are the future of energy land and then figuring out how to maximize yields.”

Trees grown for lumber are typically a high-value crop, so land availability is also an issue.

“One of the targets of the research now is to grow black willow on poorly drained, heavy clay soils like we have on non-operational catfish farms,” Rousseau said. “Our black willow testing includes material from five different geographic areas in Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana. We are currently testing on several sites in Mississippi to define the best genetic material. If we can use the heavy clay soils that aren’t suitable for agricultural use, that land would then have value for all Mississippians.”

Shmulsky said such research could create a new industry.

“There are several tree species, such as hybrid poplar, that grow tall and fat quickly but are not particularly strong,” Shmulsky said. “Those types of timber would be great to use for energy. There are also other crops, such as giant miscanthus and switchgrass, that aren’t useful for human consumption. We can’t eat

renewable biomass into crude oil, is now developing a biofuels facility near Columbus. The process is in the demonstration phase, which is a critical step in the development of future facilities in Mississippi.”

One goal of Rousseau’s research is to make timber for energy an economical option for the producer, manufacturer and consumer.

“Right now, pine is being used to study this process because of its chemical makeup and availability,” he said. “Eventually, though, the species of tree will be less specific.

We don’t want to be locked into any one material because that would make procurement difficult.”

Rousseau said this research will likely reach beyond energy and end up being used in other industries important to everyday life.

“This research opens up a whole new arena,” he said. “The pharmaceutical industry could take advantage of this. A number of different chemicals are created once you have a substance broken down to its basic form. After that, it is just a matter of arranging those chemicals in a way that fits your needs.”

Learning about wood pellet cost savings USING WOOD pellets instead of fuel oil as its primary heating source has saved Malone Middle School (US) between $8,000 and $11,000 so far this winter.

Since the system went online last November the school has spent $3,700 on wood pellets at $185 a ton, compared to 3,800 to 5,000 gallons of fuel oil at $3 a gallon, said David Brooks, superintendent of buildings and grounds for the Malone Central School District.

A $289,000 grant paid for the new heating system and the district was required to pay a $96,000 local share.

The funding, awarded in 2010, came from the New York State Energy and Research Development Agency as part of federal stimulus money.

The local contribution, coupled with projected fuel-cost savings, means the entire system will likely pay for itself in less than 18 months.

The wood boilers do not add pollution since they are designed with a baffled flue that captures virtually all of the heat produced as it moves through the system to the smokestack.

Once the boilers reach their temperature setting, the system scales itself back to a slow pellet burn until it is triggered to start again to provide heat.

Another way the school was able to keep its costs down was to retrofit its existing coal-storage bin into a pellet-storage bin instead of constructing a silo or separate building, as other school districts have done.

The pellet-feeding system has a sloped floor and an auger device that pulls the product into a series of two hoppers, where a long, sweeping arm automatically drops the pellets into a 2-cubic-foot box before the needed amount is fed into the fire.

Brooks said the end-product ash is being looked at as a possible source of nutrients for the district’s athletic fields, grassy areas and gardens.

It has already been used as an alternative to salt and sand to give more traction to buses on icy school grounds, he said.

Funds boost for commercial scale cellulosic biorefinery ZEACHEM Inc., a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into sustainable fuels and chemicals, has been selected for a $232.5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program.

The conditional commitment enables the financing and construction of ZeaChem’s first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefinery, a state-ofthe-art plant that will produce biobased fuels and chemicals from woody biomass and agricultural residues with the highest yield, lowest capital cost, and lowest carbon footprint in the industry.

Development of the first commercial biorefinery is already

under way. The facility is expected to have capacity of 25 million or more gallons-per-year (GPY).

It will be located at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Ore., adjacent to ZeaChem’s 250,000 GPY integrated demonstration biorefinery.

ZeaChem has agreements for 100% of the facility’s woody biomass feedstock from the nearby GreenWood Tree Farm Fund (GTFF), managed by GreenWood Resources (GWR), as well as from local agricultural residue processors.

ZeaChem’s first commercial facility will create 188 direct construction jobs and 65 full-time operations jobs, plus an additional 242 indirect jobs for construction and full-time operations.

Major Australian pellet plant closes its doors Plantation Energy’s biomass fuel pellet facility at Albany in West Australia has closed.

Plantation Energy Australia chief executive Kevin Heydt said the company fell well short of achieving its projected 250,000

tonnes of exported biomass pellets each year since it began operating in 2010.

He blamed this on the cost of producing the pellets, which was inconsistent with their international sale price, and more importantly on the high Australian dollar.

18 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

Bioenergy  The smokestack where the many tonnes of waste from the woodchip mill are burnt, literally going up in smoke.

South East Fibre Exports’ biomass Ambitious, eminently project – the saga continues sensible project

By Sophie Gebhardt

O

N FEBRUARY 9 MP Rob Oakeshott put up a disallowance motion, seconded by Tony Windsor, regarding the Government’s exclusion of native forestry residue from receiving Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) under the Renewable Energy Target (RET) Regulations. Since then, the ENGOs and Greens have been ramping up the hysteria on the

subject, with petitions and media releases cluttering the Internet containing the usual misguided and emotive rhetoric. Quotes such as this from Greens Senator Christine Milne in a Getup! media release are flying around: “The forest furnaces now being proposed in several states would become a driving force for destruction of Australian forests, woodlands and wildlife habitat, much the same as the export woodchip industry did after its establishment in the 1970s”

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(http://www.energymatters.com. au/). The image of ‘forest furnaces’ seems to be the key, with the phrase cropping up in nearly every article, press release and petition, and in the process promoting out of date images of biomass as a nonrenewable and polluting energy source. This is not only a wildly inaccurate description of a biomass plant but also conjures up the usual emotive images of forests being rampantly and uncontrollably destroyed.

Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury The current GetUp! petition, no doubt being signed by any number of alarmed urban dwellers, quotes Judith Adjani of the ANU’s Fenner School. Adjani’s criticism in her article in Climate Spectator on February 16 (originally published in The Conversation on the 15th), that Oakeshott appears to have become a ‘native forestry lobbyist’, is hypocritical in the extreme. It seems that The Fenner School, GetUp!, The Greens, The Wilderness Society and a raggletaggle bunch of anonymous activists are permitted to ‘lobby’ for their agenda, yet local business people or industries, such as South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) near Eden or Dr Douglas Head of Australian Solar Timbers in Kempsey (both of whom talked with Oakeshott on the biomass issue), are not. The recent tackling

by The Greens of the Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, over a $2500 donation from the Forest

Products Association (http:// www.abc.net.au/news/2012-0207/ lib -mp - challenges-g reenson-donation-claim/3815488) is another example of the hypocrisy swirling around this debate.

Andrew Constance, quite rightly, then challenged the receipt by The Greens of the $1.6 million donation from Wotif.com ­— Graeme Wood’s online travel company — the largest single corporate donation to a party in Australian political history. It was, of course, Graeme Wood who banded together with Jan Cameron to buy the Triabunna woodchip mill from Gunns Ltd, along with the purchase of large tracts of land in Tasmania. So, a $2500 donation from a struggling industry and wishing to assist one of the few politicians attempting to represent it is seen as suspect, while a massive donation to The Greens by a person who has made it very clear what side of the barricades he stands on is not. This is the classic ‘our way or the highway’ thinking of extremists, and it has landed The Greens in yet another compromised position, fighting off an enquiry (now proceeding apace) into the donation by the Senate Privileges Committee. It is within this context, with The Greens feeling the pressure on a number of fronts, that the potential of utilising wood residue for energy has become a possibility once more.

For Peter Mitchell, General Manager at SEFE, Oakeshott and Windsor’s last minute disruption to the roll-out of the RET scheme must relieve some of the anxiety of the last few years. As Peter has repeatedly said, “SEFE needs to

claim RECs for using their wood waste for energy, as no renewable energy project in Australia can compete with fossil fuel power without the financial assistance provided by RECs. We wouldn’t see the recent proliferation of solar panels without the massive injection of Federal funds through the Solar Credits scheme”. The upshot of the Independents’ stance is at time of writing unknown, although it is widely predicted that the Coalition will vote in favour of the motion. Other Independent MPs are apparently undecided. If the Regulations are subsequently amended to re-include native forest residue as qualifying for credits in the RET scheme then projects such as SEFE’s biomass plant might become a reality.

When I visited SEFE and spoke to Peter Mitchell in early January, all these developments were yet to be revealed and the future looked murky for what is and continues to be an ambitious and eminently sensible project. At that time Peter was facing yet another expensive legal appeal by The Greens against the Council’s approval of SEFE’s pilot pellet plant. The appeal was based on a technicality regarding Council procedure during the approval process, and as such was just another in a series of attempts to stall the project and inflict more economic pain on SEFE and local ratepayers. Happily, a few weeks ago, the council again approved the project and the plant has recommenced operation. However, the process of getting the pellet plant up and running has exposed exactly what lengths The Greens will go

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 19

Bioenergy  A mountain of the wood waste that could be used to generate electricity.

 The pilot pellet plant imported from China that has finally been given the green light by council.

to and how much money they are prepared to spend to kill off native forestry in Australia. Add to this the often violent direct actions, wilful trespass, and the damage to property and harvesting equipment that has occurred during and immediately after protest actions and it is no wonder that the integrity of The Greens et al amongst those in the industry is constantly questioned.

At no point has anything like a dialogue been entered into regarding the potential of the SEFE biomass project and its positive impact on the environment and the local community. Rather, as has been said on many occasions, the Greens and ENGOs rely on conflict for their livelihoods, and so native forestry in Australia must continue to be cast as a battleground. Funnily enough, Judith Adjani says as much in the article quoted earlier: “Rob Oakeshott’s push this week to promote burning native-forest wood for electricity production could kick off more logging, and more conflict.” Adjani makes her agenda so clear it’s almost laughable, if it wasn’t so indicative of the ignorance espoused by the ‘other’ side. Just how using the processing waste from woodchipping in pellets to power a furnace to provide electricity to run a mill is going to ‘kick off more logging’ is not and never is explained. And yet Adjani calls herself an expert on the economics of forestry in Australia. Ironically, with all this talk of ‘forest furnaces’, if The Greens et al have their way, and all native forest logging is halted, we’ll be facing forest furnaces of quite a different kind. Without the access provided by logging roads, without the management of the forests that forestry provides, and without the presence in the forests of forestry and timber workers, the threat of mega bushfires on the scale of 2002/3, 2006/7 and 2009 increases exponentially. And it is this prospect that poses the greatest threat to trees, wildlife, habitat and, indeed, human lives.

The impact of this lengthy war can be felt and seen in the slowly dying town of Eden, where tourism can sustain only a small percentage of the population for a small portion of the year. SEFE currently employs 80 people directly within the mill and a further 300 or so indirectly, such as

loggers and haulage workers, forest management and maintenance. As such, they are one of the largest employers in the district. The Green pressure on smaller forest and timber-related businesses has seen many close up shop, creating a high level of unemployment and a loss of significant skills from the industry. Yet Peter Mitchell’s vision of a biomass pellet plant and, subsequently, a biomass-powered mill extends beyond the electric fenced borders of SEFE and into the wider community. Starting with the pellet plant, which converts all of the dust-like waste from the woodchipping process into fuel, Peter hopes to encourage the use of pellet powered heaters in the area, reducing people’s heating costs and carbon emissions in the process. The pellet plant, however, is not really the main show for SEFE; rather, it is an attempt to reduce the amount of residue going to waste and offer alternatives to coal powered electricity or gas. The opposition to the pellet plant by The Greens is, in this context, inexplicable. There is, per usual, a default support of the mining industry and/or nuclear power by The Greens, perhaps best exemplified by Bob Brown’s backroom deals on the Carbon Tax that in turn led to the exclusion of native forestry residue from RECs. This logic not only escapes the oneeyed Greens but the majority of their naïve supporters, largely because opposition to using biomass for fuel is constructed in the non-factual and hyperbolic manner of the press releases discussed above.

A vision impaired The main show for SEFE is the development of a biomasspowered electricity plant. With the proposal now three years old, the plant aims to generate more electricity than required by the mill itself, thus feeding enough energy back into the grid over the long term to power approximately 3000 households. Peter Mitchell says:

“To be self-sufficient we needed to generate about 5 mega watts, which is equivalent to 57,000 tonnes of residue, which we figure we’ve got.

So we put a proposal to our board and shareholders in Japan and they said ‘yes, you can go to the next stage and spend money on an Environmental Impact Statement [EIS]’.” This EIS has not been completed as a result of the Labor/ Green Government’s exclusion of native forestry residue from RECs in the proposed legislation. “We calculated that we were going to get about 31,000 mega watt hours a year. Yes, ok, we could sell that into the grid and use it ourselves but half of the income generated would have been from Renewable Energy Certificates,” says Peter. Rendering native forestry residues ineligible for RECs makes SEFE’s proposed energy plant non-competitive and non-profitable for Nippon, against all their best intentions. Peter’s disappointment at the lack of vision in Australia regarding biomass as a viable renewable energy source is patently evident.

In Europe, where logic and science seem to propel the discourse on forestry, Combined Heat & Power (CHP) biomass plants are providing the bulk of many countries’ renewable energy. Here, in Australia, we are being held hostage to a Government that is clinging to power through the support of The Greens, a party that traffics in misinformation and hypocrisy.

Following my visit to SEFE and surrounds I can add anti-local industry to the long list of ‘antis’ that The Greens represent, including anti-environment. Ironically, Eden boasts the National Timber Workers Memorial, honouring the men who have given their lives to the industry.

And yet the entire industry in the region is being brought to its knees by a political party that funds legal time-wasting and illegal activity as a matter of course. SEFE’s vision of their woodchip mill not only powering itself but providing renewable energy to a significant

 Peter Mitchell, General Manager of South East Fibre Exports, talks about his vision for a biomass-powered mill.

portion of the surrounding community is under threat, however the cracks in The Greens’ arguments are beginning to reveal themselves,

and perhaps someone is listening.

Let’s hope that Oakeshott and Windsor stand their ground and that sanity prevails.

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20 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

AUSTimber... it's on again at the Mount M

ount Gambier is an idyllic setting between Melbourne and Adelaide and it’s the site of AUSTimber 2012, the biggest forestry and timber expo in the southern hemisphere.

It’s also the heart of the Green Triangle. The Green Triangle is well known to Australians in the forestry and timber business as one of the country’s most important regions.

It covers an area of about 6-million hectares encompassing parts of South Australia and Victoria.

Mount Gambier is the hub, and possibly the heart, of the Green Triangle. It’s been that way since plantations began to pop up in the region in the early 1900s. The town’s population has risen past 25,000, making it the second most populated in the state of South Australia.

Soon that figure will rise again, by thousands, for a few days. They will come from across the country, around the world. They will gather in the face of industry uncertainty and face the facts.

In 2008, organisers estimated 7000 people descended upon Mt Gambier for AUSTimber. Organisers hope to attract similar numbers this time.

And they must band together because it seems everyone is against them.

This may all seem a bit dramatic.

That’s because it is. AUSTimber 2012 is a big event - the biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

“This is a crucial event for the industry and it comes at a crucial time,” says David Quill, general manager, AUSTimber 2012.

“AUSTimber was created by the industry, for the industry.

“It gives the industry the opportunity to come together to see what’s new in product and service, to learn what could be applied to make their businesses more profitable.

“It’s the opportunity to network extensively with industry colleagues from all over the world.”

AUSTimber was set up to bring together major machinery manufacturers from around the world to showcase their new equipment.

“The 2012 event will be held in the forest, giving visitors the opportunity to see the new equipment working in a real life situation, to even take a tour in a High Productivity vehicle over the types of terrain that it would be traversing to get the harvest to port.

“In fact, it’s the first time in 20 years the industry has the opportunity for live demos in real forest settings,” says David. In the past it was partly about competing businesses being given an opportunity to vie for customers.

Now it must be more about working together.

AUSTimber 2012 kicks off with a Welcome Function which organisers say will give visitors the opportunity to meet and hear from politicians.

Organisers say that this year’s AUSTimber comes amid a sombre economic climate, but this should not detract from the spirit of the event.

David Quill has been in the game for a while. He’s seen some ups and downs. “We can make this work,” he says.

DATES

CONFERENCES AND FUNCTIONS

Wed 28 March

AFCA Hall of FAME induction dinner

Industry Forest Tours. Commencing 8am

Thu 29 March

ForestWorks Conference CAT AUSTimber Welcome Function Dinner

Industry Forest Tours – 9am – 12noon.

Fri 30 March

Komatsu Forest national Forwarder Competition - Heats run from 8am 5pm at the Expo Site.

Expo – Day 1 9am – 5pm

Sat 31 March

Komatsu Forest national Forwarder Competition Heats continue from 8am. Finals 1pm - 2pm.

AUSTimber 2012 People’s Choice Photographic Award -Announcement of Winner – 2pm

Expo – Day 2 9am – 5pm

EXPO

TOURS

AUSTimber - 2012 Expo Demonstrations will be at staggered starts from 0900 and conclude at 1700 hours on both days. As visitors progress along the forest walk, they will be able to see all machines working at some time.

Each demonstration will last approximately 20 minutes, after which the machines will return to the forest edge to be available for inspection by visitors.

A full exhibitors listing will be available from the front gate at the site along with the full program.

Field Visits – refer program For more information go to web site www.austimber2012.com.au

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22 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Boost to industry knowledge ForestWorks AUSTimber conference

T

HE FORESTWORKS Precision Forestry in Action conference at AUSTimber 2012 is part of ForestWorks’ ongoing agenda to increase industry’s knowledge of the latest science, technology and innovations.

AUSTimber 2012 is designed to showcase the industry to the public and demonstrate a collective commitment to sustainability and development.

ForestWorks chief executive officer Michael Hartman said he was excited to support the Precision Forestry in Action conference, which will feature

presentations from key industry and science heavyweights.

“This conference is primarily a way to spread knowledge, because it is critical that people working in our industry are up to date with the latest in technology and innovation,” Hartman said.

The ForestWorks Precision Forestry in Action conference will also feature a presentation by Federal Member for Braddon, Sid Sidebottom, in his first public address to industry since becoming the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

“ForestWorks has worked constructively with Sid for many years to assist forestry workers in Tasmania, including those in the pulp and paper sector, so we’re excited to support his first address to our industry as Parliamentary Secretary,” Hartman said.

“I’m really looking forward to welcoming all conference participants and taking the chance to engage with both industry and the public.”

As well as supporting the ForestWorks Precision Forestry in Action conference, ForestWorks will also host a stand at the AUSTimber 2012 Expo.

 ForestWorks

chief executive officer Michael Hartman.

There’s a close link between space science and forestry SPACE SCIENCE and forestry may seem worlds apart but it is the use of space science that assists in forestry management and will play more of a role into the future and with that in mind internationally renowned space scientist Dragos Bratasanu will speak at the AUSTimber 2012 ForestWorks conference on 29 March.

His topic "Satellite Missions support Strategic Forestry Investments: How Forestry Resources Can Be Managed From Space” will outline current and future space technologies that benefit forestry industry, including satellites planned for imminent launch that will support forest management and operations.

“Our world is going through unprecedented challenges that will expand humanity's vision for the future business models. State-of-the-art satellite technology has become a powerful tool for gaining objective information about our Earth. I will show why and how space missions are becoming a mandatory solution for increasing business security, maximizing profit and protecting investment. Satellite images are evidence

for investors that confirm quality and a key point in natural resource management of the future,” said Bratasanu.

Bratasanu is an internationally renowned award winning space scientist, speaker, and consultant. He is currently the Head of Remote Sensing & GIS Division in Asia Pacific with Poyry Management New Zealand. Dragos is a PhD candidate in satellite image understanding for Earth Observation at the University of Siegen Centre for Sensor Systems, Germany.

In 2011 he became the engineer of the First Romanian Simulation Mission for Planet Mars and his work has been featured in National Geographic. In 2012 he will take part in NASA's Space Studies Program with a grant from the European Space Agency and the Romanian Space Agency.

For his research and scientific achievements he received several international awards from entities like the European Space Agency ESA, European Union Satellite Centre EUSC, DigitalGlobe Inc. USA, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society in Canada, International

Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing in Australia.

Bratasanu is a member of several international research committees and invited peer reviewer for various scientific journals and publications.

“We are excited to be able to bring a speaker of the international calibre of Dragos to Mount Gambier. His knowledge can be applied to forestry but also to other businesses that need to survive in our changing world. Science is pivotal to the forestry and timber industry, in fact to the way we all live our lives and I expect what Dragos has to say will be of interest to many in our community who rely on this industry for their economic livelihood,” said David Quill, general manager AUSTimber 2012.

The Forestworks’ AUSTimber 2012 conference will be held at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre, Mount Gambier, South Australia on 29 March 2012. The conference program can be downloaded from www.austimber2012.com.u and bookings made via the website or contact the AUSTimber2012 office on 0459 171570 or bookings@austimber2012.com.au

 Dragos Batasanu.

Conference quick cut

Keep ahead of the pacK Are you up-to-date with the latest research and development in the forestry and wood products industry?

Would you like to know how your levies are working for you?

Forest & Wood Products Australia can keep you informed through our two free corporate e-newsletters: R&D Works and ForWood.

The newsletters can be customised to only deliver the news you want.

To sign up please visit www.fwpa.com.au or call 03 9927 3200.

fWpa

ARE YOU puzzled with some of the modern language of forestry? Remove the mystery!

Integrated terrestrial laser scanning, discrete event simulation, terrestrial LIDAR and optimal algorithms, highresolution satellite imagery, hyper-spectral imagery, small format digital photogrammetry, RFID. What do these terms mean to operational people in the forest industry and how do they improve our businesses?

How can high technology sensing and analytical tools offer increased efficiency and profitability to a forestry business? A suite of Precision Forestry tools are being steadily introduced and applied to forest industries and include those for measurement and monitoring,

data management and decision support.

However, the concepts and terminology of Precision Forestry can be complex and sometimes confusing for the non-specialist. This Precision Forestry in Action Conference offers a series of specialist presentations and shared insights as to how this suite of advanced technologies can be used to the benefit of modern forest industry businesses. This and more will be discussed at the forthcoming Precision Forestry in Action Conference to be held in association with AUSTimber 2012.

For further details on AUSTimber 2012 and the Conference, visit the website at: www.austimber2012.com.au

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24 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012 CONFERENCE Agenda Thursday 29th March Time

Session Chair

08:30 – 08:45

Welcome

08:45 – 09:15

Invited Overview: Growing Green Gold from Green Triangle, sustainably: key roles of contractors and harvesters.

09:15 – 9:45

Morning Tea – sponsored by SW Fibre

The Hon Sid Sidebottom MP

Dr Sadanandan Nambiar

Chair: Mr Lew Parsons

Paper 1 – Inventory – Satellite Missions for Strategic Forestry Investments: How Forestry Resources Can Be Managed From Space

Mr Dragos Bratasanu

10:15 – 10:45

Paper 2 – Integrating new inventory methods. Harvester optimisation and sales data monitoring to maximise value recovery.

Dr Lars Wilhelmsson

10:45 – 11:15

Paper 3 – Estate Protection. Use of remote sensing to detect/monitor pest and disease threats

11:15 –11:45

Paper 4 – Fire Detection. Using science and technology to make better decisions for fire and land management

11:45 – 12:45

Dr Enda Keane

13:15 – 13:45

Paper 2: Stump to Dump – optimisation and efficiency gains in an integrated product harvesting system.

Mr Adrian Hatch

13:45 – 14:15

Paper 3: Northern American examples in maximising log value recovery: integrating new inventory methods, harvester data and sales data.

Mr Jean Plamondon

14:15 – 14:45

Paper 4: Dump to Mill – Chain of responsibility Legislation and centralised despatch

Stephen Midgley

Plenary: Precision information for better decision making. Sponsored by LINX Finance 9:45 – 10:15

12:45 – 13:15

Paper 1: Desk to Stump – increasing produce and value recovery at harvest by utilising decision support systems and pre-harvest data.

Speaker

Plenary Session

Dr Christine Stone

Mr Steve Shearer

Concurrent Session B – Maximising Site Opportunity Sponsored by Forestry Tasmania

Chair: Dr Jody Bruce

12:45 – 13:15

Paper 1: Site assessment and classification – Establishment of Commercial Plantations : experiences from East Africa

Mr Lee Cunningham

13:15 – 13:45

Paper 2: Precision Establishment: Cultivation, weed control and fertiliser + IR x 2R transition.

Mr Andy Wright

13:45 – 14:15

Paper 3: Trends in Tree Breeding: Synergies / opportunities posed in site:genetics matching.

Dr Tony McRae

14:15 – 14:45

Paper 4: Precision farming systems adapted to plantation forestry.

14:45 – 15:15

Afternoon Tea – Sponsored by SW Fibre

Mr Richard Hilliker

Mr Ewen Waller Plenary Session Sponsored by RuralAus Investments

Chair: Dr Jim O’Hehir

15:15 –15:45

A wrap-up for the day – bringing all of the elements of precision forestry together.

Mr Jon Dey

15:45 – 16:05

Conference Close

Lunch – Sponsored by John Deere Concurrent Session A – Harvesting and Transport.

Sponsored by Pentarch Forest Products

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Chair: Mr Mark Brown

Mr David Quill

Old FIMErs’ legacy lives on R

on Limb is at his office desk in Howrah, a suburb of Hobart which straddles the River Derwent. He looks at his computer screen. He reads about AUSTimber. It brings back memories.

As Managing Director and

instigator of AUSTimber, Ron says there was a lot of hard work by a lot of people in the industry to make the first event a success in March 2000.

“But I’d really be disappointed if you didn’t give FIME and Con Lembke a lot of credit, because

really AUSTimber was modelled on FIME, (Forest Industry and Machinery Exhibition),” he says.

“Con Lembke played the key role in organising FIME, which was held several times every three or four years into the early '90s,” says Ron.

theTS ERFORES ENTTSU KOMA

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4840 • E:

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s in loses ga Biomassernment report v key Go form inside if online

Entry here or click

2012 FEBRUARY

Issue 1, Vol.

21 • P: (03)

9888 4834

• F: (03) 9888

capacity ons; the and exclusinence’ to includeand for ‘perma able harvesting scenarios and supply (at least the the sustain of plantations and for demand be longer term replanting y, and other ways y important over the years). This should s. is more with her farm forestrsuppor t the forestr next forty within 12 month ck to relationshipone she has ittee the CFI rd Colbe 2 completed generally. than the and comm or Richa mendationrecom mends the industr y Holland  Senat • Recom h backbenchers ittee forestry they’ve • Native mendation 6 Inquir y chairs.

The Comm Govern ment, throug like il STRY mends the 8 its more Recom Australian Standing Counc a party policy ittee recom HE FORE has released “It’s mendationrecommends Greens • Recom The Comm Govern ment initiate ittee the COAG y Indust ries, lead committee attempts to mapy implementedParty policy. y lian ive The Commlian Government, publicl existing that Austra Primar reflect and y er on Labor report the forestr s to renew to consid lia the Austration with State more broadl ch to their nian than a proces Forest Agreements,of future for process whether Austra “This is agree and les l approa a secure however, Tasma in negotia develop, within Regional the princip een Colbeck of their genera report on for wood supply forestr y.

Richard indust ry, Dick Governments, incorporating tation, evergr a new regime e for should aim cy’.

Senator the mark policy around people like tive Liberal report misses te implementd RFAs to provid got review, consul forest ‘self-sufficien tion 3 periodic “You’ve say they are suppor and concre said the comes to native all renewe menda recom mends policy ring and extension • Recom g monito new regime Adams who ry but their ittee g run es. when it ongoin ment 7 timelin The Commlian Govern ent. The the periodic the report of the indust ns are not assistin mendationrecom mends the igns biomass. assessm brought their e for entatio • Recom t the Austra ation campa ittee “They’ve the problem is is in implem ry.

RFA on should provid Senator The Comm Govern ment, subjec t and wood public inform indust ent of each te timber for g it back.” down but assessm ual basis, at regular n of policy to the the Australian ent of the relevan to promo replacements “It’s movin that a as implementatio an individ and at arm’s length materials. to the agreemment, ensure said. contradiction products who chaired -intensive the report.that Colbeck within parties. complete Adams, intervals, “This tions of State Govern is in place each more energy tion 4 interested MP Dick , had stated: the RFA recom menda lly, the reasonforest from all 5. renewed of the expiry of wide and • Recommenda recom mends p on page the inquiry ittee far and “Fundamenta ited native ed RFAs three years ranged nt points continued Gillard prohib The Comm Govern ment develo RFA. Renew principles they’ve is because Julia in the inquiryin many differe seeking rds existing orate the Australian standa were s l Greens took we incorp not biomas stored But did should with the robust nationa y. We the carbon above. of view. from So did a deal climate talks. outlined ts made that that a future for forestr quantifying the past. been nt produc the multi-partywould appear dwell in in differe trees, including want to mendations havehope to “And it harvested storage and policy the recomcouched to give ctors, of standards. duration of those carefully workers, our contra akers implications tion 5 our forest pulp and paperm .” menda recom mends orkers sawmillers, and woodw brought • Recom as ittee craft The Commlian Govern ment, and our mendations inquiry the Austra a mature Carbon The recomcommittee of ps the regime, it develo down by Initiative Farming the capacity for the 1 are: ise mendationrecom mends consider: ’ to recognand farm • Recom ittee ions ‘additionality The Commlian Govern ment, of plantat rather than ng diversity the Austra COAG Standi ries, ons applications, the forestr y generalised inclusi y Indust through on Primar and relying on Council s to assess lead a proces on likely wood report publicly Adams  MP Dick

By Steve

T

tory on ns write his ENGOs re forest negotiatio Tasmanian they signed,

that agreeing be ts would

which contrac of the current supply integrity to such in the delivered.

ON the agreed FOCUS involved groups the Statement tions has “These in in green groups they forest negotia g supply by them Tasmanian highlighted aftersupply ongoin now les signed ongoing y in of Princip 2010, but have ons been further support provisi ber failed to nia’s timber industrvation Decem criticised the meet this y to Tasma y-released Conser and publicl Government to chief made by said AFPA ed). the recentl between the State remain or not they requirement,” Pollard (picturwere Agreement ments. whether Society, executive David ments confirm agreement.

Federal Govern and experts committed to the are adding to wood require Wilderness nia ndent “The s be The Tasma by indepe This was “The ENGO they will never Conservationy assessed groups.

Environment lian to by the provided to the suspicions that not serious about publicl Austra the that agreed (ACF) have concessionfor its agreement satisfied and are outcome unless tion only cement the Founda the announ want. The in return tion of verified delivering a lasting forest reserve ing they industry , criticised s of their s and timber get everyth available to additional reserva value forests 2,000 hectare remain vation from they of industry, worker important to remaining high conser Ltd’s exit of needs nities are equally said. claim would Tasmania’s This is ng Gunns extinguishing commu to supplyand veneer mills. being followi s,” Dr Pollard forests, and said. claim their demand sawmills g native ts,” he of their groups to pendin 99.5% contrac the on their reserve despite called in interim in line with the AFPA has set aside les, and is of Princip verification Statement original

rks is ForestWo port sup proud to er 2012 AUSTimb y in Action

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s capacity g industry’ Improvin lop and sustain to deve workforce a skilled

m.a stworks.co www.fore 0 177 001 180

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The same industry-leading news, views and ad’s you’re reading in this issue are now available on-line as well.

While we know print is the most convenient form for reading in the cab, lunchroom or highlighting an important point for the next reader, we also know that many of our readers want to go straight to websites or send emails from the articles and ad’s they’re reading.

Now available on-line Visit www.timberbiz.com.au/aft today to view your copy online

Ron now runs Prime Times Tasmania, ‘a quality magazine for the over 50s’’ - a fitting publication for a newsman in semi-retirement.

Ron has had a long career in both media and the forestry and timber industries.

He was the founder of the trade magazine Forest Logger and Sawmiller which he ran for about 12 years up until mid-2004.

“There was a need for this sort of exhibition, to allow people to display their equipment and services to the national and international forestry industries, and that was why AUSTimber was very well received by the industry, both within Australia and overseas.

“In 2000 we had visitors coming from about 17 different countries. The second time (2004) we expanded into live machinery demonstrations in the forest.”

Ron has dedicated a significant part of his life to the industry.

“The forest industries are a very important part of Australia’s economy,” he says.

“It’s a renewable resource, and as we import so many forest products we are crazy not be utilising our own resource.

“And this is what AUSTimber is all about, encouraging more efficiency in the industry, both in the use of resources and forest equipment.

 Ron Limb.

“AUSTimber is not about converting the Greens. That’s another issue altogether.”

AUSTimber has grown since Ron sold the franchise to AFCA and the association held its first AUSTimber event in 2008.

So, what would Ron say if he found out AUSTimber had grown to be the biggest industry event in the Southern Hemisphere?

“Yes, I guess we made this claim ourselves in 2000. I’m really delighted that AUSTimber is continuing.”

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26 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

AUSTimber site preparations ‘excellent’ A

HWI AUSTRALIA completed the mulching and stump grinding for the “Forestry Plantations Queensland Forest Walk” at the AUSTimber 2012 site. The 1.5km walk will take visitors through ForestrySA pine plantations and Elders Forestry blue gum plantations, passing up to 30 static sites, 7 active pine harvesting areas, 4 cut-to-length blue gum sites and 4 tree-length blue gum harvesting sites. The excellent preparation using a Fecon FTX 148L with an AHWI mulching attachment was undertaken by AHWI Australia.

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The all new operator cab on the Rottne F18 Forwarder has everything an operator can ask for with an optional comfort line system which, at the touch of button, raises the cab 50mm to ensure suspension movement delivers the smoothest ride in the forest.

On top of that, an ultramodern hydrostatic transmission with 3 speeds, allows you to shift on the go at full traction force, making for a quicker ride as well.

An optional bunk extension system that hydraulically raises and expands the gate in line with the bunks provides three positions you can reconfigure the F18 to for hauling more logs per load than just about any other forwarder on the market.

For full specifications and to find out more about this breakthrough machine, give us a call.

Randalls Equipment Company Pty Ltd 8 Wallace Avenue, Point Cook, Victoria 3028 Ph: (03) 9369 8988 Fax: (03) 9369 8683 AH: 0418 356 306

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28 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Australian and world record holder will inspire at AUSTimber charity auction M

ichael Milton – world and Australian record holder, Australia’s fastest skier ever, cyclist, trekker, triathlete, Paralympian, Olympian - will be the speaker for the AUSTimber Welcome Function charity auction on 29 March.

Michael is widely known as Australia’s fastest skier. He holds the Australian record for the fastest on-snow run ever – regardless of limb count.

He has won so many awards there is a separate list downloadable from his website but a quick summary is his four gold medals at the Salt Lake Winter Paralympic Games that earned him the title of Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. At that event he became the first Australian to win Gold at the Winter Olympics.

He then became a speed skier and smashed a 16-year-old record becoming the world’s fastest skier with a disability. His gold medal at the 1992 Winter Paralympic

Games was the first gold medal for Australia at a winter Paralympic or Olympic Games. He was 19 and competing in only his second Paralympic Games.

Michael then turned his attention to cycling and proceeded to break another Australian record.

They’re his sporting achievements – he’s also overcome cancer, twice. He’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and walked Kokoda twice.

“We are very excited to have Michael as part of the AUSTimber Welcome Function charity auction.

He’s inspirational and for an industry’s that been going through some tough times he’ll be able to inspire because of the life he’s led and his testing of his limits.

Michael is generously donating an auction item – four people to come skiing with him for half a day - and I suspect there will be keen bidding for that. It will be a great night to welcome all to AUSTimber and to raise funds to help local children.”

David Quill, AUSTimber 2012 general manager.

The AUSTimber2012 Welcome Function is sponsored by Caterpillar.

 Michael Milton.

Spare a thought for those in need

By Anne Hinkley Tyler WE ALL know our industry is going through hard times and we’ve got a great opportunity to come together at AUSTimber 2012 to learn, share, network and support the industry. The other opportunity the industry has is the AUSTimber 2012 Welcome Function (sponsored

by Caterpillar), where we can

help raise funds from ticket sales and the charity auction to help local disadvantaged children. The function will be held on 29 March at the prestigious Barn Steak House in Mount Gambier.

There’s always lots of talk about ‘corporate social responsibility’ or ‘citizenship’ and lots of individual businesses take this seriously and support communities. The

AUSTimber Welcome Function is the industry’s way to put that into action like we did in 2008.

Foster Care is all about the children - to provide the best possible care for the children who have been removed from their parents. Children in foster care can be from new-borns to teenagers. placed in foster care. Even in an Not everyone wants to be a foster affluent country like Australia the carer and not all children can be number of children needing stable

You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.

- Winston Churchill homes still exceeds the number of homes open to caring for children in need. This, unfortunately, is true in South Australia. All children should have the opportunity to be safe, loved, educated and then grow into adulthood, into a job and fall in love. It’s the foster carers and the broader community who donate to support these children that make the difference to a child’s life.

Foster care is run by a charity that started in Mount Gambier 25 years ago, ac.care, and still has its head office here, one of the few charities that came from a rural/regional area and is not just an outreach of a city charity. It was started when local people saw there was no care for teenage foster children. ac.care and foster carers work together to provide children and young people with safe, nurturing, stable environments to grow and learn.

In 2008 at the AUSTimber Welcome Function the industry raised $40k for Heritage Industries, an employer of people with disabilities and now part of the Adelaide-based Bedford Industries Group.

Let’s do it again for these kids!

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© 2012 Caterpillar. All rights reserved. CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective logos and “Caterpillar Yellow,” and the POWER EDGE trade dress, as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission.

30 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012



Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

amie Law, of J Ribbonwood Victoria, with his Bruks 805.2 drum chipper combined with an EcoLog 594C forwarder.

Versatility and manoeuvrability T

HE BRUKS 805.2 STC Chipper with Integrated Chip Bin chipper will be out of the forest where it’s currently working and in demonstration at AUSTimber. This machine is powered by a separate diesel engine and designed to be installed on selfpropelling vehicles like forwarders, trucks or tractor-towed trailers.

The chipping unit can move to off-road chipping sites and dump the chips from its chip bin into a roadside container or else on the ground to eliminate waiting time for any unit in the production chain. The versatility and manoeuvrability of this unit is such that it is now approved by VicRoads for driving on State highways in Victoria.

Apparently this should make gaining the appropriate permits in other states relatively easy. A small blessing for those who have to deal with the multi-layered red tape involved in moving chippers around Australia!

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A productivity-gaining unit LOOKING TO diversify into other markets Elphinstone Engineering has re-designed and re-defined the way suspensions work with its all new Easysteer Payloader The latest from the Elphinstone stable of practical transport solutions is the all new Easysteer skel trailer that has a steerable tri rear suspension.

The trailer will be on show at AUSTimber 2012 being towed by a Kenworth T409 twin steer truck. Elphinstone is hopeful that it will be on the demo track with a load on to demonstrate the concept to its full potential.

Elphinstone will also have tri tri B double Easyloader on display.

“This new concept will revolutionise the way we look at transport of long loads whether it is logs, concrete pipes or

beams. The potential for this new suspension is enormous,” said Elphinstone managing director and stalwart of the log transport industry, Graeme Elphinstone.

Not only will this new Elphinstone unit create a lot of interest in the log transport area due to the simple steering mechanism and the capability of higher payloads with its spread axle configuration but it is destined to create some excitement in other transport areas as well.

“We can see this suspension unit being used in all manner of transport operations including but not limited to logging skels, pole trailers, f latbeds, gas/liquid cylinder trailers, side tipper bodies, tankers and containers,” Graeme said.

While the trailer concept on show is not new, how it is configured is. Its uniqueness comes from the simple steering mechanism and where the drawbar is hitched. In this configuration it will achieve similar payloads to a quad with one less axle and less stress on frames. Very good load sharing will be possible with less tyre wear and scrub effect.

This unit has the potential to take a standard truck and trailer from general access 42.5 tonnes to 48 tonnes gross. Elphinstone Weighing Systems have tested and proven their systems since 1976. This unit will use the best and simplest trouble free onvehicle weighing system.

Elphinstone has a reputation for designing and building visionary transport solutions and the Easysteer is no exception.

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32 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012 Newcomer with instant parts availability makes debut at AUSTimber F

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

TOC-system (Total Operator Control). The TOC system, together with the Agco Sisu engine, optimizes the fuel injection in accordance with the prevailing engine load, hydraulic pressure and flow requirements, in all possible circumstances,” says Logset chairman Tapio Nikkanen.

Logset 10F Titan forwarders have a new spacious cabin. When it comes to cabin design, special attention has been paid to the ergonomics and user friendliness.

The visibility is unobstructed in all directions. The high quality interior, fully automatic climate control and excellent sound insulation, guarantee the best possible driver comfort. Storage room in the cabin has been one of the top priorities and still the driver has more than enough space to maneuvre easily in the wide cabin.

“Logset also presents a contractorfriendly F*A*S*T-program (Factory After Sales & Training- program).

F*A*S*T is a totally new approach for Logset customers who may worry about taking a new brand into their fleet,” he said.

Nikkanen said “F*A*S*T gives

a consignment stock of spare parts that covers most of the parts needed for running a Logset 10 F Titan without any downtime. Logset dealer, Karmet, will also stock slow moving parts in Albury, NSW, and you will have no worries with parts supply.

“Consignment stock will be at your disposal at all times in your workshop and with no capital bound!

Karmet will invoice you monthly, based on your consumption, at reasonable prices. This is possible because of the low fixed cost at Karmet and Logset’s support.

“Logset Aussie F*A*S*Tprogram gives you extensive technical and service training for your own technicians and operators at your site at the time you want it, by Logset’s factory-trained technicians.

Training includes detailed programs to take good care of your Logset Titan 10 F forwarder.

Training programs can be either two weeks or 1 + 1 week. This is completely free for you and saves you money because there will be no service bills outside your company.

“Karmet Enterprises provides Logset- trained technicians to



ogset´s chairman Tapio Nikkanen and the Australian L dealer Markku Turunen witnessing the departure of a 10F forwarder for Australia.

support you both through our team and hotline numbers,” says Nikkanen.

Logset has studied the Aussie markets for some time now with Markku Turunen from Karmet Enterprises and sees good potential for Logset in Australia through its F*A*S*T-program.

“Later this year, Logset will also introduce harvesting heads for track-based machines. Titan TH 75 is an extremely productive harvesting head for pine and with euca-knives and feeding rollers for

eucalyptus also. We have had very good feedback of euca production and debarking from Chile, where companies like Biofor are working with Logset,” says Turunen.

“The Logset wheel-based harvester 10 H provides you with low running costs and superb working conditions for your operators. Together with TOC-MD you get flexibility for adjustment of the base machine and the head.

Titan TH-heads complete the efficient harvester with its accurate measuring,” he said.

statiivi.fi

INNISH CTL-manufacturer Logset enters the Aussie market this month and will display some of its wares at AUSTimber, Mount Gambier. The company will present its Logset Titan 10F forwarder, an 18 ton capacity heavy duty forwarder and, together with Logset’s Australian dealer, Karmet Enterprises Pty, a new concept for better customer care - Logset Aussie F*A*S*Tprogram.

The 10F Titan is the big brother of the Logset Titan forwarder series.

This impressive 18 ton forwarder has an exceptionally robust and reliable structure. The 10F Titan has been designed to withstand even the hardest conditions in market areas such as in Australia, North America, Latin America and Russia. The 10F Titan with its superior performance and capacity is ideally suited for the long hauls. The expandable load bay can be widened by 60cm and has a hydraulic tail section which provides an extra length of 70cm if needed.

“Despite the large capacity and power, the fuel economy has been optimized through the intelligent

Logset brings a better logging experience to the forest machinery market. Logset 10F Titan 18 ton forwarder offers better efficiency, better durability, better usability and better productivity.

Logset is simply better – for a logger who demands more.

– way to improve performance!

Logset offers its customers a totally new way to keep the fleet up and running. Logset’s FAST -program allows contractors to achieve considerable cost savings by optimizing the service process and making maintenance more efficient.

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34 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

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Machine attributes keep business on track F

or almost two decades Forest Enterprises Development and Consulting Pty Ltd has been one of the “go to” businesses when it comes to forestry, vegetation control in the power line industry, civil works and biofuel supplies.

The Casino-based family business under the guidance of managing director Mick Benton has built a reputation for results. It’s not just something that happens; it takes research, planning and commitment not only to the work but also to the machinery that is chosen.

FEDC’s recent acquisition of a Peterson 4310 chipper is one such case.

“We currently process mill residue, pine waste, camphor laurel and some windbreak material with a Morbark 3800 grinder and our new Peterson 4310 chipper. After considerable research we opted to purchase the 4310 from Komatsu Forests because of our long and well supported relationship with KF and knowing that the Peterson franchise was well supported with some very experienced people in the chipping industry.

“Our 4310 performs many different tasks with production rates of 60t/ hr achievable in plantation hardwood.

“The 4310 has proven to be an excellent machine with many considerable attributes; it is maneuvrable, easy to transport, plus the ease of blade changes and servicing is, according to the operators, ideal,” says Mick.

“Chip is either hot loaded into our own walking floors or stockpiled for later loading with excavators,” he says.

The 4310 tracked drum chipper is the latest in a long line of chipping and grinding machines produced by Peterson. It is suited for high volume biomass producers who have a wide variety of feed material, from logs up to 26 inches (66 cm) in diameter, to brush and small feed stock. The 4310 is powered by a 765 HP (570 kW) C18 Caterpillar engine. At 52,000 lbs (23,586 kg), the 4310 was designed for operations requiring high production and tracks for frequent moves between jobs.

The chipper utilizes a 36 inch (914 mm) diameter by 40 inch (102 mm) wide drum. Other key features include a sloped feed deck for ease of feeding the chipper and wear resistant AR 400 wear surfaces on the drum pockets and shell. Optional material sizing grates minimize oversize twigs and branches in the chips, and an optional chip accelerator helps with loading. Traditional babbit type knife systems are standard equipment. Chip length can be changed from ½” (13 mm) – 1” (25.4 mm) by adjusting knife extension and feed speed. A top loading or an end loading spout is available depending on your application (top loading spout illustrated).

The 4310’s new generation of controls includes Peterson’s highproduction Adaptive Control System. The new control panel provides self-diagnosis for faulty sensors and open circuits. Fault indicators make troubleshooting easy. The 4310 control panel features an LCD display that provides the operator the complete engine and system parameters to simplify setup and efficiently operate the machine.

FEDC is a family owned company with about 30 employees performing a range of jobs including the supply boiler fuel to the NSW sugar mills cogeneration plants at Condong and Broadwater in northern NSW.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 35

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Moving along!

I

T’S BEEN 10 years since the Dutch-produced Cargo Floor moving floor systems for heavy duty trailers first landed in Australia. Popular in Europe for many years prior, these systems have since been successfully promoted in many countries.

The Cargo Floor, moving floor concept, came about when the greenhouses in Holland were looking for a quicker way to move potting soil into the hot houses.

Before this system came along the soil was man handled into the glass houses, which was a costly and time consuming method.

In the beginning Dutch transport operators were only legally allowed to transport the potting mix in 12 metre long trailers. When the road transport industry moved to 13.3 metre long trailers, allowing 40 tonne payloads, only then did the moving floor concept really take off.

Compact design Nowadays Cargo Floor has models to suit all types of cargo, giving trailer manufacturers the licence and desire to develop dedicated carriers.

The Cargo Floor system is so light and strong that operators can move bulk materials like soil, woodchips and compost, abrasive items, vegetables and fruit, pallets, paper and steel rolls, even all kinds of domestic and industrial waste with the greatest of ease, quickly and safely.

Because Cargo Floor offers a very compact design it can be installed in all types of trailers and trucks, and as it is of a solid construction, the system can be driven over by almost every type of forklift truck.

Being multifunctional in its ability to automatically load and off load just about any type of cargo and safely, due to its horizontal application, makes the Cargo Floor system attractive in many ways.

Operators in Australia love the fact that they can fully utilise their equipment so returning empty is a thing of the past. When you couple that major benefit to the maintenance free reliability of the system, it’s easy to see why countries all over the world have embraced the Cargo Floor as their preferred mode of operation.

Australian road transport operators are using the moving floor product more and more, which is a great testament of the system’s popularity.

BPW Transpec is the sole Australian sales and service dealer for the Cargo Floor as well as other world-proven products including BPW trailer axles, suspensions and braking systems, Edbro tipping hoists and Ringfeder couplings.

BPW_BestoftheBest_Austimber:BPW

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36 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

No stones left unturned in bid to provide hassle-free functions A

USTIMBER 2012 has provided a free City Loop Bus service to run at certain times of the overall AUSTimber program. The two loops start and finish at the Lady Nelson Visitor Information Centre and run approximately every half hour, stopping at strategic stops throughout the city. Dedicated bus stops will be sign posted and all visitors staying in commercial accommodation in the city will have very easy access to their nearest stop.

The bus is in the official AUSTimber program and available on the website.

The town’s on board



Senator Colbeck.

Mount Gambier and surrounds community are on board with AUSTimber and excitedly awaiting the arrival of visitors. The local Chamber of Commerce has invited David Quill to address members so the retailers are aware of the opportunities with new visitors

to the region. PIRSA is working with the schools so the students can see everything that’s smarter, sharper and greener about the industry, the Scouts are helping to hand out posters to businesses to display in their windows, and the Council has put up the Welcome banners that have a variety of languages saying ‘welcome’.

What’s the difference between a Symposium and a Conference?

The Precision Forestry in Advance Symposium is being held 27-28 March and the AUSTimber 2012 ForestWorks’ Precision Forestry in Action is being held on 29 March.

So, what’s the difference and should you go to both?

The Symposium focuses on updates on new research and has an academic focus and is held generally every four years around the world.

This is an 'in-between' to the very successful four-yearly symposiums run at Stellenbosch, South Africa. It's a chance for everyone from researchers to practitioners to present their work.

This IUFRO linked symposium is being run alongside the AUSTimber events to maximise the benefit for people wishing to attend The Conference is held as part of AUSTimber and focuses on off-the-shelf solutions for the industry.

Welcome Dinner speaker The after dinner speaker at the Welcome Dinner will be Senator Richard Colbeck, Senator for Tasmania; Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry; Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation, Industry and Science.

The City loop will run at the following times: Wednesday 28 March – Field Trips 7.00 am City Loop pickups and transfer to Lady Nelson Visitor Centre, continuing into the Field Trips, then buses will drop attendees back to their accommodation

Thursday 29 March – Conference and Partners Program 7.30 – 9.30 am City Loop pickups, terminating at the Conference Venue. Partners Program Tours 1 and 2 will leave from the Mount Gambier City Library carpark, adjacent the conference venue.

4.30 – 5.30pm Pickup at the Conference Venue, drop off via the City Loops.

6.00 – 7.00pm Pickup via the City Loops for the Official AUSTimber 2012 Welcome Function Dinner.

10.30 – 11.30pm Pickup at the Welcome Function Dinner, drop off at accommodation.

Friday 30 March – Exhibition Day 1 8.00am – 5.30pm Continuous City Loop at half hour intervals all day for Exhibition Attendees, Partners Program and Field Trip connections, culminating at Lady Nelson Visitor Centre.

Saturday 31 March – Exhibition Day 2 8.00am – 5.30pm Continuous City Loop at half hour intervals all day for Exhibition Attendees, culminating at the Lady Nelson Visitor Centre.

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Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 37

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Precision in wood waste management J

ONDOD, IN conjunction with Precision Husky, has taken a different approach to this year’s AUSTimber in Mount Gambier. Instead of a static or operational site at AUSTimber, Jondod will be giving clients the chance to see one of their specialist chippers in “real work time”.

“We have undertaken to run a bus service from the AUSTimber site to a fully operational site of L.V.Dohnt where debarking and chipping will be in progress,” said Andrew Cantrill.

The bus service is free and will include a light lunch. Bus timetables are available from Stand 30 Static Area at the AUSTimber site.

Precision Husky has been represented

by Jondod Pty. Ltd. since 1970 supplying chipping equipment to both sawmills and infield projects.

A full range of equipment including chippers, screens, conveyors, storage bins, flail debarkers, mobile chippers, recycling tub grinders, horizontal grinders and a full range of Husky loaders, electric or diesel powered, stationary or truck mounted, can be found on the internet www.precisionhusky.com or www.jondod. com.

“It should be noted that our company first sold chipping equipment into the Green Triangle approximately 15 years

ago and this equipment is still running today,” said John Dodd.

“Over recent years mobile debarking was developed by Precision Husky for blue gum processing in West Australia where a number of machines are currently in operation. Mobile debarkers and mobile chippers have also been sold into the Green Triangle with outstanding results,” he said.

“Here at Jondod we endeavour to design and implement a wood waste management system in conjunction with Precision Husky equipment and our customers that will best suit their businesses needs.

“Jondod and Precision Husky Corporation have had an enduring relationship for over 35 years,” said Andrew.

Jondod, in conjunction with Precision Husky, can furnish more than 70 products for the timber, chipping, logging and wood waste recycling industries around Australia.

“We have supplied more than 200 chipping operations over the last 36 years.

“We have an incredible history with Precision Husky which, in turn, has exceptional products and highly experienced personnel. With a motto of “Whatever It Takes” Precision is a world leader in waste wood management,” said John.



Andrew Cantrill and John Dodd.

Powered by a Cummins 600 HP or CAT 580HP engine, this machine produces more than 75 tons per hour and is totally dedicated to biomass.

To see it in action, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ9cPHrHyQ8.

Contact: Andrew or John Ph: 03 5153 2722 Fax: 03 5152 5483 Email: info@jondod.com

38 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

Trucks in action in real forest settings A

USTimber 2012 will be providing the trucking industry with its first opportunity in at least 20 years to take their customers on demo drives in real forest settings.

Truck exhibitors will be able to take their customers on a test drive around a variety of different circuits and test drive loaded with either chip or with logs. The trailers can be supplied by AUSTimber 2012 or trailers from manufacturers of their own choice. This way exhibitors can demonstrate different truck and trailer combinations Two live demonstration options will be available : 1. a closed forest loop of 6 kms providing exhibitors the opportunity to showcase conventional units, as well as high productivity transport systems, such as road trains and quad/quad “B” Doubles; 2. and a 17km open road demonstration course, with combination undulating, winding gravel and bitumen roads allowing you to display performance under varying conditions

“In-field chip or saw-log can now be loaded directly onto trailers, towed by prime movers, giving the logging industry and the general public a first-hand opportunity to view these, and other trucks in action in a real forest setting” said David Quill, general manager, AUSTimber 2012 Live exhibitions of forest harvesting at AUSTimber 2012 will feature in-field chipping operations in Elders’ Forestry bluegum plantations, along with log harvesting of ForestrySA’s pine plantations.

Peter Roberts, dealer principal of OG Roberts, has further supported AUSTimber 2012 by committing to demonstrate the Giga Series Isuzu prime movers at the AUSTimber Expo.

“The impending expansion of blue gum forest harvesting in the Green Triangle is seen as a perfect fit for the Giga Series, which offers a cab over configuration eminently suitable for “B” Double chip haulage,” said Peter.

OG Roberts supported

AUSTimber 2008 by providing the staff vehicles necessary for the successful staging of the event, and has continued this support for AUSTimber 2012.

Expo Site In-Forest Truck Route

Open Road Truck Route

Mt Gambier Airport

The CBI difference Grinders. Shredders. Chippers.

• Lowest cost per tonne output • Interchangeable chipper & grinding rotors • Metal Detection System (MDS) protects rotor, anvil & screens

See the launch of our new Flail & Chipper combo with live demonstrations at AusTimber 2012 www.austimber2012.com.au

For info, contact Gary Roberts 0457 877 005 info@cbiaustralasia.com

www.cbi-inc.com

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 39

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Noske helps drive AUSTimber 2012 T

ONY NOSKE, executive director – operations, Noske Logistics, has committed to sponsorship of corporate uniforms for AUSTimber staff.

In addition, the Noske Group will be demonstrating its high productivity vehicle developed for hauling woodchip from South West Fibre’s Myamin Chip Mill to its export facility at Portland. This system, winner of the 2011 Australian Freight Industry Innovation award, will be participating in the short demonstration route that is planned for the event.

This 6km route is on forest roads close to the public, through plantation forests on unsealed and natural surface roads, and is intended to demonstrate how “user friendly” these High Productivity Vehicles are.

For more information on Trucks in Action at AUSTimber 2012, see http://www.austimber2012.com. au/documents/AUSTimber-LiveDemos.pdf.

Money from waste wood IT’S NOT waste wood, it’s a ready supply of renewable energy that can make forest owners and timber mills good money.

There has been a lot said about converting slash, broken timber and offcuts into fuel for generating energy but precious little of this has happened in Australia. This has largely been due to a political reluctance to join Europe and North America in recognising that wood is a renewable resource that draws carbon from the atmosphere making it an excellent alternative to fossil fuels.

However, all that is starting to change. Lately we’ve seen two biomass generators get planning approval and a number of BioEnergy generation demonstration sites being set up in Australia. Offering a glimmer of hope for the future the Federal Government has introduced The Clean Technology Investment Program which is an $800 million competitive, meritbased grants program to support Australian manufacturers to maintain competitiveness in a

carbon constrained economy. This program will provide grants for investments in energy efficient capital equipment and low pollution technologies, processes and products.

Visitors to AUSTimber will be able to discuss what’s happening in BioEnergy production in the rest of the world with Andrew Lang, an Australian and World Bioenergy Association Board Member. To get a better understanding of how to tap grants from the Clean Energy Investment Program, visitors can talk with Liz Hamilton, Victorian DPI Senior Bioenergy Officer and a passionate promoter of BioEnergy.

And for those who want to know how they can set up a profitable business supplying processed wood residues to local institutions such as hospitals (and help those institutions save money at the same time), David Matushka will have a thermal unit operating and be able to answer practical questions based on the knowledge he has generated over the three years he has been trialling this equipment.

New system on display at AUSTimber BELLINGEN-BASED Solar Dryers Australia will be displaying its wares at AUSTimber. In the past few years SDA has installed120 units in Australia and abroad.

Featured will be the new in-kiln moisture content control. One or more Weight Stations are placed inside the kiln, incorporating load cells that constantly feed sample weights to a BBC Kiln Controller.

The controller incorporates a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), which translates the weights into an average moisture content for the sample boards on each Weight Station.

This current MC is displayed on a SCADA computer screen, and this information is used to predict the end point for the drying process, and store a data log for the duration of the charge. MC data can also be used to drive a kiln automatic schedule.

This system is also available as a retro-fit to any type of existing kilns.

Mulchers and Biomass Harvesters from AHWI FTX148-L and FTX600: The Productive Solutions for Land Clearing Exploration for resources and minerals is creating a booming demand for precision land clearing. Take advantage of this opportunity by adding heavy-duty mulching to your contracting capabilities.

Fecon tracked mulchers from AHWI Australia feature heavy-grade construction, high quality components, and wide tracks for high stability and low ground pressure. Choose from the FTX148-L with unmatched reach and manoeuvrability, or the massively powerful FTX600, the natural choice for large scale clearing.

-L Y 148 BILIT FTXEUVRAACH

600 WER FTXUM POTIVITY

XIM UC MA PROD &

NO & RE

MA

BMH480/600: The All-In-One Bioharvester Our latest generation biomass harvester is the result of years of research, development and trialling in the real world, including one of the world’s largest biomass projects in Namibia, Powered by a Cat® C15 diesel, with low ground pressure undercarriage, the BMH480/600 features an integrated collection bin, avoiding the need for a truck to drive alongside.

Distributed throughout South Australia by SA Tractors, the South Australian Case Construction Equipment dealer.

Come and see us at the AUSTimber Bluegum Cut to Length Site 4 Visit www.ahwi.com.au to see the full range of AHWI mulchers for tracked, PTO and hydraulic drive.

(Head Office, Western Australia) AHWI Australia Pty Ltd Telephone: (08) 9258 9333 Mobile: 0418 927 491

www.ahwi.com.au

SA – NT SA Tractors Tel: (08) 8349 7500

Victoria Melbourne Tractors Tel: (03) 9303 5777

Southern NSW Capital Construction Equipment Tel: (02) 6025 0444

Northern NSW and Qld Brisvegas Machinery Tel: (07) 3277 2276

The Eco Engineering Experts

40 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

AUSTimber 2012

Sharper. Smarter. Greener.

Keeping a-head of the pressures of business M

ONARO LOGGING, a well-known company operating in the Bombala area of NSW, has taken delivery of one of the first Waratah HTH625C units in Australia.

While Monaro Logging has used a variety of harvester brands over the years, they are long-standing Waratah owners and past purchasers of the popular 622B, 623C, and 624C models.

When one of their ageing 624Cs required replacement they took future harvest blocks and tree form into consideration, and chose the new Waratah 625C as “the right tool for the job”.

In the short period since delivery, Waratah`s HTH625C has met Monaro Logging`s felling and processing expectations; thoroughly cementing their purchase decision.

With a list of features to make this the “master” of the toughest timber harvesting conditions, the 625C is the only harvester you need, built to work, tree after tree, day after day.

Waratah has always prided itself on customer focus and forging relationships based on understanding customer needs. As part of its ever-evolving approach to market demands, the next chapter in the Waratah story is to further regionalize and personalize its customer base. The company is achieving this through redefining and assigning regions to each of its field staff members with the emphasis on giving customers one point of contact for all their requirements. Customer needs - from sales to product support

requirements, operator training and follow up - will be met and supported by their own local regional representative.

Eastern Victoria and Tasmania Rob Crook, Eastern Australia Division Manager 0419 539 374 Western Victoria and South Australia Brendon Satchwell, Application Specialist 0438 445 550 North Eastern Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland Ron Pothan, Eastern Australia Product Support Manager 0427 683 150 Western Australia Jason Ratcliffe, Product Support Specialist 0428 685 038

 Ron Pothan.

 Rob Crook.

 Brendon Satchwell.

 Jason Ratcliffe.

We’re right behind you in the field Combining remote locations, harsh operating environments and heavy vehicles and equipment, the forestry and timber industries face significant fire risks.

With Wormald, you have an organisation that is always right behind you when you need us most. We’ve helped prevent and protect against fires for over 120 years.

Wormald has the fire protection solutions for heavy vehicles that range from fire detection and suppression systems, to portable fire equipment, personal protection gear and staff training; our end-to-end tailored solutions help protect major forestry operations throughout Australia and the Pacific region.

So, you can get on with the job, confident that your people, resources and machinery are supported by one of the world’s fire safety leaders. That’s peace of mind.

Trust the forestry fire safety experts.

Call 1300 556 015, email wormald.ads@tycoint.com or visit wormald.com.au

ELSA: Emergency Life Support Apparatus

42 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

FIRE PREVENTION

Vehicle fire suppression solutions for the forestry industry W

ITH THE possibility of fire ever-present in forestry environments, first-class safety systems and procedures are essential.

Considering the many combustible components in heavy vehicles which are in close proximity to ignition and heat sources, as well as the potential for timber to add to the fuel load, it’s clear that the risk of a fire can be high.

Fire protection specialist Wormald offers a range of vehicle fire suppression (VFS) systems which provide vital risk management for heavy vehicles.

The various systems are developed to suppress fires occurring in key fire risk areas such as the engine and transmission compartments, brakes and hydraulic areas of all kinds of vehicles including mining plant and equipment.

The systems provide early

detection and warning allowing extra time for the driver to safely evacuate, while also quickly suppressing the fire to help minimise damage to the vehicle.

Wormald’s formalised fire risk assessment, in accordance with Australian Standard, AS 50622006: Fire Protection for Mobile & Transportable Equipment can identify and determine the level of fire risk in order to offer the most appropriate system for a particular vehicle in its operating environment.

Wormald’s Foam Water Spray Vehicle Fire Suppression System and the Ansul™ A-101 Vehicle Powder System are both ActivFire listed to be compliant to AS 5062.

The Foam Water Spray Vehicle Fire Suppression (VFS) System features high pressure and small droplet nozzles which target risk areas such as the turbo charger and starter motor in the engine

compartment.

The system utilises the fire suppressing and containment features of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF). In the event of a fire, a continuous stream of foam water spray is discharged to rapidly suppress flames and dramatically cool hot surfaces. At the same time, the generated foam acts to smother fuel and oil-spill fires, helping to prevent re-ignition.

The Ansul™ A-101 Vehicle Powder System, which discharges a dry powder known as Foray® into the risk area to suppress the fire, is well suited to three dimensional liquid fuel fires.

Both systems are installed with automatic detection and actuation systems, as well as cabin and ground level actuators, allowing the operator to manually activate the fire suppression system from either the cabin or at ground level if required.

Fire channelling implications for bushfire supression A NEW form of bushfire behaviour, which can have a potentially catastrophic effect on the development of fires burning in rugged terrain, has been identified by a team of researchers from UNSW Canberra, the ACT Emergency Services Agency and ACT Territory and Municipal Services.

This fundamental scientific breakthrough introduces the important phenomenon - “fire channelling” - and its implications for bushfire suppression and management. Importantly, the research findings raise questions about the effectiveness of established mitigation practices, including fuel reduction burning and vegetation removal around houses.

The research was based on data collected during the January 2003 alpine fires in the ACT and NSW, combined with data collected by the researchers as part of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre’s HighFire Risk Project.

The research team found that intense fire spread could occur at right angles to the direction a fire would be expected to spread, with numerous spot fires then carrying the fire down-wind. This fire spread was at odds with known forms of bushfire behaviour and was found to occur exclusively on steep slopes that face away from the wind (known as “leefacing slopes”), where fire behaviour would normally be milder.

“The overall result is the formation of extensive regions of active flaming, which can then trigger the formation of a firestorm,” said Dr Jason Sharples from UNSW Canberra. “This provides a new understanding of what happened during the Canberra bushfires in January 2003.

“During the 2003 fires it was simply not known that a fire could behave in such a way,” said Rick McRae from the ACT

Emergency Services Agency, a co-author of the research. “As such it is important to recognise that improving the advice provided to the community during extreme bushfire events may require a protracted wait while the science progresses.”

The research also provides new insights into Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

“One of the likely consequences of the unusual fire behaviour is the mass production of embers, such as was seen on Black Saturday. The ember storm that impacted Canberra suburbs in January 2003 is another case in point. It is important to now re-evaluate the way that fuel reduction burning is applied in order to minimise ember production,” said Dr Sharples.

“The phenomenon is not unique to Australia. Indeed, there have been a number of wildfires around the globe in

which ‘fire channelling’ is likely to have played a part and we are now working with a number of international collaborations.

With the prospect of more frequent extreme bushfires due to the effects of climate change, it is important that bushfire management agencies learn about unusual effects like ‘fire channelling’,” he said.

To help prevent firefighters being injured or killed, the research team is now working on incorporating the research findings into the national bushfire training curriculum.

“Another outcome of the research is demonstrating the importance of carefully observing wildfires, including the use of sophisticated remote sensing technology.

A lot of the science coming from recent wildfires would not have happened unless fire agencies and others put these systems in place in the lead-up to the fire season,” said McRae.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 43

Additional Aussie distribution base C

ANADIAN-BASED forestry machinery manufacturer Tigercat now has two distributors in Australia.

Onetrak Pty Ltd has been appointed its distributor in Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria, effective March 1. Forest Centre Pty Ltd has been the Tigercat dealer in Australia for the past 12 years and will continue to operate in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.

Forest Centre will continue to represent the Tigercat product range with renewed focus in its newly defined territory, providing comprehensive sales, service and parts support to Tigercat customers.

The man behind Tumut-based Forest Centre, Lex McLean, sold all his own logging operations in August 2007 following more than 26 years experience and involvement as a successful logging contractor covering harvesting, chipping and log and chip haulage.

He began selling forestry machinery attachments back in 1983. Forest Centre Pty Ltd as a company was incorporated in 1997.

Apart from Tigercat, Forest Centre is the exclusive agent for international products Exte, Hultdins, Baltrotors, and Rotobec.

“Forest Centre has invested significantly in parts of all product lines including major components to ensure parts availability, back up and minimum down time to customers,” said Lex. “Over a period of six years Onetrack has developed a solid understanding of the support levels required to maintain forestry equipment in challenging environments across the south eastern continent of Australia,” said managing director David Hazell.

“As a Hyundai Construction Equipment dealer we have converted many excavators for work in site preparation, hardwood logging and mechanical harvesting applications such as native and ETF clearfall. The High Chassis variant of the Hyundai excavator base has proved to be very successful in selected applications.

“The introduction of the purpose built Tigercat product line to our business is something we are very excited about as it offers some serious iron to our product offering and one that complements our Hyundai franchise. Together we can offer the market an option for all applications,” he said.

“We believe we understand the importance of genuine after sales parts and service support and aim to be your business partner for the life of your asset. Our 4x4 field service vehicles are equipped with the latest technical diagnostic software/tooling and our technicians are offered the latest factory-based training whenever possible to ensure any issues are resolved quickly. A selection of our mobile technicians recently completed the 800 series tracked based training while Rick from Tigercat was in Australia and the feedback was very positive from the guys, who believed it was one of the best courses they have attended.”

He said the 600 Series Skidder training was scheduled for April.

Onetrack has several senior parts interpreters located at both the Tasmanian and Victoria branches to support all new Tigercat parts requests and new stock is arriving. “Plans are already under way to increase local support in South Australia and with the assistance of local service agent Heavy Mechanical Services at

Mt Gambier, service levels in this region will be a strategic focus for Onetrack with additional support directly out of Melbourne as and when required,” said Hazell.

"We look forward to meeting

and reacquainting ourselves with the many Tigercat customers within our area of responsibility.

The timing of this agreement is perfect, with AUSTimber scheduled in Mt Gambier at the

end of March. This premium forest industry event presents the ideal platform to launch our relationship with Tigercat and spend some quality time with new and established clients."

 Lex McLean, Forest Centre principal.

 Onetrak staff who have completed Tigercat Training (l-r) Simon Coull, Ryan Chara, Rick Routliffe (Tigercat) Andrew Elliston, Daniel Granado and Chris Bogdan.

‘The best choice for conditions’ The purchase of a new machine for Les Walkden Enterprises is not really something out of the ordinary. However, there is something different about the latest piece of equipment. It’s Les’ first purchase of a Tigercat and it’s his first purchase from a bloke he worked with nearly three decades ago.

First things first ... Les now has a Tigercat 855C feller buncher fitted with the DT2002 series two high speed high rotation accumulating shear head, which is operating in the Mt Gambier (Green Triangle) region falling and accumulating plantation eucalyptus trees ready for processing through an infield debarking and chipping system.

He made the purchase through Lex McLean, principal of the Tumut-based Forest Centre.

Les and Lex go way back ... “I met him when he first came here from New Zealand and we were in a chipping operation together with Midway. Way, way back I sold him a cable logger when he was operating in the Ottways, so we go back quite a bit,” says Les. “I started 30 plus years ago as a cable logger. We go back to the

ANM logging days in the really big wood. We’ve operated 190ft towers and 70ft towers down here.

I suppose in the boom days we were logging a quarter of a million tons of a wood a year and carting a half a million. I started off in a little workshop in Youngtown where I still am - 35 years ago as a mechanic.

“The reason we went into logging was we were very big in transport and decided that what we cart we were going to harvest and that’s probably paid off,” says Les. And this brings us to the present and the new feller buncher.

“We did a study into the terrain where work and talked to other Tigercat operators,” he said, “and we went and had a look over a few fences with out people knowing,” he quipped.

“We believe that for what we are doing it’s the best machine; the best choice for our conditions.”

Les said there were a number of things that stood out with the new machine ... “the accessibility of the engine, the driver comfort and this high rotation wrist thing was very intriguing to me and I’ve never driven this sort of machine ever but I can only be guided by my

operators and they’re in love with the thing”.

The DT2002 high speed shear head is a plus, too. “We’ve had shear heads before on excavator converted things and I’ve been a bit of an advocate for shears for a lot of years. Even though we’re chipping contractors wood’s got to be sheared properly otherwise you get a lot of fragment and the when it first hits the chipper wheel it flies apart.

“It’s the ease of operation. A designated feller buncher with that type of head and the high wrist; you just don’t work your machine as long.

“We don’t operate the machine as long to get the same amount of wood. It frees up the man to do other things around the operation,” says Les. Powered by a Cummins QSB 6.7 litre [194kw] 260 HP 2200 RPM 24 valve Tier III engine, the 855C boasts retracting clamshell style engine enclosure and easy access to all components; hydraulic pumps and valves are separated from the engine; automatic variable fan speed for improved fuel efficiency; automatic reversing cycle to easily clean the heat exchangers; quicker

 On site delivery (35km west of Penola): Hadleigh Barber (Forest Centre sales representative for South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania), Les Walkden (principal Les Walkden Enterprises), Craig Dixon (operator) and Michael Widdison (owner of Heavy Mechanical Services, Forest Centre’s Service Agent).

boom cycles and reduced operator fatigue; spacious, comfortable, well finished interior; long track frames and wide carbody for excellent stability.The high capacity 2000 series shear boasts quick cycles times, low maintenance; optional high rotation wrist; increased fibre recovery because the shear can cut lower to the ground and the disc saw kerf is eliminated; lower maintenance costs in rocky or sandy soil conditions

Les’ final summation of the new Tigercat … “the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It’s really done nothing yet, so let’s hope it’ as good as we believe it will be”.

Lex said that Forest Centre now had a total of 22 Tigercat Feller Bunchers with the High speed Accumulating Shear Head out working; 13 units fitted with the New Series Two head, which was a development designed for Australia specially for felling and accumulating eucalyptus trees.

44 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

Appointments

Clean Energy Regulator chief appointed C

HLOE MUNRO has been appointed Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the new Clean Energy Regulator. To be established from 2 April 2012, the Clean Energy Regulator will implement and administer the carbon price mechanism, the National Greenhouse Energy Reporting Scheme, the Renewable Energy Target, the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units and the Carbon Farming Initiative.

Munro is currently the Chair of the National Water Commission and brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously worked in other environmental and energy fields.

The Clean Energy Regulator will be an

independent statutory authority based in Canberra. It is set up by the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011.

It will comprise of a Chair (who will also be the Chief Executive Officer) and between two and four expert members.

The announcement of these additional members is expected to be made prior to the establishment of the agency in April.

In the interim, existing arrangements for the National Greenhouse Energy Reporting Scheme, the Renewable Energy Target and the Carbon Farming Initiative will continue as usual.

Since May 2011, Munro has been the Chair of the National Water Commission.

She is also the Independent Non-executive Chairman of AquaSure, the consortium building Victoria's desalination plant and a Non-executive Director of Hydro Tasmania.

Until July 2009, she was an Executive Director at Telstra. She held leadership positions in human resources, business operations, information technology, public policy and communications and customer service.

Serving in the Victorian public sector between September 1996 and February 2004, Munro held the positions of Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries, Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, and Deputy

Secretary in the Department of Treasury and Finance.

She has been a member of the board of Food Science Australia and a Commissioner and Deputy President of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

Munro holds master's degrees in mathematics and philosophy from Cambridge University and in business administration from Westminster University. She is a national and Victorian Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and was awarded a Centenary Medal for outstanding contribution to public administration in 2001.

Helping to get the message across

Extensive timber industry connections

NIGEL CATCHLOVE is the new communications manager for the Australian Forest Products Association, having previously worked in a communications consultancy specialising in strategic communications, project communications, media relations and effective writing.

His experience is not only in media relations and external communications but also in internal communications and issues management.

Nigel has years of experience working for Government as well as major multinational industries. A retired Army Officer and graduate of the Army’s Command and Staff College, Nigel holds a Masters Degree in Defence Operations, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Public Relations. Nigel has worked as Senior Manager Communications for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Senior Adviser Marketing Communications for Airservices Australia and Public Relations Manager for Raytheon Australia in addition to having had a successful military career.

“I think the forestry industry in Australia is at a tipping point,” he said. “It is imperative

ROBERT GREEN, the new chief executive officer of VicForests, has worked extensively with public and private organisations in the timber industry in both the growing and processing sectors.

He had been acting CEO for three months prior to his appointment.

“He has shown a strong feel for the challenges facing VicForests’ business, as well as demonstrating his well-developed commercial skills,” said VicForests’ board chair Gordon Davis.

“The native timber industry is a dynamic and complex environment and we believe Robert is the right person to take the industry forward in Victoria,” he said.

Davis said this was an exciting time for the timber industry.

“The Government’s announcement of its Timber Industry Action Plan provides the industry in Victoria with much-needed confidence and certainty,” he said.

“Like many processing industries, the timber industry has faced difficult global market conditions including a slowdown in housing sector growth and the high value of the Australia dollar.

that communicators from across the forestry industry work hard and work together to get the message across that timber is a truly sustainable resource that can also make a valuable contribution to our economy.”

“However, with a clear plan for the future and commitment around resource security the industry can invest in a range of valueadding initiatives.

“Part of Robert’s role will be to enable VicForests to support the various priorities listed in the Timber Industry Action Plan including ensuring harvesting levels remain sustainable and undertaking a review of VicForests’ sales mechanisms,” Davis said.

Make safety improvements today, because tomorrow may be too late Ian Forsyth, Executive Director of Health and Safety and Deputy Chief Executive of WorkSafe, brings a timely warning to all IF EVER there was a reminder of the need to review workplace safety and systems of work, it was the tragic events of the final two months of 2011.

While during the year Victoria was again confirmed as having the safest workplaces in our history and across the country in terms of injury rates, November and December recorded our largest cluster of workplace deaths for many years.

The nine deaths across two months leading into the new year served as a stark reminder of where we’ve come from: put simply, they were a reminder of the ‘bad old days’.

Obviously, one death is one too many and the 25 recorded in 2011 had increased by two deaths on the previous year.

Eight of last year’s deaths were in the manufacturing and logistics sector and another eight were in agriculture.

Our message is very clear - don’t wait for an incident or for WorkSafe’s inspectors to knock on the door before reviewing your approach to safety.

Revisiting and revising past approaches, practices and habits can be challenging, but so is dealing with the after-effects of a safety incident, particularly if it results in a serious injury or death.

WorkSafe conducts around 40,000 workplace visits a year and provide information and support to businesses and workers.

In addition to our information and inspection efforts, in the last half of 2011 there has been a significant increase in our investigation and prosecution activities.

In the second half of 2011, we launched 57 OHS prosecutions, 60% more than the same period the previous year, and the trend is continuing early in 2012.

The WorkSafe team looks forward to working with Victorian employers, workers and their representatives in 2012 to again

strive for a record safety results. In the early months of this year we’ll be engaging with a broad range of stakeholders as we develop a new five-year strategy for our business, with particular emphasis on health and safety, and encouraging enhanced return to work outcomes for workers who are injured.

While Victorian workplaces have never been safer in terms of injury rates and our employers pay the lowest average workplace injury insurance premium in the country, these positions can only be maintained and improved if everyone does what they can to make workplaces as safe as possible.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 45

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New era heralds new technology T

HE ASIAN timber industry’s rapid move to sustainability, including the rise of the plantation timber sector, has seen the region eager to secure the latest technology to gain productivity and efficiency advantages.

While much of the industry is still harvesting by traditional techniques, and the issue of illegal logging is far from resolved, progressive companies have been keen to adapt the latest forestry management techniques and skills to ensure long term productivity and provide greater long term security.

Driven by world demand for the highly durable timbers, the Asian plantation timber industry requires technical efficiency and skills development to ensure viability.

Globally, the plantation timber industry has grown to become a dominant force in a sustainable approach to forestry and Asia’s move in this regard is inevitable.

In countries like Indonesia old style practices and illegal logging are coming under increasingly intense scrutiny, and the industry must continue to move to sustainable practices such as managed plantation forestry projects if it is to survive.

The industry also needs to be competitive in global markets and moves toward the use of highly evolved and proven forestry

machinery will improve productivity and efficiency.

Traditional forestry methods such as hand felling have little to no place in the new enterprises, and the use of less efficient forestry equipment will not sustain productivity. The technology simply cannot keep pace, or deliver the yields required of benchmarked operations.

As a new era in Asian forestry continues to unfold, it heralds the arrival of a suite of specialised forestry technology to deliver real productivity gains and a genuine return on investment.

In some of Asia’s most important timber producing countries, work is also being done at ground level to ensure the industries smooth transition to sustainability.

With technical input and class leading products and service solutions from major industry suppliers such as Caterpillar, the industry is learning how to implement forestry practices to ensure a bright future.

As with many industry sectors around the globe, Caterpillar’s business is focused on supporting sustainable development – present day actions that consider future implications.

Caterpillar is providing solutions, services and products to make use of the natural resources but also reduce harmful

impacts on people, the environment and the economy. Caterpillar is partnering with many leading companies in Asia to provide the products and services needed to help them achieve their goals of sustainable forestry management.

Caterpillar customers such as Indonesia’s, PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya, has developed its timber and wood products business around socially and ecologically responsible practices and sustainable resources.

Some of the steps toward sustainability that Sumalindo has taken include preserving high quality residual stands of timber to help maintain eco-system balances; works to rehabilitate degraded areas by replanting native species and collaborating with external agencies and specialists to benchmark its enterprises.

The company has committed to the Indonesian Government’s sustainable forestry development programs, and will only purchase legally harvested timber to fill its own supply gaps.

At the sharp end of the development of a sustainable timber industry in Asia is advanced, world-class technology.

Plantation forestry by design requires high efficiency harvesting and handling equipment to ensure calculated financial returns are achievable.

Cat on the prowl at AUSTimber

Caterpillar Forest Products will be hosting displays at both the pine and blue gum sites during the AUSTimber 2012. The highlight of the Cat® display will be the new Cat 568 Forest Machine (FM), Australia’s first new 500 Series Cat Forest Machine. The 568 features increased horsepower, more efficient hydraulics, longer track frames for more stability, and ground-level accessibility for maintenance. Other machines that will be featured at the Caterpillar site include track feller bunchers, forwarders, wheel loaders and multi-terrain loaders. The Caterpillar tents will include refreshments, giveaways, draws for prizes and merchandise for sale.

The latest technology not only improves production, but addresses issues such as workplace safety. The technology also assists companies develop a skilled labour pool - a move that will better assist in solving expected future labour shortages.

Critical to the success of plantation forestry is equipment such as Caterpillar’s range of feller bunchers, including wheeled and tracked models, wheeled and tracked skidders, highly mobile and manoeuvrable forwarders and a range of excavators designed specifically for forestry applications.

Whether used as single units or as a part of larger fleet of specialised equipment, Cat forestry products have been developed to provide maximum uptime, increased productivity and safety.

The range of Cat specialised forest machines, harvesters, forwarders, skidders and loaders can be fitted with the latest work tools to ensure high productivity, long service life and fuel efficient performance.

Caterpillar has developed a holistic approach to forestry management and sustainability. It is a strategy that is focused on developing improved forest management practices and harvesting systems that contribute to industry development and ecosystem diversity, but at the same time maximise timber recovery and productivity.

46 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

Kilns

New kiln system more kind on timber S

OUTHERN PINE Products’ managing director Mike Taylor has been in the timber industry for more than 30 years and he’s seen some changes during that time. However, he’s pretty impressed with the latest kiln drying system installed at SPP’s Stillwater site (near Greymouth on New Zealand’s west coast of the south island).

The new system is a Windsor Continuous Drying Kiln (CDK) which uses the automated moisture measurement system DryTrack Echo to control the rate of drying in conjunction with the Dryspec CDK management package. This ensures that the timber stacks are advanced precisely through the CDK (using the two automated hydraulic pusher units).

The Stillwater site previously operated other Windsor kilns -- a 21 metre batch kiln (a new kiln that was put in by the previous owners, which is now about 10 years old) and two 12 metre batch kilns (“older ones that we had transferred over from our site here”.)

“We lost our sawmill in a fire back in November 2009 and decided we would rebuild and put in a small log line as well, so it was really the drying capacity that we needed,” said Mike.

“We looked at several options and Windsor spoke to use about this continuous drying technology. We liked what we heard, particularly the reduction in energy costs, and we put in this CDK which also significantly increased our drying capacity.

“This continuous double track kiln is capable of drying about 50,000 cubic metres per annum.

“It was new technology but it had been tried and proven in the US. They (Windsor) had built a number of kilns over there.

“I believe we were the first ones using it for appearance grade lumber,” he said.

“The thing we’ve been very impressed with about the kilns is quality of the drying; it’s very easy on the timber. We dry on a 90 over 60 schedule and we find that the wood remains very straight and very good to process after. There’s very little stress on the timber,” he said.

The unit isn’t running at full capacity yet, though. “We still have to ramp up the mill,” Mike said.

However, Mike says he has noticed energy savings, but it’s hard to quantify as yet.

A CDK chamber has a reverse flow, double track design and incorporates pre-heating, drying, saturated cooling, equalizing and conditioning phases all in one extended chamber. The timber stacks traverse through the CDK in opposite directions on two tracks. The timber is automatically advanced, based on the moisture content of the timber exiting the main drying section by hydraulic stack pusher units.

The CDK chamber control is via our Dryspec kiln management program integrated with our DryTrack® Echo in-kiln moisture measurement system.

Most of the drying takes place in the central MD (main drying) section which to a large extent is the existing batch kilns. The purpose of the new CDK ER sections is to:

• Transfer heat from the hot dry timber to the wet cold timber for pre-heating • Transfer the heat/energy from the central drying section steam/ water vapour into the cold timber for pre-heating.

• Use the steam/water vapour from the central drying section plus the water vapour released from the cold timber as it pre-heats to equalize and condition the dry timber.

• To cool the air/steam/water

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vapour exiting both CDK ends (open doors).

All of these functions are performed by the circulating airflow in each ER section and the residence time in each section.

To get the best results from the equalizing and conditioning requires properly designing the residence time and the air flows in the ER sections based on the capability of the centre drying chamber.

The success of CDK’s is in the quality of the timber exiting the chambers. In order to accomplish this, the timber residence time and the drying environment in the MD section and the residence time and heat transfer in the ER sections must be properly controlled.

Indirect heated CDKs require a separate air supply and distribution system into the MD section for wetbulb control.

Windsor currently has six CDK systems in operation or under construction around the world.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 47

Kilns

Container kilns operational within hours S

OLAR DRYERS Australia, Bellingen, is the NSW designer/manufacturer of a range of unique solar/gas timber kilns.

These kilns have gained wide acceptance in the past few years with 120 units sold in Australia and abroad.

Sizes ranges from 10 m3 to 100 m3 and these kilns are characterized by heating costs of well under half that of any other type of kiln.

The auxiliary heating system ensures that drying times are the same as any other kiln, regardless of climate.

The smallest kilns in the range are the SG 10 and SG 20.

“SG” stands for Solar/ Gas and “10” or “20” refers to nominal m3 capacity in 25mm boards.

These kilns are based on 20’ or 40’ refrigerated shipping containers which are ideal for the purpose as they are well insulated and sealed; all inside surfaces are either stainless steel or aluminium.

Kilns are loaded using a track and trolley system. The stainless steel trolley is rolled out onto a fixed track outside the kiln where it is loaded by forklift and then pushed into the kiln.

The kilns are shipped to site with all the components packed inside the container. Re-assembly takes around half a day and the kiln is ready for operation.

No concrete footings are necessary. The kilns can be mounted on timber bearers sitting on the ground.

The advantage of these smaller kilns is the ease of assembly – about five hours - and the ability to move them to a different location at a later date if necessary.

The heating system in these small kilns is identical to SDA’s larger kilns.

An array of solar hot water panels is mounted on the roof of the kiln or on an adjacent building. Water is pumped in a closed circuit between the panels and the heat exchanger inside the kiln.

Heat is extracted from the water, which then returns to the panel array for re-heating.

An instantaneous gas water heater in the circuit heats the water if no solar is available.

Once a kiln temperature is selected at the control box the system automatically maintains this temperature using either solar or gas or a combination of both.

SDA also uses shipping containers to build Heat Treatment units for ISPM 15 treatment of export packaging.

SDA’s larger kilns range from 30 m3 up to 100 m3 and are often built in multiple units.

AST at Kempsey runs 13 of the SDA 50 & 75 m3 kilns and their company is the largest solar timber drying operation in the world.

For these multiple kiln sites SDA offers a full automatic SCADA control system that allows control from anywhere in the world.

HB Kilns KILNS custom built to your requirements

This BBC control system is fitted to four new 75m3 kilns at Port Moresby and they were managed

by SDA staff for the first six months from Bellingen via internet.

These PNG kilns also incorporate a new In-kiln Moisture Content Control.

One or more Weight Stations are placed inside the kiln, incorporating

load cells which constantly feed sample weights to our BBC Kiln Controller.

The controller incorporates a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), which translates the weights into an average moisture content for the sample boards on each Weight Station.

This current MC is displayed on a

SCADA computer screen, and this information is used to predict the end point for the drying process, and store a data log for the duration of the charge.

This system is also available as a retro-fit to any type of existing kilns.

SDA will be displaying this system at AUSTimber 2012, Mt Gambier on 29-30 March.

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Custom-built features available – • Vapour-tight perfect insulated drying kilns • Free-standing or in an existing building. Any size • Various door systems, all executed with solid stainless steel fittings • Very high quality insulation material – does not absorb moisture and is not flammable • Computer controlled -Timber moisture dependant or Time dependant • Heat pump condensation dryer • Energy saving fan controller • Reversible fans • Heat source can be – Hot water; Steam; Thermal oil; Gas or Oil fired • In addition to conventional Dry Kilns, executed with our well-known Heat pump Dehumidification system • Paper core drying

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• Unique concept of solar/gas kilns • Australian designed & built • The most energy efficient kilns available • Supplied fully assembled or in kit form • Kilns from 10m3 to 100m3 • Also, heat treatment units for ISPM 15

48 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

OPINION

Nouveau forest policy – Barking up the wrong trees

By David Bower

T

HERE ARE two recent statements made by Green politicians that are worthy of support. Firstly, that ‘all forests have high conservation value’ and secondly, that forest policy should be ‘implemented using sound conservation principles.’

Neither of these has been applied to the current debacle which has forged nouveau forest policy. A little basic biological and ecological knowledge applied in decision making processes over the past 30 years would have avoided any crisis in our forests.

Decisions appear to have been made in a knowledge vacuum by myopic, politically driven groups of individuals with little regard for and understanding of the social, economic or environmental impacts on the people of Tasmania and on the forests themselves.

Forest preservation does not equate to forest conservation.

Focus needs to be shifted away from putting HCV labels on forests with a view to locking them up in an even larger area of poorly managed reserves. Seeking answers to questions, such as, what are our conservation goals? how should we manage forests to achieve conservation goals? are much more worthy pursuits.

Applying some simple biology to forest management, it is obvious that our fire sensitive rainforest communities require long periods free from disturbance. The scientific understanding of these forests has lead to the exclusion of rainforest from forest harvesting in Tasmania. The majestic tall wet eucalypt forests, comprising much of the area to be tagged HCV, are very different. It is accepted that eucalypt forests are fire dependent.

In wet eucalypt forests it is common for 90%-100% of the eucalypts to be of the same age, arising form a single stand-destroying fire. Yes, in tall wet eucalypt forests the current generation must die before the next can arise. Eucalypt seed will only germinate on bare mineral soil, created naturally by intense forest fire. Therefore, the conservation of wet eucalypt forests becomes more complex than simply applying a HCV label then locking it up in a reserve. If there is no fire in a eucalypt forest within a 350 to 500 year period, the life span of a eucalypt, then the genes of these individuals will be lost forever.

The scientists suggest fires in the one in 100 to 300 year frequency range should maintain eucalypt domination with the maximum diversity in understorey species.

Another goal of forest conservation must be to maintain a range of forest age classes, at the landscape level, both regrowth and ecologically mature. A focus only on ‘old growth’ forest is

quite foolhardy. A plan for the distribution of forests communities across dimensions of time and space is essential.

Whilst reserving large areas of wilderness, where the wild takes care of itself is globally accepted, some consideration is required to the makeup up of that wilderness and the forces which shape it, particularly for fire dependent communities. Some 47% of our State is in a reserve of some kind.

These reserves have had little planned ecological burning and are largely at the mercy of wildfire as the tool of regeneration.

Bushfires in of 1897-1898 burnt out about a third of the State, including around a half of the area which is now Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA). Fires in 1933-1934 burnt out about a third of the now TWWHA, and since 1930 some 850,000ha of the TWWHA has been burnt. Hence, a substantial proportion the area which we have deemed to have World Heritage and HCV value is the result of being burnt out in the past 80 to 110 years; it barely qualifies as being ‘old growth.’ The majority of the above fires were lit by early European explorers attempting to ‘open up the country’.

Areas of forest, outside any reserve system, need to be actively managed, if only for risk management and controlling fire frequencies. Fire management needs to be part of forest conservation. We should not be ‘putting all our eggs into the one (forest reservation) basket’, where management is left to chance.

Current forest policy, and popular belief, is underpinned by the mis-truth that disturbance such as fire and timber harvesting destroy forests, and therefore, reservation and the prevention of disturbance must conserve them.

Policy based on this presumption is fundamentally flawed and may even lead to reductions in biodiversity values, with forest conservation being at the mercy of irregular intense uncontrolled wildfire, or an absence of fire.

Forest harvesting and regeneration burning are valuable tools in the conservation of eucalypt forests. It is a sound conservation principle to use the forestry industry to contribute to the planning and management of substantial areas of our fire dependent eucalypt forests.

State conservation agencies, even if adequately resourced, would be unlikely to embark on significant regeneration burning programs in wet sclerophyll forests. Firstly, they lack the political will. Secondly, there is great risk of not being able to control such fires. History has shown that fires in standing wet sclerophyll forests are both intense and extensive, often measured

in hundreds of thousands of hectares. The forest industry, with a proven forest regeneration and fire management system, has stood alone in undertaking the type of active management appropriate to wet sclerophyll ecology and conservation. The trees are made horizontal (harvested).

The coupes are small, of the order of 100ha in size. The slash is burnt in a controlled high intensity

fire and the area is then seeded, resulting in the next generation; excellent regrowth forests of high conservation value.

It is worthy of note, that between 1982 and around 2007 there were 521 forestry silvicultural regeneration burns carried out within 5km of TWWHA boundaries none of which escaped into the World heritage property.

The source of much of

material in this article is a Utas document ‘Fire management in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area: A report to the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, 2007. (Accessible on the internet) David Bower is a Graduate in Biological Sciences and has 18 years experience in forest management.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 49

OPINION

WA's regrowth forests thrive

‘Plots examined 40 years after disturbance show that biodiversity is indistinguishable from virgin forest’

By John Clarke

E

VEN AFTER 35 years working in the State's forests and plantations, I never tire of standing on the edge of Caves Road near Margaret River admiring the majesty of the Boranup karri forest, its tall trees gleaming in the dappled sunlight, the rich smell of the undergrowth, birds twittering.

Many people standing at that spot might reflect on how pleasing it is that all of WA's old-growth forests are reserved from timber harvesting.

But the Boranup forest, now a national park, isn't old growth.

The forest we admire is 100% regrowth. It was clear-felled late in the 19th century, a testament to the regenerative power of our native forests.

Many areas of forest are similar.

Consider the karri regeneration at Big Brook and Treen Brook forest blocks near Pemberton, arguably that area's most popular tourist destination.

Consider the magnificent jarrah regrowth forests stretching from Dwellingup through Harvey and Collie, Kirup and Balingup, Bridgetown and Nannup.

These forests have been harvested for timber on more than one occasion. They stand today as fine examples of regrowth forest yet they continue to attract protesters who are often prepared to step outside the law in their bid to disrupt sustainable harvesting.

Ironically, areas of forest which are totally dug up for mineral wealth receive no such attention.

Some people might remember past protests and blockades, especially in the 1980s and 90s.

Forest block names such as Graphite, Wattle, Giblett and Shannon spring to mind. In every case, despite cries to save those forests from destruction, areas harvested are now displaying healthy, productive regrowth which will be available for harvesting again in the future.

Our forests have evolved over millennia and readily cope with disturbance. Moreover, fauna and flora are highly adaptable to change.

There is little wonder that monitoring the effects of harvesting has shown that biodiversity is under no threat from sustainable harvesting.

In fact, scientific data suggest that our forests are thriving.

The long-term project, ForestCheck, managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation, monitors 48 plots across the breadth of the forest, comparing biodiversity in harvested areas with undisturbed areas.

No species has been "lost" Plots harvested in the 1990s have rapidly recovered, so much so that after less than 20 years in many cases biodiversity is similar to undisturbed forest. Plots examined 40 years after disturbance show that biodiversity is indistinguishable from virgin forest.

West Australians should be proud of their timber heritage, but also thankful there is a profession known as "forestry". The first settlers worked hard to clear patches of jarrah, karri and wandoo to create farmland and build houses and infrastructure. They had little concern for conservation or sustainable forest management.

Timber harvesting was not managed until Charles Lane Poole, an intelligent and dogged young English forester, drafted the first Forests Act in 1918. That resulted in some two million hectares of south-west native forests being reserved from clearing for agriculture and the establishment of the Forests Department to protect and manage the forests and oversee the associated timber industry.

Those forests and that timber industry are still going strong. They play an integral role in fostering the social and economic fabric of the South West by employing over 5000 people directly and providing timber products that we all value.

We often hear the cry to save the "last" remaining patch of forest as if it were an island in the midst of desolation. These calls to stop harvesting are unfounded. We should ask why these forests and the full range of animals and plants have survived after 150 years of harvesting and burning. The reality is the scale of harvesting is within the natural levels of disturbance. A tiny 0.5% of the forest is harvested each year.

The real threats to our species are well known. Habitat loss happens

when forest is permanently cleared, not when it is sustainably harvested. Foxes and cats are the predators, not chainsaws.

Similarly, black cockatoos are vulnerable to permanent clearing, competition for nest sites by feral bees and other parrots and irregular seeding cycles exacerbated by drought, not sustainable harvesting with retention of thousands of habitat trees.

The option of doing nothing in the face of climate change will be a death sentence to many of our unique species. Large areas of forest will likely collapse from reduced rainfall, with the most vulnerable areas being forest streams, wetlands and rock outcrops; all areas where species richness is high.

Water tables in the northern jarrah forest have already fallen 10m since the 1990s, and projections by the Water Corporation suggest they will continue to fall in coming decades. This will see our perennial forest streams turn into pools and eventually the pools into dust.

Vegetation surrounding these streams will die out as will dependent species such as the quokka, quenda and red-eared firetail finch. It is very possible our dams will become near-empty white elephants. Perth will need to find an additional 90 gigalitres of water from expensive and greenhouse-unfriendly sources like desalination plants.

There is, however, an opportunity to protect some of the forests from climate change and at the same time sustain a low-cost public water supply from our forests. The northern jarrah forests should be thinned where there is sufficient rainfall to promote run-off for both environmental and public benefit.

This water will come at a fraction of the cost of desalinated water, it will use a fraction of the energy and it will produce a fraction of the greenhouse gases.

The sustainable management of our forests is self-evident if you stand on Caves Road. The timber that was harvested more than 100 years ago has regrown. It is a gift of nature that careful stewardship of the forest will see it grow and regrow for the benefit of today's and tomorrow's generations.

John Clarke is a professional forester and chairman of the WA Division of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.

Corporate campaigns a cause for concern

By Senator Eric Abetz CONSUMERS, WORKERS and businesses are all entitled to protection from misinformation, harassment and intimidation as part of so-called ‘corporate campaigns’. This year has seen an upsurge in such activity.

In Tasmania the timber company Ta Ann has been forced to axe 40 jobs from its Huon and Smithton mills due to a rolling campaign of misinformation undertaken by Green groups maliciously targeting Ta Ann’s international buyers.

Ta Ann’s business partners in Japan and the United Kingdom have been deliberately targeted in a despicable misinformation campaign

by Labor’s minority partners in Government - the Greens and their associated environmental groups - who accuse Ta Ann of destroying Tasmania’s old growth forests. This sort of intimidatory madness must stop. The fact is that under the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement Ta Ann’s veneer manufacturing business uses sustainable and certified timber sourced from regrowth and plantation timber.

This fact has been deliberately overlooked by Greens Leader, Senator Brown. Senator Brown should be reminded that the trees currently used by Ta Ann in their manufacturing processes are in fact younger than Senator Brown himself.

Another recent example of misguided corporate campaigns by environmental groups involves retailer Harvey Norman which was targeted by organisations claiming to champion the environment falsely asserting that Tasmanian native timber harvesting is unsustainable.

They embarked on a campaign directed at Harvey Norman’s customers seeking to have the offending products discontinued.

In this type of campaign consumers are misled and are dissuaded from their previous product choice.

The fact is that Tasmania’s sustainably harvested blackwood forest timbers are harvested under one of the strictest - if not the strictest regimes of forest management in the world.

But swayed by activists’ lies, the unwitting consumer avoids Australian grown and manufactured product in favour of environmentally questionable product sourced from countries with less rigorous standards, thereby damaging Australian jobs and the environment - all in the name of the environment.

This year another disgraceful and unconscionable campaign was conducted by the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, supported by members of the Australian Greens, against Max Brenner chocolate shops.

The fact that the Max Brenner chain is Israeli owned was seen as a vulnerability by those campaigning for ‘justice’ in the Middle East, especially Palestine. The Max Brenner boycott campaign had the distasteful addition of anti-Semitism.

Recently Greenpeace scared Bakers Delight customers by saying they would soon be eating bread made from genetically modified wheat – exacting a promise from Bakers Delight not to use GM wheat in their baked goods – despite the fact that GM wheat is still being trialled and could not be used in Australia for at least four years.

Corporate campaigns are also conducted by trade unions, as a means of exacting concessions from employers. Sometimes these union corporate campaigns “cross over” the campaigns of consumer, environmental and other activists.

The ACTU teaches that “corporate campaigning involves finding out as much as possible about a company… with a view to finding areas of leverage or pressure which can be used to offset any opposition by the company to the Union’s organising campaign”.1 In the last decade Rio Tinto was the target of shareholder type corporate campaigns by trade unions.

We recently witnessed the CMFEU - a Qantas shareholder - trying to prevail upon other shareholders to call an Extraordinary General Meeting in order to inflict brand damage on Qantas and impose its workplace agenda.

After the last election the Left-wing activist group GetUp! signalled it would expand its corporate campaigning agenda and other groups are following suit.

Much of the corporate campaigning we have witnessed in recent times is akin to blackmail engaged in by self-appointed activists.

These gatekeepers purport to campaign for ‘ethical commerce’ whilst engaging in some of the most unethical tactics imaginable.

They clearly take their cue from the old Left/Green Handbook which lets them justify their unprincipled means for the allegedly ‘principled’ ends.

These tactics, if engaged in by one business against another, would have the regulators resorting to the law to deal with the perpetrators – quite rightly.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be in full swing, condemning anti-competitive behaviours and looking to prosecute. continued next page.

50 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

OPINION

Death of biofuels a big threat to New Zealand’s low carbon future T

HE BIOENERGY Association of New Zealand (BANZ) says it is concerned at reports the Government may not continue its commitment to biofuels.

Kevin Snowdon, convener of the BANZ Liquid Biofuels Interest Group, says that the current Government support for biofuels (which includes biodiesel and bioethanol) assists the growing New Zealand biofuels manufacturing industry make biofuels available to vehicle users.

“Providing biofuel is a very important measure at this point as it has encouraged the commercial adoption of environmentally responsible fuels by the likes of Gull Petroleum. Since 2007 biofuels have been adopted as a great alternative by tens of thousands of Kiwi motorists as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The end of the support for biofuels would mean the death of biofuels and New Zealand should not allow this to happen,” says Snowden. “It would also send a significant signal to the whole renewable energy community that the Government is not serious about initiatives that

support its climate change and other environmental measures”.

Brian Cox, executive officer of BANZ said any move to drop the support for biofuels would be a retrograde step that would expose New Zealand as playing lip service to its obligations under the Kyoto and Copenhagen initiatives.

“The emerging biofuels sector could be supplying 30% of New Zealand’s transport fuels by 2040 but that will be put back significantly as investors will have been given the message that New Zealand is not interested.

“Biofuels are made from New Zealand’s natural resources and their production provide a significant economic stimulus which can lead to a $6billion industry within a short period of time. This is only achievable if investors and fuel users have confidence in their quality and availability. Today’s production of biofuel leads to providing that confidence.”

Cox said that New Zealand had a real chance, with the adoption of biofuels, to make an impact on reducing its greenhouse gas emissions especially in the transport fleet and so this needed

to be retained and if anything supported even more.

Cox also says that every Government around the world supports its own biofuels industry particularly those that use locally sourced, sustainable and reliable natural resources that can reduce dependence on imported fuels. In New Zealand there have been a significant number of jobs created and hundreds more could be created if there was a continuing support from the government that provided investor confidence.

“In this world of rising fuel prices and global warming, biofuels have come of age and we all recognise that as an alternative energy supply they make sense in every way – financially, environmentally and politically. New Zealand now has the basis of a biofuels industry producing supplies from byproducts of the dairy industry (whey to ethanol) as well as used cooking oil and New Zealand grown canola.

Biofuel is a very viable, low cost and carbon neutral alternative that reduces New Zealand’s dependence on imported fuel stocks so the Government should be doing everything it can to support the industry’s development.

 Kevin Snowdon, convener of the BANZ Liquid Biofuels Interest Group.

 B rian Cox, executive officer of BANZ.

“The current support scheme for biodiesel expires on 30 June this year and an excise tax exemption for ethanol is due for review this year as well. It is unacceptable that industry is left in limbo not knowing the outcome of these schemes.

Our members are unable to make investment decisions or execute forward contracts,” Cox said.

He said that because of the ongoing uncertainty sales of biofuels were already beginning to slip.

BANZ is aware of a number of fleet owners across the board who are keen to make a commitment to liquid biofuels but are unable to because of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the industry in New Zealand.

No quick fix for Australia’s future energy challenge “AUSTRALIA WILL struggle to meet its carbon emissions targets and at the same time produce electricity at a reasonable price unless governments act to reduce the costs of low-emission technologies,” according to Grattan Institute’s Energy Program Director, Tony Wood.

Launching Grattan’s new report, No easy choices: which way to Australia’s energy future?, Wood said that while markets must be the primary mechanism by which Australia transforms its electricity supply, governments had to introduce new policies to support the carbon pricing scheme.

“Carbon pricing will help to make low-emission technologies competitive, but in the long run it is not nearly enough,” he said.

Grattan’s report assesses the prospects for seven technologies that generate electricity with nearzero emissions and that have the prospect of deployment at large scale over the next 40 years.

They are wind, solar PV, concentrating solar thermal, geothermal, carbon capture and storage, bioenergy and nuclear power.

The report finds that all seven face obstacles to achieving their potential. Any might contribute significantly to meeting Australia’s electricity needs, but there is no guarantee that any will deliver at a cost acceptable to the public.

“There are no quick fixes or easy choices for Australia’s energy future,” Wood said.

“How Governments should step in is an acute intellectual and policy challenge. Yet Australia’s move to a low-carbon future will be too expensive unless they do.”

Wood said that Governments had to steer a course between, on the one hand, inadequate support for low-emission technologies, and on the other, picking winners or unduly favouring one technology over another. They should also avoid grant tendering and rebate programs, which previous Grattan research has found to be spectacularly unsuccessful in either developing technologies or in reducing emissions.

The report lays out the key decisions Governments should take.

The Commonwealth should ensure that the carbon pricing scheme works properly by setting clear, long-term emission caps, and regularly reviewing the scheme’s functioning.

Beyond that, all Governments should act to ensure there is a level playing field for all powergenerating technologies.

They should remove the obstacles that impede technologies such as wind and geothermal from connecting at large-scale to electricity grids that were built around the needs of very large fossil-fuel plants.

They should end subsidies to existing technologies, such as the one announced recently by the New South Wales

Government for coal production.

They should also work to reduce the considerable difficulties lowemission technology projects face in overcoming market barriers and obtaining finance at an acceptable cost.

“Government support could include backing for research and development, and sponsoring exploration, demonstration and early-stage deployment of lowemission technologies,” Wood said.

“However, the good news is that Australia is blessed with a range of low-emission technology options. For now, it makes sense for Government to give them all a chance to thrive.”

Corporate campaigns a cause for concern continued from previous page.

However, under current legislation, boycotts for environmental or consumer purposes are exempted from such sanctions.

What is illegal for business is legal for environment and consumer NGOs. Corporate campaigns have been called “the death of a thousand cuts” and are designed to simply wear a business down. It is used against international companies as well and in particular their Chief Executive Officers, Directors and Board members. These become the target of spam emails, late night phone calls, knocks on the door in the middle of the night, demonstrations outside offices, and at shareholder meetings or AGMs.

Not unreasonably, those targeted do seek the quiet life and might question continuing to use a particular product or practice when another might be just as good without attracting protests and boycotts. While this may be an understandable thought process, its unreasonableness lies in the fact that once such a mindset takes over the CEO, the directors or the members of the Board, the activists win and become emboldened.

Consumers, suppliers and workers will all have lost.

Moreover such a mindset ignores the fact that they might find themselves the victims next time when somebody else will be seeking the easy way out.

That is why firm leadership is necessary by all in the

community to fight against what has been a growing trend of blackmailing schemes, some dressed up as certification schemes or consumer activist campaigns.

We all believe in the right to freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate, but there surely is also the right to conduct commerce free from misrepresentation, intimidation and harassment. Given the unfortunate trend that has been developing over the past decade and seen an upsurge this last year, a more effective legislative response by way of change to the Competition and Consumer Act is needed - and urgently.

Senator Eric Abetz is Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and a Liberal Senator for Tasmania

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 51

Three-theme base for major conference in NZ THE NEW Zealand Institute of Forestry’s 2012 conference in Christchurch, 1-4 July, will be operating under the theme Engineering value: Growing and harvesting forests for novel wood structures.

Theme 1 Forest growing Advanced technologies offer new ways to grow and monitor crops.

With a rise in structural log prices relative to pruned log prices, foresters are choosing to grow structural wood, but with a legacy of decisionmaking focused on clearwood. It is vital that new structural regimes are right, and new research findings relevant to this will be highlighted during the conference; new ways of measuring structural wood quality as well as enhanced technologies for resource monitoring, and more are on the horizon. These techniques will be showcased at the conference.

Theme 2 Forest harvesting, roading, infrastructure The next decade will see more harvesting in steep and difficult terrain and solutions for slope instability will be crucial. In addition, there is a need to improve the environmental performance, cost-effectiveness and safety of harvesting infrastructure, particularly as log prices have not kept pace with costs over the last few years. If that wasn't enough, we also require structural quality assessment of logs at time of

harvest and better linkages with market demands. Couple all this with an efficient supply chain and we can be much more competitive. New tools are being developed to support these endeavours, including advances in geospatial technologies and their software applications, log making optimisers, smart wood quality sensors on harvesting machinery, and refined systems for deployment of harvesting crews. Potential new markets, such as the supply of biomass as a sustainable energy alternative, will be developed to maximize the value we extract from our forests, and this will add new dimensions to harvesting and

roading.

Integrating these exciting technologies will be a major theme of the conference.

Theme 3 Engineered wood products Until recently, building design in New Zealand mostly overlooked wood as anything beyond a decorative feature or a residential framing material.

However, developments in engineered wood products are changing this view, with a generation of building designs moving away from the concept

Invasive pest spells death knell for region’s eucalyptus trees THE EUCALYPTUS tree known for its commercial purposes is under threat of extinction in three East African countries and South Africa, after invasion by a new foreign pest.

The tree used for electric poles, building materials and firewood is drying at an alarming rate in Western Kenya, South Coast, Rift Valley and parts of Eastern province after invasive Bronze Bug, (Thaumastocoris peregrines) invaded the country according to a report by Kenya Forest Research Institute (Kefri).

In Kenya, most affected areas are Lunga Lunga in Kwale County, Busia and Kibwezi, while central province and Nakuru are moderately affected according to Principal Entomologist at Kefri, Eston

Mutitu. “I am currently doing a survey around the country. The eucalyptus tree is under a great threat unless something is done urgently,” he warns.

In Kenya, 300,000 hectares are under Eucalyptus in large and small scale farming.

According to research, the bug is sucking sap from leaves causing the tree canopy to redden in progressive attacks.

During heavy infestation, trees lose their leaves while branch tips or the whole tree may die.

The attacks are intensive during dry season in the months of October and February.

The pest is attacking specific Eucalyptus species (Eucalyptus Grandis

and hybrid clones) and was first reported in Kenya in November 2009 in Kiserian region, Kajiado county.

While it was not serious, it prompted Mutitu to start his survey. In December last year, he says the pest spread drastically.

“My biggest worry is that the Eucalyptus tree is now being attacked by two different pests,” said Mutitu.

The other pest is blue gum chalcid, (Leptocybe invasa) which is also invasive and is threatening the productivity of the eucalyptus species.

The two have been found largely in Ethiopia but the bronze bug, says Mutitu, originated from Australia, spreading to Africa and South America.

Forestry sale to prop up Government infrastructure THE DEMOCRATIC Alliance (DA) is proposing a R55.4 billion sell-off of Stateowned enterprises, including South African Forestry Corporation, to accelerate the Government’s infrastructure investment program and boost growth without raising the budget deficit to unsustainable levels.

Privatisation was just one of a number of proposals the DA made in its "alternative budget" for 2012.

However, selling off assets is not a proposal likely to resonate either with the Government, which is committed to the notion of a developmental state involving even more state intervention in the economy than at present. Nor is it likely to be well received by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) which is strongly opposed to any form of privatisation.

DA finance spokesman Tim Harris

insisted privatisation was preferable to escalating transport and electricity tariffs, which undermined SA’s global competitiveness and was in line with the "Brazilian model" as seen in the recent sale of a 51% stake in Sao Paulo airport for more than R70bn.

Included in the basket of assets which the DA believed should be sold off were SAASA Express (R2.9bn), 30% of Eskom’s power generation capacity (R26bn), SABC (R850m), Denel (R654m), South African Forestry Corporation (R708m), Broadband Infraco (R1.6bn), 30% of Portnet’s assets (R13.5bn) and assets held by the Industrial Development Corporation (R9bn).

Irish trees earmarked for sale in 3 billioneuro state sell-off Ireland may sell timber, parts of its energy companies and a stake in airline Aer

Lingus Group to raise as much as 3 billion euros ($4 billion), as the country seeks to regain its economic sovereignty.

The government today detailed a plan to sell power stations and the energy unit of Bord Gais Eireann, and said it will consider the sale of assets belonging to state forestry company Coillte and its 25% stake in Aer Lingus.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny expects the sales to begin next year at the earliest.

“The concern is that this money will be wasted on schemes that do not bring any economic benefit,” said Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Dublin-based securities firm Davy. “A lot of economic literature shows that the benefit of government employment training schemes is close to zero. Maybe the money could be better spent just paying down debt.”

of ‘controlled failure’ to ‘damage avoidance’ during a devastating event. Overseas, multi-storey engineered-wood buildings are on the rise, while here in New Zealand three companies are leading the way in engineered wood products, competing with concrete and steel in multistorey, long-span and insulated, pre-fabricated building design.

The conference will highlight the latest developments in engineered-wood products, and what future requirements of the wood processing industry may be.

For more information go to www.nzifconference.co.nz

Furore over forest ownership SCOTLAND has the smallest amount of forest in public ownership of any country in Europe. The vast majority of forestry in Scotland is in the possession of a small number of landed estates, with many of the owners living abroad.

A report, Forest Ownership in Scotland: A Scoping Study, calls for steps to be taken to change the pattern of ownership, claiming that it “may not be optimal for securing the full suite of potential public benefits”.

Author Andy Wightman, who wrote the report for the Forest Policy Group, concludes: “Most European countries present a very different history and pattern of forest ownership with widespread small-scale ownership, family ownership, resident ownership and municipal and cooperative ownership.

“Scotland, by contrast, has inherited a feudal, statist and elite monied state of affairs.”

Using sample areas of Scotland, he calculated that other than the third of the country’s forest owned by the Government and managed by the Forestry Commission, 91% is owned by landed estates or investment owners. More than half (55%) is owned by absentees and a third (32%) of the private owners live outside Scotland.

“Scotland’s forest resource is thus dominated by the state, landed estates and forestry investors,” he said. “The big contrast with other European countries is the insignificant proportion owned here by individual resident owners, farmers, cooperatives, and municipalities.”

Whereas 60% of European forest holdings are less than a hectare, in Scotland this drops to 6%. Instead, nine-tenths of Scotland’s privately owned forest area is held in holdings of more than 100 hectares.

Wightman also hit out at the Scottish Government and Forestry Commission Scotland for gathering and publishing minimal information about patterns of ownership.

Wightman, who studied forestry at the University of Aberdeen, is author of Who Owns Scotland? Source: Scotsman.com

52 – April 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News

45 countries attend World Bioenergy preview in Jönköping T

HE MESSAGE about bioenergy’s opportunities is now being spread around the world. In the lead-up to the World Bioenergy 2012 conference and trade fair that will be held in Jönköping, Sweden, 29-31 May, organisers Svebio and Elmia held a “Tea View” event to present the upcoming event to ambassadors and foreign trade offices. A total of 86 diplomats from 45 countries, including 11 ambassadors, came to find out more about bioenergy.

“The large attendance reflects the great interest in bioenergy around the world,” said Tomas Kåberger, chairman of Japan Renewable Energy Foundation and chairman of World Bioenergy 2012. “There is a lot of interest in finding out everything that is happening in the bioenergy sector in Sweden since bioenergy is Sweden’s largest energy source with over 30 % of the energy supply. The aim of World Bioenergy is to combine the latest research with demonstrations of functioning bioenergy solutions, and also to provide a meeting place for business deals.”

World Bioenergy is a tradition

for Advantage Austria – no fewer than 12 companies will share its stand “We’ve participated every time since the beginning in 2004,” said the embassy’s trade attaché, Dietmar Schwank.

“We’re bringing 12 bioenergy companies from Austria to World Bioenergy. The companies cover a broad range within the bioenergy sector, from biofuel preparation and biogas for diesel, to boilers.

Some of them already have distributors in Sweden whilst others are new to the market and want to find representatives. They all have expert knowledge of their field. Like Sweden, Austria is a leading bioenergy nation. Several other companies from Austria will also have their own stands at World Bioenergy, such as Andritz and Strabag Energy & Environment.”

German ambassador Harald Kindermann stressed that the development of renewable energy must be market oriented if it is to have the right driving forces. Due to the phasing out of the German nuclear power, the German people are increasingly aware that they

must change their lifestyle to achieve a sustainable society, not least in terms of energy consumption. This awareness increases the possibilities of developing sustainable energy alternatives. Kindermann also emphasized the importance of improving energy efficiency, and wants to work for a unified energy market in Europe.

The managing director of the Swedish Bioenergy Association Svebio, Gustav Melin, reminded the assembled diplomats that bioenergy currently supplies 32% of Sweden’s energy needs, and has overtaken oil as the nation’s largest energy source. He also presented data showing that bioenergy is by far the largest renewable energy source in the EU and will increase the most relative to other sources from now until 2020.

Organised every second year this major global bioenergy gettogether is based on the unique “Taking you from Know-How to Show-How” concept, combining tradeshow, conference sessions, field excursions and matchmaking into one comprehensive event.

 Trade attaché Dietmar Schwank and commercial counsellor Peter Sedlmayer, both with the Embassy of Austria in Stockholm, took 12 Austrian companies to World Bioenergy 2012 preview. Photo: Anders Haaker

Several themes for world-leading bioenergy conference World Bioenergy, to be held in Jonkoping, Sweden, 2931 May, has successfully evolved during the years. Industrialists are attracted by the opportunities not only to hear about, but also to get hands on experience.

Opportunities are provided not only at the fair and demonstration sites but also through daily afternoon tours and the fullday pre- and post-conference transfer tours from the airports in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

This year’s premier event will feature six main themes: World Pellets 2012… is an integrated part of World Bioenergy 2012. A three-day "conference in the conference" covering all aspects of pellets: raw material potentials, innovative pellets production systems, torrefaction, new combustion technologies, trade and market development, health and safety aspects, etc.

Market outlook… Policy and targets for renewable energy to find an alternative to fossil energy are being put in place, increasing the demand for sustainable modern bioenergy. Global trade and improved logistics open up to the markets. To facilitate international trade in bioenergy commodities, new trading places and indexes are needed, as well as generally accepted standards.

Supply and demand must meet to guarantee stable prices. In this session you learn all about current market development, including drivers like incentives and policies.

Energy systems … Modern bioenergy is a young industry.

Therefore, technical development

is rapid, with many new innovations. This session focuses on technical development in the whole bioenergy chain, from harvesting of forest residues to combustion technologies and cofiring. Optimal use of biomass through district heating or cooling - small scale and large scale - and CHP technology for electricity production.

Transportation… A non-fossil transport sector is a huge societal challenge. Biofuels for transport are under rapid development with new methods and feedstock.

Critical factors Sustainability, economy are critical factors but also adaptability to the current transport systems.

The biofuels need efficient vehicles and motors, to be competitive with other transport solutions.

New alternatives emerge, beside ethanol, biodiesel, electricity and biogas. How will the transport sector evolve within the coming years?

Biorefinery… Biorefineries with co-production of liquid, gaseous and solid biofuels with power, heat and chemicals for efficient and optimal use of biomass is the way forward. But strategies, business models, and technological choices are numerous - torrefaction, pyrolysis, enzymatic evolution, thermal gasification, biogas, syngas production, etc. All major biobased industries are today considering biorefinery concepts.

The sessions aim to showcase the current state-of-the-art: the projects, and the technological developments.

Sustainability day… Can we achieve a sustainable market growth for modern bioenergy? This is a common theme for all actors in the bioenergy business sector.

The last day of World Bioenergy is dedicated to sustainability. It includes the first ever public dialog forum regarding the coming ISO 13065 standard - Sustainability criteria for bioenergy. Asking all bioenergy stakeholders - how can we guarantee sustainable bioenergy and what could the role of a standard be?

What are the requirements?

Sustainability day and World Bioenergy 2012 closes with a high profile panel debate, focusing on the best way forward for modern sustainable bioenergy.

 Bracke C16a harvesting head suitable for silviculture and biomass applications.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 53

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54 – April 2012 , Australian Forests & Timber News

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AUSTimber 2012

SPECIAL - ALL prices include GST. Valmet 890.1 Very tidy

$100,000 including GST Timberjack 1710 6 wheel forwarder.

VALMET 911.3/360.2 Year model 2008 - Serial No. 311xxxfm83 - <6500 hrs - recent factory re-work to 360.2 harvester head - An excellent low hour state of the art thinning machine in virtually faultless condition - Suit new buyer $350,000 +GST - WILL NEGOTIATE WITH GENUINE BUYER VALMET 911.3/360.2 Yr model 2007 - Serial No.311xxxfm81 - <9000 hrs - recent major factory rework to 360.2 harvester head incl. new frame - from the same vendor as previous - excellent low hour front line thinning harvester. $330,000 +GST - WILL NEGOTIATE WITH GENUINE BUYER

$252,000 + gst Tigercat L830 Feller buncher with Rosin FH885 directional felling head. New track links. 13,800hr in good condition.

$94,500 + gst

LATE MODEL MOBILE CHIPPERS MORBARK 30 RXL 2007 - Year model 2007 - <1500 hrs infeed deck - Morlift 1000 self loaderpresented in excellent condition cleaned serviced & ready to work genuine low hour chipper Reduced Price $495,000 +GST

$55,000 including GST $200,000 including GST

Valmet 475 with RD977.

10,000 hours.

PETERSON 5900 2007 Year model-<5000 hours - fire suppression system- from a good home excellent maintenance & presentation $340,000 +GST

Hitachi ZX230 excavator with VHLC log grab and 3/4in cut off saw. 13,400hr in good condition. 12,840hr.

$135,000 + gst

CAT/WARATAH BLUE GUM HARVESTERS (3)

$20,000 including GST

Waratah HTH624 with T10 control system T425B with 33” Sawbar head.

$50,000 including GST

WRECKInG noW

Various Timbco’s.

Pumps, cabs, tilt plates, rams, booms etc.

Coming soon

Timbco 425E with Squirt boom and Waratah 622 Many customer machines and parts for sale. List available.

Wrecking now. Various Timbco’s. Valmets. Komatsu, Cat, Waratah, Rosin, Dasa, Logrite, Motomit and more.

Buying and selling forestry equipment.

CAT322CL/WARATAH HTH616B 2004 Yr model - Ref H1 <13,000 hrs - Head full recond. incl. fitting of Danfoss TMVW motors - approved forestry guarding - AFFF fire suppression system. Standard Cat stick/boom - 40% min.track gear Machine fully service checked & cleaned ready for operation.

Great Value $105,000 +GST CAT322CL/WARATAH HTH616B – 2004 Yr model - Ref H2 <13,000 hrs - Head recent upgrade incl. fitting of Danfoss TMVW motors - approved forestry guarding - AFFF fire suppression system- Cat 324 HD hyd cyl & linkage - 50% min.track gear Machine currently operation & can be inspected Good Buying $105,000 + GST ALSO AVAILABLE - CAT322CL/WARATAH HTH616B - 2004 Year model - Ref H3 <13,500 hours- new hydraulic pump & long engine at 5000 hrs - recond head - TMVW motors.

LATE MODEL FORWARDER & 8WD MODELS VALMET 890.3 6WD 2007 Year model - <9500 hoursSisu Diesel 74 @ 150kW min.60% rubber - machine virtually unmarked - excellent condition & presentation $198,500 +GST VALMET 890 8X8WD (2) 1998 yr models - plenty of hours Sisu Diesel @ 130kW - both need some tyres but will negotiate straight from work service checked ready to go round again!

You will need look no further for such a popular honest reliable work horse as these 890's $49,500 ea+GST

Timberjack 460D 2002 mod dual arch grapple and winch. Tyres as new 98% with front chains.

9100hr machine in excellent condition.

$85,500 + gst Cat 325L 1993 mod heavy duty log grab with 404 cut off saw. Has had a out of chassis engine rebuild. In very good condition.

FIREWOOD MILLS

For Information, please, call 0419-536 804 or email your postal address to info@firewoodmills.com.au

OTHER MACHINES AVAILABLE - VISIT

www.afmpacific.com.au ABN 97 007 927 282

Phone: 0418 818 932 Email: drum@pacific.net.au Post: P.O. Box 129 Keilor VIC. 3036

New model BigX50 coming soon!

Different sizes of mills with optional feeding table. Tractor, Diesel Power Pack or Electric Power Pack driven models.

Australian Forests & Timber News, April 2012 – 55

AVAILABLE NOW

QUALITY USED MACHINES

Softwood Bandsaw Processing Mill For high recovery sawmilling

Valmet 890.2/8 Forwarder - sn: 210908

Timbco TF820E Harvester - sn: 66

$195,000 + GST , Year 2004, Hrs 12,110 Full engine rebuild

$120,000 + GST, Year 2004, Hrs 16,500 Fitted with 51/37 tyres

Timberjack 608s base only - 07087

Valmet 475EX base only - sn; 2335

Volvo L90 Loader

Comes complete with quick release, large chip bucket and log grapple forks.

$88,000+GST

Valen Kone VK26 Debarker In and out feed conveyors.

$37,000+GST

Robinson 54” wheels heavy duty bandsaw

50hp motor, Hydraulic feed. $12,500+GST $9,800+GST

Forano Twin 60” Bandsaw Log Breakdown line

$100,000, Year 2003, Hrs 12,155 New Hyd pumps fitted at 10,000 hrs, Suited for Waratah head

$187,000 + GST, Year 2004, Hrs 15,250 Clean unit

Top dogging. Log handling. Remote operator.

Log diameter 60cm – 12cm, 6m - 2.4m.

Hydraulic sizing 30cm – 7.5cm. $188,000+GST

Salem Twin 54” Band Resaw

Roundabout. Operator cabin. Hydraulic sizing, fence, line bar, cant turner and handling equipment.

Sawn timber transfer deck. $279,000+GST Volvo EC 290BLC/Waratah 24 Head - sn: V10309 Peterson 2400B Grinder - sn: 897

Moreen Johnston 50” Horizontal Band Wing line

$125,000, Year 2002, Hrs 12,900 Good Condition

With roundabout and wing transfer deck.$44,000.00+GST

Contact local Area Managers:

Windsor board twin edger

With laser guides, pneumatic sizing and conveyor waste transfer.

Nigel Howard 0439 399 447 “Used Equipment” Manager Andrew Watts 0418 296 968 Northern NSW Michael Winkel 0418 220 484 Gippsland/Sth NSW Shane McCarthy 0409 360 697 Tasmania/West Australia Dean O’Connor +64 (0) 277 715 254 New Zealand

$37,000+GST

Austral Timber Group Contact Ken Baker 0438 643 992 kjb@agnew.com.au

www.komatsuforest.com.au

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$250,000, Year 2003, Hrs 7,500 approx Good Condition recent refurb

NEXT NEXT NEXT BIG BIG BIG STEP STEP STEP

NEW NEW ADVANTAGES ADVANTAGES NEW ADVANTAGES WITH WITH KOMATSU WITH KOMATSU KOMATSU

Visit our AUSTimber Sites - Forest Walk 8–13 - Softwood 2 - Bluegum 3 & 4

Komatsu Forest Celebrates 21 years in australia Introducing Introducing

Come and visit our AUSTimber sites to:

Komatsu Komatsu

Introducing

Komatsu

• Catch up with the team that has consistently been serving you for many years • See the development in products that will help meet your future demands as contractors • Meet the Senior Management from our factories in Sweden, USA and Japan

Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd. 11/4 Avenue of Americas Newington NSW 2127 Australia T: +61 2 9647 3600 E: info.au@komatsuforest.com

www.komatsuforest.com.au www.komatsuforest.com.au www.komatsuforest.com.au

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