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Where there’s smoke there’s Simple task of getting approval for fuel confusion reduction burns way too hard B

USHFIRE DEVASTATION is no stranger to this country; lives, homes, stock and livelihoods have been lost in terrifying infernos that show no favours when and where they strike.

And the argument rages on whether fuel management levels have been adequate.

Now, in the latest twist, the Greens have come up with what some industry stalwarts describe as ‘incoherent, inconsistent nonsense’ with claims there should be “selective fuel burns only”.

Basically, the Greens maintain there should be protective measures for parks and reserves only.

Greens Senator Peter WhishWilson had claimed the Australian Greens had always supported the principle of selective fuel reduction burns, then added …

“Any misconceptions regarding this fact are due to the fact that the Greens don’t support forest industry production “re-generation burns”, which are quite different to – but frequently mistaken for - selective “fuel reduction” burns”.

This raised the ire of many, including Senator Richard Colbeck, Coalition forestry spokesman, who described the latest Greens outburst as offensive.

“It’s a bit rich for the Greens to come out after the event talking about fuel reduction burns when they have attacked them at almost

every turn. “Every time a puff of smoke has appeared on the horizon during burn-off season the Greens have hit the airwaves attacking the forest industry.

“The reality is that the Green policy of opposing native forest harvesting regimes and more lockups will contribute to higher fuel loads in our forests and, with those

more forest and closing down the industry, which increases the risk to communities.

“It is really quite offensive that in an attempt to deflect the deserved criticism coming their way they call for more resources for fuel reduction burns,” the Senator said.

Senator Colbeck said after touring the fire devastated areas of

flux. He added that no-one had been impressed with the massive amendments brought down at such a late stage and again had the Government in his sights when he said ... “Looking at the fires alongside what’s happening with the forestry deal, my view is that you potentially create more risk because you’re locking up more

The thing that frustrates me is the fact that if you go back to pretty much every major bushfire inquiry since 1939 and have a look at the recommendations the management of the fuel load is one of the key recommendations and yet we’re still struggling to get effective regimes to be put in place. higher fuel loads, more intense fires,” Senator Colbeck told AFTN. “The research is very clear.

A well-managed native forestry regime combined with effective fuel reduction in non-harvested areas will help mitigate the intensity of bushfires.

“Other countries have learned these lessons. In the US, California for example, forests are managed more intensively closer to built-up areas, providing a level of protection for residents.

“Yet here in Australia the Greens continue to advocate locking up

 Firefighters battle against the odds. This scene has been played out in almost every State in recent times as bushfires continue to take their toll.

Tasmania that many fire officers had pointed out the issues regarding fuel management.

“I suppose the thing that frustrates me is the fact that if you go back to pretty much every major bushfire inquiry since 1939 and have a look at the recommendations the management of the fuel load is one of the key recommendations and yet we’re still struggling to get effective regimes to be put in place.”

Senator Colbeck said fuel loads were high because of the spring and “when you combine that with the conditions that we had it was obviously going to be very, very dangerous and it proved to be that”.

He said it was certainly an issue in the fires around Dunalley. The loss of Ike Kelly’s sawmill was an absolute tragedy -- that’s a 50year business. One of the things of major impact was the residue pile he had because he had the ridiculous situation brought on by the closure of Triabunna. A number of other sawmillers, particularly in the south, have significant piles of residues (sawmill waste) they haven’t been able to get rid of. This waste is an additional danger at this stage of proceedings.”

Senator Colbeck said he had come across some particularly disgruntled farmers who had found the simple task of getting approval for fuel reduction burns way too hard.

“I spoke to one guy who gave up after trying (to get a permit) for six months. Rest assured that will be part of the discussions in the aftermath of the fires,” he said.

Senator Colbeck fired another salvo at the Government and said the “mismanaged peace talks were basically still in a state of

forest; you’re not actively managing the forests which you can do if you’re harvesting to reduce fuel loads particularly close to built up areas. This forest deal actually

could increase future fire risk,” the Senator warned.

It’s interesting to note that back in March last year Greens Health spokesperson, Paul O’Halloran MP had said it was difficult to justify why the entire island had to suffer such regressive air pollution just for Forestry Tasmania to pursue its failed business model.

“Forestry Tasmania is again torching Tasmania’s worldrenowned clean, green, clever and creative reputation, with wholly unnecessary so-called regeneration burns,” he had said.

“If the [forest] industry says there are no alternatives, I say they are not trying hard enough. It is erroneous to suggest smoke pollution is similar to other pollution. There are all sorts of weird and wonderful organic compounds in wood smoke.

We cannot wish the science away.”

All this raises the obvious question … What’s the difference between fuel reduction burn smoke and re-generation burn smoke!

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2 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

Burning question also the answer Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association (TFGA) chief executive officer Jan Davis says it’s long past time that all Tasmanians recognised that we live in an altered landscape and simply locking it up is a recipe for disaster. Here are her thoughts on possibly the most talked about subject in recent times.

W

HEN YOU reduce the land use issues facing Tasmania to their basic arguments, a single message emerges: we must manage our landscape carefully and from a firm understanding of both history and science.

Managing landscapes with a view to long-term viability and sustainability rather than shortterm gain and irreparable damage is what Tasmanian farmers do every day.

The challenge we face, both as farmers and as Tasmanians, is to manage our landscape so that we can use it and still keep the things we love in perpetuity. This is not rocket science. So-called primitive peoples had worked it out 40,000 years ago. They managed this landscape through the use of fire.

Not only did fire replenish the forests but it created a less dense landscape for hunting.

One of the great unspoken truths in the forest debate is that, if you lock up large tracts of forest in national parks or World Heritage areas, you must be able to manage those forests or, eventually, they will be destroyed.

In his book The Private Life of Plants, Sir David Attenborough explains why even the world’s tallest flowering plant, the Tasmanian swamp gum (also known as the Victorian mountain ash) cannot survive without fire: “The threat to the survival of the spectacular forests of noble mountain ash is not, in fact, fire. It is the absence of fire,” he wrote. “If the great trees die from old age before flames have cleared the ground for their

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seedlings, then they will leave no successors. Paradoxically, such a forest will not survive unless much of it is first destroyed.”

Bill Gammage, is a respected historian who is an adjunct professor at the Australian National University agrees. Quoted recently in an article in the Weekend Australian, he said the landscape

foundation advocated an increase from 120,000ha to 390,000ha a year, but received little support from other environment groups.

The Victorian Government has doubled the burn area since 2009 and is progressively raising it to 390,000ha a year.

Research tells us that the private forest estate alone adds about

Other places around the world have found to their cost that locking up forests doesn’t work. needs to be burned back to a better natural balance - one that does not lend itself to regular catastrophic bushfires.

Gammage’s most recent book, The Biggest Estate on Earth How Aborigines made Australia, has picked up a swathe of awards, including the Victorian Prize for Literature, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian history, and the Queensland literary award for history. An amalgam of history, philosophy and ecology, the book describes how Aborigines not only lived with the land, but shaped it with constant burning to ensure continuity, balance, abundance and predictability. It sends a clear message - and a challenge to the idea of ‘pristine wilderness’ – that not all environmentalists want to hear.

Max Rheese, executive director of the Australian Environment Foundation, agrees. In the same article, he says Aborigines would never have allowed national park ‘wilderness’ areas to grow into such profusion and would have regarded this as intensely threatening.

After the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, the Royal Commission recommended that prescribed burning be increased to 5% of forests annually. The

10,000 tonnes of firewood, plus the branches and leaves/volatiles to the Tasmanian bonfire pile every day. Without fire breaks, and without management of fuel loads, the threat of wildfires on a huge scale is significant.

If the State Government is considering locking up additional forest then it should not do this without getting some very good advice first.

This advice will confirm that scientists know forests need active management and/or disturbance to thrive. It will confirm that historians tell us this is what the indigenous peoples did. It will confirm that our own experiences vshow that, where active forest management occurs, biodiversity is greater than where forests are locked up and left. It will even confirm that much-touted Forest Stewardship Council management guidelines recognise that high conservation forest will be actively managed.

Other places around the world have found to their cost that locking up such forests doesn’t work. In places like California and Canada, they had catastrophic wildfires that damaged people and property and did great environmental harm because they were hot fires.

Governments in these places have since reversed their decisions to

lock up their native forests and are now harvesting forest produce to remove fuel and are using it to generate energy through biomass.

The landscape is the canvas upon which we all paint.

However, we’re not starting with a blank canvas - this canvas is largely already completed. Our surrounding landscape is not only for us to sit back and enjoy.

While it is the backdrop of our life, it is also the medium for us to create food, shelter and the other necessities of life.

It is long past time that all Tasmanians recognised that we live in an altered landscape and simply locking it up is a recipe for disaster. It is also long past time that all Tasmanians recognise they have a role to play in ensuring that what we do preserves and enhances the picture we have inherited, without destroying its essence.

The Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association (TFGA) is Tasmania’s State farmer organisation, representing over 5,000 members who live and work on farm businesses situated across Tasmania. The TFGA is an active, powerful lobby group owned and governed by farmers, for farmers. With a strong record of successful political advocacy and leadership, the TFGA has generated substantial benefits for the agriculture sector since its formation in 1948.

Even though farming has its own natural challenges from droughts, bushfires and floods, it is also under constant threat from regulation, legislation and special interest groups. These attacks will not go away by themselves. The only way to effectively counter them is to stand together with a strong, united voice. The TFGA consists of five Commodity Groups - Dairy, Meat, Wool, Agriculture and Vegetable - as well as four Committee groups – Cereal & Seeds, Poppies, Environmental Policy, Climate Change, Game Management, Native Vegetation, Water, Weeds and Forestry.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 3

AFPA CEO announces retirement A

USTRALIA’S LEADING forestry products organization is set to appoint a new chief executive officer following the announced retirement of its inaugural CEO Dr David Pollard. He will officially step down in April. Applications for the position closed on 14 January.

Prior to taking on the AFPA role, Dr Pollard headed VicForests, the commercial timber corporation of the Victorian Government. Prior to working with VicForests, he held a number of senior management positions with the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments in the areas of industry development, economic policy and finance.

These roles included Victorian Commissioner of State Revenue and Assistant Commissioner of the Productivity Commission. Dr Pollard is the author of a number of books on public policy and is a Senior Fellow of Melbourne Business School. In 2002 he was awarded the Commonwealth Centennial Medal for services to public sector management.

AFPA chairman Greg McCormack said Dr Pollard had “worked tirelessly in progressing the interests of the industry and its members in a challenging year, including the consolidation of the association following the merger of the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) and the

Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) in 2011”.

He made particular mention of the development of the AFPA policy roadmap ‘A Renewable Future’ in 2012 which laid the foundation for promoting the multiple economic, social and environmental opportunities the forest, wood and paper products industry can provide in the new low carbon economy.

Dr Pollard threw down the gauntlet to Government when he said the potential benefits for the industry were contingent on “getting policies right”.

“Australia should capitalise on the strengths of its renewable

forest-based industries,” he had said.

“The forest, wood and paper products industries are well placed to help the Australian economy transition to a sustainable, lower emissions future.

“With a growing population and higher demand for a range of building, paper and energy products, the sector can help satisfy this demand with a renewable resource. It can also provide significant economic development and regional jobs. The forest, wood and paper products industries presently have a gross value of turnover of $22 billion, supporting around 120,000 direct jobs nationally.

 Dr David Pollard, AFPA CEO.

“This is an environmentally friendly industry making products that are renewable, natural and carbon positive with significant opportunities to provide jobs and economic benefits,” said Dr Pollard.

“The potential benefits of getting these policies right are huge.

New dawn for Tigercat in Australia AUSTRALIA’S TIGERCAT dealership has reverted to a single source with news that Onetrack is now the sole dealer across the nation. The dealership had been operated between Forest Centre (Tumut-based) and Onetrack with each covering specific States.

The change won’t see the end of Forest Centre and its principal Lex McLean ... it will be a change in direction for the long time industry stalwart.

Using Australian Forests & Timber News to speak directly to forest contractors, Lex said that after nearly 45 years of being involved in the logging industry and 32 of these years in Australia and 30 years with Forest Centre he had decided to begin his transition to retirement and to step back from the heavy daily involvement. “This decision necessitated terminating my Tigercat agreement and Tigercat transferring it to another dealer,” said Lex. Forest Centre had been appointed the dealer for the Tigercat product in Australia in 2000 with the

 David Hazell.

introduction of the machines at AUSTimber in that year.

“It is a premium product we believed in and have been proud to sell and support over the past 12 years. With more than 220 Tigercat machines in the Australian “bush” my team at Forest Centre has done well to put the machines out there in a competitive market.

“With many of our customers we have had a long and close relationships and I consider them as friends as well as customers.

Most of all I have been fortunate enough to have an excellent team of staff with me who I am sure our customers have got to know well.

“While Tigercat has been our main focus over the past 12 years we have during this period continued selling our other attachment product lines -- ExTe, Hultdins, Baltrotors, and recently Rotobec,” said Lex. “In fact, when Forest Centre started in 1982 as an importer for Hultdins and Indexator attachments as well as used forestry machines, it was with these original product lines that the Forest Centre name was made known in the Australian forest industry.

“Now that we have terminated the Tigercat dealership Forest Centre will again focus on the attachment side; with ExTe as our main focus followed closely by Hultdins, Baltrotors and Rotobec,” Lex said.

“Recently we have adapted ExTe air operated load restraint for general road transport applications, with The Laminex Group choosing to upgrade their entire national distribution fleet from potentially dangerous and labour-intensive manual load binders to ExTe automatic units.

“There is great potential for all of our remaining product lines, so with these we look forward to continuing to build on our existing and new customer relationships.

“So, we are not just disappearing into the sunset we will be getting up with the sunrise --like an old ANZAC National serviceman,” Lex quipped.

All Forest Centre contact details and phone numbers will remain the same and some existing staff will be retained. The new staff structure will be:

• Wendy Christian, CEO • Reymund Kell, Sales and Marketing Manager • Raymond “Raybo” Bocquet, Parts and Warehouse Manager “We would like to formally thank our customers for their patronage with our company. For me personally it has been a great and very enjoyable journey over many years. Kathy and I look forward to catching up with everyone again in the near future while on our caravanning adventure,” Lex said.

Managing Director of Onetrak, David Hazell, said that while Lex is leaving big shoes to fill, he was looking forward to the opportunity to provide a full national service to the forest industry.

“The forest industry has a big future in the Australian economy and environment because of the positive impact it can have on both the balance of trade and taking carbon out of the atmosphere,” said David.

“Despite the tough times we’ve been facing over the past few years, I have every confidence the industry will come back stronger than ever so we’re excited about being in the right place to help make that happen with some of the world’s best equipment to get the job done,” he said.

Early in 2012, Onetrak was appointed as Tigercat distributor for Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria and officially took the sole dealership from 1 February.

Onetrak intends to lease Forest Centre’s full service facility in Tumut and will continue with a facility in Bunbury in order to support customers in Western Australia. Tigercat and Onetrak are striving to make this transition as smooth as possible for all Tigercat customers in Australia.

“All of us at Onetrak are very excited about building on our relationship with Tigercat as it is an exceptional product that receives factory support here in Australia that is second to none.

Our role as the national dealer for Tigercat in Australia is to pick up from the good work that Lex and his crew at Forest Centre have done with the product and take it to the next level. We look forward to building strong relationships with our existing forestry clients and new ones right across Australia

and feel very positive about the future.”

Incorporated in 2006, Onetrak has rapidly grown into a major player within the Australian construction and forestry equipment industries. Employing more than 40 people across Victoria and Tasmania, Onetrak prides itself on the quality of its people, carefully chosen from a diverse range of backgrounds within the industry and with one common trait – a desire to provide exceptional customer service.

In addition to new Onetrak facilities to be opened at Tumut, NSW and Bunbury, WA, Onetrak has branches currently located in South Dandenong in Victoria, Brighton in Tasmania and a service centre at Mt Gambier, South Australia. All of these locations boast state of the art service facilities and are supported by several field service vehicles to cover work in any region – no matter how remote.

The Tigercat team extends its appreciation to Lex and the entire Forest Centre staff for 12 years of dedication and commitment to Tigercat and the Australian forestry industry.

 Lex McLean.

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4 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

ISSN 1444-5824

February 2013

FIAT drives best possible outcome to end Tasmanian forestry feud

By Rosemary Ann Ogilvie

Contractors face future with new vigour. Page 16 Features New Forests........................................ 8-9 FWPA .................................................... 10 New Products...................................12-13 Demo days in WA.............................14-15 Bioenergy......................................... 17-18 Edgers............................................. 20-21 Skidders.......................................... 22-23 Fire Protection................................. 24-26

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F

OLLOWING ALMOST three years of negotiations, the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Bill 2012 has been referred to a Legislative Council Select Committee. The Committee will conduct public hearings with all the signatories and other stakeholders in Hobart commencing January 15 to 17, with the objective to better inform members of the ramifications of the passage of the bill and determine whether it is in the public interest for them to approve this bill, thereby making it law.

“While this is not an inquiry into the agreement per se, I think almost inevitably it will become that,” says Terry Edwards, CEO, Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT). Edwards – representing FIAT – was scheduled to appear at 10am on January 15.

In signing the agreement, FIAT is very conscious of the requirement to “back in” the agreement with government and its implementation. “And that’s what we’ll be doing. This means we encourage government to implement the agreement in full and not cherry pick it, selecting the nice parts, leaving out the less palatable bits. It’s really important that the agreement be viewed as a package that has checks and balances within it, particularly around issues of durability. Certainly the bill can be improved, but the core elements should not be tinkered with.”

Is FIAT happy with the outcome? “No. We don’t believe it’s a good agreement – and it’s certainly not the agreement we went into this process hoping to achieve,” says Edwards.

“However, that said, we believe in the circumstances it’s probably

The Fire Factor

the best agreement we’re likely to get, it’s a compromise, and it’s for this reason we took the decision to sign the agreement as a full participating signatory.

“But certainly it falls short of our original expectations, particularly in relation to woodsupply outcomes. The counterbalancing side is that we believe the conservation outcome in the agreement is consequentially too high – certainly too high to have enabled us to have the woodsupply outcome we sought.”

Olive branch After the talks broke down in November, and Tony Burke emerged from overnight discussions with the signatories expressing pessimism that an agreement would be possible, FIAT offered an olive branch: to significantly reduce its wood supply expectations.

“Following this breakdown, the environmental organisations went on the attack and identified FIAT as being the roadblock to reaching an agreement because – in their view – its wood-supply expectations would significantly diminish the conservation outcomes,” explains Edwards.

“Greens leader Nick McKim named me in a media conference as being the person upon whose head all job losses and business failure would rest as a result of the collapse of the talks. This despite the fact that all FIAT had argued for was the wood supply set out in the IGA between the federal and Tasmanian Governments.”

FIAT convened a meeting of all members to discuss whether it would either accept that the talks had failed, or take some alternative action to try to resurrect the prospect of an agreement.

“We elected on balance – and

AustralianForests & Timber News spoke to Edwards in the second week of January, when bushfires had devoured an estimated 7000ha of state forest, including large tracts of plantation and productive native forest. Has this shed a different light on the agreement – including the importance of managing areas put into reserves to prevent such devastating conflagrations in the future?

“FIAT has always maintained that if areas are to be put into reserve and not used for production forestry, or managed in any particular way, then the management regime must take into account the fire-prone nature of the Australian bush,” says Edwards. “If this is not done – or not done effectively – we’ll see the destruction of those bush areas, and they certainly won’t provide the benefit for which they’ve been set aside, which in most instances is for biodiversity conservation.”

Wild fire has always been a feature of the Australian bush, Edwards continues. “It relies on fire as a regenerative process. If reserves are not managed correctly, we’ll see considerable build up of fuels in those areas, making wild fire almost impossible to control – as we’ve seen in recent days.”

He remarks that many Tasmanian forest industry employees had spent the last two weeks physically fighting the fires. “With significant investment in plantation forests, forestry companies maintain an in-house and sub-contract fire-fighting capacity. In circumstances like these, all such resources are mobilised by all the forest companies –

it was a split decision – to put forward a compromise proposal, which saw our wood-supply expectation fall from 155,000m3 of high-quality sawlog a year, to 137,000m3,” says Edwards.

“This was specifically designed to ensure there was a prospect of an agreement being reached, as it was FIAT’s judgment that we would be better off with an agreement than without one.

Again, this was an on-balance decision, but in addition to publically attacking FIAT, the ENGOs had also approached some of our key market segments – companies such as Bunnings, Mitre10, and Harvey Norman – seeking to disrupt our market access with those organisations.

“Because we judged that there was some prospect for those approaches to be successful, we decided we would be better off having a compromise outcome than to go back to full-scale war and the risk of losing markets.”

Throughout the whole process

everyone on the industry side has been torn between whether they would be better with or without an agreement. “There are certainly arguments both ways, and we tried to ensure our decision was taken for the right reasons.

However, it’s very difficult not to be thinking that we’re rewarding poor behaviour – as many in the political game have accused us.

All we can say in response is: our obligation is to protect the interests of our members, and the judgment call of our members was that this is best done by offering a compromise solution.”

Approaching the future FIAT approaches the future with a degree of trepidation overlaid with some confidence.

“Our confidence lies in our hope that peace might be achieved, continued on page 5.

Forestry Tasmania, Gunns, SFM and Norske Skog – to provide expert back-up support to the fire services, not just to protect their plantations but also to protect property and lives.

“It’s all very well to call for forests to be locked up, but the community needs to understand we must find a way to protect these reserves from fire – and do this with resources that are now substantially diminished.”

The turmoil in the forestry industry has seen the exit of a considerable number of forest contractors to the mining industry in Queensland and Western Australia. “It was those contractors who in the past supplied the bulldozers and other heavy machinery needed to fight the fires,” says Edwards. “The shortfall of such equipment is evident with these fires, but even if the equipment was available, the experienced operators aren’t. If you put an inexperienced operator into a fire-fighting operation driving a bulldozer in terrain they’re not trained to drive in, a calamity is almost inevitable.”

Another worrying aspect is that the wood-supply outcome under the agreement is very finely balanced, and a ramification of these fires is whether the remaining forest areas have the capacity to produce the wood that’s required. “We’ve allowed a 10 per cent headroom amount as a buffer,” says Edwards. “However, if significant amounts of the production forest are lost to fire, inevitably the capacity of the agreement to deliver on the wood-supply outcomes will be reduced.”

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 5

FIAT drives best possible outcome to end Tasmanian forestry feud continued from page 4. and we might finally see an end to 30 years of forest conflict,” says Edwards.

He anticipates that inevitably, some extremist environment organisations won’t accept this outcome. The Huon Valley Environment Centre, for example, has rejected it and is embarking on a campaign called January Justice, specifically targeted at driving Ta Ann out of Tasmania.

Markets for Change, an organisation that specialises in market-based activity, has achieved some success against Ta Ann in the recent past. “Now that it’s headed by Bob Brown and Peg Putt, we worry that it may not accept the outcome and may continue to campaign,” says Edwards. “We’re placing our confidence in the mainstream

environment groups involved in the negotiations that have indicated a genuine commitment to try and combat those sorts of incursions by the extremists, and to reverse any effect they might have, particularly in marketbased campaigns. Their success in neutralising these extremist groups will be a key measure of the durability of the agreement.”

Another concern is that the final wood-supply numbers may mean the industry falls below critical mass, which will obviously create issues about the

capacity to maintain markets for high-quality Tasmanian timbers such as select-grade Tasmanian Oak, myrtle, celery-top pine, blackheart sassafras, Huon pine, etc.

“Access to these special-species timbers is another worry,” says Edwards. “While processes are included in the agreement for dealing with these issues, we’re concerned about whether they’ll be successful. Again, we’re putting considerable faith in the ENGOs following through on their commitments, and in being

able to work cooperatively with them and Forestry Tasmania to find the solutions necessary to ensure this important segment of our market isn’t lost.

“This is a niche product in very limited supply,” Edwards continues. “These species are not abundant: they grow as substory species under wet eucalypt forests, and also in rainforest areas. In the agreement we tried to identify sufficient specialspecies rich land area to ensure continued production of the volumes identified in Forestry

Tasmania’s 2010 Special Species Timber Strategy, which is 12,500m3 annually. We need to work closely with FT to see whether we have this right and if not, we must find ways to rectify any shortfall.

“The key issue is maintaining the supply levels identified by the FT strategy. And there’s no market restriction on what we can sell of this type of product: it’s a supply restriction rather than a demand restriction. For demand will always be strong for these specialty timbers.”

Built in Australia, built tough

They said it ...

“The green groups involved in the deal -- The Wilderness Society, Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania -- are but three voices in a diverse and complex movement. The idea that they speak for the broader movement is fanciful.”

-- From an article on Crikey

by Dr Richard Denniss Executive Director of The Australia Institute, a Canberra based think tank, and Andrew Macintosh, associate director of the ANU Centre for Climate Law & Policy.

“If, in Tasmania, we don’t give this a chance for a new generation to come along in the environment movement and in the industry; who have sought to sit down and try and work out what the old guard haven’t been able to work out over 30 years. If we do not give this a chance, I think, we miss an opportunity. We [Ta Ann] supported that process from the very beginning and we now believe that in the light of – you know – all that evidence in front of us, it is time for people to bury their old hatreds; their old animosity.

It’s time for people to take this opportunity of compromise to work together for the future of Tasmania and it is time to give the peace a chance.” -- Evan Rolley on ABC Statewide Mornings, “Agreement is not what these groups want, because their entire reason for being is the opportunity to protest … they are not interested in ending this drama.” -- Bruce Felmingham, a columnist for The Sunday Tasmanian.

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6 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

Upcoming

timber events 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

2013 4-7 February Breeding for Value in a Changing World.

Jacksonville, Florida, United States. http:// www.ncsu-feop.org/IUFRO/index.html 15-17 February Montréal Wood Convention 2013.

Montreal, Canada. www.montrealwoodconvention.com/en/ 18-22 February Gottstein Forest Science Course, Creswick, Victoria www.gottsteintrust.org or contact secretary@gottsteinstrust.org 21-23 February Oregon Logging Conference and Equipment Show - Oregon, USA. www.oregonloggingconference.com/ 5-6 March World Forests Summit. Stockholm, Sweden. www.economistconferences.com/forests 7-9 March Transport and Heavy Equipment Expo Hamilton, New Zealand. www.biztradeshows.com/trade-events/ transport-and-heavy-equipment.html 21 March World Forestry Day 21-23 March WoodEx for Africa 2013 Expo - Midrand, South Africa www.woodexforafrica.com 25-30 March World Teak Conference 2013. Bangkok, Thailand. www.procongress.net info@worldteak2013.org 7-10 April 6th International Woodfibre Resources & Trade Conference. Woodchips & Biomass for Global & Regional Markets. Istanbul, Turkey 7-11 April Institute of Foresters of Australia National Conference. Canberra. www.forestryconference.org.au

World Forestry Day W

ORLD FORESTRY Day (21 March) has been celebrated around the world for 30 years to remind communities of the importance of forests and the many benefits which 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.

Forestry, more than other branches of agriculture, is an activity which needs to be brought before the public. But to make the practices and

By Kevin Peachey Coordinator National Timber Councils Association THE NATIONAL Timber Councils Association (NTCA) held its Annual General Meeting on 16 November 2012 at the Wrest Point Casino in Tasmania as an affiliated event of the Australian Local Government Association National Local Government Road and Transport Congress. The event had strong attendance and attracted many Tasmanian councillors who travelled from across the island to attend. The NTCA currently has several members from Tasmania, almost covering the entire south coast.

15-16 April Residues-to-REVENUES 2013 Conference & Expo: Wood Energy and CleanTECH Industry Developments”. Bayview Eden Hotel, Melbourne. http://woodresiduesevents.com/

18-20 April Urban Forests & Political Ecologies: Celebrating Transdisciplinarity. Toronto, On, Canada http://www.ufpe.ca/UFPE/Home.html 20-23 April New Zealand Farm Forestry Association (Inc) 57th Annual Conference. Orewa Arts and Events Centre, Auckland. www.nzffa.org.nz/conference

part of us.” This is at the root of the concern of so many people today for the preservation of forests and other natural environments.

Forests are essential for life on Earth. They give us shade and shelter, refuge and refreshment, clean air and water. Today, with a growing global population and subsequent demand for forest products, the forests of the world are at risk from widespread deforestation and degradation.

A forest, which we usually think of in terms of trees, is in fact a complex, living community. Beneath the forest canopy dwell interdependent populations of plants and animals, while the soil that forms the forest floor contains a large variety of invertebrates, bacteria and fungi which play an essential role in cycling nutrients in the soil and the forest.

Pictorial tribute As part of a special tribute, we would like to have your pictorial views on forestry. Snap away and then send us your best photo. All

photos must be of high resolution (minimum 1MB). Simply send your photo to editorial@forestsandtimber. com.au and we will run a selection in our next edition. The best photo submitted will be utilised on our front page of that edition. Make sure you include your name and contact details.

Nation-wide study on timber-impacted roads

10-11 April Residues-to-REVENUES 2013 Conference & Expo: Wood Energy and CleanTECH Industry Developments”. Crowne Plaza Hotel, Auckland, New Zealand. http://woodresiduesevents.com/

18-19 April NTCA local government forest and timber industry conference. Bayview Eden, 6 Queens Road, Melbourne. RSVP to events@mav.asn.au. 03 9667 5555 by 15 April.

benefits of forestry comprehensible to the public is not as simple as it may at first seem. This is partly because of the long time scale involved in forest management compared to the increasingly rapid pace which modern man has come to accept as normal in so many other activities. In some countries there is also a residue of public suspicion of foresters as the “policemen of the woods” and this has to be overcome.

Every forester appreciates and understands the value of the forest as a source of raw material, as a provider of local employment and national income, as the great sponge which gathers and releases water, as the habitat for flora and fauna that otherwise would become extinct, and as the environment and atmosphere in which man feels uniquely at home with nature. If foresters and forest services talk in plain language about that which they know best, people will listen, understand and be with them.

Sir Frank Fraser Darling rightly says: “Man is weaned of the forest, and yet the forest is still very much a

 Sid Sidebottom, Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry.

Three prestigious speakers were able to attend and discuss issues with participating councillors from across Australia.

These were Sid Sidebottom MP, Senator Richard Colbeck MP, and Neil Mackinnon, CEO for the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Members of Parliament spoke of their commitment to a strong, viable and enterprising timber industry, while recognising the many challenges the industry is being affected by. Neil Mackinnon dealt at length with the loss of jobs in Tasmania and the potential to replace them with growth in the forest industry and other mechanisms.

The NTCA presented at the meeting the draft version of a national local timber roads user submission.

This document will go out to all members to be populated with case studies from across Australia, and then be presented to the Australian Government.

This submission would see a nation-wide study on timberimpacted roads; identify the cost of repairs to increase transport efficiency; and remove bottlenecks in the haulage of timber.

This proposed process is similar to a study which is maintained and updated by Timber Towns Victoria, the Timber Industry Road Evaluation Study (TIRES)

which creates an easily updateable framework that ranks the most important timber road projects across Victoria. This study has been a successful mechanism to show the need for State funding of road maintenance to ensure an efficient timber haulage network, while providing surety to potential investors in the forest sector through the provision of suitable infrastructure for future operations.

The proposal was welcomed by Sid Sidebottom MP in his speech to member councillors, stating that in a financial context the $1 000 000 being requested for the study is not a lot of money. The NTCA remains hopeful and was encouraged by these comments.

We also held a meeting with the group of 12 regional councils from Tasmania who have united to highlight the impact of the forestry industry curtailment and other resource security issues on local government. Following discussions, the NTCA hopes to see membership growth in Tasmania and provide some much needed assistance. We would like to welcome Glamorgan Spring Bay Council as the newest member, and welcome Councillor Cheryl Arnol to the executive committee of the Association.

We look forward to bringing knowledge from the situation in Tasmania which councils across

 Neil Mackinnon, Chief Executive Officer for the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Australia can benefit from. The NTCA is now preparing for its inaugural Local Government Forest and Timber Industry Conference. This event (18-19 April in Melbourne) will attract a unique audience of councillors, local government officers, representatives from relevant state and federal government departments and forest industry professionals. With a focus on socio-economic issues and the relationship between local government and timber industry, this program is the first time these issues have been brought together for a conference. Come along and meet your local councillor!

8 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

NEW FORESTS

Plantation forestry from an investment Forests need to be built into diversified, normal age class structures where growth and harvest can equilibrate. You can’t have infrastructure, mills, and service sector companies coming and going from year to year—there is a need for stability.

T

HE SOFTWOOD plantation estate is likely to be reasonably stable going forward; the hardwood estate will contract down, and under no circumstances should we allow the MIS sector to reinflate. That was the message from New Forests Managing Director Dr David Brand to the more than 200 delegates at the fifth annual Industry Development Conference in Canberra.

His address concentrated on how Australia’s plantation forestry sector was viewed from an investment and economic perspective.

Dr Brand explained that Australia had 2 million hectares of productive timber plantations out of about 100 million hectares worldwide (areas with productivity >10 cubic metres per hectare per year, mean annual increment).

Australia produces about 25 million cubic metres of industrial roundwood versus 1.7 billion cubic metres per annum worldwide. That’s about 1.5% of world timber production.

Australia is an attractive country for investment and has a lower cost of capital (or discount rate) applied to its forestry sector than anywhere other than the USA and possibly Canada. Currently about $3.4 billion of institutional capital has been invested in timber plantations, or about 5.5% of the total $60 billion of institutional capital invested into forestry worldwide. Total value of the sector, once fully rationalized is likely to be about $6.5 to 7.0 billion out of a global investible universe of timber plantations estimated at about $150 billion.

Note that all the processing facilities in Australia could probably be bought for $500 million or less today, so the plantation forests of Australia are the critical asset and are very difficult to replicate if we lose them.

It is very different from the way it used to be, for example in Canada, where the forest was largely assigned as licences to serve as collateral for the capital investment in the sawmills and pulp mills.

With the recent demise of Gunns and the announced sale of the ForestrySA plantations in the Green Triangle, the transition of the forestry sector to institutional ownership is past a tipping point. It seems worthwhile, therefore, to look at a few big questions hanging over our plantation sector.

Should Australia have a forestry sector?

The first question is whether there are good reasons for Australia to continue to grow our own timber.

From a purely economic rationalist perspective you would say no, that timber is widely traded and readily available, and so if you aren’t competitive, just use your land for something else that is more competitive and buy your timber on the international market.

The problem with forestry, however, is that it isn’t like wheat, sheep meat, or beef. You can’t shift land in and out of forestry from year to year in response to market conditions and volatility. If you cut down a timber plantation and turn the land back to grazing, it takes 10-30 years to bring another crop onto the market.

Forests need to be built into diversified, normal age class structures where growth and harvest can equilibrate. You can’t have infrastructure, mills, and service sector companies coming and going from year to year—there is a need for stability. You also have a highly qualified workforce, most of who pursue their career in forestry and provide the central base of our competitiveness.

It is beneficial to have domestic timber for supply chain purposes. The goal in Australia is for timber retailers, house construction firms, and other major timber users to have minimum inventory and for the lumber sales and distribution function to operate ‘just in time’. One distributor told me recently that his base service contract is that if the client asks for lumber by 2:30 pm on any day, he or she gets his or her delivery the next day. This can only be done with domestic timber, not with wood from Northern Europe that takes three months to travel here by boat. Because of this, the imported wood often ends up in warehouses or is sold into a traded or reduced price market. That is why the imported timber is ‘hot’ or unreliable, because it is fundamentally speculative.

From the perspective of domestic timber markets, the lack of a domestic source of supply would mean that timber prices will be far more volatile because of the volatility of shipping cost, currencies, and external competing demand factors.

While there may be times like now that European timber is competitive, there will equally be times when it is expensive.

So in summary, it is not possible to turn a forestry sector ‘on and off’. If Australia needs a forestry sector to support its domestic needs, it must have a continuous forestry sector, even if it is more competitive in some market conditions (e.g. low AUD, high international timber price) and less competitive in others (e.g. high AUD, depressed international timber prices).

This is a kind of greater good or market failure problem. Someone who owns a pine plantation and cuts it down for timber and then is offered a price for the land higher than the net present value of retaining the land in forestry and growing another tree crop at a point of time, would normally sell the land and be seen to act rationally. This reality is a significant problem for Australia, and frankly, New Zealand as well.

The challenge for us in the business of growing trees is to be as competitive

as possible, and that means a continuous focus on increasing timber plantation productivity through genetics, silviculture and protection; strengthening the relationship between the forest, the mills and the customers; seeking innovations around new markets like energy, hardwood veneer, CLT and carbon or biodiversity markets; and ensuring we have a well-trained, motivated and skilled workforce.

So, I think it is clear that there is substantial benefit to retaining a domestic forestry sector, but now let’s turn to what that sector should look like.

Softwood versus hardwood I always look at the forestry sector as serving three broad market segments—the biomass or pulp market, which is based on the cellulosic fibre or chemical characteristics of wood; the construction market, which is largely based on the engineering properties of wood and driven by the housing cycle; and the renovations and furniture market based upon the grain, colour, durability, and overall appearance of timber.

The biomass-based market includes both softwood and hardwood woodchip. I usually think about softwood pulp as being for newspapers, paper bags, and cardboard, and hardwood pulp being for printing and writing paper, photocopy paper, and packaging.

Biomass markets, however, also increasingly include energy products, including direct combustion of wood, biochar or torrefied pellets, and liquid fuels; and platform chemicals or biomaterials like rayon, bioplastics, and potentially new materials such as cellulose nanocrystals that are stronger than carbon fibres or Kevlar.

The construction timber market is the central market for softwood timber as lumber or panels. There have been efforts to displace timber with steel frame construction or plastic formwork, but so far wood has held its own as a low embodied energy building material. The recent emergence of game changers like Cross Laminated Timber construction with half the weight of traditional multi-story construction is a good example of how timber can hold and even expand its market share.

The renovations and furniture market tends to be dominated by hardwoods.

I always felt that the natural timbers and stone were a key part of culture.

If you go into the Rocks and see a bar with sandstone and blackbutt flooring you know you are in Australia. You go to Canada and see granite from the Rocky Mountains and western red cedar shakes, and you go to Sweden and see the red paned timber barns and birch window frames. We have been losing this in Australia, but if we

can successfully develop a domestic industry around blue gum, nitens, and even spotted gum plantations we may retain this valuable market segment and not give in to imported rubberwood flooring and Vietnamese teak furniture.

From an investment perspective, these market segments are somewhat uncorrelated and respond to different factors in the economy. The pulp, paper, and biomass market is very technology driven, as we saw the rise of the internet drive personal printers, but then equally the rise of the tablet start to erode newsprint and printer paper. The issues around climate change, fossil fuels, and sustainable consumption will drive

establish new processing options domestically and divert some of this resource to emerging opportunities in energy and biomaterials.

The Australian hardwood plantation estate is at a bit of a crossroads.

When the Government endorsed the 2020 vision of trebling the area of forestry plantations in the mid-1990s, I don’t think that they expected it to be all focused on short rotation plantations for woodchip export. The reality of the MIS, however, was that they wanted a short harvest cycle, and the woodchip market was best suited to their business model.

The commercial framework was not suitable to developing a

the rise of demand for bio-energy and biomaterials into the future.

Housing and home renovations have short to medium-term linkages to the economic cycle, but also to demographics (younger societies have more household formation, while aging societies are renovating homes), urbanization, and the rise of the Asian middle class and disposable income.

sustainable forestry sector. The companies sold the projects as a product, taking payment for the plantation establishment, rental, and management costs all up front. They then used dividend profit margins of up to 40% out of the business, paid 10% commission to the financial planners, and used 80-90% leverage to buy the land. Too much money was raised in the peak of 2006 and 2007, and the firms were forced to pay excessive prices for land and to move out of the core forestry regions.

Hindsight is 20:20, but as we all now know the industry has collapsed and is being restructured into institutional ownership. The question is what the institutional investors will do with it.

We bought the Great Southern land bank, and the MIS projects continue to operate on the land. However, with Elders seeking to exit from forestry and Gunns now in Administration and Receivership, it is likely we will need to try to acquire these trees in the coming months. We recognize

What is the future of the plantation forestry estate?

By having both a softwood and a hardwood estate, Australia has great opportunities for industry development. Especially now, with the woodchip market in a transition and significant decreases in export woodchip prices, we should be looking at whether we can diversity especially the hardwood market,

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 9

NEW FORESTS

and economic perspective that the export market for woodchip is going to be volatile, difficult, and highly correlated with the exchange rate. It is very different to the softwood plantations where you have Australian dollar assets selling logs in Australian dollars to mills who sell their lumber in Australian dollars.

From the perspective of our clients these are very different investment risk characteristics.

Our view is that the hardwood plantation estate needs some consolidation. The challenge is to identify what should be maintained in forestry and what should be returned to agriculture. If we just think of this problem as determining the economic margin for woodchip supply, very little of the blue gum is suitable for a second rotation at the current exchange rates. Maybe even none.

We supported the forestry carbon rules for the Carbon Farming Initiative being the same as the

economic issue. In the USA much of the timberland is on land that doesn’t have any other commercial use, and so the value of forests is the discounted cash flow of future timber revenues. The valuation construct in Australia is completely different. You have two assets: land and trees. All of our timber plantations are on land that has other uses—primarily grazing and cropping. Therefore we value our plantations based on the combined value of the underlying land and the value of the tree crop—with the tree crop charged a rental cost for the use of the land. Our experience to date suggests that even if you charge the tree crop only a 5% rental rate on the land, the tree crop return is below 8%, which means you would be better off to harvest the trees and sell the land back to agriculture.

This is actually why the Government softwood privatizations are likely to be sustainable—they have sold the land use as embedded

return to support retaining the hardwood plantations?

I will try to answer these in order.

First, on the hurdle rate, I don’t think it will be lowered. The way timberland returns are priced is basically to start with the international risk free rate, such as US 10-year treasuries, which is arguably zero in today’s market, then add a US forestry risk premium, which currently sits at about 5.5% real discount rate (e.g. not including inflation). If we move outside the US, to Australia, there is no incremental sovereign risk, but we have to add currency risk of say, 100 basis points, and another 100 basis points for lower market liquidity and a less robust industry (the US South has myriad timber processing facilities and myriad forest owners, making a very robust market). So we often think that Australian softwood should have a discount rate of about 7.5% real applied to its valuation, and that won’t change significantly unless the US forestry premium declines.

Hardwood plantation returns are more volatile, and therefore institutional investors would apply another 100 to 200 basis points onto the expected returns to take on that added risk, and that drives you up to about 9% real expected returns from the blue gum. I am not talking about distressed assets, but well presented assets being exchanged between equally motivated buyers and sellers.

I don’t think that there is an argument to reduce the discount rate for hardwood plantations in Australia, unless we can establish domestic markets or long term export contracts for the wood.

The other option

proposal under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which would have allowed us to create a large carbon pool and integrate a large proportion of the blue gum into the carbon market, supporting a larger area of plantation retention into the second and succeeding rotations. The carbon market, at least during the fixed price period, would even give an Australian dollar price signal. As we transitioned to a traded market we would have a 100 million tonne buffer stock to reduce carbon price volatility. That didn’t happen, and from what I can tell, almost all the hardwood plantations are excluded, so the only way to try to retain more of the plantation base is to try to develop new markets or other ways to increase the value of the timber. I also think that these policy settings may be changed in future, so it may be a matter of waiting for the rules to change.

Maintaining timber plantations as a competitive land use is a challenging

in the value of the plantations, and this is actually more like the US timberland model, where the only asset is the timber plantation.

When the blue gum woodchip was trading at $207.40 I would estimate that about half the hardwood plantation base could hit an 8% hurdle. Today, with the Japanese price at about $170, and the Chinese price between $140 and $150, I doubt any of it makes an 8% hurdle, even with the lower cost of coppicing the second rotation. The status quo doesn’t appear to be the answer.

I suppose there are three questions you have to ask yourself: 1. Should the hurdle rate or return expectation for investment in Australian forestry plantations be lower to encourage more investment?

2. Should we just hope (or pray) that the blue gum woodchip market price will recover?

3.

Can we develop other markets that will generate sufficient

The other option would be to tap into domestic investors who don’t have currency risk and could therefore apply about 100 basis points lower hurdle rate. We might think that with $1.5 trillion in superannuation funds in Australia, the forestry sector would be flooded with money from domestic investors seeking Australian dollar denominated timberland. The problem is that the majority of timberland investors are seeking liability matching. So, for example a defined benefit pension plan (one committed to pay a certain proportion of your salary to you once you retire) can forecast its liability and select assets, including illiquid assets like forestry, to match them. In Australia, the super funds are mostly based on defined contributions, e.g. our 9% salary deductions, and the clients can shift from fund to fund at their choice. This means that Australian superannuation funds need greater liquidity and don’t do the same degree of liability matching.

That would make timberland less interesting or useful. It is worth noting that the Future Fund, who do have liability matching obligations, have been timberland investors and are reported to have participated in the ForestrySA sale. Despite being an Australia-based manager, we mainly have offshore clients who are defined benefit pension plans or insurance companies. Australia is attractive to

non-US investors because they have the same currency risk factors to consider as US investors in Australia, as opposed to US timberland where the European investor takes currency risk that is not a factor to US domestic investors.

Chip price recovery?

The second question I posed is whether we should believe that the woodchip price will recover and therefore we should make the leap of faith and continue to grow the second rotation of blue gum. Unfortunately the role of forestry in institutional portfolios is not as a speculative commodity play, but as a ‘real asset’ with low volatility and positive correlation with inflation. While there is an acceptance that timber plantation managers can reduce total return volatility by deferring harvest in periods of low prices and increasing harvests in periods of higher prices, that requires a view that markets are cyclical. The hardwood woodchip market at present is going through a restructuring away from a Japanese dominated industry with stable pricing and relatively long-term contracts, to a spot market with more international competing supply and more reliance on Chinese demand.

We invest in Asia as well as Australia, and if you go to Vietnam, there are now about 2 million hectares of eucalyptus and acacia plantation, much of it on smallholder land, being cut on a rotation of five to six years. The operating costs are low, there are dozens of woodchip mills, and the wood is sold across to China with one day’s barging. I was up in Cambodia in August, and they just had their first woodchip export from Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations that were established over the past decade. So, while we all expect Chinese demand to continue rising, we may also see continuing competitive pressure from lower cost producers closer to market. Even if the Australian blue gum is better quality, it still needs to operate off a benchmark which will likely be set

by Vietnam, not Australia.

The Australian dollar will probably decline in the future, although we don’t know when, and that will be the most important factor in being able to compete in the Asian woodchip market. But as we stand today, if we are cutting a mature blue gum plantation and getting $10 or $15 per green tonne stumpage, you don’t have an economically viable business.

Our third question is whether we can develop alternative markets or a domestic pulp mill that might justify maintaining a hardwood estate in Australia. Domestic markets like energy, CLT, veneers, and plywood would create lower return requirements (e.g. reduce discount rates) and would reduce the currency exposure and volatility of export markets. The problem to date has been that energy markets pay even less than woodchip export markets and are primarily seeking to use low cost waste streams. There has been some work lately indicating that biomass energy systems based on

torrefied pellets can be quite valuable in systems with good renewable energy pricing and may even be able to compete with woodchips on a residual stumpage basis. We have had a lot of companies come to see us to discuss a range of technologies around liquid fuels, biochar, and wood pellets. However, to date none have gotten beyond the pilot project state, so it is still speculative as to whether one or more of these will reach a scale and pricing model that will support plantations.

Domestic processing of hardwood, either via a pulp mill like the Gunns proposal or a satellite veneer facility like the Te Ann facility or some other development, is also worth considering. I recently read the RISI review of the Chinese pulp and paper sector. China has some real problems in developing a world leading pulp and paper industry. The first is that it has to import woodchip, which is a more expensive and volatile business model than Brazil. The second is that China has a rising demand for energy and doesn’t want to develop more high energy industry like pulp mills.

RISI conclusion So the conclusion by RISI is that China may well seek to a) gain control of its woodchip supply and/ or b) offshore the pulping capacity close to the fibre. This would suggest that China may seek to acquire both woodchip plantations and pulping capacity in Australia and in other markets. As I understand it that was the deal that Gunns was trying to strike at the end, before they ran out of time, and may well be a deal that could still progress.

The other approach would be to try to develop domestic hardwood lumber or veneer capacity. We sent about 35 containers of blue gum to China last year, and while it wasn’t the best quality for veneer, the Chinese said that they would happily take it. We have also had some discussions with Indonesian firms we are working with in Asia, and they are also interested to explore satellite veneer mills in Australia to replace timber from their logged out domestic forests. It would be interesting to see if there would be a way to establish hardwood processing alongside some of our softwood mills or put some hardwood processing in some of the areas further from Ports like Wattle Range in South Australia or the areas midway between Albany and Bunbury in WA. It may be that there is some collective industry development work needed here, where the plantations growers can encourage processing by offering long term resource security.

So I don’t have a positive or clear answer on any of these three questions. We have looked at the Great Southern estate and basically broken it into three baskets—areas which are not viable for forestry going forward, areas where we feel there is economic justification to coppice the second rotation, and areas where the jury is still out and which will be considered as they reach harvest age.

At present the Great Southern estate is about one-third in each basket.

10 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

FWPA

How much water does a eucalyptus nitens plantation need?

By Matthew Lovering

N

O PLANTATION can grow without water, but how much is needed and at what stage of the trees’ development?

A five year research project, led by Sandra Roberts, a Forest Hydrology Research Officer with Forestry Tasmania, and with funding from Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA), has come up with the answers. The team measured the water used in Tasmanian Eucalyptus nitens plantations and improved an existing planning tool (Forest Estate Model) to predict how much water is used by a plantation each year based on the basal area of the plantation and annual rainfall .

Knowing a plantation’s water-use will give forest managers the ability to consider plantation water-use and its affect on water availability during decision making processes.

Rain that falls on a plantation is used for transpiration—the water the tree loses through its leaves, is caught on the leaves and branches (this is called canopy interception) and lost through evaporation from the soil due to sun heat or wind blowing over the ground. Measurements of these three dynamic water processes are added together to establish the plantation’s total water-use.

This water-use volume is then subtracted from the total volume of rainfall to determine how

 ‘Lysimeter measuring how much water evaporates from the soil’.

 A heat pulse sensor was used to measure the speed of a tree’s sap.’

much water is available either as streamflow or groundwater. Where forest management practices increase water-use, the volume of available water either as streamflow or groundwater reduces. ‘Some plantations have been prevented in small catchments because of concerns about their impact on water supply, although water has not been given a dollar value for plantations in Tasmania,’ says Sandra. ‘We know that, in Tasmania, plantations only have a small impact on streamflow at this time.’

The researchers measured wateruse in five E. nitens plantations in the Florentine Valley, Tasmania, and in one plantation at Forestier.

The Florentine Valley plantations were aged nine, seven, four and

 Canopy throughfall measurement

less than one year at the start of the experiment, while the Forestier plantation was six years old. Some plantations were thinned, some were pruned, and some were treated for insect pests in accordance with standard management procedures.

Sandra and her team determined that the volume of water used depended on the age and basal area of the plantation and was also influenced by rainfall in the year of measurement. In the Florentine Valley, where the rainfall averages 1200 millimetres per year, plantation water-use ranged from 544 millimetres per year in a one year old plantation to 1052 millimetres per year for an unthinned nine year old plantation. The Forestier plantation used 752 millimetres of water per year.

Soil evaporation, at 376 millimetres per year, was the dominant process in the less than one-year-old plantation, while transpiration and canopy interception combined only accounted for 168 millimetres per year. In an 11-year-old unthinned plantation transpiration (at 445 millimetres per year) and canopy interception (at 379 millimetres per year) were the dominant processes,

with soil evaporation just 40 millimetres per year.

Thinning reduced wateruse by up to 30 per cent. For example, transpiration and canopy interception reduced from around 1000 millimetres per year in an unthinned stand to around 660 millimetres per year in a thinned stand. Soil evaporation increased markedly from an unthinned value of around 40 millimetres per year to a thinned value of 120–200 millimetres per year.

Data from the five Florentine plantations was used to develop a simple empirical model that predicts annual water-use of E. nitens based on plot basal area and annual rainfall.

The model was then applied to the data from the Forestier plantation, and showed a very high level of accuracy (within 95 per cent). This very pleasing result suggests that the model may be useful for plantations elsewhere in Tasmania. The methods used to measure water-use and build the model are transferable to other plantation species and native forests, although it is very likely that the actual relationships between wateruse dynamics will vary between sites based on geology, topography, mix

of land uses, weather and rainfall patterns The new water-use model was successfully included in Forestry Tasmania’s Forest Estate Model (FEM) and used to generate estimates of water-use, wood volume available to cut, and standing basal area for E. nitens plantation in the Florentine Valley over a 90 year period. The results showed that plantations can be managed to produce both smooth water-use and smooth wood production.

If plantation managers can use an estate model that includes predicted water-use they will be able to assess the impacts of plantation management decisions on wood production, income and water-use.

‘The research gives industry the power to consider water use during the planning process and lets forest managers respond to catchment managers with meaningful predictions on the future availability of water resources,’ says Sandra.

‘This capacity will be useful in limiting the impacts of plantation management on other water-users, ecosystems or threatened species, while maximising wood production and profits.’

FWPA realigns priorities to industry needs FWPA IS realigning its investment priorities in response to industry consultation and has launched a new national program to coordinate the collection and analysis of statistics and economics for the sector.

As a consequence, the following programs will be deferred or wound back until such time as the company’s funding situation improves: genetics R&D; water R&D; performance and yield R&D; wood in residential house construction R&D; postgraduate scholarships; GrowingCareers; and mid-career programs.

Estimates are that it will likely take 18 to 24 months for industry conditions to return to a position where levy income will allow for the continuation of these investment programs.

“We are not abandoning any programs, just putting them on hold until the industry is in a stronger position to be able to support the investment required,” said Ric Sinclair, FWPA managing director.

He said the FWPA was committed to

delivering programs that would help secure a better future for the forest and wood products sector. “To this end, the company has consulted widely with members and key stakeholders to identify priority activities for R&D investments, generic marketing and standards coordination, which should be supported from the constrained funding base.

“The clear message from industry was that in the current economic climate, industry executives would like to see FWPA focus on activities that have a shorter payback period such as market development or where cost savings can be realistically achieved.

“While stakeholders have an interest in longer term programs, these will be deferred until the industry is in a stronger position to make the appropriate investments.

“FWPA will establish a new program with the aim of providing improved coordination and building better systems for data collection and analysis. This new program will be internally funded and FWPA will recruit a senior manager to develop and deliver the program on industry’s behalf,” he said.

“FWPA will continue to work cooperatively with ABARES and other statistical providers to ensure that forest and wood product statistics are a valuable tool for industry and Government decision-makers. A new industry reference group will provide a mechanism for coordination and validation of all existing data series and the development of improved systems.

“A key initiative of the new program will be the development of a secure, online portal

Focus on activities that have a shorter payback period.

for the consolidation of all key statistical data series.

“Extensive consultation with industry about current and potential FWPA activities has reinforced the need to focus our limited resources on what can be delivered to benefit industry now,” said Sinclair.

The company would focus its efforts on the following 11 priority programs (in no specific order): • Statistics and Economics • Consumer advertising and Planet Ark alliance • WoodSolutions • Primary and secondary education (ForestLearning) • Standards and codes • Wood as a sustainable material R&D • Wood in commercial/industrial construction R&D • Increasing value from existing resources R&D • Biosecurity R&D • Carbon R&D • Forest management tools R&D

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 11

Aussies rise to the challenge A

STORY in the December 2012 issue of Australian Forests & Timber News sparked a response from a couple of Australian-based finance companies who took umbrage at a comment from Markku Turunen when he said that “We’ve [Logset and their Australian distributor, Karmet Enterprises] been surprised just how difficult lending institutions in Australia have made it for loggers wanting to borrow for capital equipment to improve their productivity.”

Turunen was referring to Logset’s decision to offer their own finance sourced from Finland after hearing from prospective purchasers just how restrictive the conditions are on finance provided within Australia. Since the article appeared, Turunen has been approached by Australian finance companies pointing out they are not only prepared to lend to the timber industry but have the sort of flexibility the industry is looking for.

“We can now offer finance packages through well established, larger financial

institutions in Australia that not only have an attractive interest rate [5.45% at the time of going to press] but can also be tailored to the needs of individual businesses.” said Turunen. He cited options such as $0 deposit, a 60 month term with no payments for the first three months and the ability to adjust monthly payment amounts with a balloon payment at the end of the term.

Given there are now alternative financing options open for customers to explore, Turunen sees the way open for Logset to broaden the range of equipment it is prepared to bring to the Australian market.

“Logset has always been keen to bring the full range of forest machines to Australia and started by bringing the 10F Titan in time for AUSTimber because a contractor had expressed strong interest in buying that particular machine.

“While we were looking for feedback from the market on any modifications that might be required to the forwarder to suit Australian contractors, we constantly got the message that finance was a major stumbling block in the way of contractors being able to invest in new machines.

“Until we could get that sorted out, we didn’t think it was sensible to expand the range of machines on offer in Australia but, now access to finance is no longer the problem it was, we will be looking to bring our wheeled harvesters in to help revolutionise the way operators can do their business and lift their productivity in Australia,” he said.

Finance flexible enough to fit customer needs.

M arkku Turunen.

statiivi.fi

“This means the finance can be flexible enough to fit in with the individual customer’s business needs. And on top of that, security for the loan is the equipment being bought – not the customer’s house, trucks and anything else the company owns!”

Financing has long been a bone of contention for the log harvesting industry so it is good to see some progress being made by some Australian financiers to provide the means by which sound operators can invest in their businesses.

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.

SALES

Karmet Enterprises PTY LTD Markku Turunen ph. +614 0417 8541 fax. +612 696 44477

10F TITAN

DESIGNED FOR YOUR SUCCESS – 20 YEARS

Oy Logset Ab Hännisentie 2 66530 Koivulahti Finland ph +358 10 286 3200 fax +358 6 2103 216

www.logset.com

12 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

NEW PRODUCTS

Bigger, tougher undercarriage and more horsepower T

HE NEW Cat B Series track feller bunchers, to be introduced at the Oregon Logging Congress this month, feature a new, upsized undercarriage, more horsepower and a new hydraulic design for improved multifunctioning performance.

“Major enhancements to these track feller bunchers will give loggers faster cycle times, more uptime and longer machine life,” said Keith Hicks, Caterpillar Forest Products product performance engineer. The Cat 522B is a leveling machine for select or clear-cut logging in rough, steep terrain. The Cat 521B is a nonleveling model best for plantation thinning, swamp logging, medium production clear cut, and high production biomass applications.

All the undercarriage rolling components of both models have been upgraded to D7 size hydraulic excavator type. “Track shoes, link assemblies, idlers, track rollers and undercarriage frame structures have all been upsized.

Undercarriage life expectancy even in tough terrain is going to increase significantly,” Hicks said.

The B Series limited tail-swing machines have the same industryleading strong drawbar-to-weight ratios as the previous models and a full 35 in. (889 mm) of ground clearance from front to back

— 2 in. more than the previous models. “Strong drawbar pull, along with even better ground clearance and the ‘open tunnel’ undercarriage design make for a highly maneuverable machine that easily climbs steep slopes,” Hicks said. The 522B can be ordered with a high drawbar option, boosting drawbar performance by 13% for logging in extremely demanding steeper terrain.

The swing capacity of 61,000 lbft (82.7 kNm) is another advantage of the Cat track bunchers when working on steep slopes. “The strong swing torque gives the operator the ability to swing big loads up slopes,” Hicks said.

“The combination of swing and lift capacity with improved multifunctioning will reduce cycle times and increase production. And the balance between lift and tipping load capacity gives the machine the stability loggers need to be safe working in steep conditions.”

A complete re-configuration of both the implement and travel hydraulic circuits and new compensator valve spools smooth out and improve multifunctioning.

“The operator can maintain a steady rhythm when activating several functions simultaneously,” Hicks said.“A more efficient hydraulic system also requires less horsepower, so fuel consumption is reduced.”

The hydraulics can be configured for either high or low flow attachments. The Cat HF B Series felling head operates on low flow. This frees up oil to run other machine functions while simultaneously maintaining maximum open and close arm speeds.

The B Series machines are equipped with the Cat C9 ACERT™ engine delivering 303 hp (226 kW) of gross power, 20

hp more than the previous models.

The C9, which meets U.S EPA Tier 3 emission regulations, is a common engine design with a proven track record of reliability and durability in the woods.

The 522B features the only twoway simultaneous leveling system in the industry. This unique threecylinder design significantly reduces stress loads into the leveler structure, lower frame and track frames, and lasts longer than

two-cylinder leveling systems.

The cab has all the convenience and comfort features built into other Cat forestry machines. The monitor has been downsized slightly to improve the operator’s line of sight out the right front corner of the cab. “The operator has a clear view of the work tool and area to the right side of the cab for lining up a cut or repositioning the machine and linkage,” Hicks said.

Latest simulator delivers cost-effective virtual training SIMFORMOTION™. - a leader in heavy equipment simulator training solutions—has released the new Cat® Simulators FM Log Loader System for forestry. The new is set in a forest environment where operators can learn the same machine applications found on actual forest production sites, in the safety of the virtual environment.

A realistic training experience is delivered through the use of authentic controls combined with simulated training exercises. The FM Log Loader teaches Control Familiarisation, how to perform a Machine Walkaround, Log Handling, Loading and Off Loading the Machine from a LowBoy Trailer, Shovel Logging, Loading and Unloading the Log Trailer, Sorting, and a special Open Training mode.

Cat Simulators deliver costeffective virtual training that translates to the real world.

Exclusive to Cat Simulators is SimU Campus™, the software that measures, records and reports the results of all simulation sessions so instructors and users can track progress.

Hundreds of benchmarks based on Caterpillar expert data are included in the system, with the operator’s performance measured against these benchmarks and outcomes recorded to a database.

Plus the PC-based simulator system is equipped with a motion platform so users can feel the realistic machine movement during training exercises.

“Using Cat Simulators as part of an end-to-end training program can provide immediate cost savings to a forestry company’s bottom line by reducing machine wear-and-tear and fuel costs; keeping actual machines in production; and allowing them to train multiple operators on multiple machines at one time,” Vice President Renee Gorrell says.

In addition to the new forestry simulator system, Cat Simulators are available in Large Dozer and Mining Truck models set in a mining environment; and Heavy Construction Dozer, Hydraulic Excavator, Off-Highway Truck, M-Series Motor Grader, Small and Large Wheel Loaders and Wheel Tractor-Scraper.

The Log Loader simulator will be available in Australia this month.

 Close up of the pod.

 Cat® Simulators FM Log Loader System.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 13

NEW PRODUCTS

Tough log yard work handled comfortably T

IGERCAT’S NEWLYdesigned AC16 articulating carrier is a four-wheel drive with powerful tractive effort for

towing applications and tough terrain log yard conditions.

The unit came about after Tigercat had observed a void in

the marketplace as equipment manufacturers, for the most part, stopped producing and supporting steering axle equipped self-propelled loaders for mill yard applications.

The durable, newly-designed carrier is completely fabricated

by Tigercat and uses robust, forest-duty components that are standard equipment on many Tigercat machines. The axles, brakes and transmission are common to Tigercat drive-totree feller bunchers.

Optional circle saw slasher hydraulics are available and Tigercat is also offering an optional log bunk. The loader can be separated from the carrier if required. The AC16 can be mated to a Tigercat 234 or 250

series knuckleboom loader. The prototype unit was purchased by Verso Paper Corp and has been operating successfully in a wood yard in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine,

since mid-2012. According to Tigercat officials, the AC16 carrier is available everywhere, but the build schedule will be order driven.

Barking up the right tree! New wheel weight package TAKURA BARK and Compost (Takura) recently purchased its third Manitou telescopic handler -one of the first MLT 840 machines in the country.

When Carl and Paul Power and Roy Saunders bought the Hervey Bay (Queensland) business nine years ago, a Manitou telescopic handler came with it. When they came to replace this, they evaluated a number of brands before deciding on a Manitou MLT 735, and when that machine recently came due replacement, the MLT 840 came up trumps.

Carl, who operates the machine, regards Manitou as the benchmark in telescopic handlers and has noticed significant advances in the new machine.

The MLT 840 is a significant machine for Manitou, being the first of a new generation of machines targeting the agricultural sector and the first to use a John Deere engine.

The move to John Deere coincided with the move to Euro 3B engines. The John Deere engine brings with it a boost in performance, 137 horsepower and 180 litres per minute hydraulic flow for the MLT 840-137 PS. Carl has noticed a big improvement in the power and hydraulic performance of the MLT 840, but he regards this machine as noticeably better in virtually all areas compared to its predecessor.

In basic specification it has slightly more reach and capacity than the machine it replaces.

From an operator’s point of view, the cab is larger and the higher operator position provides Carl with improved all-round vision.

The ergonomics of the Manitou joystick has always been well regarded, but in the MLT 840 the joystick is mounted on the armrest, providing greater operator control

when moving over rough ground.

The Takura machine works with pallet forks, a 4.0 cubic metre bulk bucket and a 2.5 cubic metre standard bucket.

The business produces potting mix, garden mulch and engineered soft fall material for placement under playground equipment. This is distributed between Brisbane and Cairns, and Takura has its own 40 cubic metre semi trailer.

One of the main tasks of the Manitou is loading bark into a hammermill for sizing to suit the various products. However it is also used for loading trucks and general loading and unloading with pallet forks. The business also has a wheel loader for bulk work.

Telehandlers average around 30 hours per week in the Takura business, and Carl aims to change them over at around the 4000 hour mark.

The machines do not operate on the road, so only three of the five gears are used regularly. Carl prefers to use the transmission in manual rather than automatic mode, for greater responsiveness.

Nathan Gleeson from NTP Forklifts handled the sale, and Carl was pleased with the changeover price from the MLT 735 that he traded. While previous machines were maintained locally once they were out of warranty, Carl is considering using NTP Forklifts for all servicing of the MLT 840.

Carl is more than pleased with the performance to date of the MLT 840, and convinced that the changes keep Manitou at the head of the pack in the telescopic handler market.  Operator Carl Power finds that the MLT 840 is an all round improvement on its predecessor.

helps boost productivity JOHN DEERE forestry equipment has introduced a new addition for its machines which will improve productivity for loggers. John Deere’s new wheel weight package was recently introduced on the Deere website, and will increase the load weight which John Deere machines are able to pull.

The new optional wheel weight package kit offers up to 1,900 pounds to the front of capable machines, which include the John Deere 640H Cable Skidder,

648H, 748H, and 848H Grapple Skidders.

Brandon O’Neal, product marketing manager at John Deere Construction & Forestry, says, “This is a simple solution that increases machine capabilities to help our customers become more productive on the job. Loggers will see a substantial difference in the load weight they are able to pull with the heavier set of wheels.”

The new weight package is made for the front two wheels of the machine only and requires

the use of duel ring wheels and SWEDA axles. New wheels with a dual ring allowing the use of 35.5 tires are available with the weight package. Weights and all mounting hardware for one set of wheels are also included in the kit.

This new addition to the John Deere Forestry equipment arsenal will enable loggers to increase the load their machines can pull, which will boost productivity. This is just the latest enhancement the Deere Company has introduced to help simplify forestry jobs.

14 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

demo days in west

Operators try ‘first of its kind’ forestry A

TWO-day forestry demo in blue gum plantations 25km west of Nannup in Western Australia attracted a number of major industry contractors and provided contractors with the opportunity to operate several John Deere forestry machines. Hitachi Construction Machinery Australia is the exclusive distributor of John Deere construction and forestry products in the Australian market.

The first of its kind in Western Australia, the innovative John Deere 2154D swing machine, fitted with an SP591LX hardwood processor head, proved a highlight for forestry enthusiasts.

Distributed by Randalls Equipment Company, the purpose-built SP591LX harvesting head is designed for strength, reliability and productivity in the toughest conditions, with very good fuel

saving on the base carriers. The SP 591 LX is purpose built for harvesting and debarking of plantation grown eucalyptus.

The uncompromised LX design is to be found all throughout the harvester head, from large components like frame and knives down to pins and seals.

In spite of its brute and tough appearance the SP 591 LX does not just offer strength and reliability. Smart solutions like

proportional pressures and the SP patent LogHold also make the SP 591 LX a very fast, efficient and easy to work with harvester head – the SP 591 LX truly is a high speed powerhouse for extreme jobs.

In spite of the fact that the SP 591 LX is built with state-ofthe-art technology for maximum speed and productivity, it still is a very reliable, simple and user friendly harvester head offering

incorporate industry-leading technology purpose-built to perform in the harshest of forest environments.

The machines are designed and modified to suit a wide variety of forestry applications, such as road building, log loading, processing and shovel logging.

They are generally lighter than harvesters and feller bunchers, however, much more rugged than standard excavators.

a minimum of moving parts, maximum uptime and great service accessibility. A good example of this are the total of just three hydraulic cylinders that is to be found throughout the harvester head, all sharing the same seal kit for easy parts stocking. The SP 591 LX is optimized for best productivity and performance handling tree sizes from 15 to 35cm (614”) and is equally productive working in a CTL application as it is processing decked wood out of a pile.

The revolutionary John Deere D Series swing machines

The new range of swing machines feature enhanced versatility and productivity with powerful swing systems, improved horsepower, and new hydraulic systems. The integration of John Deere PowerTech TM E and PowerTech TM Plus Tier2-certified engines provide excellent fuel economy with high torque at low rpm.

The revolutionary “smart cooling package” features a cool-on-demand, variablespeed, hydraulically driven cooling fan, which maximises the use of available horsepower while reducing fuel consumption

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 15

west australia

machine in WA and noise.

An innovative debris management system incorporating external screening, sealed cooler compartment, and optional automatic reversing fan helps eliminate the downtime associated with cooling system maintenance.

This system prevents materials and debris from entering the coolingpackage area to enhance overall productivity.

Resilient and robust machine

design contributes to powerful performance and extreme durability. Newly designed log loaderfronts, purpose-built processor fronts, and heavyduty excavator fronts allow the machines to operate in the toughest applications. A durable undercarriage features robust structures and heavyduty track chains to deliver both productivity and durability.

Strategically positioned

joystick controls and accessory switches offer operators improved functionality. Worksite visibility has been optimised through improved cab design.

Operators also have the option of a rear-entry cab featuring more space, accessibility and storage to ensure maximised comfort.

Also featured during demonstrations was the powerful John Deere 1910E forwarder, designed for forwarding heavy loads over difficult and steep terrain.

The 1910E is the most powerful forwarder ever built by Deere and sets a new standard for forwarding heavy loads over difficult terrain.

Boasting almost 250hp and a tractive effort of 220kN, the 1910E is the natural choice for those encountering steep slopes and large timber which

is effortlessly handled by the Deere CF8 loader. Plus, operator comfort is guaranteed by the new revolutionary operator station that automatically levels and rotates ensuring faster load cycles.

A forestry engineer from John Deere and a product specialist from SP in Sweden, as well

as local representatives of Hitachi Construction Machinery Australia, and Peter Randalls from Randalls Equipment Company along with Adam from SLR Enterprises Albany W.A were on site to offer product support and specialist technical support over both demonstration days.

16 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

AFCA

 Newly elected AFCA board [l-r] Brenton Yon (co-opted), Barry Fennell, Joanne Wilson, Ian Reid (Chairman), Cheryl Griffiths and Greg Coverly (Vice Chairman).

Absent: Ken Padgett.

Contractors face future with new vigour A

FTER A decade of operation the Australian Forest Contractors Association has decided to take a new direction in a bid to ensure its sustainability in an evertightening market place.

The national body has appointed logger and advocate Col McCulloch as its chief executive officer. David Drane will be the organisation’s administration officer.

Speaking after AFCA’s annual general meeting, new chairman Ian Reid said McCulloch’s role would be “very much hands on, meeting and discussing issues with our members, representing AFCA in many industry forums, and developing special packages for all our members”.

“Col’s experience as a logger means he is well qualified to meet these objectives. To support this role David Drane will become the administration manager and will work closely with Col in achieving the board’s core objective of representing our members’ needs and to facilitating a national network that will enhance the long term viability and welfare of Australian Forest Contractors.

“To assist in the development of membership packages and the marketing of our association the board has co-opted Brenton Yon as board member to provide assistance in growing our association,” he said.

The new board is: Ian Reid (Chairman), Barry Fennell, Joanne Wilson, Cheryl Griffiths and Greg Coverly (Vice Chairman), Ken Padgett, Brenton Yon (co-opted).

 Cr Malcolm Hole, President, with Kevin Peachy, Coordinator of National Timber Councils Association.

“AFCA has achieved many goals since it was formed in 2002 and has been able to be an effective voice of the harvest and haulage industry,” Reid said.

During 2007, as one of its most major contributions to the timber industry, AFCA purchased the rights to AUSTimber and held a highly successful event at two sites near Mount Gambier in 2008. The 2012 event, held at a single site near Mount Gambier, was lauded by all. Talks on the 2016 event have momentarily been placed on the back burner.

Another major achievement

for the organization was the establishment of the Contractors Hall of Fame and with it the due recognition of the stalwarts of the industry.

“The association has also been able to drive the acceptance within industry of fuel spike adjustments and work continues on ensuring that contractors have bankable contracts with forest owners,” said Reid.

He assured members that advocacy “with all levels of Government” would continue and that the board was determined to maintain this role in representing its members.

 Outgoing Chairman Colin McCulloch with incoming Chairman Ian Reid.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 17

bioenergy

Energy from renewable waste system proves highly successful N

EXTERRA SYSTEMS Corp, the University of British Columbia and GE have completed an energy-fromrenewable-waste combined heat and power (CHP) system at UBC’s Vancouver campus.

This is North America’s first commercial demonstration of a transformative system that combines Nexterra’s gasification and syngas conditioning technologies with one of GE’s high-efficient Jenbacher internal combustion engines.

For innovative technologies to have a real impact, they need to be commercialized and used in the market.

GE’s Jenbacher gas engine will produce 2 MW (megawatts) of clean, renewable electricity that will offset UBC’s existing power consumption, enough to power approximately 1,500 homes. The Nexterra system will also generate 3 MW of thermal energy, enough steam to displace up to 12% of UBC’s natural gas consumption.

This will reduce UBC’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 5,000 tonnes per year which is the equivalent of taking more than 1,000 cars off the road.

The successful start-up of the project at UBC – officially named the “Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF)” – represents an important milestone in Nexterra’s quest to reliably convert low-value waste feedstocks into higher value renewable fuels and chemicals. The system has completed a comprehensive testing program for

reliability, capacity and emissions, and has successfully connected to the grid.

Using Nexterra’s proven gasification technology platform and innovative gas clean-up and thermal cracking solution, the system converts locally-sourced waste wood into a clean, reliable gas that is suitable for use in a high-efficiency, industrialscale gas engine to produce heat and power. The system will deliver global electrical efficiencies that are 25% higher than traditional methods for producing biomass-based electricity at this scale.

The start-up of the system represents the culmination of more than four years of product development work and collaboration with GE’s Gas Engines business. Prior to installing the gas engine at UBC, Nexterra successfully completed more than 5,000 hours of trials at its Product Development Center in Kamloops BC. “This exciting facility targets a major challenge facing society – the need for new, clean energy solutions that work at a community scale,” says UBC President Stephen Toope. “This is a flagship example of UBC as a living laboratory, where researchers, staff, students and partners collaborate on innovations targeting the pressing challenges of our day.”

“With the track record at the Product Development Centre and the successful start-up of GE’s

 Flexible system to produce thermal or electric energy. Photo: Don Erhardt

Ecomagination represents GE’s commitment to providing innovative solutions that maximize resources, drive efficiencies and help make the world work better.

“This project represents a significant milestone for Nexterra and we are thankful to our partners for helping to make this a tremendous

Our Government is proud to have supported this project from day one because we have made education and research a top priority. ecomagination-qualified Jenbacher gas engine at UBC, Nexterra is well on the road to delivering a renewable biomass CHP solution that meets the demanding real-world reliability requirements of district energy providers and distributed power producers worldwide,” said Roger George, General Manager, North America, GE Gas Engines.

 Locally sourced wood material in chip form.

Photo: Don Erhardt

success,” said Mike Scott, President and CEO of Nexterra. “We are seeing significant interest in this nextgeneration solution from around the globe. We look forward to further proving the system out at UBC and then replicating this system worldwide.”

“Our Government’s approach to resource development means investing in the development of innovative renewable energy technologies that create jobs and generate new economic opportunities,” said Wai Young, Member of Parliament for Vancouver South, on behalf of the Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. “The announcement demonstrates our tangible support for renewable energy projects that increase energy efficiency and drive innovation.”

“For innovative technologies to have a real impact, they need to be commercialized and used in the market,” said Dr. Vicky Sharpe, President and CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). Nexterra’s CHP system is taking a big step in that direction.

“Our Government is proud to have supported this project from day one

 UBC’s Bioenergy Research & Demonstration Facility uses cross-laminated timber throughout the building. Building incorporates unique engineered member joining system.

Photo: Don Erhardt

because we have made education and research a top priority,” says John Yap, Minister of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology, representing the Provincial Government which contributed $7 million to the project through several ministries and departments.

Designed by McFarland Marceau Architects, UBC’s CHP bioenergy system is housed in a remarkable building that was constructed using cross-laminate timber (CLT), a new solid wood building material that can be used as a low carbon, renewable alternative to steel frame construction.

This will be one of the first CLT buildings in North America and will demonstrate its market potential for the forest industry.

Funding support this project was provided by: the Government of Canada (Natural Resources Canada and Western Economic Diversification Canada); the Province of British Columbia (BC Innovative Clean Energy Fund and the Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands); Sustainable Development Technologies Canada (SDTC), the BC Bioenergy Network and FP Innovations.

18 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

bioenergy

The future for wood biomass power generation

By Suz-Anne Kinney Forest2Market

T

HE LATEST Annual Energy Outlook released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration suggests a bright future for biomass power generation. As the table shows, the amount of power produced from plants dedicated solely to biomass power production will grow at a steady rate of 3.11%, with the largest increases coming at before 2020 and after 2030; the biomass portion of cofiring is expected to grow 12.57% annually, with the most rapid expansion occurring between 2016 and 2022.

Growth in Georgia Rollcast Energy Inc. recently opened the doors of its Piedmont Green Power facility. Located in Barnesville, the 53.5 megawatt dedicated wood biopower plant is set—when fully operational— to generate enough electricity to power 40,000 homes. Georgia Power Co., a subsidiary of Southern Co., holds a long-term contract to buy the power generated by the facility. In addition to Piedmont Green, Rollcast has plans to build another biomass power plant in LaGrange starting in the spring of 2013. Green Power Solutions is also getting in on the action. The company has plans to start construction on what will become Georgia’s largest renewable energy facility to date.

Its planned 56 megawatt plant is

under construction at the site of an existing paper mill; it is expected to use upwards of one million tons of wood biomass each year. Per a long-term agreement, Georgia Power will also purchase the power generated by this plant.

Construction will begin in May of 2013.

Trouble in Texas Despite the growth in Georgia, there is a lesson to be learned in Texas. Here, the nation’s largest wood biomass plant – at 100-megawatts – sits idle. The Nacogdoches Generating Facility, which opened for production in July, produced power only through September. Southern Power, also

a subsidiary of Southern Co., owns the plant.

Austin Energy holds a purchase agreement to buy the power the plant produces, but only when economical. The municipal utility pays approximately nine cents per kilowatt-hour (Kwh) to buy commercial power from the plant.

However, the historically low cost of natural gas has contributed to wholesale prices that currently range from three to four cents per Kwh. The plant is expected to ramp up operations when energy usage piacks up in warmer months. A more robust economic recovery increases demand for electricity or higher natural gas prices will also improve the facilities run rate.

The future of biomass Georgia Power and Austin Energy have long-range plans to realize more power generation from renewable energy sources. By 2015, Georgia Power plans to obtain 250 megawatts of renewable-sourced power. The new Rollcast Energy plant in LaGrange and the Green Power Solutions’ plant are part of that plan. Both are expected to begin producing commercial power in 2015.

Austin Energy’s plan extends through 2020. The utility has set the goal to realize 35 percent of its electricity generation from renewable sources, including biomass, wind and solar. A 20-year contract is in place

for Austin Energy to buy the energy generated by the Nacogdoches plant.

Supply and demand factors are not supporting full operations now, but this could easily change as demand for electricity and the supply dynamics of all energy sources shift. After all, one of the benefits of biomass power is that, unlike wind and solar, it is an on-demand source of electricity.

Energy forecasts like the one issued annually by the EIA are well-known for being inaccurate. No matter how good the model, any number of events over the 28-year period of the forecast could produce radically different results. In light of recent industry events, however, the EIA’s outlook appears reasonable: modest growth in dedicated biomass and strong growth in co-firing.

New bio-oil production technique cuts costs VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland along with the energy company Fortum, engineering company Metso and forestry company UPM, has developed a technique that enables the cogeneration of heating energy and bio-oil in the same power plant cost-effectively and sustainably.

VTT’s technique is based on combining pyrolysis and fluidised bed technology. Thanks to the new technique, bio-oil production volumes can be expected to increase considerably in the next few decades. VTT received an innovation award for the new technology. The award was distributed in December by the European Association for Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO).

Bio-oil has for a long time been pegged as the successor of fossil fuels as our future source of energy. However, large-scale commercial use of bio-oil in heat generation requires a cost-effective production technique. The new technique patented by VTT enables a considerable cut in the production cost of bio-oil.

Fast pyrolysis involves heating biomass such as forest industry waste to a high temperature to form gas. When the gas is cooled, it condenses into liquid known as bio-oil.

Combining the pyrolysis process with traditional fluidised bed boilers used in power plants brings a range of efficiency gains. Producing bio-oil with the new technique is cheaper than in a separate pyrolysis process. Bio-oil plants that are integrated into power plants are extremely energyefficient, because the energy contained in the by-products

of the pyrolysis process can be recovered in fluidised bed boilers. This is a significant improvement, because the by-products can contain as much as 40% of the original biomass’s energy. In turn, lost heat from the power plant can be used in the bio-oil production process. Cogeneration offers higher efficiency than separate production, and the investment and operating costs of the plant are lower than in separate production.

The technique is due to enter commercial production towards the end of 2013 when the energy company Fortum opens its new integrated bio-oil and heating plant in the city of Joensuu in Finland. The plant is designed to produce 50,000 tonnes of bio-oil per year. The volume is enough to cover the annual heating needs of 24,000 average-sized homes.

VTT is involved in European standardisation work to promote the commercialisation of the innovation. There are currently around 200 power plants in Europe and North America that could be converted to include a bio-oil plant.

This would mean more than 10,000 new jobs in the forestry and logistics sectors, for example.

VTT has also developed a technique to significantly improve the quality of bio-based plastic packaging. The new generation of bio-based plastic packaging is not only ecofriendly but also has several superior qualities compared to traditional plastic packaging. The plastic packaging industry is moving towards completely bio-based products.

The volume of oil used every year in the production of plastics equates to approximately five per cent of the world’s total oil consumption. Approximately 40% of all plastics are used in packaging, which puts special pressure on the packaging industry to reduce dependence on oil.

VTT has developed a technique that enables the production of the PGA monomer glycolic acid from biobased materials more efficiently than before.

Bio-based PGA plastic has excellent barrier properties.

Adding PGA into the structure of traditional plastic packaging significantly improves its quality. In addition to strength and heat resistance, plastic packaging also needs to be airtight, vapour-proof and grease-resistant. Bio-based PGA plastic is between 20 and 30% stronger than PLA – the most popular biodegradable plastic on the market – and able to withstand temperatures 20 degrees Celsius higher. It also breaks down more quickly than PLA, but its biodegradability can be regulated if necessary.

Bio-based plastic opens up new business opportunities for the forest industry: The estimated total volume of the global packaging market is approximately EUR 500 billion.

The Chinese and Indian markets, for example, are growing rapidly. Ethical consumption principles and legislative changes are steering the packaging industry towards sustainable development. At the moment, bio-based plastic accounts for approximately one per cent of global plastic production.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 19

App-solutely spot-on for soil science A

USTRALIA’S NATIONAL soil databases can now be accessed in real time online through a new iPad app called SoilMapp. The new app provides open access to the best and most up-to-date information for soil at any location in the country within a matter of seconds.

Information such as soil depth, acidity, salinity, soil carbon, soil water holding capacity and other attributes will help land managers, farmers and rural advisors make on-the-spot decisions about how to more effectively manage their land.

This mobile device technology will deliver detailed scientific information on soils directly into the hands of farmers, rural consultants, agronomists, and potentially other soil enthusiasts like real estate agents, hobby farmers and keen bushwalkers.

The app has been developed by the Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program (ACLEP) and CSIRO, with funding from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), because understanding soils is essential for sustaining healthy, natural environments and productive agricultural landscapes.

CSIRO’s Mike Grundy said soils are one of the most important building blocks of our agricultural

and ecological systems and are a precious natural asset.

“They sustain food production, biodiversity, water quality and play a key role in human health.

Understanding the characteristics of soil allows us to ensure we make decisions about its management to ensure maximum productivity and maintain or improve its health for today and future generations,” Grundy said.

SoilMapp is the first app developed by CSIRO and was launched at the Joint Australian and New Zealand Soil Science Conference in Hobart. The app taps into soil information from the Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS) and APSoil, the database behind the farming systems model, the Agricultural Production Systems SIMulator (APSIM), which is used worldwide.

Both these databases are stocked with contributions from thousands of individuals and organisations including the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), state and territory agencies responsible for land resource assessment, Geoscience Australia, and soil research and industry groups. The databases contain information about approximately 85,000 samples from nearly 15,000

locations, some dating back to the 1950s.

“There’s a lot of information about Australian soils stored in these two databases and the beautiful thing about SoilMapp is that it provides a user friendly mechanism for accessing that information in real time, on location,” Grundy said.

“Although that information is already available through the web, it is now of far more use to famers or consultants working out on the land because it can be at your fingertips in the field, and at no cost. Importantly, as our soil agencies improve their data collections, SoilMapp will provide access to later releases,” he said.

Senior Agronomist Steve Richmond from Kerin Landmark Rural said the app will be a welcome addition to his decision making toolkit when speaking with growers.

“By understanding the soil’s characterisation, water holding capacity and amount of organic carbon, we can make calculations about how much nitrogen to use on certain crops. This could lead to improvements in fertiliser use efficiency as well helping prevent soil acidification from the overuse of nitrogen. That provides a productivity benefit as well as environmental and economic benefits,” Richmond said.

 The SoilMapp for iPad will allow farmers and others to access real time information about their soils from in the field.

“Farmers are the custodians of vast tracts of Australia, and the decisions they make daily will impact on the short and long term future of this country’s ability to feed itself, meet growing global demands and to sustain its natural beauty. The more informed we can be when making these decisions, the greater benefit we can deliver for both productivity and environmental health. It’s a winwin,” he said.

While SoilMapp for iPad currently accesses Australian information,

other users may soon be able to get the benefit of this technology, with CSIRO exploring the possibility of working with partners in New Zealand, Indonesia and the Pacific Island countries to widen the scope of SoilMapp. SoilMapp was developed by CSIRO through the Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program (ACLEP) and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) project Doing it better, doing it smarter – managing soil water in Australian agriculture.

OPINION

Anomalies must be addressed by legislators IT WAS refreshing to read the comments made by Simon Crean and Sid Sidebottom at the recent forest Industry Development Conference. There is no doubt that collectively, “the industry needs to more cleverly adopt and use every contemporary means to educate, communicate and enthuse people about the benefits of wood and its products”.

Unfortunately, unlike those who would like to see an end to the native forest sector of the Australian forest industries and the less obvious opponents to the plantation sector, the forest industry is unable to use false and misleading material to promote the industry, invade work places to draw attention to our products and use false and misleading materials to raise “charitable” donations to develop and promote innovations in the industry.

There are three key areas of legislation that must be addressed by the Federal Government if the forest industries are to meet the challenges set out by Mr Crean and Mr Sidebottom.

Section 45 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 must be amended to remove the capacity of ‘environmental” campaigners to use false and misleading material to undertake campaigns of economic sabotage to destroy forest businesses. The ACCC must then be prepared to take on the “environmental charities” that are increasingly using the Section 45 loophole to blatantly destroy domestic and overseas markets for Australian forest products.

The national framework for harmonised work health and safety legislation must be amended to so all States ensure trespassers into any workplace, have the same accountabilities and are subject to the same penalties as anyone who has a legal right to enter a workplace.

Anti-forestry activists currently use this loophole to carry their economic sabotage campaigns to the family contracting businesses in the forests of Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and NSW. The current capacity of environmental charities to engage in campaigns of economic sabotage, funded with tax deductible donations, must be stopped. http://www.ethicalpaper.com.au/ I look forward to the Federal Government committing to addressing these key legislative issues.

Peter Rutherford

New Forests takes on former Gunns sawmills NEW FORESTS is acquiring all the assets of Gunns Timber Products (GTP), including the Bell Bay and Tarpeena sawmills. The transaction was anticipated to be completed late last month.

Mark Korda and Bryan Webster, Receivers of Gunns Limited and its wholly owned subsidiaries (Gunns) (ASX: GNS), confirmed they have signed a sale and purchase deed with New Forests to sell the timber business as a going concern. The sale price is confidential.

GTP is a leading national timber products business consisting of two high quality saw mills at Bell Bay in Tasmania and Tarpeena in South Australia and a national sales and distribution network with warehouses in Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne.

New Forests confirmed the contract provided for continued employment and

entitlements for approximately 380 staff and has stated that the business will be managed locally.

“Over the coming weeks, we will be working closely with KordaMentha and Gunns Timber Products staff to ensure a smooth ownership transition,” said David Brand, Managing Director of New Forests.

“The Bell Bay and Tarpeena sawmills are key elements of Australia’s regional forest industries. Over the past year we have acquired softwood plantations in Tasmania and in the Green Triangle which provide the core wood supply to each mill. We can now aim to create value by integrating management of the forests with the mills and with the sales and distribution functions.

This should allow us to be a competitive and high-quality timber supplier even in the

current difficult market conditions. This is an outstanding outcome for the employees and the local communities of Bell Bay and Tarpeena. The business will be in the hands of experienced forestry managers with a long-term interest in the Australian timber industry,” said Mark Korda.

New Forests now manages more than 375,000 hectares of forestland and timber plantations across Australia on behalf of institutional investors, primarily superannuation funds, pension funds, and insurance companies. “We are long-term investors in Australia’s plantation forestry sector and seek to be part of the growth and development of the industry. We aim to continue to invest and grow our business in Australia which, despite the high Australian dollar and reduced housing starts, remains

among the most attractive forestry investment opportunities in the world,” said Brand.

Korda said he was delighted with the sale process, which attracted dozens of expressions of interest from Australia and overseas. There were seven bidders when the initial deadline expired on 2 November.

Bidders were then required to submit binding offers for the assets by the end of November, and New Forests entered a short term period of exclusivity in order to finalise the terms of the transaction.

Korda said this asset sale is a significant step in successfully carrying out the threepoint plan set out at the beginning of the Receivership.

New Forests anticipates operations at both mill sites will continue without any disruption through the ownership transition.

20 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

EDGERS

Professionalism is the key to success T

HEY MAY be a half a world apart but New Zealand-based Red Stag Timbers and the North American sawmill equipment manufacturer Comact have something in common ... they’re both highly professional.

It was this trait that led Red Stag on the path to growth and which led the NZ firm on a mission to find the best and the latest technology to facilitate this continued growth.

Comact was the preferred supplier and commissioner of a whole new operating procedure for Red Stag.

Red Stag Sawmill Manager Steve Roberts explains: “We looked at three systems, two seriously, but the main reason we went with Comact was because of the volume of systems they had built, plus they had a better understanding of what we required

that can replace human intervention in any part of a sawmill site process.

Systems have been developed for many different species, spruce, pine, fir, hemlock, southern yellow pine, cedar, hardwood and more recently for radiata pine.

Indeed, last year, Comact installed its first vision system in New Zealand into the Red Stag sawmill.

A complete upgrade on an existing optimized 5-saws board edger has been done. Comact replaced the existing transverse 3D scanner with a new EdgExpert equipped with vision sensors. The EdgExpert and the other Comact’s systems are combining an accurate transverse geometrical scanner with 3D profiles of the boards every 3mm and high definition color images of the boards.

The quality of the scanning device is

 Corewood.

 Pith.

especially with radiata pine. It was a balance of the experience they had and the price, obviously. There are other systems out there but they are pretty hard to stack up financially.”

Comact has been involved in the sawmill industry since the beginning of last century and specializes in providing sawmill processes solutions all over the world. Since 2005, the company has made a huge step in vision technology by introducing the first GradExpert, an automated system for grading dressed boards in North America. Since then, Comact has designed different solutions not only for dry mills but also for sawmills (green mills) with its expertise in defects detection on boards, logs, and cants surfaces. Now, with more than a hundred vision systems installed in North America, Comact is definitely the leader in development of systems

really important but more crucial is the software algorithm to make the proper defect identification.

This is where Comact expertise makes the difference. For Red Stag, defects and/or characteristics that were important to identify were knots, corewood, pith and growth rate. Once we have the proper identification, size and location of each defect/characteristic then the optimization can process thousands of opportunities for positioning the defects in the products in order to get the maximum value of the input board once it’s been edged. Sometimes the solution is to remove a damaging defect by edging or trimming it but the more lucrative solution is to locate the defect within the product such that it does not result in a downgrade.

Higher recovery and higher value are the result.

will have proven ability of this specie and be ready to accept challenges in Australia and New Zealand with other species in order to optimize value.

Hardwood mills as well as softwood are candidates for very attractive returns on this investment.

“It’s lived up to all expectations ... absolutely ... even though we’re still learning how to run it properly. They’re a very professional crowd,” said Steve.

The timeframe from decision to commissioning was about six months.

“Some of the tricky stuff we wanted to do with some of the vision scanning took a bit longer -- probably took about three or four months to settle in ,” Steve said.

“They had never tried to do some of the stuff that we wanted before. We got core detection and things like that so we cut around the core on the edger.

arrived. I’ve had some with some other suppliers and the gear arrives and it’s not really what I thought I was going to get,” said Steve.

“We’re very, very happy with Comact their people and their service.

These guys are dedicated.”

And the difference to the bottom line ... “It certainly pays off. That’s why we have put another two in.

We’re installing two more right at this moment as we speak.

“We expect to get even better. Once we learn how to run it the way we want we can expect even better results.

“We’re putting the third system in now; one on a board edger, one on a trimmer. We are getting Comact to redo our controls on the bin sorter; that ties in nicely with the optimization package rather than mix and match.”

The description as Red Stag as a

Our blonded knots on radiata caused a bit of grief because they hadn’t come across it before. Not grief, maybe, but it was a bit more difficult to handle.”

Red Stag sent two of its employees to Canada for three weeks to “learn the ropes”. “The system is quite complex to run; it’s not something you don’t put any time into to get the best out of it, as with any new technology.

“The system’s good; it’s really good!

“The installation was really professional. Their technicians are really, really professional and there were no nasty surprises when the gear

‘large sawmill’ is somewhat of an understatement as this year it will be cutting about 400,000 cubic metres of timber.

And for the final word from Steve ...

“Overall it’s been a good investment (about $9million in total) for us. When we started the first one it was more or less an experiment to try and get some value adding on the edger but also to see where the new technology was going. It’s certainly paying off.

“They’re (Comact) a very professional outfit and easy to deal with.”

 Knots.

The success of this first experience with Red Stag resulted in the sales of two other systems for other applications in the sawmill and in the dry mill. The sawmill TrimExpert will be used as an improved trimmer optimizer and with the same vision technology as the edger optimizer in order to full maximize value. The second system, the GradExpert, will be installed in the dry mill in order to grade dry boards coming out of the planermill.

Once these two new systems are fully operational, the Comact team

22 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

skidders

Heavy duty workhorses help productivity C

AT’S WHEEL skidders are renowned workhorses with the strength and power to handle a heavy duty bunching grapple with a full load of logs. The cat C Series line includes the 545C with 173 kW (232 hp) gross engine power, the 535C at 163 kW (218 hp) gross, and the 525C with 146 kW (196 hp) gross engine power. The 525C is also offered with a DualHP option that provides increased power in first gear torque converter lock-up through fifth gear for greater productivity.

The C Series skidders are equipped with the Cat C7 engine featuring ACERT™ Technology.

The C7 delivers power and torque to maximize productivity and the ACERT Technology combines improvements in fuel delivery, air management and electronic control to optimize engine performance. The clean-burning engine, along with proper oil sampling, allows oil change intervals to be extended up to 500 hours.

The five-speed transmission matches engine power to the load size and ground conditions and electronic shift control boosts total productivity.

A lock-up clutch torque converter equips the C Series skidders with all of the operating advantages of torque converter operation as well as the speed and fuel efficiency of direct drive. Travel speeds can be as much as 15% higher with the lock-up clutch engaged. The C Series wheel skidders use a weight-forward design for better balance and exceptional stability on grades, even when skidding a large load.

Cat bunching grapples feature a strong box-section design and higher clamping forces for faster log loading and excellent hold on a load.

The “Auto-Grab” grapple hydraulic system monitors and adjusts tong pressure as needed to maintain a secure grip on grapple loads without wasting power.

The Cat 527 track skidder delivers the balance and power needed for safe and productive skidding in steep terrain or soft ground conditions.

Track skidders are available in grapple or cable configurations to suit loggers’ requirements in Australia and New Zealand.

The 527 is powered by the 127 kW (166 hp) Cat 3304 DIT engine. A torque converter three-speed transmission power train, designed specifically for skidding applications, delivers higher drawbar pull. The long track roller frame and optimized weight distribution provide excellent traction in steep terrain, and lower ground pressure for better performance on soft underfoot conditions.

Ground clearance with Caterpillar’s elevated sprocket design is 711 mm (28 in.) for excellent maneuverability.

Cat heavy-duty track components extend undercarriage life.

The Cat 527 track skidder is available with logging winch for larger diameter, select cut log harvesting, or the swing boom for smaller diameter, mechanized whole tree harvesting.

For ease of operation and operator protection, the 527 is available with open ROPS or enclosed cab configurations.

 Cat 527 track skidder.

 Cat 545C wheel skidder.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 23

skidders

“When something looks after you very well you stick to it” D

WAYNE BEAUMONT has been around in the forestry and haulage business for a while now, long enough to know that when you’re on a good thing, you stick to it. Basically, that has been his philosophy with John Deere products.

He likens his preferential thinking to that of the Holden/ Ford rivalry.

Dwayne’s first machine was a second hand unit (like so many other contractors) which was a JD648E. “We bought it with about 2000 hours on it and we had about 12500 on it when we traded it. Brilliant.”

After that he bought a Timberjack 560 --- “it’s really a John Deere anyway” --- and the progression of machines and business had started in earnest. In fact, he said the whole business started because he just happened to be in the right place at the right time and won a small contract.

“We’ve grown from there, and we pride ourselves on our work ethic.”

A bit over 12 months ago Dwayne was looking at updating some machinery and used AUSTimber 2012 (near Mt Gambier) as his see/try/ evaluate centre.

And he was rapt with AUSTimber.

“Everyone I’ve talked to says it too.

I take my hat off to the organisers of AUSTimber 2012 because that was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

“For someone to take a few days off work and go away and have something put to you like they did was just amazing. The organisers should be congratulated. It was bloody brilliant,” says Dwayne.

That AUSTimber sojourn gave Dwayne more of an idea on what was available. “Very impressed with the John Deere, but all the dealers put a lot of bloody hard work in to try and sell a machine because the last couple of years timber harvesting hasn’t been going very well anywhere in Australia not only just Tasmania, we’ve been struggling. They all like to push their own products as much as they can. The three main products are good products, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve always had the leaning to John Deere. When something looks after you very well you stick to it,” he says.

His latest purchase, the John Deere 848H grapple skidder, ticks all the boxes ... “when you’ve got to call on it - you know steep going or whatever

– it doesn’t let you down. It’s good gear”.

As everyone in the business is aware, loggers work in remote areas, so skidders must be easy to service and, according to Dwayne, the new JD skidder makes this job simple ... unlatches the large service panels, no tools needed, for convenient access to filters and components. The cooling

system provides wide-open access to the coolers for simplified clean-out. If necessary, the operator station can be tilted in minutes, for easy access to the drivetrain.

The new skidder boasts extended service intervals and industryleading fuel efficiency to help keep daily operating costs down.

It’s a combination of factors and criteria that have to be met on a daily basis to ensure any business remains viable and Dwayne and his team always look at every angle to try and guarantee success.

From a business that started with a 24000 tonne contract Beaumont Timber Harvesting has grown to cover a 110000 tonne contract and has an experienced workforce of 18 to cover the harvest and haul work in the north-west of Tasmania.

Beaumont cuts and carts for Britton and also Ta Ann (at Smithton) with the lesser grade logs destined for export.

Despite the fact that the Beaumont forestry business has been successful it has not been easy going ... far from it ... “I know things have been tough but we’ve been right through that, too,” says Dwayne who strongly believes in the industry he supports.

“We absolutely love what we do,

especially working for Forestry Tasmania as well because we know that everything gets planted back.

There’s nothing better than to log a coupe and go back in two or three years and find it all growing back into natives,” he says.

Incidentally, the Forestry Tasmania/Beaumont connection has been on the go for about 15 years!

24 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

fire protection

Fire protection equipment vital for forestry vehicles - Wormald F

IRE PROTECTION specialist Wormald is encouraging the installation of fire suppression equipment on forestry vehicles to help prevent machinery fires.

Due to the size, fuel carrying capacity and cost of forestry vehicles and machinery, appropriate vehicle fire suppression systems compliant to Australian Standards should be installed. Fire extinguishers suitable for smaller fires, or fires that may occur outside the risk area should also be provided.

Wormald offers a range of vehicle fire suppression (VFS) systems, which are suited to different types of forestry vehicles. In the event of a fire, the principal aim of the Wormald systems is to provide early detection and warning to allow extra time for the driver to safely evacuate, while at the same time quickly suppressing the fire to help minimise damage to the vehicle.

The Wormald Foam Water Spray VFS System consists of high pressure, small droplet nozzles which discharge a continuous stream of foam water spray at high risk areas, such as engine and transmission compartments, and hydraulic areas. The system utilises the fire suppressing and containment features of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF).

The ANSUL™ A-101 Dry Chemical Vehicle Fire Suppression System discharges a multipurpose dry chemical agent known as Foray® into the risk area to suppress the fire. These systems can be designed to flood entire volumes with dry chemical agent or aim at specific high-hazard areas.

Both systems are installed with automatic detection and actuation

 Logset Wormald fire suppression system.

systems as well as cabin and ground level manual actuators. These manual actuators allow the operator to activate the fire suppression system if required.

Wormald’s VFS systems are ActivFire listed to be compliant to Australian Standard, AS 50622006: Fire Protection for Mobile and Transportable Equipment.

In accordance with AS 5062, Wormald provides a fire risk assessment process which assists in determining the most appropriate system to use for each vehicle application. Another major component of AS 5062 is the regular inspection, testing and preventative maintenance and survey activities for the VFS

systems, to help ensure a system is fully functional and will perform as designed if a fire occurs.

Wormald is Australasia’s leading provider of fire protection solutions and has been protecting people and property since 1889. Operating in nearly 40 locations throughout Australia, Wormald designs, manufactures, installs and services

fire detection and protection equipment to a wide variety of industries including building and construction, mining, healthcare, military, oil & gas, leisure management, corporate, education and IT&T. Wormald also provides a comprehensive range of fire services from engineering advice to fire safety training.

Cover for those fighting fires THE INDUSTRIAL Court has ruled that NSW park and forestry employees are to be exempt from WorkCover changes when conducting firefighting duties, such as hazard reduction burning.

The court ordered that people employed by Parks and Wildlife, Forests NSW and other

Government bodies, should be also be exempt from changes to Workers Compensation, when undertaking firefighting duties.

The controversial WorkCover overhaul, which caps benefits and medical expenses was passed by the NSW parliament in June, however, it included an amendment that exempted all

emergency service workers from the changes.

Despite the amendment there was uncertainty as to whether around 1000 people employed by the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) who undertook firefighting and fire-related activities part time were included in the exemption.

“In my opinion, they are to be regarded as a

firefighter ... immediately they commence to perform firefighting duties and are no longer a firefighter when those duties cease,” Justice Roger Boland found.

Among the duties listed, were aerial attack, use of fire retardants, felling trees and hazard reduction burning.

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/vehicles

Pictured: Cylinders and Extinguishers

A Tyco Business

26 – February 2013, Australian Forests & Timber News

fire protection

New guides on constructing in bushfire zones B

ORAL TIMBER has developed a suite of easy reference guides for acceptable timber construction in bushfire prone areas.

The free brochures are designed to be used in conjunction with Australian Standard: Construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas (AS3959 – 2009), which now applies in all parts of Australia.

Tailored information is available for New South Wales (NSW) and South Australia (SA), where additional building regulations need to be considered.

The Boral Timber brochures provide advice on the construction of external walls, roof framing, internal surfaces, elevated floors/ subfloors, stairs, decks and ramps with timber.

Any development on land that is designated as bushfire prone must consider bushfire and meet the requirements of AS3959 – 2009 (the Standard). According to the Standard, there are various levels of risk of Bushfire Attack Levels (BAL) which measure the severity of a building’s potential exposure to a bushfire. As the BAL level increases, so does the severity

of bushfire attack from embers, radiant heat and direct flame. The Standard uses the BAL as a basis for establishing the requirements for construction to protect buildings from bushfire attack.

“With Australia’s dry climate many areas are prone to bushfire but homeowners in these areas should not have to compromise on beautiful design because of their location,” says Clinton Skeoch from Boral Timber. “These brochures provide recommendations on how and where to use timber from the Boral range such as products made from Blackbutt and Spotted Gum, which have bushfire-resisting properties and meet the requirements of BAL29.

“Constructing in bushfire prone areas can pose many risks and challenges but careful planning can increase the chance of survival of buildings and their occupants if a bushfire occurs. Those responsible for design and construction should be aware of the requirements of the relevant Standards, legislation or regulation. It’s important that building construction is viewed as part of an integrated approach to bushfire protection. Other

considerations include the site location, creation of barriers, landscaping and design and choice of construction materials.”

Boral Timber has achieved Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) chain of custody certification (AS 4707-2006) for its timber products.

This means that timber used to produce Boral Timber’s hardwood flooring, decking and structural timber has been sourced from certified, legal and sustainably managed resources. The Australian Forestry Standard Scheme also has mutual recognition by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Scheme (PEFC) - the world’s largest forest management certifier.

Information included in the brochures has been developed by the Timber Development Association on behalf of Boral Timber as a guide to meeting the different construction requirements using Boral Timber products. The brochures can be downloaded online at the Boral Timber website www.boral.com.au/timber.

NSW Rural Fire Service - http:// www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content. cfm?cat_id=1009

Tasmania’s first carbon flux tower FORESTRY TASMANIA will improve its understanding of the growth of its forests with the installation of Tasmania’s first carbon flux tower at the Warra LTER site.

The 80m tall tower will provide readings every 30 minutes to enable scientists to monitor carbon movement in forests.

The tower measures the exchange of carbon and water between the forest and atmosphere.

Principal research officer Tim Wardlaw said the tower was vital in contributing new knowledge to understanding how the forest is responding to climate as well as improving climate knowledge.

“We are able to see if the forest is absorbing carbon or losing it.

“It’s really important for understanding how well our forest is acting as a sink and how quickly they will change from a sink to a source.

“It’s a bit like taking the pulse of the forest and telling you how the forest is functioning and how it responds to extreme climate events such as drought and heatwaves.

“The beauty is we’re seeing it happen in real time,’’ he said.

It is the first carbon flux tower to be built in Tasmania and the 14th in Australia.

The flux tower is the most recent piece of research infrastructure at the Warra site, which is a key part of Tasmania’s ecological monitoring program. Interestingly, the tower is located within a proposed reserve arising from the Tasmanian Forest Agreement 2012. Whatever the final tenure outcome, it is important that the internationally significant monitoring program at Warra continues to be supported.

Australian Forests & Timber Classifieds

FIREWOOD MILLS

For Information, please, call 0419-536 804 or email your postal address to info@firewoodmills.com.au

New model Easy50 available now!

Different sizes of mills with optional feeding table and drum cleaner. Tractor, Diesel Power Pack or Electric Power Pack driven models.

FOR SALE

$200,000+GST to $300,000+GST per complete unit

Six foldup b-double unit’s 5 x Kenworth’s 1x Western Star • With work if required.

• All late models, well maintained.

• Available mid December 2012. Located NSW.

Phone during office hours:

Ph. 02 6496 1433

Sell your used equipment, advertise your tender, offer your real estate or find your next employee. For rates and deadlines call Laurie (03) 9888 4834 or email: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 27

AVAILABLE NOW Softwood Bandsaw Processing Mill For high recovery sawmilling

New Tigercat 855C In stock now $POA

)

Volvo L90 Loader

Comes complete with quick release, large chip bucket and log grapple forks.

Valen Kone VK26 Debarker In and out feed conveyors.

$88,000+GST

New Tigercat 630D Skidder $37,000+GST

In Stock Now $POA

Australian Forests & Timber Classifieds

Robinson 54” wheels heavy duty bandsaw

50hp motor, Hydraulic feed. $12,500+GST $9,800+GST

Forano Twin 60” Bandsaw Log Breakdown line

Top dogging. Log handling. Remote operator.

Log diameter 60cm – 12cm, 6m - 2.4m.

Hydraulic sizing 30cm – 7.5cm. $188,000+GST

OPTIKOP 2002

optimising docker complete with in feed and unscramble, and 4 station kick off outfeed. $38,000+GST

Moreen Johnston 50” Horizontal Band Wing line

With roundabout and wing transfer deck.$44,000.00+GST

New Tigercat 855C Feller Buncher Just Arrived with Tigercat DT2002 Shear $POA

Windsor board twin edger

With laser guides, pneumatic sizing and conveyor waste transfer.

Biesse twin head

point to point automatic machine centre.

$37,000+GST

$28,000+GST

Austral Timber Group Contact Ken Baker 0438 643 992 kjb@agnew.com.au

FOR SALE Spare parts for Grey Benches.

Good stocks of genuine parts.

Catalogue available.

Contact Ron Grey Mob: 0414 657 393 Fax: 02 4988 6748

FOR SALE

Band Re-saws: Robinson 48", Wadkin RR 1000, Holytek HB800.

From $8,000.00+GST Dust Extraction: 50hp motor, 800 diameter inlet, complete with filter unit & ducting. $30,000.00+GST 20 hp, 48 bags, reverse pulse, drops into collection bags $7000.00+GST Moulders: 4, 5 & 6 head up to 300 wide, Weinig, Wadkin, SCM, Ledamac.

From $15,000.00+GST Docking Saws: Spida, underbench and chalk line docker.

From $1,800+GST Single End Tenoner 5 head: Danckaert with all round heads. $3500.00+GST Four Sided Planer: Rex 600 wide fixed table height $TBA Edgers/Multirip: Gibson, SCM, Sicar. From $11,000.00+GST Contact: Jim Wills Ph: 02 9907 3699 Mobile: 0418 646 440 Email: jim@sawmillservices.com, www.sawmillservices.com

For Sale Surplus logging equipment

Western Star Truck 4964 fxc 2009 registered Cat 625 hp 90500 gcm. 245,000 km.

Roadranger 18 speed Rockwell driveline.

Fitted with Kennedy Mini B Jinker.

Other trailer options available.

Unit in excellent condition ready for work.

Option of two complete units.

Caterpillar 535B Skidder 10,000 hrs. Near new tyres. Excellent condition.

For all enquiries please contact.

John McConachy 0428 388 115

Tigercat H250B

2010 Model with 3781 hrs inc Tigercat TH575 Harvesting Head Price $275,000 + GST

New Hyundai R210LC-9 Harvester

Model Built to Spec Plumbed & Guarded $POA

1300 727 520

www.onetrak.com.au

// N O T H I N G R U N S L I K E A D E E R E

John Deere forestry equipment. Advanced technology. Proven reliability.

And a team that knows productivity is a commitment, not a bullet point.

Sold and supported by Hitachi Construction Machinery Australia.