JULY 2012 Issue 4, Vol. 21 • P: (03) 9888 4834 • F: (03) 9888 4840 • E: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au • www.timberbiz.com.au
Shining gums cast dark shadow on industry future C
T hinned, prunned E. nitens.
ERTAINLY, WHAT seems most certain for Tasmania’s forestry industry is uncertainty. Growing uncertainty surrounding the Eucalyptus nitens project has given rise to a myriad of conflicting opinions. Such views are often processed, cut down, pulped and spat out. But none should be discounted too soon. A leading forestry and timber scientist has warned that the Tasmanian industry needs a major overhaul to save it from collapse. Tasmania’s forestry industry is becoming increasingly reliant on Eucalyptus nitens (Shining gum) plantations as Government kowtows to the wishes of environmentalists. But Dr Russell Washusen, Honorary Principle Fellow at the University of Melbourne and former CSIRO scientist working for the CRC for Forestry, said the existing mills scattered across the island won’t be able to accommodate rapid changes in the industry unless action is taken soon. “Either the mills won’t be financially viable or the growing won’t be financially viable if they have to process the wood without any existing modifications,” he said. “With the current agreements they have with the Government, eventually there will be no logging at all and if they are forced to use plantation logs they will most likely be forced to close.” Dr Washusen said the mills will need to increase their throughput to survive. The current throughput of Tasmania’s 43 mills range from 100
to 40,000 cubic metres per year, according to figures provided by the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania. But Dr Washusen said that throughput range will need to be boosted by as much as tenfold to achieve cost efficiency. The costs of such works will present challenges. Dr Washusen said of all the mills across the island only one could undergo a feasible transformation to accommodate the Eucalyptus nitens. He said such a project would cost about $1.5 million. Dr Washusen estimates the cost of building suitable new mills from scratch would be about $13 million to more than $60-70 million. Dr Washusen also believes the geographical spread of the mills will need to be considered before the Eucalyptus nitens are harvested en mass. “There needs to be some more careful planning. “At the moment the resource is too scattered for a large central mill. “There needs to some sort of rationalisation on that basis. “You need to look at the log supply then you need to look at the technology and match that technology to the log supply. “The Tasmanian industry is in a position where by 2020 it may be forced into taking a substantial supply of logs from plantations. “There’s been more and more native forests set aside in reserves to be replaced by plantations. “There is a real question mark about where they will deliver the logs,” he said. It’s expected that 30,000 cubic metres of plantation logs will be
Log harvesting increase The Volume of logs harvested in Australia increased by 3.6% in 2010–11, the first increase in three years taking the total value of logs harvested in 2010-11 to over $1.8 billion. According to Australian forest and wood products statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), the growth was driven by logs harvested from plantation forests, while the volume of native broadleaved harvest declined by 4.0%. The volume of logs harvested from both broadleaved plantation and coniferous plantations remained strong in 2010–11. Broadleaved plantation harvest increased by 12% over the year to over five million cubic metres, with growth particularly strong in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.
While the plantation area increased only marginally during 2010–11, Australia is beginning to reap some of the benefits from the broadleaved plantations that have been established since the 1990s. This positive story masks difficulty in other parts of the forest sector. Reduced harvest from the native forest industry, ongoing weakness in Australia’s housing sector and international economic uncertainty contributed to lower imports and exports. “As a sign of weakness in both domestic and international demand, the value of imports for the September and December quarters 2011 was down 5.7% relative to the same period in 2010, while the value of forest product exports was down 8.5% over the same period,” said Paul Morris, executive director ABARES.
harvested in Tasmania in 2015 and by 2020 that figure is likely to increase to 150,000 cubic metres. “Forestry Tasmania is looking at all options from sawn wood, peeled and sliced veneer and composite products. It’s really in the planning stage at the moment,” Dr Washusen said.
Shining hope in dark woods Forest Industries Association of Tasmania Chief Executive Terry Edwards said the big picture’s not as grim as Dr Washusen’s findings suggest. “This view is strongly disputed by the peak forest industry body in Tasmania who disagree with the pessimistic forecast provided by Dr Washusen. “The current negotiation processes for the Tasmanian industry are likely to result in the
Dr. Russel Washusen.
vast bulk of the industry’s resource needs being met from native forests with plantations only coming on stream in 25 to 30 years time. “We strongly believe that the plantation timber that eventually will be provided to sawmills as a resource will not be the unsuitable continued on page 4.
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Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 3
No jobs lost in Heyfield hardwood mill sale
Ryan Media acquires AFDJ
A
RYAN MEDIA Pty Ltd has reached agreement with Peter Levy, managing director of Norley (Australia) Pty Ltd, to purchase the Australasian Farmers’ & Dealers’ Journal (AFDJ), effective 1 May. AFDJ has been published for more than 28 years and services agricultural and horticultural dealers, manufacturers and distributors of farm machinery in Australasia. It has an extensive trade distribution data base. henty may 2012 cover red banner:ad 13/03/2012 4:01 PM Page 1
A U S T R A L A S I A N FA R M E R S ’ & D E A L E R S ’ J O U R N A L
MAY 2012 PP 329113/0009 ISSN 1442-4983 28340 AFDJ 2012 May.indd 1
28/03/12 10:35 AM
Initially commencing as the mouthpiece for the Farm Machinery Dealers Association of Australia (FMDA), AFDJ later added news and coverage of the Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia (TMA) as the representative body for this industry sector. AFDJ is also the trade journal for rural field days and expo committees. A web site features coming events, published articles and online trade listings. Adelaide-based Ryan Media is a division of Provincial Press Group which publishes regional and special interest newspapers including the Farmer Group of Newspapers in Victoria. Provincial Press Group publisher Hartley Higgins said AFDJ should fit well with the Group’s specialist rural publications covering the wine, olive, forests and timber industries. Former Southern Farmer advertising manager Sheryl Braden has been appointed AFDJ advertising manager. Editorial releases can be emailed to edit.afdj@ryanmediapl.com.au
Hartley Higgins.
CONTRACT for the sale of Gunns’ Heyfield hardwood sawn timber business for $28 million has now been finalized. It looked on shaky ground at one stage with a contractual disagreement heading for court, but this has since been resolved. “Completion of the transaction will finalises the exit of the company from operations based on native forest wood supply. The company ceased accepting resource from native forest harvesting in Tasmania in June 2011 and has subsequently sold mainland based operations in Western Australia and now Victoria,” Gunns said in a market update to the Australian Securities Exchange. The mill has been sold to Melbournebased Hermal Group. Clinton Tilley, from the Hermal Group, says the Australian Sustainable Hardwoods consortium had a long history in timber production. “We’re extraordinarily excited and can’t wait to get in there and work with the existing management team and to make the mill better for its prosperity, the mill and its staff and the longterm longevity of the town,” he said. “The existing management team is all staying, which we are all delighted about. “In terms of operational, there will be improvements made to the plant over the coming 48 months to assist in its productivity.” The process for realisation of Gunns’ investment in the Green Triangle forest estate is proceeding. Gunns has received indicative offers for its mainland based export woodchip operations and has started a structured sale process for this business, which includes the Portland woodchip export facility.
Brief interest in Portland site Geelong-based Midway dipped its business toe in the water when it came to Gunns wood chip export facility at Portland but then changed its mind. According to the ACC website, Midway’s interest lasted less than three weeks. The first notification of an informal review came on 4
Aussie interest in fire sale of machinery AUSTRALIA HAS been one of the “big purchasers” of forestry machinery in a virtual fire sale of equipment in Canada, according to Jesse Cantin, with Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. More than 1,100 pieces of heavy equipment were up for auction in what was billed as the biggest sale of its kind in Atlantic Canada. Up to one-third of the buyers at the auction made bids over the internet. “Australia is a big purchaser, Asia,” Cantin said. “Northern Europe is a very popular place right now.” Hodgson’s Chipping Ltd.’s entire fleet was up for sale. It was the largest consigner, but other forestry companies were also selling trucks and treeharvesting equipment. The Truro-based company was once one of the biggest harvesters and chippers of wood fibre in Nova Scotia. It shut down earlier this year, blaming new clearcutting regulations and low prices.
May then on 24 May Midway advised it was no longer involved in the sale process.
Triabunna hypocrisy Tasmanian Minister for Infrastructure David O’Byrne said the Liberals’ complete hypocrisy and lack of understanding over issues around the Triabunna woodchip mill had been exposed in Parliament. O’Byrne said Will Hodgman was stating that Tasport’s lease with the mill was the reason the mill had not resumed operating. “Yet just a few months ago, the Liberals were demanding the State Government interfere in negotiations to have the lease transfer agreed to. “In October 2011, Peter Gutwein issued a media statement stating that without the lease, the mill could not open. “Now, they’re saying that it’s because of the lease that the mill can’t open. “The fact is, the State Government wants to see this mill operating and exporting woodchips - but this is a privately owned mill.”
Willmott Forests assets sale GLOBAL TIMBER Investors 9, an international timber investment fund managed and advised by Global Forest Partners LP, has completed the acquisition of the majority of the ex-Willmott Forests plantation estate. A new company named Snowy Mountains Forests Pty Limited has been created to hold and manage the assets.
The SMF assets comprise: • Approximately 10,000 net planted hectares of freehold land and radiata pine plantations in the Bombala region, predominantly established from 2000 to 2008; • Approximately 10,700 net planted hectares of freehold land and radiata pine plantations in the Murray Valley (Tumut/Tumbarumba) region, predominantly established from 2005 to 2009; • Approximately 9000 hectares of freehold land on the north coast of NSW and south east Queensland. The Murray Valley and Bombala estates will be managed by SMF as an ongoing forestry enterprise. The North Coast assets (comprising 22 properties within a 70km radius of Casino and three outlying properties at Port Macquarie and Gympie, QLD) will be offered for sale in individual parcels. Jacob Lazarus has been appointed general manager of SMF in addition to his current responsibilities as general manager of Hume Forests Limited and Murray River Forests Pty Ltd.
Forests NSW's new persona THERE ARE no employment level changes proposed as a result of Forests NSW becoming a State-owned corporation. The worker guarantee came during Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson’s announcement on the change for the forestry and timber body. However, the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) doesn’t hold the same views and instead says it will mean substantial risk of job cuts and the erosion of conditions.
Our latest CAB figure has shown an increase. We’ve climbed from an average circulation per issue from 4,635 to 4,914. That shows interest in getting actionable news and information is appreciated by even more people in the timber industry and that people are preferring to get it in the form that is most convenient for them – printed on paper!
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4 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
ISSN 1444-5824
July 2012
Shining gums cast dark shadow on industry future continued from page 1.
At full tilt for better trees. See more on page 10. Features Opinion................................................ 8-9 FWPA..................................................... 10 Gottstein Trust....................................... 11 Chains.................................................... 12 Biofuels.............................................16-17 Chainsaws............................................. 18 Firewood machines............................... 19 Saving fuel....................................... 22-24 Farm Forestry.................................. 26-30
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nitens material discussed by Dr Washusen. “Rather, it will most likely be Eucalyptus globulus which has significantly better processing capacity than the collapse prone nitens and will be much better suited to the scale of Tasmanian sawmills and our markets,” Edwards said. FIAT also stated that the high costs the mills will be forced to meet to accommodate the Shining gum will not be as high as the figure that Dr Washusen’s research has allowed him to provide – with the cost of a new mill to accommodate the Shining gum costing tens of millions of dollars. FIAT says investment of that scale will be highly unlikely for the production of lower quality material and rather than compromise the quality of the resource it is much better to plan for a future resource that will meet the needs of the industry. “The nitens resource will likely only be suitable for production of commodity grade outputs and an investor may well choose to target that market for peeling or reconstituted wood products but not for sawing,” Edwards said. “This species would be grown on an entirely different silvicultural regime similar to that currently being used in South America.”
Bigger problems ahead A major player in the industry, Glenn Britton of Britton Timbers, said years of testing on the plantation resource, Eucalyptus nitens, demonstrate it’s the wood itself and not the mills that will present problems of greater concern. “We can saw the timber economically, that’s not an issue. “But once timber is sawn into the boards and the drying or seasoning process begins, 80% of the boards suffer from internal checking and cracking, which makes it worthless for appearance grade timber products such as joinery and furniture.” Britton spent a month travelling Spain, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay to better understand how major growers of Eucalyptus nitens utilise and manage the product and discovered they are having exactly the same drying problems as Tasmania. He said scientific tests conducted over a 10-year period demonstrate that in 90 per cent of cases the Eucalyptus nitens are not a suitable replacement for Tasmanian hardwood processors. “Tests done on Eucalyptus nitens show you can’t use them because you would go broke,” Mr Britton said. “Nitens will not replace the current native forest timber in furniture and joinery which requires timber at dimensions of 25, 38, and 50mm thickness.” Britton’s family has been in the timber business for the 105 years. With more than 100 years experience in the industry, the Britton’s must surely know a thing or two about survival in an industry that appears to be falling down around them. A major factor
that has ensured continuity of the Britton business, the family understands that it must keep a keen tab on industry developments. “Over the next 10 years, the nitens will either be sliced or peeled and made into engineered products, for example engineered flooring and joinery timbers, but whether it will be viable or not, I don’t know because of the extra costs of producing that product under Australian standards and cost structures. Producing thin boards is fine but gluing them all back together to make larger sections is very expensive. “It’s got to be remembered the environmentalists aim is to shut our current industry down tomorrow and the plantation resource won’t be available in volume for another 5-10 years. “Therefore, if that were to eventuate, the industry would close for that 5 to 10 years creating huge upheavals for the industry and the Tasmanian economy,” Britton said. “The solution is to maintain the current native production forest estate area to supply current contractual volumes sustainably and in perpetuity and add the nitens plantation engineered products to the existing industry, therefore increasing and growing business, employment and badly needed revenue for the State of Tasmania.”
Light through the trees Although Dr Washusen’s findings appear a bit grim, he believes it’s not all doom and gloom. “A large body of work conducted by the CRC for Forestry led by Dr Philip Blakemore demonstrated that by sawing thin section boards coupled with careful drying above
fibre saturation point and steam reconditioning the timber at the optimum moisture content, the product may well be acceptable for a new specialised market that accept wood with closed internal checks but defect free on the surface. “That market will not be the existing market for native forest timber which requires no internal checks (closed or otherwise) so the wood is suitable for a wide range of applications and can be moulded without exposing internal checks.” But Dr Washusen said the wood from Forestry Tasmania’s plantations will most likely be worth less than the native forest timber. And he believes that is the main problem for existing sawmills. “To account for lower value, cost efficiencies in processing will be required. “The best way of achieving this is improving the economies of scale of sawmills. Sawing costs for high throughput modern sawing lines could be 20% or less of the costs of conventional Tasmanian sawmills. That represents a major reduction in processing costs giving a mill adopting appropriate technologies a greater competitive advantage and capacity to pay for logs at the mill door.” Dr Washusen said this competitive advantage will also allow mills to undercut conventional processors in the market. “It is also paramount to remember that native forest logs are highly variable in size, taper and internal defect. In conventional sawmills, sawing methods have developed around these characteristics to maximize the recovery of high grade wood. These sawing methods use reciprocation of logs and flitches during sawing. This makes them slow especially as log diameter declines (which is what will happen
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with plantations) and sawing costs increase. “However, in the case of pruned plantations the size and quality of logs is far more uniform and predictable. This is a major opportunity for industry that may well allow application of modern sawing lines that have linear wood flow (one directional). This linear flow makes them highly efficient. This is the major difference between conventional hardwood and modern softwood sawmills and is the major reason that softwood has taken many of the traditional Australian hardwood markets over the past 30 years or so. The plantation resource developed by Forestry Tasmania could be a unique opportunity to apply these modern sawmills creating a whole new industry.” What is certain is uncertain. Britton says he can only speculate. He believes that it is vital to consider all views. He values Dr Washusen’s input and says an academic understanding is vital but so too is a “hands on view at the coalface”.
Britton (pictured) says it’s important that different opinions are heard and discussed. But he says that it’s essential that the industry works together. “Times will change and products and machineries and technologies must change with it and they will,” Britton says.
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 5
Australian Forest Products Association’s first year By David Pollard Chief Executive Officer AFPA
I
T HAS been a little more than a year now since the Australian Forest Products Association was formed through the amalgamation of the National Association of Forest Industries and A3P. A lot of ground has been covered in what can only be described as a hostile political environment. International economic issues have seen weak global timber markets and the high Australian dollar has hindered our exporters. When combined with some State and the Federal Government being under the spell of the Green movement this has created the perfect storm for the industry. Perhaps there is a glint of good news on that front with the National Australia Bank reportedly expecting the dollar to fall to US $0.97 by the year’s end. Strong competition from cheap timber imports continued as a result of the international downturn. Domestically, the industry has faced some difficult policy decisions from the minority Federal Government affecting the plantation and native forest sectors. These included the design of the
Clean Energy Future (CEF) and Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI). The CFI essentially ignores carbon absorbed in growing commercial forests, carbon stored in wood products and the carbon emission offset by energy generated with native forest processing residues. AFPA has advocated on behalf of the industry to change the design of the methodologies in the CFI, to treat forestry differently from mining in the Murray Darling Basin Plan, and to implement recommendation from the Pulp and Paper Industry Strategy Group. After two years of waiting, the Government assures us that they will respond to the report ‘soon’. The slashing of funding for the CRC for Forestry in last
year’s budget was compounded this year with the Government’s refusing any additional research and development funding. This is yet another blow to the industry – an industry that can help the Government deal with emissions abatement, carbon sequestration and renewable energy. The Tasmanian process has dragged on and continues to affect sentiment negatively across the country among the industry and among institutional investors. A new pulp mill project is still possible and we hope it will finally get off the ground. In Tasmania, while industry’s desire for “peace” remains, signals from the environmental movement are that they will not be
letting up against the native forest industry. For example, marketbased campaigns by groups such as ‘Markets for Change’ and ‘The Last Stand’ first appeared in 2011. Their tactics are damaging the industry’s reputation not in the forest but in furniture showrooms or stationery stores. The campaigns demonstrate little regard for the peace being sought through the Tasmanian talks. While all these events and issues have occurred throughout the year, a House of Representatives Committee has conducted a Parliamentary Inquiry into the industry. The Parliamentary Inquiry was told by AFPA that a new plan for the industry’s future is needed. The report ’Seeing the forest through the trees’, made 19 recommendations. One of those reads: The Committee recommends that, under any version of the RET (or similar scheme), bioenergy sourced from native forest biomass should continue to qualify as renewable energy, where it is a true waste product and it does not become a driver for the harvesting of native forests. AFPA supported Independent MP Rob Oakeshott in his attempt
David Pollard to overturn the inexplicable exclusion of forest-sourced woody biomass from renewable energy credit calculations which was lost on the casting vote of Mr Slipper. The exclusion of woody biomass sourced from forests while allowing plantation waste to attract renewable energy credits is illogical. AFPA will continue to work hard to redress the current situation. This is a difficult time for an industry that is suffering financially but there are enormous opportunities for the forest products industry to be part of the solution for a cleaner, low carbon future. AFPA will continue applying pressure to the government to secure outcomes that will allow industry to grow.
Forestry ticks a number of big boxes for pension fund investments PENSION FUNDS are increasingly attracted to forestry investments because of their low correlation with equity and bond markets, and because of the inflation hedge they offer, according to fund managers and investors. But the novelty of the asset class – and the relatively limited allocations to alternative assets in general – means take-up of forestry remains slow, say investment managers, according to Environmental Finance. “We have lived through extraordinary times for investors,” Hugh Humfrey, managing partner, Timberland Investment Resources (TIR) Europe, told the Forestry, Sustainability and Biomass 2012 conference in London. “And the fact is forestry did what it said it would do on the tin.” “The performance of our timberland assets has been a very stable part of our
portfolio overall,” agreed Sandy LaBaugh, a senior director and portfolio manager at TIAA-CREF. The US pensions giant, which has $515 billion under management, has built up a $1.6 billion forestry portfolio since it began investing in the asset class in 1998. According to figures from David Brand, managing director of New Forests Asset Management, which runs $1.5 billion in forestry assets, US timberland assets were only around 22% correlated with the S&P500 between 1987 and 2010, and negatively correlated with gold and oil. However, forestry investments are correlated with inflation, providing a hedge for inflation-averse long-term investors such as pension funds. “Forestry does tick a number of big boxes for us,” said Owen Thorne, investment
officer at the Merseyside Pension Fund, a £5 billion ($8 billion) UK local authority pension fund. “Pension funds love anything that’s got a built-in inflation hedge.” He also said that forestry investments appealed to the fund’s trustees. “As a pension fund, we serve a social purpose, and investing in trees – it made the trustees very happy.” However, pension funds remain cautious on the sector. Humfrey at TIR gave a number of reasons, including the relatively small allocations pension funds are making to alternative assets, and therefore the limited resources they can expend exploring new investment opportunities. He also said that many are concerned about the lack of liquidity in the forestry assets, although he downplayed these concerns. “It’s not an asset you can buy and
sell at the touch of a computer button … but you can sell forestry, if it’s in developed markets, relatively easily.” He added that investors are also concerned about the valuation of forestry assets, and he conceded that there can be some subjectivity in valuing, for example, a Brazilian eucalyptus plantation. But investment managers added that it is simply a question of investor education: “There is increasing knowledge, but it’s taking a long time [for funds] to jump in,” said Chris Armitage, head of UK, at FourWinds Capital Management, manager of the Phaunos Timber Fund. “I’ll spend 18 months to two years teaching a pension fund about the asset in the first place, and then I’ll see if they want to buy it. “It’s slow building, but it is building.”
6 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
Upcoming
OPINION
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
AUSTRALASIA 2012 1-4 July New Zealand Institute of Forestry Annual Conference. University of Canterbury 11-14 July AWISA. Solid wood timber and panel processing trade show. Sydney. www.awisa.com 16-19 July World Conference on Timber Engineering. Auckland, New Zealand. www.wcte2012.com. 26 July NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Rotorua/Tokoroa 27 July NZ FICA Cable Logging Workshop – Tokoroa 23-25 July Australian Timber Trainers Association (ATTA) Annual Workshop – Albany, Western Australia. www.atta.org.au 22-23 August Carbon Forestry, Auckland. www.carbonforestryevents.com 23 August NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Gisborne 24 August NZ FICA Practical Leadership Workshop – Gisborne 27 September NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Nelson 28 September NZ FICA Practical Leadership Workshop – Nelson 10-11 October Wood Innovations, Melbourne. www.woodinnovationsevents.com 14-17 October Australian Forest Growers conference (Diverse Subtropical Forestry). Gympie. 17 October Forest And Wood Products Association (FWPA) annual general meeting, Gympie, Queensland 16-17 October Wood Innovations, Rotorua. www.woodinnovationsevents.com 18 October NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Northland 19-21 October Melbourne Working With Wood Show. Melbourne Showground 30-31 October ForestWorks Industry Development Conference, Canberra 1 - 2 November FICA Annual Conference – Rotorua (Challenges of Steep Country Logging & Silviculture) 16 November 2012 VAFI Annual Dinner will be held on in the Melbourne CBD. Further details will be made available closer to the date. 22 November NZ FICA Regional Meeting – Balclutha 23 November NZ FICA Cable Logging Workshop – Balclutha
Only interested in shutting down forest industries Victor I.P. Eddy BSc (For) ANU
W
ITH REFERENCE to a lead article in Daily Timber News (CSIRO joins AFPA - environmentalists protest), this is not the first time that the conservation movement has intrigued me with its fear of someone being corrupt or corrupted by contact with those they deem to be opposition. Surely the effect could be the exact opposite to that of their accusation. Might not the CSIRO use its knowledge and resources to have positive conservation impacts on the forest products industry? This would be far
more likely to have an immediate impact, rather than if the industry is of the opinion that the CSIRO is in bed with those whose prime aim is to terminate the use of forest products. Their action serves to strengthen my belief that the activists are really only interested in their fight to shut down forest industries. The conservation motive is merely a great platform to work from. As soon as each engagement is won the activists move on and lose all interest in the future management and care of the forests they have “saved”. A few years ago they were claiming that forest plantations were a blot on our landscape
as biological deserts. In more recent times they have promoted a shift from native forest to plantations because that supports their aim to terminate the utilisation of native forests regardless of management history. Do not be surprised if we once again see them revile plantations. The campaign may have already started with moves to require forest plantations to be a land use singled out to require purchased irrigation allocations to account for the rainfall and ground water they are deemed to intercept. Not all orchards are located in low rainfall irrigation districts yet their water demands may be equal to that of a forest.
Vilification then verification then vilification again! FORMER AUSTRALIAN Greens leader Senator Bob Brown has voted against his own opinion on forest regeneration. Senator Brown joined other Australian Greens Senators to reject a motion which mirrored his very own opinions as printed in The Mercury on April 22. The motion from Coalition Forestry Spokesman Richard Colbeck asked that the Senate recognise that logged Tasmanian forests have the potential to recover quickly and that rich biodiversity can exist in areas once logged. “My motion was based very closely on the words of former Greens leader Bob Brown, as printed in a Tasmanian newspaper last month,” Senator Colbeck said. “After decades of disagreeing with his views about forestry, I was delighted to read Senator Brown’s acknowledgement that harvested areas of forest had the potential to recover quickly and provide rich biodiversity. “Senator Brown spoke the truth in his newspaper comments – harvested forests do have great potential to recover quickly and they can continue to be home to biologically diverse flora and fauna. Such recovery is testament to the excellent management work carried out by Tasmania’s forest workers. “Professional foresters also tell us that native forest management provides the values that environmentalists claim to aspire to. “In addition, both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation recognise that sustainable management of forests, including a mix of conservation and timber harvest, is optimal for carbon reduction. “However, I’m as disappointed
Senator Richard Colbeck
… “I’m as disappointed as ever in Senator Brown for backing away from his very own words.”
as ever in Senator Brown for backing away from his very own words, under pressure from his Senate colleagues. “This back-flip is at odds with the recent tributes to Senator Brown as man of conviction who is not afraid to disagree with those around him,” Senator Colbeck said.
“Much of this walk is not wilderness, its logged areas but it has great potential,” Senator Brown said. “Some people will say it’s been too trashed but I think it’s got potential to recover quickly. In springtime there’s waratahs, massive f lower displays, masses of birdlife, devils, quolls, wombats. Jeffreys said that simple truthful statement by Senator Brown made a lie of 30 years of Green propaganda that has convinced sections of the community that the forest and the wildlife habitat it supports are destroyed by harvesting. “The truth is finally out. It is time for activists to get out of their trees, and face the fact that forestry is a truly renewable industry, that forests regenerate after harvest and that wildlife habitat is not destroyed. “Why are activists continuing to target native forest harvesting, when their leader has now acknowledged that harvested forests recover quickly, and continue to provide habitat for endangered species like the
Senator Brown made a lie of 30 years of Green propaganda - Ken Jeffreys Forestry Tasmania’s general manager Corporate Relations and Tourism Ken Jeffreys said The Mercury story was significant because it contained a rare, if not unprecedented, admission by Senator Brown that forests that have been clearfelled, burnt and re-sown, are not destroyed but regenerate, complete with biodiversity values.
Tasmanian Devil? “Thousands of jobs have been lost on the back of the demonisation of the forest industry. Forest managers have been vilified for three decades by Senator Brown. How will they be feeling this morning when they read Senator Brown’s remarks? “’I told you so’ seems so inadequate.”
Yet another unfair attack on Ta Ann Tasmania THE INTERRUPTION by activists of Ta Ann Tasmania’s loading of its shipment of certified value added veneer sheeting at Hobart ignored the fact that the timber was from harvest operations approved under the Federal and State Government’s Intergovernmental Agreement. This peace process currently involves main stream environmental groups negotiating issues while timber is supplied to industry outside the proclaimed interim conservation area. “Ta Ann Tasmania’s timber is strictly in accordance with the IGA, a fact confirmed by the Federal Minister for the Environment,” said Simon Kang, executive director of Ta Ann Tasmania. The regrowth logs are supplied by Forestry Tasmania and independently certified under the international PEFC scheme. “It is unfair that while Ta Ann Tasmania is supporting the peace process its shipment is attacked by activists. Such action adds substantial costs to the production and transport of Tasmanian timber. “Ta Ann is now being targeted by activists who are outside the peace process and whose invasion of the Hobart port has endangered the ship’s crew and the police sent to remove them. “This is no way to build a lasting and durable peace.” Kang said.
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8 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
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INTERNATIONAL 2012 8-13 July IUFRO All-Division 5 Conference. Lisbon, Portugal 23-27 July 3rd International Conference on Soil Bio- and Eco-Engineering - The Use of Vegetation to Improve Slope Stability. Vancouver, Canada 27-29 July 2012 - Lumberjack World Championships - Wisconsin, USA. www.lumberjackchampionships.com 28-31 August Second International Conference on Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems and Landscapes. Cork, Ireland 30 July – August 3 12th International IUFRO Wood Drying Conference. Belém, Brazil 30 August-1 September FinnMetko 2012 - Jämsänkoski, Finland. http://www.finnmetko.fi 4 September 3rd International Plantation Industry Conference & Exhibition (IPICEX 2012) kota kinabalu, Malaysia 3-6 September Forest-Water Interactions with Respect to Air Pollution and Climate Change. Kahramanmaras, Turkey 9-14 September 6th Meeting of the IUFRO Working Party 7.02.09 Phytophthora in Forests and Natural Ecosystems. Córdoba, Spain 16-18 September Sixth European Conference on Wood Modification ECWM6. Ljubljana, Slovenia 20-22 September 2012 - Demo International - Saint-Raymond, Quebec. www.demointernational.com 25-26 September Timber Expo 2012. , Ricoh Arena Coventry, Coventry, UK. loretta.sales@timber-expo.co.uk 4-6 October MTC Global Wood Mart, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia 8-11 October Managing forests for ecosystem services: can spruce forests show the way? Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom 8-12 October 45th FORMEC Symposium: Forest Engineering: Concern, Knowledge & Accountability in Today’s Environment Dubrovnik, Croatia. http://formec.boku.ac.at 23 October 4th Nordic Wood Biorefinery Conference Helsinki, Finland 5-12 November Biannual IUFRO Forest Landscape Ecology Conference: Sustaining Humans and Forests in Changing Landscapes: Forests, Society and Global Change. Concepción, Chile
A Milne-stone around regional necks Warren Truss, Federal Member for Wide Bay and Leader of The Nationals, has the Greens and Labor in his sights with this thought-provoking piece.
Y
OU CAN tell a lot from people’s gut reactions, and the scoffs and guffaws to new Greens leader Christine Milne’s announcement of a listening tour of regional Australia said it all. A team of 10 Nationals MPs and Senators were already into another two-day regional visit - this time to the Northern Rivers, taking in the seats of Richmond and Page - when the word came that Greens Senator Christine Milne was saddling up to ride into country towns. Of course, she wouldn’t be riding a horse - that would be cruel to animals. In fact, part of our team was at the Big Rivers timber mill in Grafton somewhere I strongly recommend Senator Milne have a look and a good listen. Big Rivers Timbers is one of the biggest employers in town, supporting 160 local jobs. Managing director Jim Bindon is justifiably proud of the mill’s environmental record, which takes a renewable resource and turns it into high quality, beautiful and tough plywood. The business generates 40 per cent of the heat for drying timber
from steam, firing the boiler with the biomass waste the plant generates through timber off-cuts so nothing goes to waste, while saving on electricity use. But Jim tells us the Labor-Greens Government has refused to fully credit the biomass the plant reuses as renewable energy. Using the off-cuts for biomass is “unethical”! It’s not the only weird anomaly. The carbon tax will add $200,000 a year to the mill’s electricity bill. That’s bad enough, but we are left shaking our heads as Jim explains the carbon tax will actually double parts of the mill’s power bill. The Labor-Greens tax is applied at a $23 a tonne flat rate, so while the plant’s daytime power bill will increase 25%, his more environmentally friendly off-peak bill will increase by 100%. His frustration peaks, lamenting “it’s just a massive new bill to pay that does nothing to change production practices because the mill is already doing everything it can to be sustainable”. Overnight, the mill will be less competitive. Imports are already cheaper on
wages alone - and now there is to be a carbon tax that Australian mills will pay but imported products will not. It’s just one story from one business doing the right thing in one local town, but we’ve heard the same story again and again in regional communities across the country. In Casino, another part of our Nationals team were told of abattoir freezer bills going up $260,000 a year under the carbon tax, and a nonsense carbon tax trigger that means an abattoir emitting 24,999 tonnes of CO² does not have to buy carbon permits, but if it emits one tonne more it must fork out $575,000 for permits - higher every year. It’s cheaper to close for a week than pay the bill. As an architect of the carbon tax, the mining tax and the green tape strangling regional business and local developments, copping an earful from real people affected by The Greens agenda is the reality check Christine Milne needs. The Greens have never had more than a “fly-in-fly-out” attitude to regional areas. They fly in when there is some local protest they can join, but when it is over they fly out.
The next thing regional Australians hear from The Greens is that they want to take away their irrigation water, ban their farm chemicals and fertilisers, close their fisheries, ban the live animal trade and modern animal husbandry practices, ban rodeos and horse sports, declare their properties national parks, replace their farmland with trees and ban culling pest animals. If farmers can survive these green policies, then they will have to live with higher income taxes, higher fuel and energy prices, the world’s biggest carbon tax and - if there is anything left - death duties when they die. As the snake oil sales pitch beckons, “Come one, come all... not in town for long, The Greens are farmers’ friends and here to save regional Australians from themselves”. People out here are awake to cons and they will not be swallowing this one. Julia Gillard’s pledge to wear out her shoe leather in meeting people to sell the carbon tax lasted only a day before she recoiled back to her Parliament House bunker. I suspect Christine Milne will be just as committed.
Gillard Govt caught siphoning $2.4B from truckies “THE NATIONAL Transport Commission (NTC) has been exposed using a flawed formula to calculate road user charges for 2012 -13 that will see the Gillard Government siphon an incredible $2.4 billion from the wallets of truck drivers next financial year,” said Warren Truss, Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. “The NTC has used four year old figures to calculate the number of trucks on the road. Despite accurate data on today’s truck numbers being freely available, the NTC opted to take 2008 truck registrations and extrapolate a theoretical fleet size that under-estimates truck numbers by 170,000. “As a result, the Gillard Government will gouge
$700 million more than it is entitled to from Heavy Vehicle Charges imposed on Australia’s truckies from 1 July this year,” he said. “Given there are about 570,700 (not the NTC’s estimated 397,000) trucks on our roads, the cost recovery charges to maintain roads paid by individual truck drivers should be notionally divided among a much larger number of vehicles. The trucking industry would have expected to pay $1.7 billion under the National Heavy Vehicle Charges. Instead, the NTC’s dodgy data has them coughing up $2.4 billion.” Truss said Labor was increasing the fuel tax on trucks by a whopping 10.4% in one year. Since Labor took office in 2007, the Government has
increased the fuel tax on trucks by a staggering 30%. “From 1 July, hardworking owner drivers and transport operators will pay fuel tax at 25.5 cents per litre, compared to 23.1 cents per litre at present. When Labor came to power the effective fuel tax rate was just 19.633 cents per litre. “Over-inflating road user charges, in what can only be described as a shameless and deceitful tax grab by a desperate Government, will further drive up the cost of transporting consumer goods and commodities, undoubtedly hitting grocery prices at the checkout and making our industry less competitive.”
Budget offers hope for timber industry THE VICTORIAN Government’s 2012-13 budget has been hailed as a winner in many circles. Lisa Marty, chief executive officer of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI) described it as a responsible plan that continued the Government’s investment in the infrastructure of rural and regional Victoria, despite difficult budgetary conditions, and showed support for the local forest and wood products industry. “Support for innovation and rural infrastructure is vital if we are going to have a sustainable future for a local forest and wood products industry
producing low-carbon goods into the future,” she said. “Substantial investment in rural and regional roads, and support for economic diversification in the Latrobe Valley shows this Government supports this goal. “Our industry relies on regional and rural infrastructure, and we appreciate the investment for $160 million each year over four years to provide $1 million grants for roads and bridges, and $60 million for the Better Regional Roads program for road connections between Melbourne and regional Victoria.”
The Government also committed to the Timber Industry Action Plan, designed to help provide the forest and wood products industry, with security and an incentive for investment; and provided an extra $19.5 million for biosecurity, which includes extra funding for improved forestry biosecurity. Marty also welcomed the $58 million commitment to local manufacturing. “Approximately 85% of the Victorian forest and wood products industry’s workforce is in processing and manufacturing roles, and their products support a number of value
adding industries, such as furniture making,” she said. “With difficult trading conditions and a high Australian dollar the right leadership, policies and funding to support a productive, innovative and competitive local manufacturing sector in Victoria are crucial despite the tough budgetary environment.” This initiative includes $25 million to provide incentives for local manufacturers to invest in new technologies and $9 million for small manufacturers to provide better access to information and Government programs.
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 9
When you’re on a good thing, stick to it! T
HE OLD advertising slogan “when you’re on a good thing, stick to it” certainly fits the bill for Mount Gambier-based forestry firm G&R Logging. The second generation family business applies this to its operational procedures, its staff and its machinery. Early this year G&R took delivery of two new Tigercats, taking to six the number of Tigers currently running in their fleet. G&R Logging, under the joint direction of Barry Fennell and his sister Wendy, has earned a reputation as one of the top firms in the game, a reputation they hold dearly. That reputation comes from careful selection of machines, careful operations (both harvest and haul), and a first class crew. Back in January G&R took delivery of a new Tigercat 855C with the DT2002 series shear head plus a Tigercat 635D six-wheel skidder. “One machine we brought straight from Tumut (Forest Centre) and put it to work in the bush. It didn’t come past our workshop. We put it straight to work and we know we can do that with those pieces of equipment,” said Barry. G&R started with manual falling and skidding back in 1991 doing about 70,000 tons a year. “Once we mechanized we took
that up to about 700,000 tons a year,” said Barry. “Now we have come back to roughly 500,000 tons a year.” He explained that Tigercat came into the equation when they changed from excavator build-ups to purpose built. “They’re (Tigercat) very well put together; good design strength and they’re quite easy to deal with if you want to make changes. There’s plenty of room around the engine bay and the maintenance side of things is pretty simple.” Their first Tigercat was commissioned back in 2009 and it now has 9000 hours on then clock … “and it’s still going strong. We’ve hardly touched it”. That machine runs a Waratah 624 head. The latest machine features the 2000 shear head which has a 340 degree wrist. “It gives more flexibility for where you want to place the wood and makes bigger bunches for the skidder. “The 855C can accumulate a lot of trees in the head and has plenty of flex to place them where you want,” he says. And, on fuel consumption, Barry says the modern machines when compared to the excavator build ups were more fuel efficient with hydraulics set up for forestry application.” Then there’s the patented ER boom
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system which allows the operator to extend and retract the feller buncher boom on a horizontal plane smoothly and quickly using a single joystick. The stick boom or "reach" joystick controls both the main and stick booms simultaneously, resulting in the attachment moving either away from or toward the operator. The ER boom system is bringing revolutionary improvements to tree harvesting not seen since the invention of the high-speed disc saw 20 years ago. Operators who have spent time on ER machines comment on the speed, ease of operation and smoothness of the boom as well as the extra horsepower available for other functions and faster saw recovery. Barry said operators were equally impressed with the new 635D skidder. “Really, the standout point about the skidder is the payload it can drag which means less trips we need to do going back into the forest and grabbing the wood. Plus, there’s ease of operation. It has a turnaround seat which makes it very easy to operate, and being long wheel base with the bogey six wheels comfort for the operator is quite good.,” he said.
G&R Logging currently employs 45 people (harvest and haul) and Barry is quick to point out that he has a “quality workforce”. “That’s the key to making everything run smoothly,” he says “and there’s longevity with three having notched 20 years service, plus three-quarters of workers have been here for more than 10 years. “We look after our workers and we don’t take any short cuts and the loyalty comes from that,” he says. And while on the subject of reputation, Barry gives Tigercat reps the thumbs up and highlights the back-up support plus the fact that “you can talk to a factory rep about a concept over a few months and not feel pressured”. “Ongoing support and service is a big criteria when you are looking at buying new pieces of equipment and the system Tigercat has in place is very good.” Forest Centre provided service for start up with one of the machines we brought down from Tumut. Both of the new Tigercat machines were featured at AUSTimber 2012 with the harvester working in blue gum and the skidder pulling to the flail from the blue gum site.
Register online now at www.fwpa.com.au to secure your place at these 12 short, sharp talks for senior executives and key decision makers. 8.30 am to 12.30 pm (followed by a networking lunch) Melbourne VIC Churchill VIC Maryborough QLD Brisbane QLD Coffs Harbour NSW Albury NSW Oberon NSW Sydney NSW Hobart TAS
10 July 2012 11 July 2012 9 August 2012 4 September 2012 5 September 2012 4 October 2012 31 October 2012 1 November 2012 29 November 2012
Knowledge for a sustainable Australia
10 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
FWPA
At full tilt for better trees By Matthew Lovering
O
N A two-hectare plot near Christchurch Airport, New Zealand, more than 3000 pine seedlings are being grown at some very odd angles. To traditional foresters it looks unorthodox, but to scientists from the universities of Auckland and Canterbury and Industrial Research Ltd (New Zealand) it’s part of a unique experiment to quickly and cheaply identify seedlings that will produce the highest value sawn timber with high stiffness and greatly reduced warp and twist. Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) together with co-funders such as Forests NSW have been great supporters of the project, and appreciate it will add real value for growers; estimates in New Zealand indicate that faster deployment of good genetic material alone would add $57m to the present
value of their plantation industry. Tree breeders create value by selecting trees that grow quickly, have good form (e.g. are straight), are well adapted to the environments where they’re planted and are relatively disease free, yet the intrinsic wood properties of the trees have largely stayed the same. As a result, pieces of wood from two different trees, although looking identical, may differ in their key properties by 200%. This enormous variability is a result of their genetic variation, signifying how plantation trees have retained their original ‘wild’ status with regard to wood quality. Professor John Walker from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand is leading a research team screening stemwood—the wood making up the trunk of the tree—for desirable attributes in the first two growth rings (i.e. years
rather than delay selection in order to improve wood next to the bark in 10 to 20 year old trees. “This is because the price differential between the worst wood and average wood is very large, whereas the price differential between average wood and superior wood is surprisingly modest,” says John. For example, wood that fails to make structural grade (often being used to make cheaper cases and boxes or used in dunnage) might sell at a 50% discount (e.g. $225 versus $450 per cubic metre), whereas superior material (e.g. MGP12) carries only a modest premium of 10% (e.g. $500 versus $450 per cubic metre). The research is focusing on the relationship between ‘normal’ wood and compression wood in the young trees. Once Pinus radiata seedlings are 30–40cm tall they are tilted to grow at 10° to 15° to the vertical. The tilting
Underpinning the research is a very serious study of wood chemistry.
The price differential between the worst wood and average wood is very large, whereas the price differential between average wood and superior wood is surprisingly modest.
Double staked tilted
seedlings. Photo©John Walker.
one to two), as this is where the poorest wood is found. “Subsequent wood is always better than this early wood. Poor trees at two years will likely be poor trees for the rest of their lives, and, likewise, good trees at two will always be good—and get better,” says John. The theory behind the research is that it is economically better to select for trees with the best wood next to the pith early,
causes each seedling to produce two wood types: normal/ opposite wood on the upper side and compression wood on the lower side of the leaning stem. These two woods have distinctly different properties, and the research is isolating the wood types and assessing them in each seedling, providing commercially useful information on the tree’s genetic variability and its wood properties.
FWPA calls for Director nominations FOREST AND Wood Products Australia Limited (FWPA) is seeking to appoint up to four Directors to its Board, including at least one Independent Director. FWPA is an unlisted public company, limited by guarantee, that provides national, integrated promotion, research and development services for the Australian forest and wood products industry. It is committed to helping the industry be collaborative, innovative, sustainable and competitive. FWPA is jointly funded by the Australian forest and wood products industry and the Australian Government through the collection of industry levies on a range of primary products and matched by the Government on a one-to-one basis for R&D, tech transfer and education. The role of the FWPA Board is to provide direction to the management of the company, including strategy development, financial performance and risk management. To ensure a balanced, skill-based Board an independent Director Selection Committee,
established under the Company’s Constitution, will consider proposals for candidates and recommend to the FWPA Board persons for nomination for appointment as a Director. Information about FWPA and the process for appointing Directors is set out in FWPA’s Constitution, available from the company’s website at www.fwpa.com.au All candidates should: provide sufficient information to allow the Director Selection Committee to fully consider the candidate’s nomination include specific information about the candidate’s ability to meet one or more of the requisite skills and experience nominated in FWPA’s Constitution (clause 13.13) include a statement that the proposed candidate is aware of his or her nomination and is willing to accept appointment as a Director of FWPA if elected. Applications will only be received by email and should be sent to the Secretary, Director Selection Committee at: rob.lockwood@fwpa.com.au The closing date for applications is 29 June.
“At Canterbury and Industrial Research Ltd we’re measuring the biomechanical properties of wood but at Auckland they’re tying these attributes to the chemistry of the wood in terms of the nature, type and cellular locations of the hemicelluloses that are present inside the wood’s cell walls. Hemicelluloses are polymers ‘half-like’ (hemi) cellulose that associate with water, and so are implicated in shrinkage and warp during drying and in-service. The locations of the hemicelluloses in the cell walls are related to the distribution of compression wood,” says John. Since 2007 the trial has been developing the best methods to grow and analyse the seedlings. To complete the study, in July 2013 over 3000, 21-month-old trees of known genetic identity will be harvested and their intrinsic wood properties measured. Individuals that have excessive volumetric shrinkage (indicative of collapse-prone wood); have low-density normal wood and high-density compression wood; have excessive axial shrinkage (indicative of instability); show low acoustic velocity (indicating low corewood stiffness); and show evidence of twist (and by inference spiral grain) will be rejected. Results from early field trials show the techniques do distinguish between good and poor families. “We may capture only 70% of the genetic gain that traditional genetic breeding might achieve but we have the potential to deploy
improved material much faster. Also, by screening before age two, rather than age eight to 15, we are dealing with physically smaller piece sizes which are cheaper to handle, can be analysed faster— in weeks rather than months and years —and so therefore we can screen larger populations. “Selection is based on populations. A few lemons will emerge within this elite population, just as a few diamonds will be discarded with the reject population. We can live with this as we are not selecting individuals but a relatively broad population,” he said. Once the experiment is complete and the principles fully established, breeders can use these methods to screen their current breeding and deployment populations. Only the families of the best trees would be selected to become the new generation of breeding material for commercial deployment. Using this strategy growers will get better financial returns by growing trees with improved wood quality five to 15 years earlier than has been previously possible. This reduction in the time to commercial deployment is potentially worth many millions of dollars. The New Zealand Forestry Science & Innovation Plan (2012) states that faster deployment alone might add $57m to the present value of the plantation industry, but for breeders this depends on the both the speed of action and the intensity of selection. John and his team will have their final results by the end of 2013. Until then, as research findings become available they are being shared in confidence with FWPA levy payers through web-based discussion and by onsite presentations to interested parties. Although it may be a few years before it’s fully available commercially it really is forward looking research finding a new angle on growing better trees.
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 11
Can’t see the water for the trees W
ATER SCIENTIST Dr Ashley Webb recently spent time in the United States on a Gottstein Fellowship investigating how forest managers can be paid to provide clean water for the local populations. “The provision of clean drinking water is normally taken as a given,” he said “except when an extreme weather event or fire threatens the supply. There is a clear inverse relationship between the percentage of forest cover and the cost of water treatment. Essentially investing in forest health is a much cheaper way of providing quality water. “Payments for watershed services are being taken up in a number of ways in different states in the US. A way of valuing the water coming from the forest is to work out the cost of building a water filtration plant, and working back from that as to how much is viable to invest in forest management and health to ensure the continued production
D r. Ashley Webb, 2011 Gottstein Fellow
C hester Morse Lake, Cedar River watershed, near Seattle Washington of “natural” high quality water,” Dr Webb said. “Often people don’t realise that we are still a forest dependent species, relying on the forests to provide us with clean drinking water. A program in the US called Forests-to-Faucet aims at linking people to forests and the water they provide, and has been successful in getting people to understand that paying for maintaining forests is good for them too, not just the
birds and the beasties. “Australia, like the US, relies on its forests to provide clean drinking water. Australia should consider payment for watershed services schemes where, for example, rather than paying to pollute through an Environment Protection Licence, water polluting industries and land uses could be required to offset their pollution by investing in forest management elsewhere,” he said. “Plantations, rather
US carbon markets – an opportunity for Australia? DOCTOR JAMES Bulinski, of CO2 Australia, spent the early part of last year in the US working out if there were any opportunities for Australia in emerging US carbon markets. Dr Bulinski, travelling on a Gottstein Fellowship, found the US carbon market very dynamic. “Rather than having a national scheme implemented, individual US states or groups of states have been setting up their own trading schemes to reduce greenhouse emissions, some of which have now been running for a number of years,” he said. While a federal scheme has so far failed to pass through the US political system, much of the background work in developing a national carbon trading system has occurred and California is now introducing a wide ranging state-based program that is set to become one of the world’s largest carbon markets. “The value of US carbon markets is significant, with California’s program alone expected to exceed $4 billion USD between 2015 -2020,” he said. Avoided deforestation, improved forest management and reforestation projects are all potentially eligible under various US programs. International carbon offsets will likely be limited to projects in developing countries. “Unfortunately, this means Australian-based projects are not likely to be eligible under mandatorycompliance schemes, but it does not preclude Australian managers undertaking projects in developing countries and in the US itself. Australian operators also have the option of trading verified carbon credits into the voluntary market-place,” he added. “A key consideration in any carbon forest project is the sale-price that can be realised for verified carbon abatement and the demand for that abatement. At this stage, this remains something of an unknown for the
than being viewed as “users” of water, should be recognised in the broader context of the salinity, soil conservation, water quality and other benefits they provide. “I am very grateful to the Gottstein Trust for allowing me the opportunity to understand how
various schemes work in the US, and it has given me a strong backing for assisting to introduce a similar system here,” said Dr Webb. “I am also thankful for my employer, Forests NSW, in encouraging me to undertake this project to better advise on domestic issues.”
gottstein trust applications for 2013 awards
the Joseph william Gottstein Memorial trust invites applications from interested persons for Gottstein fellowships and Gottstein industry awards. GOTTSTEIN FELLOWSHIPS Fellowships are awarded to people from or associated with Australian forest industries to further their experience, education or training either within or outside Australia. Project proposals on any relevant topic are welcome. Candidates will be selected on the value of the project, and on their ability to complete and disseminate the information acquired.
GOTTSTEIN INDUSTRY AWARDS These awards are available to assist workers in the Australian forest industries to improve their industry knowledge and work skills. Applications focusing on small group study tours will be favourably viewed, although any relevant project topic may be proposed. Candidates will be selected on the value of the project.
INTERVIEWS Applications for each category will be considered by the Trustees and promising applicants will be selected for interviews in October 2012.
FURTHER INFORMATION Dr. Jame Bulinski. Californian market-place, while prices and demand in the voluntary market-place is often too low to make carbon forest projects viable at any real scale.” Dr Bulinski used the Gottstein Fellowship to fund travel across the US, which allowed him to directly interview over 28 organisations in order to understand the carbon investment landscape. “At this stage, I think the time is right for Australian managers and investors to start taking a closer look at opportunities within the US, particularly around the emerging Californian market,” he said.
Further details may be obtained from the Trust’s website at www.gottsteintrust.org, or from the Secretary.
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS The closing date for applications is 7th September 2012. Applications should be forwarded to: Dr Silvia Pongracic, Secretary, J. W. Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund, Private Bag 10, Clayton South, VIC 3169 Telephone: 0418 764 954 Fax: 03 9545 2139 Email: secretary@gottsteintrust.org
12 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
CHAINS
Chain design crucial to uptime and output A
CHANCE meeting some years ago has resulted in a business from Down Under becoming a major supplier of specialist chains throughout the world. Michael Huangfu and Phillip Dohnt had been f lying between Beijing and Singapore and “got talking” and Function Chains Pty Ltd, as it is now known, was the result, “We have been working together since that first meeting in 2004 to research, develop and improve f lailing technology,“ said Phillip “and this has resulted in the registration for a patent with the design of the square shaped f lail chain.”
“Our mission is to produce f lail chains and equipment that will meet the needs of the industry by reducing bark content and improving fibre recovery,” said Michael. Function Chains’ new developments are focused on f lail drum design to further reduce bark content and to improve wood fibre recovery in poor and low yielding plantations. “We are also working on curtain chain design to reduce the amount of carry through bark, which is extremely important on combined f lail/chippers,” said Phillip. “Our export market to Canada has grown significantly over the
Thunder Bay contractor Gord Manula and Phillip Dohnt.
Pat Ludwig (Ludwig Saw Shop, Thunder Bay) and Michael Huangfu.
past year and this has been with the help of Pat Ludwig, form A.M. Ludwig Saw Shop Ltd in Thunder Bay. Pat has sold eight containers of chain into the Thunder Bay area,” he said. Phillip said the three oval five square link chain had been a winner during this year’s winter logging season in Canada, which has temperatures going down to well below freezing.
www.functionshains.com.au Speak with Michael Huangfu 0402 448 893 Email: Huangfu@westnet.com.au
“The f lail chain has performed extremely well in these freezing conditions with the extended chain life reducing the number of times the operators have to change the chains,” he said. The three oval five square link flail chain is designed for the oval link to fit into a conventional flail drum with the five square links being the working links in contact with the logs/whole trees being debarked. The traditional oval flail chain was produced in 16mm diameter; however Function Chains uses 17mm diameter to improve the surface area and increase the life of
the chain. The length of each link is 47mm, with the normal chain being eight links. Function Chains can produce flail chains to any length required. This flail chain is designed to achieve maximum life without having to end-for-end the flail chain to increase debarker chipper uptime. In testing, the Function Chains achieved 25% - 58% longer chain life than some other flail chains that are commercially available. Function Chains’ main office is located in Nangwarry, South Australia, and the Western Australian regional offices are in Perth and Albany.
Longer life flail chains We know having to replace flail chains costs a lot in both parts and lost production. Our unique chain design with its square link (patent pending) configuration has a longer life and delivers the sorts of results being appreciated in major chipping operations in Australia and North America. Proven in Australia and Canada, try it for yourself in your own operation. For full details on this product, go to our website or call Michael.
functionchains.com.au Phillip Dohnt and Michael Huangfu..
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 13
New head trumps after trial period L
IKE IT or loath it social media now plays a large part in our lives. OK, this is a forestry and timber publication so where is this leading? Actually, YouTube was the catalyst for one forestry contractor to give something different a try. After seeing a video clip of an SP Maskiner harvesting head, Dane Court (of G&C Plant Hire based in Colac) thought an SP Maskiner specifically designed for blue gum work would be ideal for his operations. One thing led to another and Dane sought the help of Peter Randalls (managing director Randalls Equipment, the Australian agent for Maskiner) and an SP Maskiner 591LX was trialled in the western area of Victoria. “We trialled it for a couple of weeks and there was no way we were going to give it back,” says Dane. The SP 591 LX is purpose built for harvesting and debarking plantation grown eucalyptus. It is an extremely strong and tough harvester head, designed according to the LX principle for maximum reliability and productivity even under the toughest conditions. It is a very reliable, simple and user friendly harvester head offering 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 35 cm (6-14”) and is equally productive working in a CTL application as it is processing decked wood out of a pile. The frame consists of very thick high quality steel plates. Together with the compact design this makes the frame extremely strong and durable. Heavy duty wear plates in the frame distributes the log pressure for minimum wear and longest life. The extremely robust delimbing knives are cast in high strength steel. In order to simplify the maintenance the knives are equipped with replaceable cutting edges. All components are strategically placed for best protection against external wear. In order to minimize internal wear and vibrations the LX harvester heads are equipped with integrated hydraulic dampening on exposed cylinders as well as mechanical dampening of movable parts. Dane said the blue gum head was fitted to his Cat 320D excavator. “We haven’t had any dramas since we put it (the Maskiner head) on in January,” says Dane “and it uses slightly less fuel. “Actually, the fuel per ton ratio
is up around 20% better,” he says. G&C Plant Hire has four harvesters and two forwarders working in the bush to supply timber to Australian Bluegum Plantations and also Midway.
SP 591 LX
Purpose built for harvesting and debarking of plantation grown eucalyptus.
The SP 591 LX is purpose built for harvesting and debarking of plantation grown eucalyptus. It offers an unrivalled productivity, feed speed and debarking efficiency. Together with the over all super duty design that guarantees also maximum reliability and uptime the SP 591 LX truly offers all you need for a profitable harvesting operation.
Randalls Equipment Company Pty Ltd
Wallace Ave, Point Cook, Melbourne VIC
Phone. 03 9369 8988 - Fax. 03 3969 8683 - Mob. 0418 356 306 Email. randalls@randalls.com.au www.randalls.com.au
14 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
New concept machine certainly K
omatsu Forest Pty Ltd used AUSTimber 2012 to unveil not one, but two versions of its all-new Forest Xtreme range of machines. These two new models are based on the PC300 and PC400 format. The idea to first build the FX concept was originally devised in Australia by Brett Jones, general manager for Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd. One of the most important factors was to find a company capable of building this concept. “The first name that came to mind was EMS of Rotorua. Our first meeting in June 2010 was to create the parameters for the concept; by late 2010 we were on our way to building the first unit. “The real target for this project was to build a Forest Xtreme machine that was really purposebuilt for the forest and came with the full support of the factory,” said Brett. While the FX release of the Komatsu PC400LC-8 attracted the attention of the contractors at Mt Gambier - there was a real surprise appearance by a PC300LC-8 with
the Forest Xtreme package. “We hadn’t planned on having the PC300LC-8 here, but things changed at the last minute just before Christmas, so it was a real challenge in getting here on time,” Brett said. The driving force behind the Forest Xtreme models came when the (former Valmet) 475 was to be discontinued, a popular harvester in Australia and New Zealand. “At that time we purchased enough 475s before the line was closed down to cover customer demand in our markets until we could come up with a genuine replacement, which was to be a forestry machine of our own,” Brett says. The key to this to project was to develop a forestry machine that would be as good as anything produced at a factory level. ”The Forest Xtreme model is basically purpose built for a forestry application. As well as gaining a high and wide chassis, the Forest Xtreme model also receives a purpose built forestry cabin, with a high roofline at the
front to provide extended vision. The hydraulic system has been revised to enable harvesting heads to be easily matched to the machine. “There was also the desire to have a larger fuel tank that could provide two days operation, so the capacity has been increased from 605 litres 650 litres respectively for the two models to 1150 litres. A heavy-duty tilting bonnet, guarding and Wormald fire suppression system are part of the package,” Brett said. “The feller buncher and harvester boom sets are custom made for both models providing an overall reach of approximately 10m. In both applications we have found the geometry to be working very well.” Brett added that the hydraulic cooling system had been significantly upgraded to keep the machines operating at a lower temperature, especially in the hotter Australian conditions. Other major features include; hydraulic oil low level / temperature sensor that alarms in
Technical Specification for PC300LC-8 / PC400LC-8 Forest Xtreme
DIMENSIONS
PC300LC-8 FX
PC400LC-8 FX
Height
3880 mm
3910 mm (w/rises)
Overall track length
4955 mm
5385 mm
Max boom reach to pin
9800 mm
10175 mm
Track width w/600 mm shoe Single Bar
3490 mm
3490 mm
Ground Clearance
800 mm
875 mm
Weight less attachment
32,580 kg
43,200 kg
Piston displacement
8.27 ltr 505 in3
11.04 ltr 674 in3
Horsepower: SAE J 1995
Gross 194 kW 260 HP
Gross 270 kW 362 HP
Type
Two-variable displacement piston type
Variable displacement piston type
Maximum flow
535 ltr/min 141 US gal/min
690 ltr/min 182 US gal/min
Implement circuits
37.3 MPa 380 kgf/cm2 5,400 psi
37.3 MPa 380 kgf/cm2 5,400 psi
1150 ltr 304 US gal
1150 ltr 304 US gal
Shoes
600 mm SBG
600 mm SBG
Ground Pressure
45.7 kPa 0.47 kgf/cm2 6.63 psi
56.2kPa 0.57 kgf/cm2 8.15 psi
ENGINE
HYDRAULICS
COOLANT & LUBRICANT CAPACITY Fuel tank
OPERATING WEIGHT
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 15
proving its worth the cabin, electric fill pump for the hydraulic oil with an electric tank venting system; reversing hydraulic cooling and engine cooling fans; swing-out air intake screens; and thorough sealing of the canopy around the base of the boom to keep debris out. “All of this has been achieved with only modest increases to the operating weight, with the PC400 tipping the scales at 43.2 tonnes (little more than a tonne over the standard machine) and 32.58 tonnes for the PC300. “Prototypes of the Forest Xtreme models have run in New Zealand and Australia forests for much of the past year, including a feller buncher that required the
Brett Jones development of a separate gearbox to drive a pump for a disc saw attachment. “There are now six Forest Extreme machines in the field with another four customer orders in hand so the project is progressing along nicely,” he said. “This whole project was not a simple exercise; we had to make presentations to Komatsu Forest management in Japan and the United States to obtain approval for this project. “Telling them what we intended to do to their machine to create the Forest Xtreme package was a little surprising for the engineers that we would even attempt an engineering project of this size. It was always
very important to maintain the full support of the factory’s and convince them that the overall outcome would be worth it,” Brett says.
16 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
BIOFUELS
When resting on your ‘laurels’ pays off! By Greg Sweetnam
F
EARS of camphor laurel shortages for craftsmen on the New South Wales north coast have not eventuated. When the local sugar company, NSW Sugar, opened cogeneration plants at Condong and Broadwater
in 2008 it was believed the demand for the noxious weed would make it harder for small operators to get timber. The 30 megawatt power plants would use sugar cane waste, camphor and other fuels to create electricity. Four years on and the cogeneration
plants have been placed in receivership after a collapse in Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) market. Throughput is sporadic and still well below the projected levels of up to 40,000 tonnes of camphor per year. That’s put timber trader and craftsmen like Terry Gresham of Old Bonalbo at ease. He sells slabs of camphor laurel over the internet through a woodworkers forum. Slabs are sold in cubes at about $800 each or dry for $1200. Slabs dry in the shed over about 18 months or up to four years in the paddock. Terry has room for up to 60 cubes of covered drying space. He says a Chinese company is also paying $280 a tonne for well coloured stumps with a “decent” stump six to eight tonnes. “As long as you can get it out of the ground for under that price you’re doing all right,” Terry says.
Game-changing moment for renewable energy NTE ENERGY has been awarded a patent by the United States Patent & Trademark Office for its proprietary biomass hybrid renewable energy technology. This technology revolutionises the production of renewable energy by allowing the simultaneous operation of a biomass energy cycle in concert with a traditional power plant. “This patent represents a game-changing moment for the renewable energy industry,” said Seth Shortlidge, President and chief executive officer of Florida-based NTE Energy. “NTE Energy’s hybrid technology creates significant benefits by decreasing use of fossil fuels in power generation, increasing domestic renewable energy production, and providing the forestry and agriculture sectors with solutions for their biomass residuals,” he said. NTE Energy will utilize this technology in the development, construction and operation of new hybrid renewable power generation facilities located
throughout the United States, including projects under development in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. As an alternative, NTE Energy will license the technology to other parties, including independently owned hybrid renewable energy facilities. NTE Energy’s patented hybrid technology integrates biomass and conventional steam electric generating technologies into a single efficient hybrid renewable power generation facility. The addition of hybrid technology to an existing generation facility provides substantial capital cost savings over stand-alone biomass facilities through the use of a shared steam turbine and other common major equipment and systems. The technology can be integrated into the design of new combined cycle plants or retrofit onto almost any existing power plant that has excess steam turbine capacity including those combined-cycle plants employing duct burners.
Excavating can cost $140 an hour and he says a 120 to 130 tonne excavator can extract a big stump in about four hours. The slabs are cut after gathering the timber from neighbours around the rural hamlet west of Casino. Business was brisk at first but has slowed, though that’s fine by Terry as it gives him more time for his own crafting projects and to locate and retrieve timber. A downside to the spike in interest in camphor laurel while the cogeneration projects were being built was the confusion around the value of camphor laurel, how contractors would leave a property after harvesting and who was responsible for the clean up if required. Some landholders wanted native trees replanted after the camphor was taken (removal was free) while others were left disappointed that the speed of the harvesting, often in wet conditions, left paddocks marked and some pasture destroyed. “It has been hard work getting the trust of landholders to get access to the farms to gets stumps and camphor trunks,” Terry says. “There have been some commercial guys that promised the world and not delivered.”
That has made people skeptical and reluctant to let anyone onto their land to harvest. The area is considered to have an advantage for growing camphor over the farms on the coast as the trees tended to fill out faster in the warmer inland. With the timber he keeps Terry makes coffee tables that are sold through commissions and the local markets with darker tables fetching higher prices. “I get a lot of sales by keeping prices down and I’m still coming out on top. Tourists can see the process from start to finish and they like that. “They like something that is handcrafted and they meet the person who has made it rather than having a piece of furniture that has come from a factory.” NSW State Forests estimates there is several million tonnes of camphor laurel within 50 kilometres of Condong and Broadwater mills. The Federal Government suggested RECs would fetch $70 each in 2011 but the price dropped to below $30. The cogeneration project, known as Sunshine Energy, was a joint venture between State entity Delta Energy and NSW Sugar, a grower owned co-operative.
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 17
BIOFUELS
Preparing forest industries for the future - bioenergy research I
N THESE days of use, re-use, sustainability, biofuels and bioenergy you would imagine that Australia’s forestry industry (and the Government) would be at the forefront of changes. However, that has not been the case. In fact, according to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, bioenergy currently contributes just 0.5% to Australia’s total electricity supply. Obviously, energy generation from wood related waste and residues is occurring on a very small scale. With that background DAFF set about “preparing forestry industries for the future” and utilized a number of research projects to promote the development and deployment of sustainable bioenergy generation based on forest industries resources on a commercial scale. According to DAFF’s May report, research also focused on identifying the resources required to realise the opportunities presented by bioenergy. There were six projects funded in this group to the order of $1 million. Their areas of research were diverse and spread across many aspects of the utilisation of forest products for bioenergy. The six projects were: Forest based bioenergy generation in Australia Grantee: Enecon Summary: The objective of this study was to analyse the impacts of bioenergy on Australia’s forests, conduct an audit of the resources available for energy production and make recommendations on where further research should be targeted. Through the project an audit of the wood resources available for bioenergy production was conducted along with an analysis of the extent of existing wood based bioenergy generation in Australia. The project found that the total biomass residues available from Australia’s forest and wood processing sectors is approximately 18 million cubic meters per annum. While the majority of this material is currently committed to existing domestic and export markets it may be potentially available in the future. These residues have the capacity to be used for bioenergy in power generation, liquid fuels, wood pellets, and heat production. These various uses can be selected and optimised on a regional basis by considering factors such as the size of a given processing facility in the region, feed availability and the size and proximity of the proposed product market. This study will contribute to the understanding of the opportunities for bioenergy in Australia’s climate change mitigation efforts and help meet energy demands for the industry. Conversion of eucalypt forestry waste residues to biofuel
Grantee: University of New England Summary: This project examined the use of renewable resources from forestry for biofuels production. It was the first to provide further insight into pre–treating eucalyptus forest thinning with dilute–acid and enzyme hydrolysis for biofuel production making it a significant project. In order to get optimal use of lignocellulosic biomasss, pre–treatment is required to allow effective enzymatic hydrolysis to take place. This project looked at the biochemical pre–treatment options for cellulose processing and lignin separation of eucalypts. The outcomes of the project support a eucalypt forest– thinning based second generation biofuels (bio–refinery) industry in regional Australia, particularly Northern NSW. Sawmill biomass fuel study Grantee: South East Fibre Exports Summary: This project looked at the use of hardwood and softwood biomass generated by debarking and chipping operations at both the South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) woodchip facility and eight other processing plants in south east NSW and east Gippsland. These waste biomass outputs were measured for quality and quantity to determine fuel handling and transport options to meet the needs of developing an economically viable method of bioenergy production. Outputs created by the project include a Biomass Fuel Cost Model, which determines the cost of landing wood by–products suitable for use in bioenergy generation from sawmills and wood processing facilities to a suitable bioenergy facility. The generic Biomass Fuel Cost Model could be applied to other potential bioenergy sites. The report also improved understanding of the size and bio–physical characteristics of the biomass resources and provided a literature review identifying knowledge gaps, risks and opportunities for expanding existing sawmill and timber processing practises to allow biomass production. Finally, the report created a handling manual for production of biomass for bioenergy at timber processing facilities to minimise environmental impacts and maximise economic and environmental benefits. This manual has national application and could be used by other timber processing facilities. Mitigating climate change through the sustainable production and use of forest biomass for bioenergy production–identifying native forest species as potential biofuel crops. Grantee: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC)
Summary: This project conducted a practical appraisal of potential for near–term bioenergy growth in Australia and assessed the commercial potential for forest based biomass usage in the bioenergy industry. The benefits from this project can be applied on a large scale as Australia has a large proportion of land that is marginal for food production but suitable for lignocelluloses production from trees. The project identified a selection of 38 ‘best–bet’ eucalyptus species for biofuel production in South East Queensland and New South Wales. The information was gathered through a workshop with researchers from Florasearch and others working on species selection as well as through laboratory analysis of selected species. This research will help guide future research into species used for biofuel production. Assessment of the environmental and economic opportunities and constraints associated with bioenergy production from forest biomass in two prospective regions of Australia Grantee: CSIRO Summary: This project assessed the economic cost and greenhouse gas benefits of using forest biomass for bioenergy and biofuel production with different energy technology strategies in two case
study regions in Australia. By using forest production data and models, economic modelling, life cycles and GIS data this project has determined that co–firing is competitive with coal fired electricity production and the inclusion of incentives will increase the competitiveness. Adapting and mitigating climate change through the sustainable production and use of forest biomass for commercial scale bioenergy production Grantee: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC)
Summary: This project aimed to quantify biomass left behind after harvest operations in the Macquarie region of NSW. A stakeholder survey of land managers was also conducted to determine how a bioenergy–based agroforestry industry may provide potential economic and social benefits, contribute to landscape– scale natural resource management goals and what incentives and barriers exist to uptake the industry. Results identify a number of potential barriers and benefits of creating a bioenergy–based agroforestry industry.
Auckland, New Zealand, 22-23 August 2012 Carbon Forestry 2012 will cover; • Options and implications for combining NZ and Australia’s ETS • Impacts of changes to international carbon markets • Investment opportunities still available for carbon forestry • How can companies best reduce their exposure to market risk • Demand and growth within the carbon offset market The inaugural Australasian event ran in July 2011. With recent changes, Carbon Forestry 2012 is expected to be an essential forum for financial, forestry and investment companies.
www.carbonforestryevents.com For further event information contact; ken.wilson@fiea.org.nz
18 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
CHAINSAWS Versatility, power and quality in the whole range APART FROM being the World Underhand Woodchop Champion and Australian Woodchop ‘Champion of Champions’, Laurence O’Toole is a professional Allpower Arborist and Tree Lopper. Laurence fully supports his 350 strong Allpower dealer network not just because of the top quality product they provide but also for the advice and service support he requires to get the job done. Allpower’s industry leading warranties ensure that Laurence knows his range of Allpower tools have been tried and tested so that businesses like his can remain profitable. It’s why he uses ECHO and Shindaiwa equipment. “I’m excited to be a part of a company like Allpower. While I’m pretty handy with my axe, when I’m on the job I need to know I’m using tools that won’t let me down and help me to run my business profitability. “Our 350 strong Allpower dealer network provides me, and you, with access to expert advice, extensive product knowledge, back-up, service and support. And if that’s not enough, they offer industry leading warranties. As a commercial user of the Allpower ECHO & Shindaiwa ranges, I’m provided with a two year commercial warranty on all handheld units – it’s just part of the Allpower Service Experience and why I am proud to be a part of the Allpower team,” Laurence said. Echo and Shindaiwa chainsaws combine versatility with power and Japanese quality. At the higher end of the ECHO range is the CS600 chainsaw, with a powerful 59.8cc ECHO engine and 20” (50cm) bar making it a versatile machine perfect for the larger jobs. Just some of the innovative features of the CS600 include a side chain-adjuster and tool-free air filter access for easy maintenance and a one piece fully supported crank shaft for long life and durability. It is a very powerful saw however user comfort is not compromised, with the ECHO CS600 weighing in at just 5.9kg. Stepping up in power is the Shindaiwa 757 chainsaw with an engine power of 73.6cc, 4.2kW output and a 20” (50cm) bar. Maximum operator safety and comfort is provided with throttle interlock, rear hand guards and full anti-vibration systems for user comfort. It is a perfect heavy-duty saw for the pro-logger and versatile with a second bar size option of 24” (60cm).
Kevin Gilders – have chainsaw will travel! W
OOD IS as much a part of life as breakfast to Kevil Gilders. He’s an artisan with wood and his work can be found in almost all parts of Australia. “I have has been working with wood all my working life, initially as an engineering pattern maker,” said Kevin, “and later as a trained woodwork teacher, teaching in both Government and private schools.” However, things changed in the early 80s when Kevin was at a woodworking demonstration and was asked to “have a go” at chainsaw sculpturing. He was surprised when he finished the piece – a 3ft red gum pointed hand – when someone offered to buy it. He couldn’t sell it, though, as he had promised it to his wife Laurel. The prospective buyer wasn’t about to give up and upped the ante, enough to convince Kevin (and his wife) that
the piece be sold. That day, using a borrowed chainsaw, really was the start of a career that has resulted in Kevin doing commissioned work in places around Australia. “Many of my carvings have been done as commission from bodies such as City and Shire Councils both in Victoria and interstate. “Some of my work can be seen in the Council areas of Knox, Casey, Maroondah, Frankston, Manningham, and Greater Dandenong in the metropolitan area
in children’s playgrounds, parks and other public spaces.” Wycheproof, Swan Hill, Baulkham Hills, Broken Hill, and other country towns throughout Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia are also on his list and he has completed commissioned work with multiple carvings at Dartmoor, Coonawarra and Koondrook. Private commissions feature as a large component of his work. continued on page 31.
Call Allpower Customer Service on 1800 333 428 or visit www.allpower.com.au for the location of your nearest Allpower Service Experience Dealer
ECHO CS600 Chainsaw
$1,059 - 59.8cc ECHO engine - 3.0kW output - Weighs just 5.9kg - 20” (50cm bar)
Shindaiwa 757 Chainsaw
$1,159
- 73.6cc Shindaiwa engine - 4.2kW output - Weighs only 6.8kg - 20” (50cm) bar - Also available with 24” (60cm) bar for $1,190
The tools of choice for professional contractors... and world champions. Australia’s Laurence O’Toole - 9 times World Champion Woodchopper and Professional Allpower Arborist
Kevin at work at the recent AUSTimber near Mount Gambier.
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 19
FIREWOOD MACHINES
Making work so much easier T
HINKING ABOUT producing firewood for more profit? Whitlands Engineering recently released its newest addition to Rex firewood processing range, the Rex 600X – which is essentially the ‘bells and whistles’ version of the hugely successful Rex 600. The Rex range of firewood processing machinery includes 600, 600X and 900 model firewood processors; all of which feature the unique and efficient multi head blade. The Rex 600 is the basic unit, and the newly released 600X features the same functional configuration with the added benefit of an integrated infeed hopper. Field tests and client feedback shows that the Rex 600X
can load and split between 7 and 10 cubic metres of split firewood per hour with one operator. On the 600X the hopper and the splitter are affixed to a single chassis on dual axles. This allows the whole ‘plant’ to be maneuvered on the work site in a single operation. An integrated hopper greatly increases production efficiency by enabling a constant feed of blocked firewood, which in turn increases output. Head designer and chief executive officer David Burder says: “This Rex 600 range is probably the most revolutionary machine we’ve ever designed, it’s production potential is massive, and is the perfect solution
Have chainsaw will travel!
to splitting firewood for profit’. The combination of mobility, affordability and production efficiency mean that the Rex 600 and now the new 600X has already carved out a market for itself, especially in the firewoodfor-profit industry. “The Rex 600 utilises a Kohler 40hp diesel engine, which develops up top 28 tons of power at the base of the blade –splitting the toughest Australian hardwood with ease. Then factor in a powerful block lifter and roller bench, a 4m out-feed elevator for stockpiling and a safe and easy to use control system and what you’ve got is the perfect solution to splitting firewood for profit.”
Whitlands Engineering
New From Specialists in innovative firewood processing equipment
continued from page 30. Kevin won the National Chainsaw Carving Competition in both 1999 and 2000, and finished second in 2001 and 2003. “I have participated in the international carving events in Tupperlake (USA) 1992, Glasgow (Scotland) 1996, Reno and Westport (USA) 1999 and 2001, Mystery Creek at Hamilton Field Days (New Zealand) in 2002 and 2003, and in Sandringham (England) and Carrbridge (Scotland). In the Carrbridge event in 2004 my contribution was judged second,” he says with a great deal of pride. “While chainsaw carving is my major activity now, I have a wide range of experience in skilled woodworking techniques and continue to maintain an active interest in fine woodworking. Some private commissions for this type of work include sanctuary furniture, altars, lecterns and baptismal fonts for various churches,” he said. Not surprisingly, Kevin has been a long serving member of the Victorian Woodworkers Association. Kevin’s original sculpturing choice was a Stihl chainsaw, and he’s used many over the years, finally settling on an Echo ... “I’m not sponsored by this or any other brand,” he points out.
Designed specifically for commercial operations, The NEW Rex 600 Firewood Processor combines a multi-head blade on a compact, towable wood splitter. The Rex 600 is the ultimate solution to efficient and economical bulk firewood processing – look at the features…. • A wesome Production – up to 10 cubic meters / hour • Excellent sample of split wood • 1 or 2 person operation • Will handle blocks 900mm x 450mm • Easy & Safe to operate
www.superaxe.com.au
Or call 1800 702 701 for your free DVD pack
20 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
It’s a family matter!
Harvestco’s 1510E specifically bought to do first and second thinning.
D
OWN IN Mt Gambier in South Australia there is a close knit community of which the majority of the 23,500 population are linked in some way to the timber industry. This is no exception with Darren Moore and his family. Darren - or as he is more commonly known, “Moorey” - is a second generation logger and has worked for 23 years as a machine operator, the last six with Harvestco driving a John Deere 1470D. At the recent AUSTimber show in Mt Gambier Moorey demonstrated the 1470E that was delivered to Harvestco straight after the show. In one of his brakes from demonstrating Moorey was visited by his wife and eight-year-old daughter Zoe. Zoe, who goes to St. Martin’s School in Mt Gambier, loves to visit the bush with her dad and if she gets half a chance will sit in the harvester and pull the levers. So what a great opportunity she got at the show as John Deere/ Hitachi had the latest John Deere E Series harvester/forwarder simulator available for visitors to operate. Unperturbed Zoe hopped onto the simulator and really gave it a go. She said that one day when she leaves school she may think about working in the forest as it’s a special occasion when dad loads her up and takes her out to see the real machines working. Harvestco now runs 16 pieces of John Deere/Timberjack machines of which only one is tracked based. All the other harvesters are rubber tired of which three are E Series, the latest being the 1470E with H290 attachment complete with topping saw. The forwarders are nearly all 1710s of various vintage, however, the latest 1910E that was delivered very recently compliments the other two E Series forwarders, the oldest being a 1910E which has now done very close to 5,000 machine hours and the other a 1510E specifically purchased to do first and second thinning.
Rick Murphy, operations director of Harvestco, used to be an operator himself and understands the importance of having reliable, comfortable, state-of-the-art machines that deliver the goods day in day out at cost effective rates. “What I like about John Deere equipment is that I can manage the newer machines and productivity through the onboard computer by running the TimberLink software package that is exclusive to John Deere equipment. I can see, among other things, daily production, fuel consumption and if required compare operators. I have been working with Timberjack/John Deere and testing some of the software development they have come up with over the years and am really looking forward to the new “Fleet Management” program when that becomes available because from what I have seen it will bring the already good TimberLink management
Zoe on the John Deere simulator at AUSTimber 2012.
package up to the next level,” says Rick.. “At the end of the day, though, you can have the best gear in the world but without the good operators that we have throughout Harvestco you have no business, so it’s really important to look after your team as well,” he says. So what does Moorey like about the John Deere Harvesters and working for Harvestco? “At Harvestco we work shifts of around seven machine hours per day so there are two of us who operate and look after one machine. We can download and compare production data, see if any fault codes have occurred and generally see how the other operator has been looking after the machine when I am off. “At the change of shift the two of us spend an hour each day checking over the machine and making sure it’s handed over in the condition we left it. The system works really well as it gives me time at home with my
family as I only start the second shift at around 11 in the morning and work through until about 7 in the evening. “I like the John Deere harvester because it is really productive but when you get out at the end of the day you have not been knocked about like you are in a tracked based machine. In our old 1470D which has clocked up nearly 15,000 hours we constantly handled stems
of over 2 cubic metres and had no major failures at all. I am looking forward to having the same run out of the new 1470E,” says Darren. So what does Moorey think if one day Zoe decides that she wants to be a machine operator? “It’s ok by me but the one piece of firm advice I will be giving her is to make sure she gets a job with a company like Harvestco who run John Deere equipment!”
Zoe and Darren and the new 1470E recently delivered to Harvestco.
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22 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
SAVING FUEL
Fuel economy counts in f T
he constant increase in fuel prices has highlighted the importance of limiting consumption. This guide looks at various ways of controlling fuel costs and makes specific suggestions for different logging machines such as harvesters, fellerbunchers, forwarders, skidders and delimbers.
What factors influence fuel consumption? Even though the continuing increases in fuel prices are raising operating costs for forestry equipment, the design, maintenance practices, and operating conditions of forestry machines, as well as how they are used, also influence fuel consumption. As the owner of forestry machines, you can reduce the impact of increased operating costs by purchasing new equipment that is proven to have low fuel consumption. In contrast, if you already own or operate forestry equipment, you need be well informed on how to adequately maintain and correctly operate your equipment so as to reduce fuel consumption. According to various experts, fuel consumption differs among the different types
of equipment. These differences can be explained by three main factors: the design of the machine, the engine technology, and the operator’s work methods.
Improving forestry equipment fuel efficiency Choosing accessories wisely and using them appropriately can have a strong impact on fuel consumption.Engine powerDiesel engines provide a wide range of power outputs but operate at different degrees of effciency for each power level. In general, these engines are most effcient when operating at the speed (rpm) where they develop their maximum torque and use 75% of this torque. An engine operated in this manner will consume less fuel. Therefore, when the machine requires less power, operators should reduce engine speed so as to maintain a high output torque. Remember that the combination of high engine speed with low output torque increases fuel consumption. Operators of forestry equipment should avoid traveling in the woods at excessive engine speed. The use of moderate engine speed can save fuel and reduce maintenance and
Purchasing the wrong machine for the job can clearly have a considerable impact on fuel consumption.
the design of the machine the engine technology the operator's work methods
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repair costs without decreasing productivity. Engine tiers, pollution controls and fuel efficiencyEmissions “Tiers” were initiated in the 1990’s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the goal of reducing particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). This goal was realized, but fuel consumption increases were commonly observed. However, sophisticated electronic engine management, machine onboard computers (OBC), and hydraulic controls made these fuel consumption increases acceptable due to higher productivity levels. With the introduction of Tier 3 Interim, fuel consumption improvements have been observed, and Tier 4 engines should result in even better fuel consumption in most operations.Machine owners should be aware that Tiered engines can have many of their operating parameters “fine-tuned” to a specific set of operating characteristics that can reduce fuel consumption significantly. Speak to your machine supplier; do not accept off-the-shelf engine or OBC settings.
The fan Thermostatic fans and hydraulically driven variablespeed fans improve fuel consumption only if the machine’s cooling system is up to the job. In general, the fan should not be required to work at full speed under all working conditions. A fan that operates continuously at full speed consumes 1 to 2 liters of fuel per hour (L/h).The power trainThe power train must be matched to the engine capacity to operate efficiently. Mechanical transmissions should provide a range of gear speeds so the operator can reduce engine speed to the lowest speed needed. Hydrostatic transmissions are often equipped with an electronic control. The acceleration pedal then signals the desired travel speed to the computer, which adjusts the engine speed and fuel fow in response. This approach minimizes fuel consumption.
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Automatic differential locks sometimes lock at inappropriate times, and the resulting slippage of one or more wheels increases fuel consumption. A manual differential lock, used when needed, is more efficient. The use of manual differential locks at appropriate times can reduce fuel consumption. However, operators must pay careful attention to wheel behavior to obtain good results. Hydrostatic transmissions, when paired with direct-drive wheels, can be designed to provide very precise control of wheel rotation. As a result, each wheel can turn at
the most appropriate speed, thereby minimizing wheel slippage, soil disturbance, and fuel consumption.
Hydraulic systems The effectiveness of a hydraulic system depends on several factors that are difficult for a buyer to determine. It is possible to lose considerable efficiency through a poor choice of the mechanical and hydraulic components of a forestry machine. Load-sensing hydraulic control systems are generally the best choice for forestry machines, followed by constant-pressure systems. Loadsensing systems regulate the hydraulic pump’s pressure and flow to meet the demands of the machine’s hydraulic functions. An increase in pressure from 1.5 to 2.5 MPa can provide better flow control even though this leads to a slight loss of power. Loadsensing systems are particularly appropriate for situations in which the load varies. Operators should use as many hydraulic functions as possible simultaneously, since this increases the load on the engine and thus, the work is performed more rapidly. It is preferable to install flexible hydraulic oil hoses of appropriate diameter and to be particularly careful to avoid elbow fittings or tight bends in the lines. In constant-pressure and constantflow systems, the output of the hydraulic pump is not adjustable. The operator sets the engine speed in order to vary the hydraulic flow to meet the needs and to improve the system’s efficiency.Operating conditions have significant influence on fuel consumption. Hauling loads uphill, as well as sinking or slippage of wheels, increase fuel consumption significantly for skidders and forwarders. Similarly, the size of the trees being handled and their resistance to cutting affect the fuel consumption of single grip harvesters, feller-bunchers, and delimbers.
Hydraulic oil cooler Hydraulic oil coolers should be equipped with a thermostat that lets the oil warm more rapidly and maintain its optimal temperature longer. The initial temperature of the thermostat should be adjustable by the operator so as to maintain the oil at its optimal viscosity. Oil viscosity varies depending on the type of oil used (summer vs. winter). Too-thick oil slightly increases fuel consumption, whereas too-thin oil increases component wear. Increasing the diameter of the hydraulic line does not significantly reduce fuel consumption and does not solve problems related to overheating the oil. Before purchasing a forestry machineAs it is difficult for potential buyers to evaluate all the technical aspects of a forestry machine, they should arrange to see the prospective machine while it is working in a real operation and to ask the owner about fuel consumption. As a general rule, larger and heavier machines consume more fuel than lighter machines.
What improves fuel economy? Optimal use of a machine and good preventive maintenance of forestry equipment are effective means of saving fuel. Here are some other simple, practical tips that can help: • Use the work lights only when required. Their use can increase fuel consumption by up to 0.5 L/h. • For machines equipped with a boom loader, fuel consumption during boom use can be reduced, up to 5%, by moving the machine close to the load and not maximizing boom reach. • Choose tyres of adequate dimensions so as to minimize
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 23
SAVING FUEL
forestry operations sinking and loss of traction. According to studies conducted by FPInnovations, skidders equipped with highf lotation
Fuel consumption by different types of forestry machines The range in fuel consumption depends on the type of forestry machine used. As mentioned previously, the engine design is responsible for 60% of the fuel consumption. Dividing daily fuel use by hour meter reading will yield liters consumed per hour. Howeve r, lower
tyres have lower fuel consumption than skidders with narrow tyres on soils prone to rutting. However, the narrow tyres provide greater mobility in deep snow. Thus, it would be best to use different tyres in each season. • Add tire chains or tracks to wheeled forestry machines only when required. They provide better mobility but also increase the rolling resistance and the weight of the machine. As a result, they increase fuel consumption. • If you use wheel tracks, choose tracks whose connecting links lie close to the tire periphery. The further these links are from the tire periphery, the greater the distance the treads must travel and thus, the greater the fuel consumption • Keep all tracks and chains properly tensioned. Slack chains or tracks increase fuel consumption due to excessive slippage. • Keep the fuel-supply system components in good shape, since leaks and spills increase fuel costs. • Minimize engine idling. A typical feller-buncher engine can consume up to 2.5 L/h while idling. • Follow the cold weather startup procedures specified for your machine so as to shorten the warm-up period. Depending on the temperature, let the engine idle for 5 to 10 minutes. Next, use the hydraulic functions slowly, keeping the engine speed at around 1100 rpm. If you hear noise from the pumps, reduce the speed. • Keep the radiator and oil cooler clean. This helps keep the oil at the right temperature, thereby reducing fan operation for thermostat-controlled fans.
v a l u e s may not necessarily indicate a more eff icient machine, as long i d l e du r at ion s or low productivity can create the illusion of good fuel economy. In other words, a low fuel consumption per hour does not pay if there is very little production. A better measure is liters of fuel consumed per cubic meter (or tonne) of wood produced. This measure of fuel intensity is the best method for measuring your cost of production in terms of fuel use and will help you gauge improvements in operator methods or work practices. Measuring productivity on a daily basis can be challenging, but newer machines with on-board computers can track productivity on a relative basis and are a repeatable means of doing so.The figure below shows the fuel consumption and energy intensity for common forestry machines.
Measuring fuel is the first step in managing fuel Much of the fuel consumed during forest operations is dispensed from remote tanks. Virtually all operations depend on an in-woods network of portable tanks ranging from 450-5000 liters. Most of these tanks are equipped with an external pump that is powered by the electrical system on the machine receiving fuel. As they are sometimes moved and refillled on a daily basis in all types of weather conditions, it is not uncommon for these tanks and
the associated pumps and meters to be found in various states of serviceability. The following are commonly observed deficiencies related to in-woods fuel dispensing devices.
Fuel pump wiring A 50-80 liter per minute fuel pump can draw in excess of 20 amps when first started and 1015 amps (model dependant) once running. If the pump is to deliver fuel at its full-rated capacity, it requires good wiring and solid connection to the power source. While varying with pump models, a heavy duty fuel pump used in the woods will require a threestrand, 10- or 12-gauge wire suitably jacketed for exterior sub zero usage. Use of lighter gauge wire can result in reduced fow rates, over-heating and possibly fire, or damage to the electrical
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motor. Additionally, alligator clips, while a convenient method of connecting to a temporary power supply, should be avoided as this type of connection is inadequate for the current drawn by the pump. Installing a good quality “plug and socket” connector will ensure minimal voltage drop between the power source and the pump, providing for optimum fuel flow and reduced fueling time.
Fuel filters In the woods, fuel tanks are rarely fitted with a fuel fillter, but their use is essential to maintaining your equipment. Installing fuel tank filters is easy and less costly than machine downtime. It is recommended that filters that remove water (“water separator”) in addition to particles be used to ensure clean and dry fuel.
Fuel meters The first step in reducing fuel consumption is measuring how much you currently consume. Simple, inexpensive mechanical flow meters will provide the required information and are available from any fuel supply company. Properly maintained and calibrated, most are capable of an accuracy between 1 and 2%. Nutating disc meters are recommended for their high tolerance to dirt and foreign objects, rugged construction, and compact design. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for calibration and take note that they are not as accurate as meters intended for commercial fuel sales. Using fuel meters and recording the information will let everyone on the crew know that fuel tracking continued on page 24.
24 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
SAVING FUEL
Fuel economy counts in forestry operations continued from page 23. and use is important! Furthermore, it provides the operator with a benchmark that allows comparison between operating conditions and is the first step towards embarking on a fuel conservation effort. Many operations claim “noticeable” reductions in fuel consumption following the implementation of a simple fuel monitoring program. To increase accuracy of your fuel meter, here are a few simple tips: 1 Where possible, avoid pumping small volumes, and when possible, refill less often but with larger volumes. 2 Avoid interruptions during the fueling event. Each time the nozzle trigger is stopped, the system starts to drain itself back into the tank. 3 Fully depress nozzle trigger. Half flow volumes can increase “false flow” readings. 4 Stop pump if you have emptied the dispensing tank of fuel. The airflow from the pump will be recorded by the meter. The meter does not recognize the difference between fluid and air. It is simply a flow, so it is measured.
Biodiesel in forest operations - a quick overview The new federal regulations that came into effect on July 1, 2011 now require an average of 2% renewable fuel in all diesel fuel. The use of biodiesel, on a lifecycle basis, helps reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and dependency on foreign petroleum. However, what will be the impact on our harvest operations? Under these regulations, it is the fuel producers who are responsible for ensuring the average content of 2% (B2), so users need not worry. However, some precautions still need to be taken to ensure harvest operations are compatible with biodiesel. Storage of the B2 blend does not require any changes to usual operations other than having the
proper filters at the storage tank outlet. In addition, all engines designed after 1994 can use B2 to B5 concentrations without being modified.
Benefits • Lean solvent that cleans tanks, pipes and the injection system; • Oiliness greater than that of petrodiesel (reduces engine wear); • Thermal stability of blend; • A higher cetane number than that of petro-diesel increases ignitability and improves combustion; • Can slightly lower fuel consumption with higher concentrations (B5B20); • Fuel tax refund of approximately $0.17/L of B100.Recommendations • The solvent effect can cause impurities in the system when first used; changing the filters avoids any problems; • Ensure the quality of the biodiesel (ASTM standard) to avoid problems due to product separating in cold weather; • Ensure biodiesel is mixed with the right grade of diesel, considering the region and climate. FPInnovations is a notfor-profit world leader that specializes in the creation of scientific solutions in support of the Canadian forest sector's global competitiveness and responds to the priority needs of its industry members and government partners. It is ideally positioned to perform research, innovate and deliver state-of-the-art solutions for every area of the sector's value chain, from forest operations to consumer and industrial products. FPInnovations' staff numbers more than 550. Its R&D laboratories are located in Québec City, Ottawa, Montréal, Thunder Bay, Edmonton and Vancouver, and it has technology transfer offices across Canada. For more information about FPInnovations, visit: www.fpinnovations.ca.
Tips for reducing fuel consumption with different forestry machines The following table presents various fuel-saving solutions for the different types of forestry machine you may be using:
Tracked feller-buncher
Wheeled single-grip harvester
Tracked single-grip harvester
• On frm ground with few obstacles, try to work using the middle range of the boom’s reach (4 to 6 m) in front of the harvester; this reduces the energy required to move the boom. • On soft or stony ground, or when travel becomes more difficult, try to harvest the maximum number of trees while staying at the same position. • Telescoping booms permit faster movement of the felling head towards the tree that will be cut, require less power, and reduce fuel consumption.
Tracked single-grip harvester
Wheeled single-grip harvester
• E xert as little pressure as possible on the delimbing knives and feed rollers while still maintaining high delimbing quality. • Use the energy of the falling tree to help you move forward or to delimb the stem; this move requires considerable skill. However, the energy provided is free. • Keep the saw chain and delimbing knives sharp; cutting and processing of logs requires more power, and thus more fuel, when the cutting surfaces grow dull.
Tracked single-grip harvester
Tracked feller-buncher
• Avoid sharp changes in direction during travel; gradual turns produce less skidding and consume less fuel than sharp turns. • For machines equipped with a cab-leveling system, use the hydraulic cylinders provided for this purpose to keep the cab level; pivoting a tilted cab requires more power, thus consumes more fuel. • Avoid unnecessary cab rotation or boom movements.
Tracked feller-buncher
• Immediately replace damaged or worn saw teeth; this will require less power, thereby increasing productivity and improving the cut quality. • Stop the saw motor during prolonged travel on the cutover.
Grapple skidder
Cable skidder
Forwarder
Clambunk skidder
• Minimize turns while traveling with a load; it’s preferable to turn gradually, since this consumes less fuel than sharp turns. • Install landings and extraction trails at the most appropriate locations; this approach both decreases fuel consumption and increases productivity. • Try to travel on soils with a good bearing capacity; traveling in soils with poor bearing capacity requires more power, thus consumes more fuel. • Use tire chains or tracks only when required to provide better mobility or rotation; these accessories require more power, thus more fuel. • W here possible plan work so that landings are located downhill. Moving loaded equipment uphill requires more fuel.
Grapple skidder
Cable skidder
Clambunk skidder
• Transfer as much of the load as possible onto the skidder; by raising the load higher and closer to the cab, you reduce the friction of the tops on the ground and thus decrease fuel consumption. • Balance the pressure between the front and the rear tires ; the rear tires deflect more, increasing the amount of friction against the ground, when the rear of these machines is under a load.
Forwarder
• For loaders with a telescopic extension, pull the logs as close as possible to the machine using the telescoping feature before lifting the logs onto the forwarder; lifting the logs at full extension requires more power and thus more fuel. • Avoid raising the logs high above the load bunk’s pickets; position the forwarder as close as possible to the log piles and try to pass the
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logs between the pickets rather than above them, since fuel consumption increases the higher you raise the logs.
Clambunk skidder
• During loading, position the skidder as close as possible to the piled logs; fuel consumption increases when stems must be raised at full boom extension. • During loading, place the butts of the stems as close as possible to the cab; this will increase the proportion of the load’s weight on the rear of the skidder and reduce friction between the stems or crowns and the ground.
Cable skidder
ThE BEST CTI AT ThE BEST PRICE. • Use a remote control during winching to reduce fuel consumption; the engine speed is lower with a winch that is remotely controlled than it is when the winch is operated by the operator from the cab.
Delimber
• Keep the bearings of sliding or telescoping booms well lubricated and in good condition so as to reduce friction.
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• E xert the minimum possible pressure on the delimbing knives while maintaining delimbing quality. • Keep the delimbing knives and the topping saw sharp; these operations require more power with dull knives, and thus more fuel.
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 25
State-of-the-art machine struts its stuff at show
Caterpillar’s 552 Series 2 tracked feller and
buncher was a key exhibit at the Alexandra Truck Ute & Rod Show. The new Cat machine, just released in Australia, was delivered to local contractor Johnston Logging of Marysville.
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BRAND new Caterpillar harvester regarded as the most modern and technically competent harvester for the forestry industry was a feature exhibit at the Alexandra Truck Ute & Rod Show. The Cat 552 Series 2 track feller buncher has been purchased by local timber harvesting contractor Johnston Logging of Marysville for use in the hardwood timber industry in north east Victoria. The new Cat machine is designed for working on steep terrain, regardless of seasonal or weather conditions, to deliver maximum tree harvesting productivity for the machine operator. Weighing close to 40 tonnes the new harvester is powered by a Cat ACERT™ Tier 3 diesel engine of over 300 horsepower which is both very efficient and meets exacting emission standards. The new Cat track machine achieves higher hydraulic performance, better fuel economy, a more comfortable operator station and better visibility than the previous model. The operator station is designed with conveniently placed joysticks and an ergonomically designed air ride seat, reducing operator fatigue and providing easy operation. An HVAC system with updated air ducts provides better cooling and heating. A large side window with side screen allows fresh air into the cab, and an isolated mounted cab and engine reduces sound levels and vibration for a quiet and comfortable operator environment. Ergonomically located pedals with side-by-side foot rests provide operator comfort while operating machine travel. The cab design optimizes post
structures and window placement to provide excellent operator visibility to front, sides and rear. A large polycarbonate skylight provides excellent upward visibility. With the most robust tilt mechanism in the industry, the 552 Series 2 tilter has a patented
3-cylinder tilt mechanism with simultaneous forward and sideby-side tilting. Trunnion cylinders are mounted on 51mm (2 in) steel plates and transfer vertical loads down to the interface of the track frames and carbody, putting the load into the track and ground. A three-
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The just-released state-of-theart machine is designed for high production clear cut and for clear or select harvesting in rough terrain. A number of CAT timber harvesting machines were on show in Alexandra, “but the new 552 Series 2 machine is in a class of its own,” said O’Doherty.
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cylinder tilt mechanism features simultaneously 21 degree forward tilt and 11 degree side-to-side tilt. Nick O’Doherty territory manager for the machine’s supplier Wm Adams says that the 552 Series 2 attracted plenty of attention from members of the forestry industry.
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26 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
FARM FORESTRY
Need for more trees to cut reliance on imported wood Australia is not alone when it comes to the need for more wood, especially involving farm forestry. The following piece by The Herald Scotland’s farming correspondent Rog Wood clearly shows the predicament facing the UK.
A
NNUAL STATISTICS produced by the Forestry Commission once again highlight Britain’s reliance on imported timber. In 2010 wood products imported into the UK were valued at £6.8 billion and comprised 10 million cubic metres of wood (roughly 80% of requirements), representing an increase of 19% in wood imports from 2009. Scotland is currently growing more than 50% of the home crop, and the commercial timber industry is worth £1bn annually to the Scottish economy and has 20,000 directly employed jobs. Buoyed by strong timber prices, Scottish foresters are felling considerably more than they are replanting, making inroads into the trees that were planted in the seventies as a result of generous tax incentives. The supply of Scottish softwood (conifers) is set to peak in 2017 and thereafter steadily fall to a low point in 2042. That’s because conifer planting fell dramatically from a peak of 25,000 hectares in 1989 to around 5000ha in 1994
and then steadily decreased to about 2700ha in 2010. In the past 10 years Scotland has felled about 70,000ha of conifers, but only replanted 45,000ha. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2009 report on the state of the world’s forests suggests that, with world population increasing at around 3% per annum, and with increasing timber use, particularly in rapidly developing countries like China and India, there will be an inevitable rise in demand for wood. Britain is one of the biggest importers of timber in the world, and with demand rising, many are asking what are we doing to secure supply? The Scottish Climate Change Bill proposed to increase the forest area in Scotland to around 25% of the land surface by 2050 (from about 17.8% currently), the equivalent of planting approximately 16,000ha every year. That target, as laid out in the Scottish Forestry strategy, became an “aspirational” one and has now been dropped in favor of
100,000ha of woodland creation over the next 10 years. The cabinet secretary for the environment, Richard Lochhead, bowed to pressure from the farming lobby, which feared the loss of land from agriculture would lead to an intolerable loss of critical mass in the livestock industry and a further weakening of rural communities. Both he and the Scottish Government should have realised from the outset that their targets were unachievable in the current economic climate. Stuart Goodall, chief executive of ConFor (Confederation of Forest Industries – the industry’s lobbying organisation) always believed the 25% target was excessive. He believes that if we are to make up for the lack of planting in recent years and avoid the predicted shortage of timber in 30 years’ time, we need to plant 9000ha every year for the next 10 years, in addition to replanting the tree area currently being felled – not dissimilar to the Scottish Government’s revised target. It’s not that there isn’t enough land suitable for forestry.
The James Hutton Institute, formerly the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, has identified about 1.3m ha that may be potentially suitable for forestry without any impact on agriculture – and they go on to say there’s a further 28%, about 2.2m ha, that may be suitable given certain environmental constraints. The problem is convincing private landowners to plant trees. The first problem to overcome is the various hurdles that beset potential foresters, such as expensive environmental assessments that often go against proposals to plant. Then there are the environmental conditions attached to a consent to plant, such as planting a proportion with less profitable native, deciduous species, or leaving areas unplanted. Finally, the mechanism for grant aid, the Scottish Rural Development Program (SRDP) needs to be made much more user-friendly for aspiring foresters. Dr Andrew Cameron, senior lecturer in the department of
forestry at the University of Aberdeen, thinks the funding for any significant expansion of the forest industry will in some way have to involve the tax regime. “We must have a system where people feel that they’re making a genuine commitment and that they are being rewarded in some way”, said Dr Cameron. “If landowners start planting today, they’re unlikely to live long enough to see any meaningful return, and this is a key thing. We have to incentivise people, and one way is through reintroducing some form of tax break that means that people are investing in the land. “While some may baulk at revisiting a system of tax breaks to support forest expansion, after it became a huge political issue in the 1980s, it should be remembered that the world has changed greatly since then. “There is now a wellestablished regulatory system to ensure that new areas of forest are of the highest standards of design and environmental protection”, he added.
Turning farm-grown logs into timber who undertook an analysis of portable mills for the farm timber cooperative SMARTimbers, outlined the findings and other investigations into portable milling, as well as sharing some of his own experiences using portable mills. Gary Waugh, a forest products consultant, outlined some of the issues involved in drying timber and the development of a solar kiln to speed the drying process while keeping timber quality Farm forestry integrated with grazing and native revegetation.
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Parts Clearout 1 x Rexroth Control system to suit Rosin felling heads (no hand pieces) $3500 + GST
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For Information, please, call 0419-536 804 or email your postal address to info@firewoodmills.com.au
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Valen Kone VK26 Debarker In and out feed conveyors.
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MORBARK MODEL 75 CHIPPER Feed bed, fully reconditioned K19 Cummins with blade sharpener. Remote controls etc. Very good condition. Want to clear. 0438 599 412
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MACHINE CLEARANCE SALE OR HIRE 2006 445EXL with 622B 10,300hrs
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on behalf of Kelly Gang Forestry Services Deloraine, Tasmania Friday June 29th 11.30am GST will apply - No Buyers Premium
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John Deere Skidder 748G-3 2003, Good Condition, fitted with log grab & blade. Rear tyres good condition, front tyres have chains. 6850 hours.
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Excavators & Skidders: 2002 Case 21 tonne Excavator 450 hours c/w standard rock bucket (A1) - 2000 Caterpillar 325B Excavator, log canopy, side covers, c/w log grab (Needs 1 Final Drive) – 1994 Caterpillar 325A Excavator, log canopy, side covers c/w log grab – 1990 Caterpillar EL300 Excavator, log canopy, side covers c/w log grab – 1987 Mitsubishi 180-8 Excavator, log canopy, side covers c/w log grab (Track gear poor) – Komatsu 300-5 Excavator (Burnt) Good boom and rams – Caterpillar 530B Log skidder grapple & winch (No motor or tyres) – John Deere 648D Log skidder grapple & winch, tilt blade (No tyres or rear diff) – TD15C International dozer, hyd. tilt blade, Hyster winch (Track gear poor) – Komatsu D755-3 Traxcavator (Motor seized) good tracks, c/w log forks & dozer blade to suit – International 175C Traxcavator c/w winch (No tracks) – Rosnin 980 Processing head c/w all hoses back to excavator & computer Trailers: 36ft Trailer mobile workshop/lunch room (No reg.) – Fruehauf tandem jinker , single point spring susp. – Elphinstone tandem jinker, single point spring susp. – Taylor triaxle, airbag susp. log jinker – 1990 Freighter triaxle flat top 41’ chequer plate floor, 3 way twist locks, super singles spring susp. (No reg.) – 1990 Fruehauf Chip bin, air bag susp. Super singles, fibrelgass sides – 1996 Matilda 41’ walking floor, full chassis, spread axle susp. & spring, sides open up – 1986 Matilda 41’ walking floor, triaxle spring chip bin trailer – 1986 Fruehauf chip bin, spread axle, susp. Spring Chippers: Morebark mobile chipper, 75” wheel, 3 knives, 22” round log, 12v 71 Detroit diesel @ 500h.p. (Full rebuild & new clutch), tandem axle @ 22 tonne weight – Morebark 1974 stationary chipper, 75” wheel electric chipmill, 500h.p., all electrics (Starter etc.) for full chipmill, belts & drives etc. – Morebark re chipper c/w motor, ok on frame - Morebark high volume chipscreen 16’ x 8’ complete - Log in feed steel plate conveyor – Complete electric chipmill, 48” precision v, 6 knives, 150h.p. infeed chain - Low deck, infeed conveyor, outfeed conveyor - 7’ x 7’ chip screen, elec. Cabinet, starters etc. ideal for mill waste, chip 11” round logs or wide slabs – Chipper overflow accumalator to feed screen long chip conveyor belt, high volume @ 18m long x 900mm wide belt, c/w motors and drives etc. – Knife sharpeners etc Photo ID required for bidder registration NO BUYERS PREMIUM – GST may apply – No outside entries – Refreshments available – Photos available www.robertsltd.com.au (Go to Livestock then Clearing Sales)
2 Collins Street, Hobart, Tasmania Telephone (03)6235 1444
FOR HIRE / LEASE / SALE
50hp motor, Hydraulic feed. $12,500+GST $9,800+GST
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Hitachi ZX230 excavator with VHLC log grab and 3/4in cut off saw. 13,400hr in good condition. 12,840hr.
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Forano Twin 60” Bandsaw Log Breakdown line
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Tigercat L830 Feller buncher with Rosin FH885 directional felling head. New track links. 13,800hr in good condition.
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Comes complete with quick release, large chip bucket and log grapple forks.
Robinson 54” wheels heavy duty bandsaw
Used 2008 Morbark 50/48A NCL Drum Chipper – Serial # 547-1063
Auction Sale Friday 27th July 2012 at 10.30a.m. On site, Sawmill Glen Huon Road, Huonville, Tasmania Account Owner due to cessation of logging activities
$252,000 + gst
Volvo L90 Loader
Email- visualclue@hotmail.com.au
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All machines currently working and available for inspection at harvesting site in Southern NSW. Prices negotiable. 0418 633 715
Cat 325L 1993 mod heavy duty log grab with 404 cut off saw. Has had a out of chassis engine rebuild. In very good condition.
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34 – July 2012 , Australian Forests & Timber News
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Australian Forests & Australian Timber News, Forests July&2012 Timber – 33 News, July 2012 – 35
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32 – July 2012 , Australian 34 – July Forests 2012 &, Australian Timber News Forests & Timber News
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understanding the issues and skills needed to maximise recovery of a top quality product is an important step in the supply chain,” he said. Graham Baldock, Stargrow Director, hosted a tour of his firewood processing facility and Geoff and Sasha North, plantation growers from Western Australia, who have had many years experience in processing their logs and those of many others in south west Western Australia, shared their experiences of the challenges and successes of processing and marketing farm logs. Mark Stewart, a timber consultant,
Log on Today!
T
HE DEPARTMENT of Primary Industries (DPI) hosted a free farm forestry seminar at Stargrow, a wholesale firewood facility at Attwood, with the focus on processing farm-grown timber. “Maximising returns from farmgrown timber depends on the harvesting and processing methods used and is an important step for many farm forest growers,” said DPI Farm Forestry Officer Rhodey Bowman. “Whether producers decide to send logs to a processor or undertake the processing on-farm,
Roundabout. Operator cabin. Hydraulic sizing, fence, line bar, cant turner and handling equipment. Sawn timber transfer deck. $279,000+GST
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Moreen Johnston 50” Horizontal Band Wing line
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Austral Timber Group Contact Ken Baker 0438 643 992 kjb@agnew.com.au
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Dozer, TD 15B International. Has C model Transmission & engine. Tracks as new. Fitted with ripper, blade, tree pusher & root rake. Excellent condition.
FOR SALE
Chivers Tri Axle Log Jinker with Bana Boulsters, Pacific scales, brakes redone. Lusty Skell Frame Tri Axle trailer with 6 boulsters
2001 Timber Jack 360. Brand new motor. Excellent service history. $90,000 + GST Ph. 0409 618 371
Roberts Auction Kevin Matkovich 0417 325 936 Michael Kelly 0408 137 604
For further details on any of the items above please contact; Steve Allan Kel Henry
0402 270 612 0400 963 208
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 27
FARM FORESTRY
John Woodley
Farm forestry is an under-utilised concept J
OHN WOODLEY believes that Farm Forestry is in its infancy in Australia and following the New Zealand model has the potential to grow and provide a timber resource to the Australian timber industry. “This is a vastly under-rated opportunity and we have the land to grow the trees and the expertise to manage for high value end product,” he says. He believes that most farms could put up to 20% of the land area under trees without compromising agriculture production. Woodley is eminently qualified to comment having been in the silviculture game for more than 30 years. Back in 1981 he started pine pruning in Marlborough, New Zealand, soon after arriving back from 500ccGP motorcycle racing in Europe. At that point he was a five times New Zealand motorcycle road race champion and three times winner of the Australian 500cc Grand Prix at Bathurst. Between 1982 and 1985 he ran a successful silviculture business in the Nelson district of New Zealand servicing both the New Zealand Forest Service and private growers, planting pruning and thinning to waste radiata pine. In 1986 he had a brief period of felling for a pine logging crew before building some town houses and flats in Motueka. In 1987 He moved his family to Australia and started work in the Alpine logging of native forests in the North East of Victoria around MittaMitta and then Corryong. The species being harvested were eucalyptus delagatensis or alpine ash and eucalyptus rubida or candlebark gum. In 1988 when the mill the logging crew he was working for closed in Swifts creek, the logging crew moved to the North Central logging area around Marysville and Alexandra
Eucalypts
and he spent the next 14 years felling, crosscutting and log grading mostly eucalypt regnans or mountain ash, alpine ash, shining gum and messmate. In 1997 during the logging off season he got involved with the establishment of the Government-sponsored FFORNE scheme which was a three year scheme to encourage farmers to plant and manage hardwood plantations for sawlogs. Because of his New Zealand experience in silviculture he was well placed to step back in to silviculture, planting and managing these eucalypt plantations and in fact he employed two people on silviculture full time for the next six years until he retired from logging and took up full time silviculture. In 1994 John bought a 100 acre property near Taggerty which was central to the logging areas he was working in. His intention was to set up a demonstration agroforestry farm to show how farmers could use trees on farms for shelter from cold winter winds, shade from hot summer sun and timber. He wanted to show how native timber sawlogs could be successfully grown on farms, show how an on-farm superannuation scheme could be created with the added benefits of shade and shelter for farm animals which would ultimately lead to happier animals and increased production. “What started as a run down and degraded cattle grazing property has grown into a remarkable and well tree’d property with a broad range of Australian native timber trees, native understorey shrubs for amenity and shelter, and also exotic trees both pines and other softwoods as well as a range of exotic hardwoods,” says John. Currently he is fencing up the 16 year old pine plantation ready for agisting heifers for a beef operation based in Yea.
How to do it right: Site quality
He is also developing the property into an Arboretum with the expectation that the broad range of established trees will be complimented by further plantings of both native and exotic trees from Australia and around the world. Ultimately he plans to open the property to the public but for the next few years the property will be available by invitation only. Woodley has been hosting groups of carpentry and wood working students to demonstrate how timber trees are managed to produce high quality timber, and during these visits he demonstrates pruning techniques, and sawmilling of logs for timber. This is a growing side of the business. There is an association with Holmesglen TAFE and as well as student visits he has established and manages a 20 hectare agroforestry planting at Ramlegh Park, Snobs Creek. Ramlegh is the Holmesglen TAFE rural learning campus. As well as servicing silviculture clients in Victoria as far ranging as Hamilton in the Western districts and Stanley in the North East, he has established and managed forestry joint ventures on other people’s land and he holds an interest in the tree crop. He is the director of Silviculture Services Australia Pty Ltd which trades as Farm Forestry Services, director of Treelot Company which is a forestry investment company set up by John and Paul Montgomery to provide well managed small scale forestry investments. He is also director of the John Woodley Family Trust which he plans to develop as an altruistic trust as a charitable organisation for future contributions to various welfare related causes. Woodley recently was invited to attend and present at the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association’s annual conference in Balclutha.
28 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
FARM FORESTRY
Heartwood Plantations filling a niche H
E A R T W O O D PLANTATIONS is an innovative, vertically integrated forestry organisation that is filling an important niche in the timber industry, according to general manager Jon Lambert. Australia currently has approximately 1 million hectares of hardwood plantations (DAFF). Of this resource, less than 18% is grown specifically for sawlogs (solid timber products) and just 5% are durable species. In Victoria, the proportion of durable sawlog plantations is far less.
Victoria currently uses around $60 million worth of durable timber in the building industry. Of this, only $10 million is sourced from our native forests, with the balance coming from Canada (cedar) and South East Asia (merbau, kwilla and balu). Supply from Australia’s native forests continues to contract with losses from wildfires and increases in conservation areas. Pressure has also increased on imported timber with tighter restrictions being sought to eliminate illegally logged resources. With all of these factors, remarkably there has been very little Australian
investment in plantations of durable species. To this end, Heartwood Plantations is a unique entity. “The formation of Heartwood Plantations was the result of many months of discussions and meetings between Woollybutt Pty Ltd (a Victorian plantation management company) and Radial Timber Sales (a small Victorian sawmill and timber wholesaler). The alliance of these organisations is mutually beneficial. It brings together a plantation development company, with 15 years experience in the growth and management of eucalypts, and a timber company with 10 years experience in the sawing, processing and marketing of eucalypts. Their collective goal is to develop a durable plantation estate, in the order of 3,000 ha, to support two radial mills by 2030,” said Jon. Privately funded and intensively managed, Heartwood Plantations currently manages approximately 1,500 hectares of plantations across Victoria on sites ranging between 10 and 100 hectares. Some of this resource is owned by an affiliate organisation called Heartwood Investments but private investors own the majority. Typically, these are professional people who purchase land in their selfmanaged superannuation fund and then personally invest in the trees, receiving the 100% tax deduction along the way. All plantations are thinned and high pruned to 6 metres for maximum quality. “In a further deviation from typical plantations, Heartwood Plantations’ resources are not a monoculture. Three durable species are used for reasons of marketing and site suitability. These are spotted gum (Corymbia maculata), yellow stringybark (Eucalyptus muelleriana) and southern mahogany (E. botryoides). All are class 1 or class 2 durability and provide a range of timber colours and features to suit
various feature markets. In the field they also compliment each other with variations in tolerance for site factors such as frost, drought and infertility. “One of the other great strengths of Heartwood Plantations is the innovative sawing technique used in processing each log. The radial sawing concept was developed in the late 1980s with the objective of reducing waste and decreasing stress in the wood products. In 2001, this unique technology became a commercial reality through Radial Timber Sales. By initially cutting logs into wedges, radial sawing works with the nature of the tree. This provides a great range of environmental and technical advantages over conventional sawing. These include: (i) less waste; (ii) a greater proportion of higher value wood produced; and (iii) increased stability since growth stresses are released evenly in each timber section. This technology will be a key advantage in sawing plantation-grown timber, which is generally smaller, faster grown and therefore often containing higher log stresses,” Jon said. Despite the poor domestic housing market, demand has remained healthy for the durable feature products that Heartwood Plantations (through Radial Timber Sales) specialize in. Key products such as decking, flooring, wall cladding, shiplap, screen boards and architectural timbers all remain in high demand. These products have featured in numerous Building Industry awards in recent years. Although log supplies (approximately 5000 m3 year-1) are currently sourced from native forests via VicForests, Heartwood
Plantations have a plan to gradually transition to plantation resources over the next 15-20 years. To date, sawing trials with 14 year-old plantation resources have been very promising and further research is planned to better understand the impacts of lower density timber expected from plantation trees. Despite the relatively small size of Heartwood Plantations, as an organisation it is filling an important niche. Its products provide an important supply of durable timber for domestic markets – a sector with an uncertain future. In addition, it is using an investment model that provides avenues for smaller private growers to participate in the timber industry in an alternative to managed investment schemes. For more information: heartwoodplantations.com .au. radialtimbers.com.au
Species
Above Ground Durability Class
Average External Life
spotted gum
1
25+ years
sugar gum
1
25+ years
red ironbark
1
25+ years
southern mahogany
2
15-25 years
yellow stringybark
2
15-25 years
blue gum
3
5-15 years
shining gum
4
5 years
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 29
FARM FORESTRY
Opportunities for the forestry sector under the Carbon Farming Initiative By Elisa de Wit and Damon Jones
T
HE FEDERAL Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), which formally commenced operation on 8 December 2011, provides significant potential for additional revenue streams to be created for the forestry sector through the development of carbon sequestration projects [and other land management practices]. While the CFI has hardly burst out of the blocks in its first six months of operation, there has been plenty of behind the scenes work to finalise necessary methodologies and supporting regulations to ensure that the CFI is fully operational in the near future. The CFI aims to provide financial incentives for farmers, forest growers, landowners and landfill operators to develop projects that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, either through emission avoidance or carbon sequestration activities. For forest based activities, projects types may include reforestation, avoided deforestation, or protection of native forests from deforestation. Participation in the CFI is voluntary and projects (once approved) produce carbon credits called Australian Carbon Credit
Units (ACCUs) which can be sold into either compliance or voluntary carbon markets, in Australia and potentially overseas. This will include being able to use ACCUs for compliance purposes under the Carbon Pricing Mechanism (CPM)1. We are still some way off seeing any ACCUs actually being generated for sale. This is partly because further regulations governing reporting on abatement or sequestration and associated audit requirements (the precursor to ACCU issuance) have yet to be finalised by the Government following consultation in April 2012. Methodologies for different project types also have to first be in place - while four methodologies have been approved to date2 (including one on environmental plantings)3, none of them have yet been promulgated as a determination. The further regulations and methodology determinations are expected to be released before 30 June 2012. If you are scoping the viability of a forestry based carbon sequestration project for participation under the CFI, there are a number of threshold legal and practical considerations that must be front of mind. As is the case for all project types under the CFI, a project must:
• be carried out in Australia and by a project proponent who is a “recognised offsets entity”, which requires an application and approval process with the recently established Clean Energy Regulator • be covered by an approved methodology and undertaken in accordance with its requirements (for example, monitoring and verification) • pass an “additionality test” which means that the project cannot be required to be carried out by a law of the Commonwealth or a State or Territory, and the project type is on a list of project types known as the “positive list” in the CFI regulations (which includes “the establishment of permanent plantings on or after 1 July 2007”) • not be a kind of project that is an excluded offsets project on what is called the “negative list” under the CFI regulations. It is important to look at the “negative list” for forestry projects as there are a range of circumstances where potential projects will be excluded from participation under the CFI. These exclusions are based on environmental protection and local community considerations, and include the establishment of a forest under a forestry managed investment scheme (MIS) and planting of trees
in an area that receives more than 600 mm long-term average annual rainfall (unless certain conditions are otherwise satisfied). Other threshold requirements that are particular to carbon sequestration projects under the CFI include the concept of “permanence” and establishing the necessary carbon legal rights for the project. Permanence refers to the requirement that when emissions are taken out of the atmosphere and stored, they must not be rereleased back into the atmosphere. In general, the requirement is that carbon must be stored for at least 100 years. This requirement is included in the CFI and the legislation includes a number of mechanisms which seek to address circumstances where permanence is not or is at risk of not being maintained (eg relinquishment requirements; carbon maintenance obligations; a buffer account). Legal rights to carbon stored in trees are provided for under State and Territory legislation and a project proponent under the CFI will need to demonstrate that, in addition to having the legal right to carry out the project, it holds the applicable carbon sequestration rights to the relevant project area or areas. We expect that momentum
around forestry and other project types under the CFI will continue to build during 2012 and beyond. A key issue in the short term is whether there will be sufficient supply of ACCUs to meet the compliance demand from liable entities under the CPM. It is our expectation that initially demand will be high and supply will be low, and this will obviously produce attractive income generating potential for those projects first off the blocks. Elisa de Wit is Head of the Climate Change practice at Norton Rose Australia, and Damon Jones is a senior associate in the Climate Change practice, Norton Rose Australia.
Reference 1
U p to 5% in the fixed price period (except unlimited for landfills) (1 July 2012- 30 June 2015) and unlimited in the flexible price period from 1 July 2015
2
T he methodologies currently approved include capture and combustion of landfill gas, environmental plantings, destruction of methane generated from manure in piggeries and savannah burning.
3
ethodology for Quantifying Carbon M Sequestration by Permanent Environmental Plantings of Native Species using the CFI Reforestation Modelling Tool
New machine lives up to reputation A KOBELCO SK330-8 excavator has helped Chalmers Logging secure a contract to harvest 45,000 tonnes of timber from sustainable forests in the Victorian Central Highlands over the next five years. Owner/operator, Jeff Chalmers, has worked in the logging industry since 2004 and operates out of Kinglake, Victoria. “The Australian forestry industry contributes almost six per cent of Australia’s manufacturing output, mostly from sustainable forests,” said Jeff. “That’s partly what attracted me to this job. When I secured the contract to supply 45,000 tonnes of timber over five years, I decided it was time to add another machine to my fleet.” The new Kobelco SK330-8 excavator has taken Jeff’s fleet to five forestry excavators. Standard excavators need to be significantly modified before they can operate as forestry excavators. To comply with the Work Safety Victoria safety guidelines, excavators must be fitted with cab guards, safety rails and polycarbonate windshields to protect the operator from rollovers and flying objects. Jeff’s Kobelco SK330-8 is also fitted with heavy track gear protection, under guard protection and boom reinforcement to protect the machine from falling logs and rocks “The Kobelco SK330-8 is an absolute pleasure to operate. I have owned and operated a range of other brands before, but the Kobelco is by far the smoothest machine I have ever experienced. The handling is impeccable and the hydraulics makes it easy and comfortable to
operate all day long,” said Jeff. “Logging can be incredibly tough on the machines we use. To stand up to the pure weight and amount of timber we move each day, our machines have to be reliable, while still offering the maneuverability and control to navigate the rugged terrain. I opted for a Kobelco because of the sturdy and reliable reputation of the brand, and the machine is standing up to every challenge we throw at it. “The SK330-8 has been brilliant on fuel while still operating with plenty of power to get through some heavy workloads. Unlike some machines I have used, the Kobelco can run its saw attachment effectively at just two thirds throttle. The machine doesn’t need to compensate fuel for power, which is saving my business money on fuel expenses.” Jeff runs his SK330-8 with a Crab Grab Cutoff Saw attachment, fitted by Hardwood Forest Products in Bayswater, and finds the machine’s manoeuvrability and handling with the attachment perfect for the rough terrain. The SK330-8 features a 580-litre fuel tank for a 22% increase in continuous operating hours over the previous model, so it doesn’t have to be refueled as often. Its light lever operation requires 10% less effort to move the control levers, enabling operators to work longer hours with less fatigue. Like all Kobelco excavators, the SK3308 uses forged and cast steel components throughout, with a standard arm and boom that would be classified as ‘reinforced’ on other models, ensuring reliable strength, even in
demanding forestry applications. While this is Jeff’s first Kobelco excavator, it may not be his last thanks to outstanding service from his local dealership, Melbourne Tractors. “Brad Miller at Melbourne Tractors went out of his way to make the purchase process easy. After a quick call, I was able to get an initial quote over the phone and when it came time for me to sign on the dotted line, Brad drove out to meet me in the bush, making the whole process painless and simple,” said Jeff. “The machine itself has really impressed me too and I’m considering changing my entire fleet to Kobelco machines.” Kobelco started in 1905 as Kobe Steel in Japan. In 1999 Kobe Steel’s Construction Machinery Division was recognised as an independent company called Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. Kobelco
Owner/operator, Jeff Chalmers. has manufacturing facilities in Japan, China, Thailand, Italy and the United States of America. Kobelco-CNH Australia was formed in 2001 and is a part of the Kobelco Group. In Australia, Kobelco markets a range of compact, mid-sized and full-size excavators up to 85 tonnes and there are 10 Kobelco dealers in all Australian Sates and Territories.
30 – July 2012, Australian Forests & Timber News
FARM FORESTRY
Head selection paves way for new work opportunities T
HE BOTANY of trees and the practice of forestry were of particular interest to Rob Tap during his studies for a Bachelor of Science Degree at the ANU, though it wasn’t till he worked with a Queensland-based consulting company, specialising in sustainable land management, that he got to put his interests to practical use. “I worked primarily with rural landholders; farmers or horticultural enterprises, but also some companies implementing rural residential developments,” says Rob. That was in the late 1980s when words like agroforestry and farm forestry were entering the language of those wanting to improve their agricultural and environmental sustainability, “and I worked on this almost fulltime”. “Then 1990 was the start of the decade of Landcare and. the start of our business - Forestfarmer. We focused on contract revegetation and farm forestry projects,” he said. Fast forward another 10 years to 2000 and the South East Queensland Forestry Agreement. To help transition hardwood mills out of native forest the Queensland Government eventually committed funds to 20,000 hectares of eucalypt plantation to be established by 2025 (the Hardwoods Sawlog Program). “I tendered for some planting and tending work and within two years Forestfarmer was involved
in all silviculture operations of the Hardwoods Program. It was being managed by the then DPI Forestry - FPQ (Forestry Plantations Qld). “It was an interesting time; our innovations were encouraged and Forestfarmer, together with other contractors, worked cooperatively with staff of FPQ to meet the challenges of establishing eucalypt plantations in the subtropics. Today, all Queensland plantations are owned or leased by Hancocks FPQ Pty Ltd. “We have always adapted to new opportunities. In 2006 I decided to concentrate on non-commercial thinning of the plantations we were helping to establish. I was also hoping to develop opportunities for small round wood. The size of FPQ hardwood plantations varies from 10ha to more than 800ha; the most common is in the 50 to 100ha range. “In 2005, looking for inspiration and machinery suitable for a farm forestry scale of operation I went to Sweden.” Rob said that in Sweden and Finland more than 50% of the industrial roundwood is supplied by small scale growers (Sweden 350,000 holdings of around 50ha and Finland 630,000 holdings with areas averaging only 20ha). “The scale of contribution to the industry by small growers; the innovations across all sectors of the forest industry; the ways that industry, communities and Governments were working together under policies that take a long term view… beyond the short
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terms of political cycles … was just breathtaking. “Why can’t we do that in Australia? “That’s another story, though,” he says. “In Sweden I saw smaller harvesters aimed at small roundwood and first thinnings. The Rottne H8 struck me as being the best suited to our situation and the type of machine that would allow us to grow into new opportunities as they arose. So, in 2006 we took delivery of an H8 from Randalls Equipment. “The Rottne has been very reliable and is perfect for what we do. It has a 140Hp JD engine, it’s only 2.2m wide, weighs less than 10 tonne, is self leveling and has a reach of 7m. The H8 is lightfooted and agile. “We had been using a multistemming hydraulic shear made by Naarva in Finland but changed to a Log Max 4000 which was supplied and installed by Scandinavian Forestry & Engineering - Log Max Australia. “The Log Max is a little heavier so we have some compromise with our reach capability; however, for the work we have been doing we have not seen any drop in productivity compared to the shear head. As expected, in larger timber it’s faster,” said Rob. He explained that the change to the Log Max was needed to accommodate larger tree sizes and the cut to length work he is now moving into. “The accumulating kit on the head allows us to maintain the high tree handling efficiency needed in our non-commercial thinning work. The accumulating function of these small heads comes from the massive interest in energy wood harvesting in Europe, where non-commercial and commercial thinnings are often harvested at the same time (much of the noncommercial thinnings are then transported to power stations). The processing ability allows us to focus on new work possibilities in Cypress, Native Forest and Farm Forestry,” Rob said. “We went with the Log Max 4000 because we needed a small processing head that can multistem and stump spray. However, importing a harvesting head that was unproven in Australia and not often fitted to a Rottne H8 was a gamble. Johan Jaktman of Log Max in Tumut has always been supportive of our efforts to explore the harvesting and use of small roundwood non-commercial thinnings. Between Johan and David Wakem, also of Log Max, I knew I had the technical expertise for a successful install. The factory in Sweden has also been very helpful,” said Rob. Forestfarmer has been conducting non-commercial
thinning for Forestry Plantations Queensland for more than five years, and has also recently worked for Elders Forestry in Far North Queensland thinning teak plantations. Rob says the non-commercial thinning work has kept him busy but he’s keen to get back to farm forestry roots. “From the work we’ve been doing, and what I know of the challenges faced by farm foresters, I know we have the right machine and experience to take this step. “Easier said than done. State Governments continue to report on the value of farm forestry to local economies, the farm enterprise, the environment. It seems to tick a lot of boxes but apparently not the right ones! “Government support programs, and therefore community and industry confidence has lacked sufficient drive, funds and duration to develop any momentum,” said Rob. Forestfarmer has some work
R ob Tap. lined up in northern NSW hardwood plantations and, according to Rob, trips to Victoria have been encouraging. “Victoria has some 25,000ha of farm forestry plantings, much of this is at or past first thinning age. The challenge is how to offset the thinning costs, this applies to all forest growers, of course, but it is particularly difficult for those with smaller holdings that lack scale. “I look forward to being part of the solution.”
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Visit our website www.scanforestry.com or call Log Max Australia on 02 6947 4505 or 0408 614 503 and ask for Johan.
32 – July 2012 , Australian Forests & Timber News
Australian Forests & Timber Classifieds Parts Clearout 1 x Rexroth Control system to suit Rosin felling heads (no hand pieces) $3500 + GST
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
FIREWOOD MILLS
For Information, please, call 0419-536 804 or email your postal address to info@firewoodmills.com.au
1 x set of EME levers to suit Dasa 380. Used but in good condition. Helicopter switch type. (can be adapted to other control systems) $2000 + GST 1 x Valmet Diesel Lift pump and filter (PN-83686784) New still in plastic $400 + GST 1 X Dasa 380 computer mount. Would suit excavator or track machine. $100 + GST 1 x Dasa (Scriptos printer) used. $50 + GST 1 x new Sure grip handpiece including 2 x proportional switches to suit IQan control system $250 + GST 1 x Dual diameter sensor control box. (brings 2 encoders into one signal) Suit Rosin harvesting head $100 + GST
New model BigX50 coming soon!
Different sizes of mills with optional feeding table. Tractor, Diesel Power Pack or Electric Power Pack driven models.
www.lucasmill.com
Australian Portable Sawmill
Ph - 0411075135 Email- visualclue@hotmail.com.au
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Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 33
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34 – July 2012 , Australian Forests & Timber News
For Sale
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All machines currently working and available for inspection at harvesting site in Southern NSW. Prices negotiable. 0418 633 715
Auction Sale Friday 27th July 2012 at 10.30a.m. On site, Sawmill Glen Huon Road, Huonville, Tasmania Account Owner due to cessation of logging activities
$252,000 + gst Tigercat L830 Feller buncher with Rosin FH885 directional felling head. New track links. 13,800hr in good condition.
$94,500 + gst
Hitachi ZX230 excavator with VHLC log grab and 3/4in cut off saw. 13,400hr in good condition. 12,840hr.
$135,000 + gst
Timberjack 460D 2002 mod dual arch grapple and winch. Tyres as new 98% with front chains. 9100hr machine in excellent condition.
Excavators & Skidders: 2002 Case 21 tonne Excavator 450 hours c/w standard rock bucket (A1) - 2000 Caterpillar 325B Excavator, log canopy, side covers, c/w log grab (Needs 1 Final Drive) – 1994 Caterpillar 325A Excavator, log canopy, side covers c/w log grab – 1990 Caterpillar EL300 Excavator, log canopy, side covers c/w log grab – 1987 Mitsubishi 180-8 Excavator, log canopy, side covers c/w log grab (Track gear poor) – Komatsu 300-5 Excavator (Burnt) Good boom and rams – Caterpillar 530B Log skidder grapple & winch (No motor or tyres) – John Deere 648D Log skidder grapple & winch, tilt blade (No tyres or rear diff) – TD15C International dozer, hyd. tilt blade, Hyster winch (Track gear poor) – Komatsu D755-3 Traxcavator (Motor seized) good tracks, c/w log forks & dozer blade to suit – International 175C Traxcavator c/w winch (No tracks) – Rosnin 980 Processing head c/w all hoses back to excavator & computer Trailers: 36ft Trailer mobile workshop/lunch room (No reg.) – Fruehauf tandem jinker , single point spring susp. – Elphinstone tandem jinker, single point spring susp. – Taylor triaxle, airbag susp. log jinker – 1990 Freighter triaxle flat top 41’ chequer plate floor, 3 way twist locks, super singles spring susp. (No reg.) – 1990 Fruehauf Chip bin, air bag susp. Super singles, fibrelgass sides – 1996 Matilda 41’ walking floor, full chassis, spread axle susp. & spring, sides open up – 1986 Matilda 41’ walking floor, triaxle spring chip bin trailer – 1986 Fruehauf chip bin, spread axle, susp. Spring Chippers: Morebark mobile chipper, 75” wheel, 3 knives, 22” round log, 12v 71 Detroit diesel @ 500h.p. (Full rebuild & new clutch), tandem axle @ 22 tonne weight – Morebark 1974 stationary chipper, 75” wheel electric chipmill, 500h.p., all electrics (Starter etc.) for full chipmill, belts & drives etc. – Morebark re chipper c/w motor, ok on frame - Morebark high volume chipscreen 16’ x 8’ complete - Log in feed steel plate conveyor – Complete electric chipmill, 48” precision v, 6 knives, 150h.p. infeed chain - Low deck, infeed conveyor, outfeed conveyor - 7’ x 7’ chip screen, elec. Cabinet, starters etc. ideal for mill waste, chip 11” round logs or wide slabs – Chipper overflow accumalator to feed screen long chip conveyor belt, high volume @ 18m long x 900mm wide belt, c/w motors and drives etc. – Knife sharpeners etc Photo ID required for bidder registration NO BUYERS PREMIUM – GST may apply – No outside entries – Refreshments available – Photos available www.robertsltd.com.au (Go to Livestock then Clearing Sales) Enquiries: Robert Drummond
Cat 325L 1993 mod heavy duty log grab with 404 cut off saw. Has had a out of chassis engine rebuild. In very good condition.
FOR HIRE / LEASE / SALE
Remote controls etc. Very good condition. Want to clear. 0438 599 412
POA
MACHINE CLEARANCE SALE OR HIRE 2006 445EXL with 622B 10,300hrs
0418 132 763
2 Collins Street, Hobart, Tasmania Telephone (03)6235 1444 $85,500 + gst
MORBARK MODEL 75 CHIPPER Feed bed, fully reconditioned K19 Cummins with blade sharpener.
2007 425EX with 622B 9,300hrs (2 of)
Auction
on behalf of Kelly Gang Forestry Services Deloraine, Tasmania Friday June 29th 11.30am GST will apply - No Buyers Premium
2006 & 2007 890.3 13,700hrs & 11,444hrs
Komatsu PC 300 Harvester Log mate head VHLC boom/stick and over body 325L Cat Log mate saw Kennedy grab Forestry guarded.
John Deere Skidder 748G-3 2003, Good Condition, fitted with log grab & blade. Rear tyres good condition, front tyres have chains. 6850 hours.
Timber Cat 630C Skidder
CAT 330B with 624 Waratah 14,956 hrs
All in good order, ready to work. MULCH AWAY PTY LTD For further information please contact Simon
Mobile: 0417 699 130 Western Star 2009 4964 FXC Constellation, Eaton 18 Speed Road Ranger, FUPS Bumper, EGR 550 Heavy diffs. Air liner suspension. Approx. 190,000 km’s .
Dozer, TD 15B International. Has C model Transmission & engine. Tracks as new. Fitted with ripper, blade, tree pusher & root rake. Excellent condition.
FOR SALE
Chivers Tri Axle Log Jinker with Bana Boulsters, Pacific scales, brakes redone. Lusty Skell Frame Tri Axle trailer with 6 boulsters
2001 Timber Jack 360. Brand new motor. Excellent service history. $90,000 + GST Ph. 0409 618 371
Roberts Auction Kevin Matkovich 0417 325 936 Michael Kelly 0408 137 604
2006 & 2007 Rottne Rapid 7,500hrs & 6,000hrs
For further details on any of the items above please contact; Steve Allan Kel Henry
0402 270 612 0400 963 208
Australian Forests & Timber News, July 2012 – 35
Australian Forests & Timber Classifieds
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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
AUCTION
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10am 7th July 2012 Ben Boyd Drive, Eden NSW
1 x 2003 904 Kenworth Prime Mover 1 x 2006 950 Kenworth Prime Mover 1 x 2001 Western Star Prime Mover 1 x 1985 Kenworth W Model Prime Mover I x 1999 Kennedy Tri axle Jinker air bag suspension 1 x 1996 Blackwood Folding Skel Trailer air bag suspension 1 x 2003 Kennedy B Double Trailer 1 x 2001 Kennedy Single Trailer 1 x Valmet Harvester with Waratah Head 1 x Valmet Forwarder 1 x Komatsu 65-8 1 x 2004 Toyota Landcruiser ute 1 x 2005 Toyota Hilux 1 x 2008 V8 Toyota Landcruiser ute 2 x Bogey pulp trailers 2 x Highway trailers 1 x Workshop on ½ acre land plus surplus logging equipment
targeted industry
Softwood Bandsaw Processing Mill For high recovery sawmilling
6c Service St, Bairnsdale Vic 3875 Phone 03 5152 6411
Volvo L90 Loader
FOR SALE
Comes complete with quick release, large chip bucket and log grapple forks.
Valen Kone VK26 Debarker In and out feed conveyors.
$88,000+GST $37,000+GST
Robinson 54” wheels heavy duty bandsaw
50hp motor, Hydraulic feed. $12,500+GST $9,800+GST
Forano Twin 60” Bandsaw Log Breakdown line
Top dogging. Log handling. Remote operator. Log diameter 60cm – 12cm, 6m - 2.4m. Hydraulic sizing 30cm – 7.5cm. $188,000+GST
Salem Twin 54” Band Resaw
Used 2008 Morbark 50/48A NCL Drum Chipper – Serial # 547-1063 • Cummins QST-30 engine – 2200hrs (1050hp) • PT Tech Wet Clutch • IQAN control system-radio remote-auxiliary air compressor-tri axle • $435,000 (not inc GST)
Contact Mal on 0418 924 696
Roundabout. Operator cabin. Hydraulic sizing, fence, line bar, cant turner and handling equipment. Sawn timber transfer deck. $279,000+GST
Moreen Johnston 50” Horizontal Band Wing line
With roundabout and wing transfer deck.$44,000.00+GST
Windsor board twin edger
With laser guides, pneumatic sizing and conveyor waste transfer.
Austral Timber Group Contact Ken Baker 0438 643 992 kjb@agnew.com.au
$37,000+GST
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KOMATSU 'FOREST XTREME' FELLER BUNCHERS & HARVESTERS Introducing Introducing Komatsu Forest offers the PC300LC-8 and PC400LC-8 as purpose built forest machines (FX) with specifications to match the toughest jobs. Forest Xtreme features: • ROPS/FOPS/OPS Cabin • Full heavy duty Gull Wing canopy • Heavy duty under body guarding
• Harvest or Feller Buncher boom sets • Single or double bar track grousers • Integrated 1200 litre fuel tank • Engine option; 260hp or 362hp
The Forest Xtreme machines illustrates Komatsu forest’s dedication to provide the best solution for the logging contractor.
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Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd 15C Hyland Cres Rotorua,Forest New Zealand Komatsu Pty Ltd. Dean O’Connor M: +64 of 277 718 254 11/4 Avenue Americas E: dean.oconnor@komatsuforest.com Newington NSW 2127 Australia John Kosar M: +64 2274 8653600 844 T: +61 9647 E: john.kosar@komatsuforest.com E: info.au@komatsuforest.com