Forestry in Wairarapa Feb 2023

FORESTRY IN WAIRARAPA

Wahine in Forestry

The New Zealand forest sectors answer to a long standing challenge.

The question of how to address the gender inequality that exists in our forest sector is not a new one, you only must read, “A Path Through The Trees”, the Mary Sutherland biography of the ÿ rst woman forester in New Zealand to understand that change is a slow process.

Mary graduated in 1916 from the University College of North Wales, Bangor and encountered many tensions and prejudices throughout her extensive career in the New Zealand Forest Service which are documented in this book and sounded

eerily familiar to me. The ÿ rst woman to graduate the School of Forestry at Canterbury was in 1974, almost sixty years after Mary Sutherland arrived in New Zealand and many of her documented aspirations will also be recognisable to us today. How to improve perceptions of forestry in the public, getting forest education into schools and the minds of the next generation and improving the training and education for all forest workers. Sound familiar?

Wahine in Forestry is a national forestry women’s

There is great value in ensuring women are exposed to and have access to all avenues of the forest sector and in the future, this should lead to a more sustainable forestry community.

group formed by the eight Wood Councils of New Zealand that seeks to address the lack of a female perspective in our sector.

Today we claim only 18% females in our forestry workforce, while the

average in the primary sector is 23%, and you can count on one hand the

number of women at any leadership levels in our organisations.

We want to increase professional participation for women to expand

the opportunities and think about our forests in new ways. There is great

value in ensuring women are exposed to and have access to all avenues of the forest sector and in the future, this should lead to a more sustainable forestry community.

We are starting this process by exposing the female students at the New Zealand School of Forestry at Canterbury University to as many of our amazing women working in forestry as possible.

Our ÿ rst gathering in Christchurch last year saw four wonderful women speakers address thirty female students about their journey into forestry and what their careers mean to them providing hilarious stories and inspiration.

We plan to keep this group of students engaged this year by providing evenings and weekends for networking and to showcase women in all levels and positions in the forest sector, provide role models, mentors and solutions to the unique

challenges that face women by bringing us together and supporting each other. We also might just have some fun along the way.

We aim to introduce more women to forestry, open their eyes to the opportunities that exist and retain this critical portion of our workforce. Networks are vital to provide a sense of belonging, and that’s what Wahine in Forestry strives for, a mycorrhizal fungal network for others along with safe and welcoming workplaces fostering connection and connectivity.

The challenges facing our forests and workforces are diverse and there is need for more diverse perspectives to help ensure the health and future of our sector. We cannot solve all our problems, but wouldn’t it be great if we could participate in designing the solutions?

How many forestry companies are run by women in New Zealand? How many lead our

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governance boards, associations and institutes? Together we can create that room for creative problem solving.

What has been pleasing to see is the support and re° ection from the young men currently in the School of Forestry and our forestry men for this initiative. These students will be our friends and coworkers in the future, it is satisfying that they are becoming aware of their own, and others, attitudes and noticing what they can do to encourage and advocate for inclusion and diversity in our places of work.

With the support of forestry companies PF Olsens, Forest360, Summit Forests and the Wood Councils we are looking forward to the ÿ rst Woman’s Forest Conference at Hanmer Springs in March. Details are on wahine@ wahineinforestry.co.nz

Erica Kinder CEO Southern North Island Wood Council

Students at Canterbury University proudly wear their Wahine in Forestry shirts

FORESTRY IN WAIRARAPA

Improvement

in Log Prices but weather hampers supply

As expected, February has seen a solid lift in export prices courtesy of some increased in-market sales prices (CFR) and a reasonably subdued shipping market.

The At Wharf Gate (AWG) prices o˛ ered by the di˛ erent exporters ranges between $NZ134 and $NZ142/m3 for Export A grade.

Port deliveries have been all over the place with continued weather events hampering the ability for harvesting crews to produce and carriers to get access to harvest sites. This is especially the case in the woodlot sector where many are operating in ‘summer’ blocks with little or no roading infrastructure.

Supply will also be restricted by Kiwirail’s genius decision to roll a fully laden log train through a section of ˝ ooded

track during the massive rain event that ˝ ooded the King Country. Unsurprisingly, the track was undermined, and the ensuing derailment has blocked the main link between Kaingaroa Forest and Tauranga Port. Kiwirail expected the repair to take 2 weeks but it’s probably safe to bank on a month. To put some perspective around this cluster, the service moves around 30,000m3 per week to the port which is the equivalent to 1,000 truck and trailer loads, it will likely remove around 100,000m3 from the supply system.

The China lunar holidays are in full swing, and we won’t see any o˛ port demand for another week or so as people return to work.

There’s still not a whole lot of good news around the

Chinese real estate and construction markets with 2022 GDP ÿ gures of 2.9% being the lowest in half a century. Interestingly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently revised their China GDP forecast for 2023 from 4.4% to 5.2% which shows some optimism around market activity. India looks to lead the world in GDP growth for 2023 with IMF expectations that China and India combined

Forest Enterprises forests stand up to storms

Forecast to be one of the most serious storms to hit New Zealand this century, Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle has made landfall and many North Island regions are under a National State of Emergency.

normally see after adverse weather. This outcome is largely due to the locations of our forests, the geology of the sites, and the signiÿ cant investment we’ve made into best practise.

need to be made to standards and practises.

will account for over half of global GDP growth. It’s still too di˙ cult for NZ to economically supply to export logs to India, but the expectation is that other supply points such as Uruguay will pull away from China to chase the higher returns in India leaving NZ in the pole supply position.

The USA has shot out of the blocks in 2023 with non-farm payroll stats of just over half a million jobs, which is a

fourfold increase in forecasts, dropping unemployment to 3.4%. This indicates that a recession may be staved o˛ for now but does put further pressure on in˝ ation. What does this mean for our industry? Many of our pruned log sawmills sell into the US DIY market so any positive signs from Uncle Sam will be welcome relief from the naval gazing in previous months.

Marcus Musson Director Forest360

Forest Enterprises’ forests in Wairarapa, Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne all came through the storms of the new year largely intact. But as with Cyclone Hale, we’re vigilant in our response to Gabrielle which, at the time of writing, is impacting Tair˜whiti and Hawke’s Bay.

Wairarapa’s eastern hill country bore the brunt of January’s signiÿ cant storm, with the Ngahape valley being most e˛ ected. The forests we manage were

reasonably damage free. We paused harvest operations for a few days to work with contractors to repair roads and access and help with clean-up and recovery. The storm did not interrupt our silviculture programme.

Harvest was halted in our Gisborne forests for a week

during January’s State of Emergency. Our harvest contractors were temporarily redeployed to assist the local council clear public roads.

We have not contributed woody debris or sedimentation onto our neighbour’s properties except at the levels we’d

We remain humble in these situations, as geology and rainfall are only manageable at the margins. What we can manage is the standard of planning and works under our control. After the new year storms, we only incurred normal damage, and with that, normal cost to restore a˛ ected features.

Some properties in the north, especially Auckland, have been very hard hit. Sometimes this is pure chance and sometimes, in hindsight, improvements

The Southern North Island Wood Council provides a collective voice for the forestry sector in Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu, Wairarapa, Tararua and Wellington. Members have a common interest in ensuring the long-term success of the sector. Membership is open to any company or individual with an interest in the local wood industry.

Erica Kinder, SNI Wood Council CEO, can be contacted for more information.

sniwoodcouncil@gmail.com

0273 290 498 sniwoodcouncil.co.nz/

An enquiry into land use, especially in Te Tair˜whiti, is certain to go ahead. We hope it will be scientiÿ c and rigorous. A large proportion of our Gisborne forests are on Red Zone land, but we are not seeing the mass slope failures, and associated slash migration reported north of Tolaga Bay, where soil types are more fragile.

Nevertheless, it’s likely that certain geologies are not suitable for any productive land use, be it farming, forestry or horticulture. Similarly, certain locations are not safe to construct homes, roads or rail networks.

Photo/Forest Enterprises: Storms can bring risk of windthrow as well as slippage and ˜ oodwater.