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Newsletter 106, February 2018

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New Zealand Farm Forestry Association
NZFFA
P.O. Box 10349
The Terrace
Wellington 6143
www.nzffa.org.nz

Farm Forestry Members Newsletter

   Newsletter 106, February 2018
In this issue

Crown Forestry is looking for land

New Zealand’s ETS now put on hold

Forestry Work in the Modern Age

An alternative to clear-felling for radiata pine

Contacts

President
Neil Cullen
cullen@farmside.co.nz
-North Otago
-Mid Otago
-South Otago
-Southland
-Sthn High Country (south)

Immediate Past President & Newsletter editor
Dean Satchell
dsatch@gmail.com
-Far North
-Mid North

National Office
Natalie
admin@nzffa.org.nz
Phone: 04 4720432

Executive
Angus Gordon angusg@xtra.co.nz
-Taupo & Districts
-Middle Districts
-Hawkes Bay
-Gisborne East Coast
-Taranaki

Michael Orchard
 orchards@xtra.co.nz
-West Coast
-Marlborough
-Nelson

Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz
-Wairarapa
-Wellington

Patrick Milne patrick@cypress.co.nz
-North Canterbury
-Central Canterbury
-Ashburton
-South Canterbury

Peter Berg
thebergs@ihug.co.nz
-Lower North
-Waitomo
-Waikato
-Bay of Plenty

Don Wallace
don@wallace.gen.nz
-At large


 

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Notices

ELECTIONS FOR NATIONAL EXECUTIVE

North Island Executive Member

One nomination has been received: Angus Gordon (Middle Districts)

South Island Executive Member

One nomination has been received: Michael Orchard (West Coast)

Both Angus and Michael are the retiring Island Representative Members by rotation.

As the number of nominations is the same as the vacancies, the election of Angus and Michael as Island Representative Executive Members, will be confirmed at the Council Meeting and AGM at the Nelson Conference.

AGENDA ITEMS AND NOTICES OF MOTION FOR THE COUNCIL MEETING AND AGM AT NELSON CONFERENCE

Branches and Special Interest Groups can propose Remits, Agenda Items and Notices of Motion for the Council Meeting and AGM at conference.  Acceptance of these is subject to the approval of the National Executive.

Remits, Agenda Items and Notices of Motion must be received by National Office by 9 April, 2018.

CONFERENCE

Notice to upcoming NZFFA AGM delegates: Annual Report Document
Following past criticism last year that delegates to Council and the AGM were not given enough time to read the documents in advance, last year we posted the Annual Reports out in advance to people we knew are coming to the meetings.  We will endeavor to follow the same procedure this year.  The deadline for the Special Interest Group, Research, Forest Health, etc. reports we usually bind in with our Annual Report document is 16 April 2018.

Deadlines
9 April for notices and any other information we need to circulate before Conference

16 April for the Special Interest Group, Research, Forest Health, etc. reports we usually bind in with our Annual Report document

Events

For more information on these events, they are posted on the NZFFA website >>
Branch secretaries, please make sure you notify head office of any branch or action group events.

  • Southern field days, 14th-16th February 2018  Notice to give Southern members the opportunity to book camper van accommodation without adding competition from the general public. In the 1990’s The Southland branch of The New Zealand Farm Forestry…
  • Waikato branch AGM  Notice of 2018 Annual General Meeting and Field Day Date:  Saturday  17  February Time:  10.00 am Place:  Dave  and  Sue  Forsythe's  property, 23  Hinewai  Road, Te  Kawa, Te  Awamutu     Programme:  10.00  Assemble,  morning  tea 10.30  View  tree planting,  view…
  • Central Canterbury field day  The next Central Canterbury Farm Forestry field day will be at a historic Central Canterbury property, Rockwood Station, on Rockwood Road, off Washpen Creek Road, Glenroy, on Saturday, February 17. Rockwood…
  • Forest Biosecurity Conference 2018  Ramping up our biosecurity - licence to use tomorrow's toolbox? March 14th, Rotorua The conference will feature a keynote address from Tim Ebata. Tim is currently the forest health officer for…
  • ForestWood 2018 Conference  When: Wednesday 21 March 2018 Where: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa  Website: www.forestwood.org.nz The new government has thrown a sudden and revolutionary challenge to our forest industry. To…
  • NZFFA Conference 2018 "Nelson – Autumn Splendour"
    Sunday 6 May to Wednesday 9 May 2018, Tahuna Conference Centre, 70 Beach Road, Tahunanui, Nelson
    Registration form available to print here »
    Register online here »
  • NZ Wood Resene Timber Design Awards  This is New Zealand’s only Timber Design award event and allows engineers, architects, architectural designers and builders to showcase innovation using timber. Professionals worldwide are using wood in often new…

Headlines

Crown Forestry is looking for land

Crown Forestry is looking for land to plant as part of the Government’s One Billion Trees programme.

We want to talk to landowners considering commercial radiata pine planting and who have blocks of land that:

  • are a minimum size of 200 plantable hectares
  • have not been plantation forest before
  • have reasonable fertility
  • have easy access within the block and to district roads and state highways
  • have terrain suitable for current forest harvesting systems
  • are identified as suitable for production forestry in the relevant district council and regional council land use and water plans
  • if there are weeds, these can be controlled by aerial spraying. 

Crown Forestry, a business unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries, would lease the land or enter into a forestry joint venture for a one rotation (30 year) term. The Crown would pay for all establishment and management costs over the lifetime of the crop and pay a negotiated rent to the landowner. Rents will reflect the quality of the land, proximity to ports or wood processing plants and the costs Crown Forestry expect to pay over the lifetime of the crop. The landowner would retain all rights to any carbon credits.

Any areas of regenerating native forest within the block would be left as they are as unplanted enclaves within the forest.

Crown Forestry will carry out a brief screening of nominated land. If it appears suitable we will prepare a forestry feasibility study that will include a full financial report. This information will be shared with the landowner and will form the basis of a lease or forestry joint venture proposal for the landowners to consider. Proposals will be tailored to reflect local issues.  Once an agreement has been reached Crown Forestry will commence forestry operations on the land.

If you are interested please contact Crown Forestry immediately:

General Manager
Warwick Foran  warwick.foran@mpi.govt.nz  029 894 0394

Assets Manager
Mike Candy  mike.candy2@mpi.govt.nz  029 894 0390

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New Zealand's ETS now put on hold

Any further changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) – including getting rid of free credits to heavy emitters and changing forestry rules – will not be made until the end of next year, the NZ Government says. 

Climate minister James Shaw has told his Cabinet colleagues that changes are required, but first he wants to get the big picture in place, including passing the Zero Carbon Act and appointing a climate commission. Shaw has already doubled New Zealand’s long-term emissions reduction target by promising the country will be carbon-neutral by 2050.

In a Cabinet briefing paper, he says that means changes to the nine-year-old scheme, but not yet. “The Climate Change Response Act 2002 establishes the NZ ETS,” he said. “I intend that any amendments be made through a Climate Change Response Amendment Bill by the end of 2019. 

“Ideally, these changes would follow the commencement of the Zero Carbon Act and the commission’s consideration of the role of agriculture in climate change policy.” Shaw says he’s got officials at the Ministry for the Environment working on the forestry issue. 

They are also looking at possible changes to forestry rules, and Shaw says these are unlikely to go through until the end of next year. That’s likely to upset forest owners, who say that changes are needed to encourage the level of planting needed for New Zealand to meet its international emissions reduction commitments. 

Planting rates have fallen off so much in recent years that officials say that by 2030, the country will be able to count on storing just four million tonnes of carbon in trees, down from 30 million tonnes in 1990. 

Source: Carbon News 2018

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Forestry Work in the Modern Age

Update from Forest Growers Research Ltd on the new Primary Growth Partnership programme “Forestry Work in the Modern Age”. PDF >>

The goal is that by 2025 all harvesting operations will be fully mechanised, and at least 10% of operations will be automated, using products developed in this programme. The following products will be commercialised for domestic and export sale:

  • Semi-automated log debarker-processor
  • Automatic log tagging and tag reading technology
  • Semi-autonomous yarder grapple and control system
  • Automated log residue chipper
  • Robotic log sorter
  • Automated truck loading gantry
  • Large capacity log loading grapple
  • Automated truck load securing system

More >>

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An alternative to clear-felling for radiata pine

Wellington and Wairarapa Branches of the NZ Farm Forestry Association have received a Sustainable Farming Fund grant of $52,140 for a feasibility study to evaluate the potential for a continuous cover forestry system in small-scale radiata pine plantations. Congrats Wellington and Wairarapa branches, we look forward to your results!

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Disclaimer: Personal views expressed in this newsletter are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the NZ Farm Forestry Association.

 

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