Forest Talk

As we venture into the deep south between Invercargill and Fiordland in search of an 8-wheeled Komatsu harvester at Bluewood Thinning’s operation, we notice a lot of the trees scattered on flat farmland seem to be about 15% taller than similar trees in the North Island. The Iron Test team throws around various theories as to what might cause this.

The long rolling hills of Southland look like ideal ground for growing Douglas fir trees too, but that t..... more

Forestry pioneer, Ross Lockyer, is back with an excerpt from his third book (of five), The River is my Highway: A New Zealand Forest Ranger in the Jungles of Borneo. Here’s a taste:

There were four main mooring points that the tugs regularly used, and the two most up-river spots were particularly good because there were some large kapok trees growing right on the riverbank that the crews could use to tie the rafts up to. Both of those moorin..... more

Two recent worker deaths involving vehicles, two serious incidents involving dangerous gasses and a serious injury incident the previous month are disturbing, says MinEx, the mining and quarrying sector’s health and safety council.

In late August a man died in an incident involving mobile plant at a Balclutha work site; the next day a person died at the scene after being hit by a vehicle in a logging yard in Palmerston North. Earlier in the month, tw..... more

There are no skidders or tracked feller bunchers within the 20-piece logging fleet owned by Prince George, Canadian, B.C.-based Freya Logging. Their fleet consists primarily of wheeled harvesters and forwarders—and that’s by design.

Company forester, Liam Parfitt, describes the majority of their harvesting activity as “selective logging where most of the merchantable wood is removed”. 

Overall, they leave more standing structure and unders..... more

Towering over the south Waikato village of Atiamuri, the mountain that Knight Logging is harvesting is proving a bit tough. The skyline is about a metre off the ground before any chokers are hooked up to logs and there’s a couple of truckloads of stems to be dragged off this spot and around the hill to the landing. 

In a classic case of when the going gets tough, the tough get going, Knight Logging’s owner, Zane Knight is breaking out by himself..... more

The world economy is transforming out of a dependence on fossil fuels which accelerate climate change. Renewable resources, such as wood, are vital to powering the global bioeconomy,” says the new Chief Executive of the Forest Owners Association (FOA), Dr Elizabeth Heeg.

Ms Heeg replaces long-serving Chief Executive, David Rhodes. She was previously working at Te Uru Rākau New Zealand Forest Service.

She says New Zealand for..... more