Forest Talk

After 23 years building a logging contracting business in his own name, Robert Stubbs (Stubbsy) is out. He was, and is, one of the driven, larger-than-life personalities that tend to thrive in forestry. He is well known on the East Cape and his leadership in the industry saw him rise to become Chairman of the Forest Industry Contractors Association until the failure of his business prompted him to resign just six months into his chairmanship. 

R..... more

Setting its sights on the title of ‘tallest mass timber building in the world’, a 32-storey, mass timber high-rise in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – the Edison - is scheduled to break ground in the second quarter of 2024. 

If completed, the building will dislodge the Ascent, also in Milwaukee, that in July 2022 was crowned by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat as being the tallest. 

The mixed-use tower, a hybrid timber and concre..... more

"With the quick tempo of the modern world and the huge amount of data we see every day, finding the correct piece of information is often like trying to find a needle in a haystack. New Ponsse Manager is a completely new approach to more sustainable and more digitalised forestry", says Ponsse’s Petteri Tuomisto.

Ponsse Manager 2.0. is a next-generation digital service platform and forest machine management system that provides customers wit..... more

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Simeon Brown last week announced that the Auckland fuel tax would end by 30 June and that Government will move away from fuel excise duty (FED) to road user charges (RUC), and only fund projects with Auckland Council that are a shared priority, cutting out non-priorities such as raised pedestrian crossings. 

National Road Carriers Association (NRC) GM Policy & Advocacy, James Smith, says th..... more

Dragging logs out of rivers is a big enough salvage operation as it is but when the Iron Test team arrived at Whitikau Forest in East Cape there was also a storm-damaged Washington 188 swing yarder and a landslide-damaged 10-wheel forwarder for Forest Solutions Group of Gisborne to rescue from the ravages of various storms over the last year or so.

While we normally test new machines, this Komatsu D65 dozer had a challenging and unusual job to undert..... more

Logging contractor, Kevin Howard Stratford, who operates Stratford Logging,  has been criticised for his ‘dismissive attitude’ toward health and safety and fined $56,000 by the Nelson District Court.

Over the course of 2021 Mr Stratford carried out tree felling in Takaka Hill at a site directly adjacent to State Highway 60.

WorkSafe was notified in August 2021 by an experienced tree feller that the work was being carried out with disregard..... more