Above: Natural forest in Turkey.
Photo Hans Porada.

Below: Mosque at night.
Photo copyright Simon Podgorsek/
courtesy istock-photo.com

Forests NSW staff tend to be passionate about what they do. This love of forestry often flows into their personal lives, with many a holiday dedicated to further exploring the world’s forests. Sarah Chester reports on one researcher’s forestry travels.

A self-tailored tour of ‘forestry in dry environments’ took Forests NSW Dr Hans Porada and his wife Rhonda on an exotic trail of pines, adventure and of course shopping.

Their itinerary included Israel, central Turkey, the south-east of France’s Pinus halapensis lowland forests, Douglas-fir plantations in the Pyrenees, and in Bordeaux, looking at maritime pine forests and research.

It was Turkey that really took their fancy – although the sound of the muezzins from the tops of the minarets of the mosques every hour from 5am took some getting used to.

First stop was Israel to attend the ‘Afforestation and Sustainable Forests as a Means to Combat De-sertification’ conference in Jerusalem, where a visit to the Aleppo forest (Pinus halapensis) in Israel’s Negev desert further whetted Hans’ appetite for dryland forestry.

From the desert, the Poradas travelled to Istanbul – the adrenalin centre of Turkey. Twenty-six per cent (21 million hectares) of Turkey is forest and woodlands, virtually all of which is publicly-owned.
Leaving Istanbul, they travelled to Gallipoli, visiting the historic ruins of Troy en route. Gallipoli was a key destination as they were attending the ANZAC Day dawn service.

“We were there all night, along with about 12000 other diehards from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. It was a cold night, we got body searched for grog, and we got two ANZAC biscuits each from the Australian consul,” Hans said.

“On our way to Gallipoli, we saw the first of the most common pine in the country, brutian pine (Pinus brutia) regrowth forests and plantations, reminiscent of our radiata plantations around Tumbarumba.

“It seems almost unnatural for a forester to go somewhere where there isn’t a tree of national reputation and Gallipoli has its own – the lone brutia pine at the Australian War Memorial.

“We spent ANZAC morning all but under the tree. It is amazing how often forestry can be part of major historical events sometimes.”

Some of the better plantations they visited were north of Gallipoli in the Kesan region. Brutia plantations rolled over hills, while agriculture dominated the more fertile valleys.

“At the time we thought it was rather novel to see villages immersed in the forests. By the end of our trip, we came to realise that ‘community forestry’ was a dominant feature in Turkey, with some statistics indicating 36 per cent of small villages are located in forests,” Hans said.

He was hit by the enormity of the reforestation program underway in Turkey, much of which is environmental rehabilitation and not commercial. Some recent, though unconfirmed, figures suggested 300000 hectares a year.

“There are some things you can do when labour costs are low and availability high, and just imagine the carbon credits,” Hans said.

“If I could make one suggestion regarding forest management in Turkey, it would be to adopt value-driven, rather than cost-driven, forest management principles. In other words, start deploying very good research on a large scale.”

Speaking of research, Hans did his homework, and bought the obligatory silk carpet in the huge Grand Bazaar at Istanbul. His depicted the Turkish symbolic tree of life – a fitting reminder of a fabulous trip.

This article appears in the Spring 2007 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.