Asian partnership for growing best plantation timber
From the Summer 2006 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Forests NSW and Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries timber researchers have combined with Chinese scientists in a program to determine the best spacing and fertiliser regimes for plantation trees.
So far the work, under the auspices of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), has involved trial assessments in Dongmen in southeastern China, with Vietnam scheduled for 2007.
“Forests NSW would not otherwise have the opportunity to gather this information from its own trials,” said Forests NSW tree improvement manager, Michael Henson.
The trial is on 2 856 trees of a single clone of E. urophylla x grandis, a hybrid widely planted in southern China.Steve Boyton of the tree improvement team has just returned from Dongmen, where Forests NSW has been working with Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries officers teaching Chinese forestry workers non-destructive and destructive wood property assessment methods.
“We have apparatus to measure a range of wood quality properties, including density, stress, bark thickness and other attributes,” Steve said.
“One device, known as the FAKOPP, measures the flight time of a sound wave through trees, which is predictive of wood stiffness. Another device called the Pilodyn drives a steel pin into the sapwood to predict density and hardness.”
“We also use a machine to measure stress to predict the amount of warping that might occur in a milled board, and a canopy measuring machine to measure the stress on a tree.”
In the current trial, the assessed trees will also be destructively sampled to establish the accuracy of the readings, which mim-ics a similar trial being performed on NSW blackbutt trees near Kendall.
Part of the outcome for the Chinese is to use such tools to add value to plantation timber that might otherwise be used merely for woodchip for pulp production.
The trial is assessing the value of the timber for pulp, veneer and sawlog end uses.
“Globally there is increasing demand for high-value solid hardwood products traditionally sourced from native forests: forests that now may be conserved from timber harvesting,” Michael Henson said.
“Coinciding with reduced access to native forests for logging in the tropics and subtropics has been the rapid expansion in short rotation hardwood plantations as both a source of short fibre pulp and as a replacement for native forest products.”
“Deriving high value products from extensive eucalypt plantations provides a very real avenue to help meet market demands and optimise returns on plantation investment, as well as providing social and environmental benefits.”
“However, the wood properties and sawn wood recovery from fast-grown, short rotation eucalypt plantations differ markedly from slow-grown, long rotation, large piece size logs from native forests.”
“Urgent investigation is required to develop an understanding of the effects of plantation establishment techniques on wood properties and the quality and quantity of sawn wood recovery. We also want to know how to manipulate genetics and silvi-culture to improve the return on investment in plantations managed for production of high-value end products.”
Michael said the Dongmen project gave the opportunity to address these issues in a way that would benefit all three partners.
“The goal of the project is to improve the social benefits and economic returns from eucalypt plantations,” he said.
“This will be achieved by implementing silvicultural regimes and genetic material to optimise yields of high quality timber from eucalypt plantations in China, Vietnam and Australia by improving wood properties and reducing growth stresses.”
Public Affairs & Media, Coffs Harbour
