Remarkable impact on timber production
From the Autumn/Winter 2009 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Radiata pine (Pinus radiata) was originally named Pinus insignis or‘remarkable pine’ - an apt name for a tree which has had such a dramatic impacton the world timber scene.
Radiata pine is suited to a considerable range of growing conditions, iseasily raised and planted, and provides larger yields of usable timber in ashorter time than many native species.
The timber is particularly useful: it can be readily sawn, peeled, orconverted to pulp, has good nail-holding power, works well, and can be easilystained.
Radiata pine is a softwood tree, which means the wood does not havepores and has long fibres (tracheids) compared to hardwoods.
However, the namesoftwood is confusing because radiata pine is harder (denser) than many hardwoodssuch as balsa and poplars.
Radiata
pine is a native of North America, growing naturally on a narrowstretch
of coast in Southern California and two small islands off the coast
ofMexico.
However, the species is now one of the most widely grown exotic timberspecies in the world.
In its native habitat, the tree is seldom taller than 35 metres orreaches an age beyond 75 years, and many trees are misshapen or affected bydisease.
Many other regions of the world, including parts of NSW, have proven morefavourable to its growth and form than its natural habitat. Some of the earlyplantation trees in NSW have reached heights of more than 50 metres in 70years. However, a typical radiata pine tree in NSW is around 35 metres tall andhalf a metre across at chest height when harvested at about age 35.
History
Introduced to Australia in the early 1850s, possibly via gold minerscoming from the Californian gold rushes to the Australian goldfields, radiatepine was grown in the Sydney Botanic Gardens as early as 1857.
The first ‘commercial’ plantation in NSW was planted at Tuncurry on themid-north coast in 1914. Although this site proved unsuitable, plantingexpanded on more suitable sites throughout the State after the establishment ofthe Forestry Commission in 1916.
The Tree
When grown as a plantation tree, radiata pine is usually a tall straighttree with small branches, except on the edge of the plantation where theaccessibility to light and space allows the trees to grow large branches.
Genetic improvements have contributed to the improvement in growth ratesand form (straightness and uniformity) of plantation grown radiata pine.
There are a small number of pests and diseases which may attack pineplantations. Fortunately, these are controllable with proper site selection andgood management of such factors as fertility and harvesting schedules.
While radiata pine is frost and cold hardy it can be seriously damagedby heavy snowfalls, so it is generally planted below 1 000metres in the Southern Slopes, and below 1 200 metres in the Central Tablelands.
Plantation radiata pine will grow reasonably well in areas with anaverage annual rainfall as low as 600mm, but for best commercial development amean annual rainfall of at least 700mm is recommended.
Today
Forests NSWhas over 200,000hectares (net stocked area) of pineplantations under its management, centred around Bathurst, Tumut, Walcha and Bombala. See the nextissue of Bush Telegraph for a run down on the uses of radiata pine and how itis processed in NSW.
