Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

The showpiece venture in Northland that kicked off the government’s much-vaunted One Billion Trees programme earlier this year has received a setback.

A deal struck between the Crown and the Far North’s Ngati Hine Forestry Trust to plant 1,110 hectares of an eventual 3,600 hecatres with Radiata Pines during the 2018 season came unstuck because much of the land was covered in thick scrub that was unable to be cleared in time...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Allegations that JNL’s J-Frame products had failed timber treatment Standards have not been upheld

by the Commerce Commission.

In a ruling released last month, the Commission says there was no substance to the allegations that

J-Frame timber samples submitted to SCION...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing in an expansion of 3D mapping to support major development projects and improve land use management in the regions and forestry will be among the beneficiaries.

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced up to $19 million in co-funding to increase the national coverage of LiDAR data...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Log prices have reversed their recent trend and begun to climb upwards again, with unpruned saw

logs increasing by NZ$3-to-4 per JASm3 at the wharves this month, while pruned logs increased NZ$7-to-9 NZD per JASm3.

This was helped by the lower value of the New Zealand dollar and reduced competition from US logs..

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Recently retired head of PF Olsen, Peter Clark, was awarded the Business Person of the Year Award

in Rotorua....

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Experts from all over the world gathered in Rotorua at the beginning of the month to assist the local industry find pathways forward for several major opportunities and challenges facing forestry in New Zealand.

The ‘Tree Plantations in the Landscape’ (TPL) event uses a format developed by neutral international platform, the Forests Dialogue, who provide international leaders in the forest sector with an ongoing, multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

One person died following a crash involving a car and a logging truck on State Highway 35 at

Makorori, near Gisborne, last weekend...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

The increasing number of woodlots being harvested around New Zealand is partly fuelling a boom in the number of self-loading log trucks plying their trade in our forests.

It’s also led to a few innovative rigs being put into service. But because these trucks often work when harvesting crews have long left the skid site, they are rarely seen...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

After an unsuccessful first attempt to burn thousands of tonnes of slash and logs deposited on

Tolaga Bay beach from the mid-winter floods, contractors returned late last month with a new plan.

They piled the logs higher and used a large fan to force air through the wood and successfully

managed to incinerate them...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

As the summer approaches, loggers and forest owners are being urged to seek advice from rural fire

officers before burning off or slash after a burn-off got out of control in Northland last month.

The landowner was intending to burn off about two hectares of standing gorse and logging waste on

the Tinopai Peninsula, but the fire jumped a firebreak into more gorse and slash, eventually burning...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Wood could play an increasingly important future in replacing a certain amount of coal in a number

of Fonterra dairy factories around New Zealand.

But the company says it doesn’t expect to be able to run plants fully on wood...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Outstanding efforts in science research, collaboration and innovation were celebrated at Scion’s

annual Employee Recognition Awards last month.

The awards recognise both emerging and established scientists and science teams, as well as

support staff at the Crown research institute, headquartered in Rotorua...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

A worker who suffered serious injuries after being caught in a press machine at the Carter Holt

Harvey LVL plant at Ruakaka in Northland in October 2016 has led to the company being fined

$371,000 plus costs and reparations.

Steven Vincent suffered multiple fractures, cuts and lung injuries after he became trapped in a conveyor belt that dragged him into the press, crushing his upper body....

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Reporting on its third quarter earnings results, Caterpillar has managed to maintain profit levels,

while keeping on top of rising costs, including the tariff-boosted price of steel and aluminium,

through a raft of savings...

Posted on Thursday 15th November 2018

Exporters of Swamp Kauri slabs can’t get away with calling them “table tops” or misrepresenting the

logs as “totem or temple poles” say New Zealand’s top judges.

The Supreme Court says such practices are illegal under the Forests Act, thus vindicating a challenge

by the Northland Environmental Protection Society...