Issue 3 - December 2008

Hancock Forest Views Hancock Forest Views

Welcome to Hancock Forest Views

Welcome to the third edition of Hancock Forest Views, a newsletter put together by Hancock Forest Management (HFM) to help keep you informed of what is happening in our forests. This edition includes a range of topical articles from each of our

forest regions. We hope you find the newsletter interesting and welcome your feedback.

The audit was carried out in November, with the FSC auditors visiting our operations in Northland, Auckland, Nelson and Tokoroa. A number of stakeholders provided input to the audit, as we received numerous let-ters from stakeholders and the auditors advise us that they spoke to a large number of our stakeholders including neighbours, lessors, contractors and staff.

Although we are yet to receive the final audit report, the auditors have verbally con-firmed that they will be recommending continuation of our FSC certificate which is a pleasing outcome for HFM and our clients. The final audit report will be available on the SCS website in due course at www.scscertified.com/forestry. More information about FSC can be found at www.fsc.org.

FSC Five Yearly Audit

From the team at Hancock Forest From the team at Hancock Forest From the team at Hancock Forest From the team at Hancock Forest

Management (NZ) Ltd we wish all of our Management (NZ) Ltd we wish all of our Management (NZ) Ltd we wish all of our Management (NZ) Ltd we wish all of our

stakeholders, contractors and staff a very Merry stakeholders, contractors and staff a very Merry stakeholders, contractors and staff a very Merry stakeholders, contractors and staff a very Merry Christmas, and a safe and happy holiday season. Christmas, and a safe and happy holiday season. Christmas, and a safe and happy holiday season. Christmas, and a safe and happy holiday season.

SEASONS GREETINGSSEASONS GREETINGSSEASONS GREETINGSSEASONS GREETINGS

HFM has been certified by Forest Stewardship Council since February 2004. As a condition of certification our policies, processes and opera-tions are audited annually, with a full re-certification audit undertaken every 5 years, against the 10 FSC Principles and Criteria. Having been certified now for 5 years, this years audit was the full recertification audit.

Windthrow Salvage in Nelson Forests In July of this year a major windstorm struck the Nelson region causing serious damage to large areas of both plantation and native forests along the flanks of the Rich-mond Range. HFM’s Hira Forest directly behind Nelson City was particularly affected, with large areas of wind-blown trees. This significantly affected the planned har-vest for the remainder of the year, with most of the Nelson harvesting crews relocated into wind damaged areas to salvage the fallen trees.

Harvesting of windblown trees is a difficult, dangerous and slow task, and considerable effort was put into pre-harvest planning of the salvage operation, with particular attention to how to carry out the operation to minimise as far as possible all identified hazards. HFM’s Southern Area Harvesting Manager, Wayne Wells, reports that HFM’s Nelson harvesting contractors were heavily in-volved in planning how the operation would be carried out, taking into account learnings from previous events. This in Wayne’s view was a critical aspect to the success of the salvage operation.

Changes to the harvesting schedule also had numerous flow on effects such as requiring new access roads to be upgraded to access windblown areas, increasing truck traffic through Nelson City due to the concentration of harvesting within Hira and additional challenges in bal-ancing the output from those areas to customer de-mand. All of this required a significant amount of input from all of the Nelson team.

With the salvage operation now entering it’s 5th month,

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Engineering works progressing in preparation for salvage operations in the Hira Forest,

Nelson (Photo Mike Fahey, Taylors Contracting

How do we plan when and where we harvest?

Harvesting is certainly the most visible activity that takes place in our forest, and the one that people in communities around our forests are most aware of. However a significant amount of planning takes place well before the first tree is felled.

To develop long term harvest plans for a forest estate our foresters undertake regular inventory measurements of the plantations, and this information is fed into computer based growth models to calculate the estimated yield at the time of harvest. Further tools are used to deter-mine the ongoing sustainable cut for the forest, and produce a pro-posed long term plan for the optimum sequence of harvesting each forest based on tree age.

Around 2-5 years prior to harvest this long term harvest plan is fine tuned, balancing forest output with numerous other factors such as customer needs, harvesting resource, catchment clearfall constraints (self imposed limits on the amount of harvesting in any one catchment) and practical constraints such as accessing blocks and agreements with neighbours. All of this information is pulled together to produce a detailed plan of the sequence of harvesting the forest, from which all of the preharvest operations such as obtaining resource consents, stake-holder consultation, harvest planning, and road construction are planned.

We live in an ever-changing world, so short to medium term harvest plans are often reworked to match our output with customer demand. Large windthrow events such as the one in Nelson certainly throw an added challenge into that mix!

HFM is very happy to report that there have been no safety inci-dents related to the windthrow salvage. Southern Area Manager David Robinson comments ‘it has been a considerable team effort with suppliers and staff working together to develop and implement a well integrated plan’.

It has been a challenging end to the year for the Nelson team. No doubt the Nelson contractors and harvesting team will be looking forward to harvesting standing trees in 2009!

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Woodhill Tree Adventures

Each newsletter we have included a feature on one of the numerous exciting recreational ventures in Woodhill Forest near Auckland. This newsletter it is the turn of ‘Tree Adven-tures’ - a unique aerial confidence course sus-pended within the trees of Woodhill Forest. Tree Adventures is Auckland’s only forest adventure park operation and is home to eight different courses spanning a three hectare block of mature pine trees. Since opening to the public in December 2004, Tree Adventures has provided a truly unique and highly rewarding experience to over 60,000 participants. These Tree Adventures visitors encompass a wide demographic range of both age and ability. Typical visitors include school groups, corporate teams, community groups, sports teams, birthday party groups, families and individuals.

At the start of 2008 Tree Adventures were awarded “Best Thrill” for children by Metro magazine and nominated for the Corporate events guide “peoples choice award 2008” in the category of team building.

The obstacle courses offer a wide range of exciting and challenging activities to all participants. From balance bridges to Tarzan swings, tight ropes to flying foxes, monkey crossings and even tree surfing the park provides the perfect place for children and adults to improve their confidence and balance, leaving the forest buzzing with a sense of self achievement. Tree Adventures is a great example of the multiple use opportunities within a production forest, made possible by a proactive working relationship between Tree Adventures management and HFM, to enable forestry and recreational activities to work alongside one another.

Waikato River Trails

Another great example of the varying use of plantation forests is the Waikato River Trails in the South Waikato District. Volunteers from the local community have established the Waikato River Trails Trust, to develop a linked series of walking and biking trails along the banks of the Waikato River. Waikato means “Flowing Water” in Maori and the river is center piece of the trail.

The trail will eventually provide a continuous walking trail from Atiamuri through to Lake Karapiro, passing for a considerable distance through Kinleith Forest in areas that would otherwise be inaccessible to the public. To date over 30 kilometres of trails have been established with another 70 km planned. The trail passes through some awesome scenery including views of Pohaturoa (pictured to right), tracts of exotic and native forest, green pasture land providing expansive vistas of the meandering Waikato River.

The trail is a high quality walking and biking track and well worth a visit. One section of the trail, the Dunham Mobility Trail, is suitable for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and baby buggies. With the trail passing through Kinleith Forest, HFM Area Man-ager Alastair Deakin is a co-opted member of the Waikato River Trails Trust. Alastair comments ‘We are very enthusiastic to be part of the Trust. It showcases what well managed plantations can provide to recreational users and it also dovetails into our company philosophy of environmental stewardship - integrating all aspects of production forestry with conservation and public recreation’.

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Hancock Forest Management (NZ) Ltd P O Box 13404 Westpac Bldg, L2, 2 Devonport Road

We’re on the web!

www.hnrg.com

HFM—Northern Area Office: Phone: (09) 470 1300, Fax: (09) 470 1317 HFM—Central Area Office: Phone: (07) 885 0350, Fax: (07) 885 0392 HFM—Eastern Area Office: Phone: (07) 350 0080, Fax: (07) 345 7332

Falcon Sightings continue to grow

Falcon are regularly sighted in our Central North Island and Nelson forests but of particular interest this year were the first reported sightings of Falcon in Tarawera and Matahina Forest in the Bay of Plenty. Although Tarawera and Matahina are directly to the north of Kaingaroa Forest, no falcon were sighted in the forests at the time of the study. Since August of this year, our harvesting contractors staff have reported 9 confirmed sightings of falcon in Tarawera and Matahina. The reason for the increase in falcon use of the forests is not known, but the greater area of harvested cutover available for nesting is likely to be a contributing factor.

In recent weeks we have also had our first confirmed falcon nesting site for this years breeding season, in a cutover area in the centre of Kinleith Forest near Tokoroa. Stoat traps are being arranged by HFM staff to protect the nest site from predation until the chicks fledge around February.

The falcon sighting data collected by HFM are reported to the NZ Raptor Association, helping this group to build up an accurate picture of falcon distribution in New Zealand.

Falcon in a harvest area, Tasman Bay Forests, Nelson

Slash Management in Northland

One of the challenges of cable logging in steep country is the risk of harvesting ‘slash’ (broken branches and other woody debris) being deposited into waterways. This generally only occurs in operations where it is necessary to haul over a waterway, however in areas prone to extreme storm events such as Northland, slash can also be washed off the slopes

into streams during heavy rainfall.

A lot of research has been undertaken in New Zealand amd overseas, looking at the effects of slash in streams and factors affecting mobility in storms. The research shows that stable slash can enhance stream biodiversity by providing shading and habitat for fish and insect life in the waterway. However where the slash is unstable it can mobilise downstream in storm events, causing damage to stream banks and infrastruc-

ture such as culverts.

Until now, the standard approach to slash has been to harvest a block and then remove slash from streams where possible, either manually or with machine assistance. In some situations with steep incised gullies this can be almost impossible to carry out effectively. HFM’s Northland staff have recently commenced a slash management project with input from freshwater sci-entists at Scion, and the Northland Regional Council. With the approval of the Council our operations staff are trialling a range of different methods for managing slash including leaving high stumps along waterway edges and falling trees behind the stumps parallel to the creeks to act as slash traps. The trial areas are regularly visited and monitored by staff, and this informa-tion is reported through to the Northland Regional Council. It is hoped the study will help to improve understanding of the best techniques for managing slash, and ideally result in some practical new ways for managing slash that will benefit both the

forest industry and the Council.

In our last newsletter we reported on the outcome of Richard Seaton’s PhD study of the use of plantation forests by the NZ Falcon. Richard’s study, based in Kaingaroa Forest, confirmed that the falcon are making extensive use of the plantation forest and that they are actively using the cutover for nesting.

As one of our stewardship initiatives, HFM introduced a ‘threatened species sightings’ database several years ago, with all staff and contractors given infor-mation to assist with species identification, and encouraged to report sightings of any threatened species through to the Environmental Team. This informa-tion is recorded and passed on to national databases where applicable.

Electric fishing to confirm fish populations in a Northland forest stream as part

of the slash management project