Australia’s forests are complex and understanding their differences takes a lifetime. After nearly 40 years working in Australia’s forests, I continue to learn new things but one thing I am certain about, there is no “one size fits all” management regime. Mother nature and our forests have sent us a very big message over the last 8 months.
Change our management systems or expect more of these mega fires and all the distress they cause!
The spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) is native to Europe and is normally present in manageable populations. The problem with Spruce in Mainland Europe is that a lot of it was originally planted offsite. Now with lots of stressed trees around and mild winters unable to knock back populations it has become such a big problem.
There is ongoing debate about the management of natural forests and in specific fuel load reduction in natural forests in parts of the US and in Australia. There is also the question of residue utilisation from plantation forests. Briquettes is a relatively simple renewable energy product that can be produced from forest waste material.
New Zealand Emissions Trading System (ETS) Proposed changes to the ETS continue to dominate the market in New Zealand. Discussion documents circulated by environment minister James Shaw just prior to Christmas 2019 that proposed, among other changes, a NZD20 to NZD50 price band, as well as increasing the governments fixed price option (FPO) from NZD25 […]
Margules Groome’s quarterly harvest and haulage cost index for Australian plantation operations is based on actual price indexation mechanisms used by industry weighted by volume harvested.