Prime Movers sector report: Forestry

By JANET TYSON

Wade Cornell has exported redwoods to California, and will probably send eucalypts to Australia.

The coals-to-Newcastle tactic backs his bold statement about the potential of high-value timber species.

Cornell's vision is of a New Zealand reaping the rewards of growing what comes naturally to our climate and topography - forests, rather than pasture.

We can't see the trees for the wood, at present, he suggests. For most people, forestry begins and ends with Pinus radiata, hence the national gloom at each new report of poor prices for commodity pine.

Likewise, the forestry business is seen as big, multinational companies, with their financial fate a barometer for the potential of all trees.

But small growers like himself - farm foresters - are significant players in the forestry business, accounting for an estimated 200,000ha, or a third of all trees planted since 1990.

These are the innovators and experimenters, prepared to step outside the "cookie cutter" approach to growing trees, and consider the different needs of individual species.

Cornell's vision turns the usual pattern of planting upside down, relegating Pinus radiata to the fringes. On the top-quality land, he would put a balanced portfolio of high-value species suited to specific environments.

Established in the right way, on sites chosen to suit them, some of these trees can grow even faster than Pinus radiata.

The living proof is at the Waitakere base for his Diversified Forests business, above the frost-line on the aptly named Forest Hill Rd. Sixty different varieties are growing and in most cases are flourishing there.

The failures - those that grew too slowly - remain as specimen plants. The successes are investigated further for growth rate and silviculture requirements (how much pruning they need). They include Toona ciliata, also known as the Australian red cedar; Elaeocarpus grandis, the giant quandong (good for boat building as it steams and bends well); Acacia melanoxylon (Australian blackwood); Eucalyptus microcorys (tallow wood), and Juglans nigra (black walnut).

"Initially it was just bucket chemistry - plant a bunch of different species and see what they do," he says. "Now we're getting more refined in our research, using clones to select the best characteristics."

One of the early successes was redwood. This locally misunderstood timber is in high demand back in its native California.

"Redwood is their kauri. It's an icon timber," he says. "It's used for decks, shingles, fences, outdoor furniture - everywhere there's a need for stability and durability."

Timber from the 1000-year-old giants has been used up or locked up, and there is now an acceptance of second-growth timber as long as it has the right qualities.

"Redwood's genetic base is extremely wide, allowing us to select the best characteristics for our plantations. New Zealand redwood, grown from clones and selected for durability, density and vigour, could have the edge over naturally regenerating California redwood. Up to 15 per cent of naturally grown California redwood isn't durable enough to use, and they don't know that until it is harvested or used."

Redwoods might seem a natural choice for Cornell, who grew up in Southern California, though not in a redwood-growing region. But his interest as a grower was sparked after he moved to New Zealand, where he originally worked as a consultant in sub-tropical horticulture.

Looking for a new challenge, he decided to examine a range and variety of trees that grew in the warmer, wetter areas of the north. In 1987 he and his wife Jenny bought their land at Waitakere and put their energies and investment into researching and trialling new species of trees through their company Diversified Forests Ltd.

Redwoods were a logical choice. Visitors to Rotorua may know the magnificent stands near the Forest Research Institute, and other stands of 80-year-old trees can be found around the country.

Retired California University professor Bill Libby, who specialised in forest genetics, is a regular visitor here. Some years ago he identified New Zealand as being "possibly the most ideal place in the world to grow redwoods". However, there were many disappointments with the earliest plantings.

Apart from the identified problems with growing from seed (now in very short supply), he says growing redwoods successfully means wiping the mental slate clean of concepts that apply to Pinus radiata, starting at the nursery.

"Redwoods are much less tolerant of some climatic conditions, such as drought, but this is just one point of difference. They are very demanding in terms of being sited properly.

"Their root systems are different and must be kept moist all the time. Young plants will be doomed before they hit the ground if they are delivered or planted without moist roots."

And it is now known that redwoods need a particular symbiotic fungus in the soil if they are to thrive. Without this mycorrhiza, which acts as an extension of the tree's own roots, the tree may "sulk" for years, remaining alive but refusing to grow.

Establishing redwoods "challenges your forestry skills" but Cornell says it is more a question of approaching things differently from the start. Minimal maintenance such as pruning is required once the trees are established, and the payoff is wood that is worth much more than commodity pine.

Cornell wrote The New Zealand Redwood Growers' Handbook last year for a series of seminars produced in conjunction with Carter Holt Harvey's Forest Genetics Division. The handbook calculates a New Zealand dollar profit of at least $124 a cubic metre (you'd be lucky to get $80 for pine) and he has since been told that's conservative.

Cornell champions redwoods because he says there is a good, long-established market that will accept even small and occasional consignments. "You don't have to do anything other than supply good quality product."

The Farm Forestry Association had its heyday in the early 1990s, and struggles to hold its membership. There is a core of enthusiasts and a wealth of information and support available. The Sequoia Group, which covers the giant sequoia as well as the redwoods, was established last year, joining the association's specialist groups devoted to blackwoods, cypress, eucalyptus and natives.

The association has just completed a series of three seminars featuring alternative species, winding up at Puhoi last month. There is enthusiasm, but those attending tend to be the already converted.

And there is also an alarming trend away from planting, and particularly replanting pines. Forestry sources say new planting of all species was down to 20,000ha last year, compared to 100,000ha in 1992. Negative news about big players is partly to blame.

Add in the Government's pre-emptive grab of carbon credits to meet Kyoto Protocol requirements, and you get the scenario where dairy farms are taking over land where trees have been harvested and should be replanted.

"The Government should be encouraging planting of more forestry," Cornell says. "It has the added benefits of stabilising eroding soils and putting marginal farm land into higher-value production, as well as giving the Government more credits to sell."

New Zealand, with its temperate climate and many micro-climates, contours and various aspects, is tailor-made to grow a wide range of trees, he says, and he continues to search for new varieties to trial in our conditions, looking in all the states of Australia and further afield.

It bemuses him to see New Zealand farmers put so much effort into running livestock on their land for little financial return.

"With carefully chosen forestry, managed in a professional way, they could earn as much from a tenth of their land, and have an investment that the next generation would be glad to take over."