Woodville a hub for forestry

Delivering a load to the Woodville Log Rail Exchange.

The Woodville Log Rail Exchange site was busy on Sunday March 25 as 1500 tonnes of logs were unloaded off trucks from Manawatu and reloaded onto railway wagons for the port of Napier.

The Forest Owners Marketing Services (FOMS) operation harvests and transports logs from rural properties to a port for export. With wet weather in the Manawatu delaying harvesting earlier in the week the pressure was on to cart the logs to port.

Marcus Musson, Executive Director for FOMS says Woodville is an ideal location as it is central between Manawatu and Napier and has a rail site big enough to hold logs pending rail delivery.

Ian Redward transfers the logs from truck to railway wagon.

Only seven railway wagons can be loaded each day at Woodville and the surplus is stacked ready for the following day.

FOMS is a large operation with 55 crews harvesting around New Zealand producing 1.2 million tonnes of logs for export per year.

Marcus says Woodville will continue to be busy as trees planted with a government subsidy in the 1990s are coming on stream and the company is harvesting as much as it has ever done before.

Logs at Woodville Station for delivery by rail to Napier Port.