It's been 26 years in the making, but on Wednesday the first truckloads of logs were carted out of the Waikare forest in the Waitotara Valley, north of Wanganui.
It's a significant milestone because the logs were the first to be harvested from the 90 forests that have been established by Waverley-based company, Roger Dickie New Zealand.
Mr Dickie planted Waikare in 1989 before he started syndicating new forests and attracting investors. He has amassed a portfolio of 29,000 hectares of forests planted in the Wanganui district but mainly in the Hawke's Bay and East Coast regions.
Richard Bourne, marketing manager for the forestry investment company which is now the largest of the private investor groups in the country, said Waikare would take three to four years to harvest. Next year logging will start in another forest and cutting would grow exponentially from that point.
"In some cases we planted six or eight forests in a year and when we start cutting those trees we'll have a significant number of crews working the forests," he said.