Understanding the benefits of exotics скачать в хорошем качестве

Understanding the benefits of exotics

A workshop on timber plus carbon farming is encouraging farmers to understand more about the science of growing exotics for better land-use opportunities and increased profits. The initiative was organised by DANA Limited, a forestry consultant company based in Rotorua and founded by Dennis Neilson in 1993. http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/video   / videos      / gisborneherald   “Our experience has been that planting exotics is usually seen in a bad light and we want to change that,” Mr Neilson said. The workshop was held to give farmers a better understanding of the changing legislation, regulation and the economics of staying in farming. It included a visit to a farm in Whangara that had successfully implemented the model of planting as guided by the consultant company. Mr Neilson said the farm owner, Pat Lane, and his son Mike had earlier approached him and another forestry consultant as they were interested in looking at opportunities to develop sheep farming. “When we showed them that you can improve your farm by planting trees such as pine and gain timber plus carbon benefits, it was a no brainer.” The farmers who had come for the visit were shown the portion of the farm that was planted with pine trees. “This field day is more about showing these farmers the opportunities and benefits when you plant pine trees. It is a great investment option for families,” Mr Lane said. It was all about having a healthy mix of exotics and natives, he said. “As you can see there are a lot of natives starting to regenerate in the valley.” It was when the Lanes consulted with Mr Neilson and Mike King, a forestry consultant from Interpine, that they realised the exotic planting process was not as destructive as it once was. “Mike mapped out our entire farm on Google Earth and picked up the places that were unplantable and those that were and made several spreadsheets. The figures spoke for themselves. “He showed us the returns and it was hard to say no,” he said. With the emergence of the carbon economy and the price of carbon, farmers have been given serious choices to make, Mr King said. “The Lanes had a look at their scenario and decided after consultation that the smartest thing to do would be to take the roughest part of their country land — which is typical in of lot of places on the East Cape — and practise timber plus carbon farming,” he said. Mr King said while the primary reason to have an exotic forest was to get timber, the economics of waiting 30 years to make any profit from selling it made it “unattractive”. “Most of the landowners were of an age that if they waited 30 years they wouldn't see the fruit of it. But with the carbon credit process providing an annual cash flow coupled with timber production, it is a win-win situation and hence called timber plus carbon farming,” he said. As the landowners were conservative thinkers, they were sceptical of the change. “Part of our journey is to educate landowners that they shouldn't stop farming and grow trees. It is about utilising the land and farming it well to get better production per hectare, taking tougher country and allowing the trees to do the work for you,” Mr King said. Besides the need for change there was a need to remove misconceptions about planting pines. “People have been hugely misled by myths regarding forestry. Theories such as exotics poison the land, ruin the water and the trees fall over, is problematic. Just read the science behind it,” he said. While he believed in planting the right tree in the right place, it could be misunderstood. If you plant native species on one hectare, after 50 years it would have sequestered 320 tonnes of carbon. But if the same hectare was planted with pine forests along with the benefit of the timber later, it would have sequestered somewhere between 1400 and 1700 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Although the exotics were better in carbon sequestration, it would be wrong to say that natives should not be utilised as such forestry has its own uses, Mr King said. Council Land Management officer Kerry Hudson said while most of the planting has been of exotics over the years, there has been a push towards natives recently. Unlike the exotics, native forestry was difficult and slow to grow and required more pest control measures. The ability of exotics such as pines to grow quickly helped erosion control as well as carbon sequestration. However, Mr Hudson said that growing natives was a better option when it came to land that has “eroded badly”. It was “advantageous” to have native plants that were not being harvested, they are there for the long term. “It is more about planting the right tree in the right place, which includes taking the soil as a factor,” he said. Filmed and Edited by Ben Cowper SUBSCRIBE! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...