Registrations are rolling in for the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association national conference to be held in Gisborne in April next year.
Organisers are expecting about 200 for the five-day conference, with the theme “trees for all reasons”.
Conference secretary Meg Gaddum says planning is well in hand for the event, which will offer an array of interesting speakers and field days – ranging from visits to see dramatic hill country erosion and restoration planting, to iconic conservation and wetland restoration. Also there will be a visit to the Eastwoodhill Arboretum and family farms that are examples of the true farm forestry model and spirit, she says.
The conference runs from April 19-23 with the first two days held at Emerald Hotel conference centre and field days for the remaining three days.
The first field day is up the Coast to view extreme erosion and how it is being treated in the Tapuaeroa Valley, inland from Ruatoria. Conference delegates will be able to see extremely severe gully erosion, some East Coast Forestry Project (ECFP) indigenous reversion as well as first and second rotation radiata forestry.
Experts will talk about the ECFP, soil erosion and its impacts on bridges, and some history and geology of the East Coast.
The next day includes a visit to Nick’s Head Station, the 660-hectare property that encompasses the iconic Young Nicks Head.
Bought by New York financier John Griffin in 2002, this working farm has benefited from substantial capital expenditure and people will be able to see the full-scale restoration planting on the steeper hill slopes and around vast wetlands.
Mr Griffin’s aim is to return 20 percent of the farm to its state prior to human arrival.
Also on the second day of field trips, delegates will have half a day at Ray and Grace Newman’s Koro Station. During the tour people will see stands of black walnuts, cypress, acacia melanoxylon and eucalyptus species as well as a kuser 2002 redwood trial block.
The Newmans won the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Innovation award in 1997, and the North Island Farm Forester of the Year award this year.
On the last official day there will be a trip to Eastwoodhill Arboretum, which was recognised as New Zealand’s national arboretum in 2006 and has more than 12,500 specimen trees recorded.
In the afternoon will be a visit to Kees and Kay Weytman’s Knapdale Eco Lodge.
The Weytman’s mission is to develop 32 hectares into a sustainable and semi-permaculture operation with integrated multi-purpose forestry. They have acacia melanoxylon, black walnut, lusitanica, pines at close spacings and high pruned, and indigenous forestry, especially puriri.
The Weytmans won the Gisborne District Council Rural Environmental Award in 2003 and the North Island Farm Forester of the Year award in 2006.
Organisers have arranged extra field trip options for the day following the conference for those who want to stay in Gisborne a little longer.
The options include a trip to Bob Berry’s Hackfalls Arboretum, which features a large collection of oaks, maples and poplars, and has the largest collection of Mexican oaks in Australasia.
Another trip is to Meg Gaddum and Bob Wishhart’s Te Koawa Station, which they turned from a treeless and eroding 600 hectare hill country property into an amenable, viable and sustainable working farm.
Winners of the inaugural Gisborne District Council’s Environmental Award in 2000, they will show some dramatic country planted for environmental reasons.
Planning has gone into site selection for planting, resulting in relatively canker-free macrocarpa stands and straight high-pruned acacia melanoxylon, making them some of the better examples of these species in the district.
Also offered is a trip to Panikau and Wensleydale Stations. At Panikau, owned by Mike Murphy, delegates can see an old garden created last century and an historic woolshed.
At Nick and Pat Seymour’s Wensleydale Station, a farm tour will look at 45 years of planned woodlots planted yearly and harvested on a five-year basis. The Seymours won the North Island Farm Forester of the Year in 1997 and the MaF Award for sustainable farm forestry in 1999.
