Russell Dale
Promising eucalyptus trees offer hardwood growing opportunities for farmers and other landowners, says a New Zealand Forest researcher. Source: Stuff NZ
Forest Owners Association research and development manager Russell Dale said many of the eucalpytus were naturally durable and could be used with fewer chemicals, which many customers wanted.
“We are focussing on the cypresses, and through the dryland program, eucalyptus such as E. quadrangulata ,E. microcorys and E. bosistoana would be the ones showing more promise,” he said.
He said the eucalyptus were site specific, unlike radiata pine, which could be planted from Northland to Bluff and managed to do well in most areas.
“We have been spoilt by radiata. It does well in so many places.”
Mr Dale said some of the research into breeding and selecting better tree species was long-term which worried many farm foresters, who were older and could not wait years before they knew what to plant, and got the benefit.
“We have had a douglas fir project that has run for 50 years, and a eucalypt project that has gone for 30 years. But some of the benefit of research species, we’re using now, was the result of research done 30 years ago,” he said.
He said some of the shorter term results were eucalyptus species that did well in various regions and on some sites.
“If landowners know about the site, weather soils and drainage, they might ask about tailoring types of trees for that site,” said.
Mr Dale said douglas fir took about 50 years to reach maturity in New Zealand and while that is less than the 100 years many trees take overseas, research is trying to cut the maturity period to perhaps 35 years in New Zealand and to get the same wood quality.
He said tree sterility was high on the list of breeding for species such as douglas fir and pine trees.
Dale said contorta pine was planted by the government in erosion-prone areas in the 1930s to the 1960s, but was no longer planted as it was regarded as a weed.
He said douglas fir was planted for timber in higher elevated areas as it could cope with snow, but was spreading in parts of the South Island.
