Weyerhaeuser Company appoints Travis Keatley as senior vice president (SVP) of Timberlands, effective September 13, 2021. Keatley has served as vice president of Western Timberlands for the company since January 2020, and his appointment follows the planned retirement of Adrian Blocker, who will stay on through mid-October to serve as a senior advisor and aid in the transition.

Travis Keatley joined Weyerhaeuser in 2000. He has since held a variety of operations and leadership positions, including serving as vice president of Southern Timberlands prior to his current role leading Western Timberlands, and among other key projects he led the successful integration of our Longview Timber acquisition in 2013.

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest private owners of timberlands, began operations in 1900. The Company owns or controls approximately 11 million acres of timberlands in the U.S. and manage additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada.

Ponsse’s Cut-to-Length forest machines have proved an excellent solution for harvesting on steep slopes. An environmentally friendly solution is in high demand due to more work being done on steep slopes as the number of tree plantations increases globally.

At the autumns first Ponsse Studio live-event they will share more information about their solutions for safety work at the areas where ground shapes and slope steepness vary.

The most important solution for harvesting at steep slopes is PONSSE Synchrowinch, which enables the forest machine to work with high productivity in an environmentally friendly and safe manner, even in difficult conditions.

English language live-event will take place 25 August at 10:00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. (EEST)

• The event at 10:00 a.m. is subtitled in German and Russian
• The event at 6:00 p.m. is subtitled in Spanish and Portuguese

Welcome – book your seat now!

(Lucy Craymer, Stuff) – Millions of cubic metres of logs leave our shores every year – all while we remain desperately short of timber. If you want to build a house in New Zealand, you’ll likely want timber. But in a country that cuts down around 40,000 hectares of trees, there is a shortage of the stuff. National Correspondent Lucy Craymer explains why trade is affecting our ability to produce structural timber.

Builders are struggling to get hold of basic building materials and there are warnings that prices – already high – could rise as much as 35 per cent this year. It’s an ugly forecast for builders charged with tackling a chronic shortage of housing. And it is not easily fixed without the government doing a U-turn on the country’s entrenched devotion to free trade.

The problem has its roots more than 10,000km away in Chinese provinces like Shandong and Hebei, known for wood processing – and also in a trade agreement that has heralded significant benefits to our economy while at the same time undermining the country’s wood manufacturing sector over the course of a decade.

Why does so much timber go to China? – Simply, they are able to pay more. But there is more to the answer than just pure supply and demand. Let’s start with the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which New Zealand and China signed in 2008. This got rid of import taxes on New Zealand logs going to China but did not eliminate those on other wood products New Zealand produces such as plywood (tariffs on many of these will be eliminated when an upgrade to the FTA takes effect).

In short, this means it can be more economical for China to buy logs from New Zealand than other wood products. It also means New Zealand logs are comparatively attractive to logs from countries without FTAs with China. This demand has resulted in higher prices for New Zealand logs.

And Chinese buyers can pay more for these logs even though they have to ship them all the way to China for a few reasons, including that the manufacturing sector in China receives some subsidies. A recent investigation by Canadian authorities into Chinese decorative wood moulding listed possible subsidies that manufacturing companies in China can receive, including: export market grants, significant reductions in corporate tax and other preferential tax policies and rent reductions.

Tava Olsen, a professor at the University of Auckland who specialises in supply chains, adds China’s processors also benefit from being larger and having fewer environmental restrictions such as the chemicals they use and how they dispose of them. She says it’s also easier to ship logs than higher value products that would require more care to prevent damage.

The premium that Chinese buyers are often willing to pay has been a boon for forestry owners – many of whom are not New Zealanders but foreign corporations that have invested in land here. A 2019 report for the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment found that forest owners were selling logs to local sawmills at the same price as they could get when they exported them. “Effectively, Chinese log buyers are setting the market price for New Zealand sawmills,” it argues.

More>>

Source: Stuff

After more than 25 years’ working in domestic and international forestry and agriculture sectors, the Tasmania Regional Forestry Hub’s new general manager will soon return to his home state where he hopes to make a tangible difference to the growth and standing of the local forest and forest products industry.

Simon Talbot—who hails from six generations of Tasmanian farmers and foresters—will commence his new role in mid-September, following an interstate move from Victoria where he currently holds the position of Executive Director for the state’s largest land manager, Parks Victoria/DELWP.

“My career began in Tasmanian working in silviculture, forestry and paper sectors and has let to opportunities directing agricultural policy and associated plantation investments across Asia Pacific, for the world’s second largest food company, Kraft/Cadbury,” Mr Talbot said. Despite living and working outside the state for many years, Mr Talbot said Tasmania has always remained ‘home’.

“I have family and friends in sawmilling and harvesting operations in Tassie and believe I have a thorough knowledge of Tasmania’s forestry sector from more than seven years working across in the pulp and paper industry in the state’s north-west, as well as active investments in plantations and promotion of specialty timbers.

“I believe we are on the cusp of a golden age, for the industry and Tasmania in general, and I want to be a part of helping showcase what is being achieved, to support innovation and new developments, a revitalised supply chain, help create a pipeline of talent and achieve the right patient investment models.”

A federal initiative, the Tasmania Hub’s vision is to grow a sustainable, innovative forest industry that supports Tasmania’s community and economy into the future and is supported by the community by focusing on four strategic priorities: climate and carbon policy, workforce skills and training, resource and land access, and supply chain and infrastructure.

Tasmanian Forests and Forest Products Network Convenor, Therese Taylor said in recruiting its new GM, the Hub was looking for someone who could work with industry to implement a roadmap addressing the sector’s identified priority areas which focus on strategic actions that encourage the planting of new trees and foster an innovative and forward-looking industry.

“Simon will be a great asset to the Hub’s work. He has a proven track record working with a range of stakeholders on complex and significant projects and in this new role, will work with the industry across the state to develop agreed pathways forward to advance opportunities for progress and growth of the forest industry into the future,” Ms Taylor said.

Mr Talbot and his family will relocate permanently to their recently renovated farmhouse in northern Tasmania next month.

A New Zealand team hopes a drone dropping thousands of seeds over the Hūnua ranges could provide a boost to native reforestation efforts. RNZ reporter Louise Ternouth and cameraman Nick Monro were there for its launch.

If the trial works, the drone-testing team say New Zealand could be progressing on the government’s ambitious goal of 1 billion trees planted by 2028 years earlier than expected. For the last three years native trees have been slowly planted by hand in the former pine forest in the Hūnua Ranges.

It is one of the biggest reforestation projects in New Zealand -and the drone method could be a game changer. In a trial, five thousand of the specially made ‘seed pods’, or seed bombs, were loaded into the drone at a time, then scattered over a one-acre testing section from the air.

Sam Vye from drone firm Envico Technologies said the method was much better than planting by hand. “The traditional methods of going around and planting a seedling every square metre is great but it’s slow, and the New Zealand landscape is pretty steep terrain so any method that we can do by air that improves the speed, improves the efficiency and reduces the cost.”

Dropping seeds alone had little success – so the team adapted a popular method for encasing seeds in a ball of organic matter to help them germinate and get established, known as a seed bomb, and have called their version a ‘seed pod’. “We were getting a really poor take, real poor germination so we came up with the idea of actually encapsulating the seed within an organic mixture and putting that into a pod.”

The seeds are mixed with water, clay and compost and compressed into a small ball shape. Each one weighs about two grams, is about the size of a lolly, and contains five to six different native seeds gathered from the area. Ten drone flights could spread 50,000 of the tiny parcels in just half an hour, Vye said.

“We think, per hectare we would be under $1000 in a commercial operation.” That compared to costs of about $10,000 to 20,000 per hectare to plant by hand. It would be about three years before they know if the trial has worked, but the seeds are expected to germinate this spring.

To check out video footage of the recent trial click here.

Source: RNZ

“The role of data and information in forestry has increased incrementally, and the digital transformation now being experienced is introducing an entirely new era of data-driven business. Ponsse wants to lead the development of future sustainable forestry business models.

“Technologies such as connectivity, data acquisition and management enable the development of new tools for remote machine data configuration and scalable data platforms for business development. Also new services such as fleet management, predictive maintenance and sustainability reporting are developed together with our customers.

“With increasing amounts of data and analyzing tools, we are starting to shift from data-based to data-driven solutions. This shift in data architecture enables the generation of new digital services and solutions that benefit each party in the value chain.” says Juho Leskinen, Product Group Manager, Digitalization and Information Systems

Shaping the future webinars

“At the webinar´s panel discussion Ponsse specialists shared thoughts about the future PONSSE Manager platform (web + mobile). PONSSE Manager is a key part of Ponsse digital offering portfolio, which will collect all digital services for customers in one place, accessible in a single user interface. The modularity and user friendliness of the platform are key to serve a variety of customer demands in transforming data into valuable information.

Listen the recording of the webinars and learn more
Check out also their recently published White Paper – Data and Digitalization in Logging from link below:

White Paper – Data and Digitalization in Logging release

Further information
Juho Leskinen
Ponsse Plc, Product Group Manager, Digitalization and Information Systems, juho.leskinen@ponsse.com, Tel.+358 40 5742704

Woodsafe Timber Protection Ltd has launched an exclusive collaboration with Australias market-leading fire protection coatings company – Fireshield, extending its reach of its specialised pressure impregnated timber processes to New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The trend to build with sustainable, climate-neutral products continues to grow and demanded by architects and customers alike worldwide. With our exclusive collaboration with Fireshield, New Zealand and Australia will benefit from the innovative, environmentally-friendly and fully fire compliant Woodsafe processes.  Fireshield was founded by Per Olsson, an expert fire engineer with over 25 years global experience, to satisfy the South Pacific’s growing need for innovative, environmentally friendly, fire protection solutions. With both Woodsafe PRO and Woodsafe Exterior WFX technology in its new portfolio, Fireshield is excited to continue lead the fire protection of timber in Australasia.

More information:

Woodsafe Timber Protection AB

Thomas Bengtsson, CEO.
Thomas.bengtsson@woodsafe.com | + 46 10 206 72 31
Pressroom | https://media.woodsafe.se
Webpage | https://woodsafe.se

Fireshield

Per Olsson, CEO.
Per@fireshieldcoatings.com | + 64 27 439 4271
Webpage | https://fireshieldcoatings.com

Thomas Bengtsson
CEO and Fire technology support
+46 (0) 10 206 72 31
thomas.bengtsson@woodsafe.com

Woodsafe provides a service to the construction industry to improve wood properties against fire for interior and exterior use. For more than 30 years, Woodsafe Timber Protection has focused on becoming a leading manufacturer of fire protected wood products. Our production is ISO 9001 certified and our long-term sustainability environmental work is ISO 14001 certified. Every year, Woodsafe Timber Protection, in collaboration with our premium partners, manages more than 1000 projects using fire retardant wood products for schools, high schools, colleges, hospitals, sports arenas, public buildings, multi-storey houses and facades, transportation, prefabricated building industry etc. ALL-IN-ONE by Woodsafe is a quality chain of selected partners and sales channels that facilitates and ensures companies to take a holistic approach for the litterally vital work with fire protected wood in construction projects. Customers’ natural choice. Woodsafe a trusthworthy partner for the development of new wood types and wood components with fire-retardant properties.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has received an order from Visy Pulp & Paper for a 243,000 m3 chip storage and handling system, including a Stacker Reclaimer RST360, for its Tumut mill in New South Wales, Australia.

The ANDRITZ 360° Stacker Reclaimer is a complete system that stores and reclaims wood chips in a continuous 360° radial configuration. It operates on a true first-in, first-out (FIFO) chip management basis, ensuring homogeneous chip supply to the digester while at the same time offering a large storage capacity. ANDRITZ has several references for RST360 Stacker Reclaimers worldwide.

The discharge rate from the RST360 is automatically controlled, with the speed of the two metering screws in the hopper being adjusted to meet the capacity requirements of the pulping process. The equalizing hopper discharge is continuously monitored with a belt scale. Added to these features, the RST360 is delivered with a dedicated bypass to feed chips directly to the discharge hopper from the infeed conveyor.

Visy Pulp & Paper is a leading, privately owned packaging and resource recovery company, with more than 120 sites across Australia, New Zealand and Thailand and trading offices across Asia, Europe and the USA.

Andritz Group

International technology group ANDRITZ offers a broad portfolio of innovative plants, equipment, systems and services for the pulp and paper industry, the hydropower sector, the metals processing and forming industry, pumps, solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial sectors, as well as animal feed and biomass pelleting. Plants for power generation, flue gas cleaning, recycling, and the production of nonwovens and panelboard complete the global product and service offering. Innovative products and services in the industrial digitalization sector are offered under the brand name Metris and help customers to make their plants more user-friendly, efficient and profitable. The publicly listed group has around 26,700 employees and more than 280 locations in over 40 countries.

Andritz Pulp & Paper

ANDRITZ Pulp & Paper provides equipment, systems, complete plants and services for the production of all types of pulp, paper, board and tissue. The technologies and services focus on maximum utilization of raw materials, increased production efficiency and sustainability as well as lower overall operating costs. Boilers for power generation, flue gas cleaning systems, plants for the production of nonwovens and panelboard (MDF), as well as recycling and shredding solutions for various waste materials also form a part of this business area. State-of-the-art IIoT technologies as part of Metris digitalization solutions complete the comprehensive product offering.

Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) and Seneca has announced that SPI plans to acquire Seneca and affiliates, combining two complementary, familyowned forest products businesses with strong historical roots on the West Coast. Founded in 1953, Seneca operates a 175,000-acre sustainably-managed tree farm, sawmills, and a biomass plant in Oregon. SPI, a leading lumber producer that manages over 2.1 million acres of timberland in California and Washington, as well as manufactures millwork, windows, and renewable energy.

The combination of two highly complementary businesses with deep expertise in forest products will result in increased efficiency and significant benefits to employees and customers. “Aaron Jones and Red Emmerson are both icons of the wood products industry. They were also friends and had a deep mutual respect for each other as industry leaders,” said Seneca CEO Todd Payne, in reference to the founders of their respective companies. “This proposed transfer makes so much more sense given the companies provide complementary products, and have shared family values and company culture.” Both SPI and Seneca have a strong focus on sustainable tree management, also managing their timberland for thriving wildlife, healthy watersheds and soils, and world-class recreation. As Payne explains, “At Seneca, we grow more than we harvest annually. We have 92% more timber on our land today than we had 25 years ago. SPI also grows more than they harvest. Under their forest management plan they expect to have more large trees on their timberlands 100 years from now than they have today.”

The companies also share a company culture that recognizes employees as their most valuable asset, values the support of the communities they operate in and serve, and gives back by being dedicated to education and administering scholarship programs.

“Seneca is known for its commitment to its people and communities, sustainable forest management, innovation in manufacturing and quality wood products,” said SPI President George Emmerson. “As a family-owned forest products company with similar values, SPI appreciates the opportunity to continue the legacy started by Aaron Jones and carried on by the Jones sisters. Seneca’s culture and operations are a natural complement to Sierra Pacific. We look forward to bringing together our shared expertise which will result in increased efficiency and benefits to employees and customers.”

The transaction is subject to continuing due diligence and customary regulatory approvals, with the sale expected to close by the end of the third quarter 2021.

About Seneca

Seneca started as a small sawmill operation founded by Aaron Jones in 1953.

Today, owners Becky Jones, Kathy Jones-McCann and Jody Jones continue the legacy of leadership and innovation in the wood products industry, overseeing a family of companies consisting of Seneca Sawmill Company which now operates four sawmills, Seneca Jones Timber Company with 175,000 acres of sustainably managed timberlands, and Seneca Sustainable Energy which has the cleanest running biomass plant in America. Two out of six of the next generation of the Jones family work at Seneca.

About Sierra Pacific Industries

Established in 1949, Sierra Pacific Industries is a third-generation, family-owned integrated forest products company based in Anderson, California. The firm owns and sustainably manages over 2.1 million acres of timberland in California and Washington and is a leading U.S. lumber producer. The company also manufactures millwork, windows, and renewable energy. In 1949, Curly and his son Red launched R.H. Emmerson and Son, building their first sawmill together in Humboldt County, California; later becoming Sierra Pacific Industries in 1969. Today, Red is joined by his sons George and Mark in running the company his daughter Carolyn Dietz oversees the Sierra Pacific Foundation, and four out of nine of the next generation of the Emmerson family are working in various roles in the company.