Fighting the log grab threat

Replanting has slowed over the last 20 years, and now immature logs are being harvested reports Catherine Harris.

Jobs and environmental sustainability are under threat from foreign log buyers who are flying over New Zealand forests and offering struggling landowners cash to buy immature trees.

That’s the claim of saw millers and wood industry organisations, who say they now have grave concerns about the country’s longterm log supplies.

Brian Stanley of The Wood Council said he was getting reports from Northland of sales of logs as young as 18-years-old, when the trees should ideally be left to grow for another ten years.

‘‘You’ve got overseas buyers from India, China and I think the Middle East as well flying into New Zealand, grabbing a chartered flight from Ardmore, and flying over all the forests.

‘‘It’s all the farmers’ woodlots. They’ll GPS those and then land at Whangarei, pick up a rental car with a wad of cash, and just go around buying them up.’’

The practice seems to be worst in Northland, but there are reports of the same thing happening in Southland and Canterbury.

And Northland sawmillers in particular fear logging could drop off massively in five years’ time, if immature log exports continue.

Stanley added: ’’There’s no law against it. The farmer or whoever owns the trees can do what he likes with them.

‘‘What we’re saying is they should probably get some professional advice on the basis that if they took them out to age 28, they would probably get a better value proposition.’’

In Otago, Roger Stuart of Stuart Timber said he was also hearing reports of exporters encouraging people to cut the trees at 22 to 24 years of age.

And it was hard for people who had perhaps put in a forest for their retirement to turn it down, he said.

Industry players said it was unlikely the young logs are being used for construction, although they say there are no controls once they leave New Zealand shores.

Neil Geerkens, general manager of Northland Forest Managers, said the concerns were real.

Trees cut down before their prime would not be there when the industry expected them.

‘‘I guess the key question is, how do you stop it?’’

The problem comes as saw millers around the country struggle to access even mature logs, because they are locked into export contracts.

The speed at which wood is being felled in Northland was now so great that Mark Hansen of Northland’s Rosvall Sawmill, predicts mills will close.

‘‘It’s going to cause massive problems as soon as 2021.

‘‘It’s a five-minute feast for a long-term disaster, I’d say.’’

He wants the Government to step in.

‘‘It’s all legal, you can’t legally stop it but I’m saying why can’t we change the laws?’’

So does Shane Horan, of Northland’s Waipapa Pine.

‘‘You’ve got to slow it down and have strategic sustainable harvesting,’’ he said.

‘‘You’ve got to encourage replanting, we’ve got a carbon credit issue, and you’ve got processors in New Zealand that are concerned about reinvestment, because they’re not sure of their long-term supply.

‘‘This industry is capital intense. You can’t be there for a few years and just wait on the side till the next lot grows and then come back in five years when you’re all paying off your capital investments.

‘‘So that affects everybody, from your harvesters to your transporters, the whole lot. Because they’ve got to keep everybody employed.’’

Horan said there was also a place for the Overseas Investment Office and the Ministry for Primary Industries to get involved.

He said at least one foreignowned forestry company was giving a portion of their logs to the local industry and believed those companies should be encouraged.

But smaller buy-ups slipped under the radar.

Suggested solutions include a quota on export logs or for Kiwisaver funds to buy forests.

However, the minister in charge of forestry issues, Jo Goodhew said the Government would not intervene in what were essentially commercial decisions by private companies.

‘‘Any interference in what is a private property right will not send the right signals to encourage future investment and get the highest returns on their investments.’’

She also said a decline in log volumes over the next decade in Northland had been expected for some time.

Brian Stanley agreed there was always a ’’hole’’ looming in Northland, but with the current level of harvesting, there was no telling how deep that hole was going to get.

He said the industry was realistic enough not to ask for quotas.

‘‘We’re not asking for regulations to restrict exporting. What we’re asking for is that domestic sawmillers get offered the chance to buy those logs before they are exported.’’