Burnt plantation still viable
No jobs to be lost at Longmore after fires
THE MTO company sustained damage amounting to hundreds of millions of rands in the inferno which swept through its Longmore pine plantation in Thornhill on June 9.
But no jobs would be lost and the forestry giant was determined to rebuild the Longmore operation despite the continued threat of major fires, MTO Group chief executive Lawrence Polkinghorne said yesterday from the company’s Stellenbosch HQ.
Before the fire the company employed 48 workers in the Longmore Sawmill and a further 200 along with contract workers across the estate, and despite the huge damage incurred there was no shortage of work, he said.
“Some of our employees will continue to manage surviving trees, some will shift to growing operations due to an accelerated replanting programme, and some will be redeployed to our George plantations.”
One of the Longmore Sawmill operations sees biomass supplied to the Woodlands Dairy to fire its boiler and this deal would be unaffected, he said.
A complete assessment of damages, led by insurers, structural engineers and logging machinery specialists, is still under way. But the damage to the sawmill alone is expected to be about R100-million.
Some 5 800ha of the 11 000ha plantation was burnt and while not all this timber had to be written off, the loss of “future value” unprotected by insurance payouts and accrued through the sale of mature trees would pose a serious challenge, Polkinghorne said.
“We’re still determining the fire intensity damage, which assesses what portion of the trees was destroyed and what portion can be left in the ground because it will continue to grow.
“Salvage initiatives are under way and efforts will be focused on finding alternative markets for the surviving immature trees which have to be felled and the consequent glut of timber.”
The other dynamic to contend with was the depressed local market, Polkinghorne said.
“We have existing markets in China for round logs and continue to investigate other channels, including India and Vietnam.”
The investigation into the cause of the fire was also still under way but it was clear the fire did not start in the plantation as was initially reported but on land to the southwest of the plantation, he said.
“We were the third property affected and although the investigation is not complete it seems that possibly the big winds caused electrical lines to short, which caused a spark.”
Polkinghorne said he agreed with the warning from NMMU botanist Dr Richard Cowling and a team of scientists on the fire threat posed by alien invader species in fynbos surrounding the plantations, due to their extra woody mass and aromatic oils.
“It’s absolutely prudent to guard against this situation and we will continue to manage this as part of an integrated fire management plan around our forests.
“We will also be looking to improve our reaction time when we do have to respond to a fire.”
Longmore remained a viable plantation, Polkinghorne said.
“Its economic value and the direct and indirect jobs it generates makes it a sound and sustainable venture.”