Eucalypt pioneer wants to see more trees in ground
Tree grower Paul Millen wants the planting and processing of eucalypt trees to ramp up, on the back of successful trials.
“Imagine if you could go into Bunnings and pick up New Zealand-grown hardwood. DIY people would love it.”
He spoke about his vision for a potential eucalypt industry at a New Zealand Drylands Forests Innovation (NZDFI) workshop, funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), at the Marlborough Research Centre in February, and a field trip to eucalypt trial sites.
In the last 15 years, government funding totalling about $9 million had been spent on scientific trials growing eucalypts on dry east coast farms around New Zealand, said Millen, NZDFI project manager.
MPI also funded NZDFI’s two-year evaluation of how planting new durable hardwood forests could improve sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Marlborough’s wine industry.
Eucalypts grew well in Marlborough and there was plenty of demand for their wood, Millen said. He described his vision of 5000 hectares of Marlborough eucalypts, growing within 40km of two processing hubs, producing posts, poles and timbers.
At Riverlands Industrial Estate, southeast of Blenheim, one hub could transform 1500 to 2000ha of tall trees with lots of heartwood into about 500,000 posts and poles, he said. That would meet about half the demand from wine companies wanting to replace their pine posts, which had to be chemically treated to go in the ground, unlike eucalypt.
Trees could be sourced from south Marlborough where the annual rainfall could be as low as 300mm, Millen said.
Eucalypts grew slowly in the dry climate, but were drought-tolerant and tough. “Logs from the bottom of the paddock can become top quality wood.”
The second hub could be a new sawmill at Kaituna, north of Renwick, processing logs grown on a 30-year rotation in north Marlborough, where there was more rain, so trees grew faster.
Logs could be milled into products such as timber for flooring and decking, as an alternative to unsustainable tropical hardwood. There would also be the option of small-scale processing on-farm.
“The market is already there. Internationally, eucalypt is better known than pine,” Millen said.
Australia was shutting down all logging in its native eucalyptus forests in several states to protect this native species, leaving a $400 million market gap to be filled.
While his case study focused on Marlborough, the model could be picked up in other areas, Millen said. Around Wairoa, for example, a $27m future sawmill processing trees off 3000 to 5000 hectares could supply an $82m timber industry, employing a lot of people.
Associate Professor Clemens Altaner, of the School of Forestry, said New Zealand spent about $53.3m on hardwood imports a year. He anticipated strong demand for untreated but durable hardwood posts and poles for farm fencing.
Millen said a byproduct of processing hubs would be wood waste that could be used as biomass, replacing coal.
To reduce significant carbon emissions, the region’s businesses, such as Dominion Salt, seafood processors, and wine companies, were required to switch to more sustainable energy sources by 2038. The 350,000 tonnes of pine wood waste currently sitting on forestry blocks should be used for this immediately, he said.
James Cowie, research analyst with the MPI’s Te Uru Rākau, said New Zealand was committed to net zero biofuel emissions by 2050. Demand for wood biomass was likely to exceed supply by 2030.
Gerald Hope, Marlborough Research Centre chief executive, anticipated a sustainable $1 billion per year New Zealand durable hardwood industry by 2050.