PFSQ has a team of experienced foresters who can deal with all forestry issues.  Assessments and valuations for Government resumed property, Taxation forestry issues and general financial advice regarding the value of standing timber and the projected growth data, is available. 

Please contact us if you have any queries regarding these matters. 

We currently have a number of large corporate clients who use our expertise in calculating carbon sequestration, carbon vegetation credits and auditing of plantations for the coming carbon trading economy. We utilize the only Government accredited Carbon Toolbox to interpret your data for the carbon future.

With the arrival of Gary Clarke, our new Operations Manager, PFSQ now has the capability, expertise and expanded field crew to advise, design, implement and establish plantations within the PFSQ region and beyond.  Gary has a list of extremely successful plantations which he has been established and currently maintains under the PFSQ banner.  Many landholders now understand the relationship of preserving their forest areas, revegetation of their degraded land and the many benefits, both commercial and environmental that this impacts upon.

We can devise a management plan for your property and we can either do the work for you or support you in doing the processes yourself.

MEET Queensland’s first CarbonSmart assessor.

Paul Daly has been appointed by South East Queensland Catchments and Landcare, so property owners can find out just how much their land is worth as a carbon sink. He will estimate and register carbon sinks, which are plantings conducted on private land since 1990.

Mr Daly, a farm forestry extension officer, examines the size, age and condition of a forest and rates it according to a formula.
If sold to a carbon emitter, the landholder receives 60 per cent of returns; 10 per cent is put aside in an insurance pool in case fire or disease destroys the trees; and the remainder goes to management, assessment and trading costs.

Mr Daly said yesterday the southeast was a prime place for carbon trading because its eucalypt species had strong growth rates. Sub-tropical eucalypts grew far more quickly than southern species, making them of greater value in a carbon-trading scheme.
An average hectare of southeast eucalypt country could store between 10 tonnes and 20 tonnes of carbon. Currently this was trading at $20 a tonne. “But what grows at Kin Kin and Bellthorpe (Sunshine Coast hinterland) is different to what grows in the Lockyer (drier country southwestof Brisbane) and has different storage levels,” he said.

Mr Daly said the project would deliver an income stream to owners of land not being used for agriculture.“It also delivers the inherent benefits of revegetation, including stock and crop protection, improvement of erosion and soil salinity problems and invigorated biodiversity, all of which promotes greater productivity on the land,” he said.

Landcare’s role was the creation of a not-for-profit carbon pool called Carbonsmart which handled trading. It started in southern states last year. Carbon credits were sold from the carbon pool to people who wanted to offset their carbon-producing activities, such as an electricity producer. The scheme provided a financial incentive for landholders to maintain eligible carbon credit vegetation on their land for 100 years. Landholders receive annual payments and if the price of carbon rises, so do payments.

Carbonsmart managing director Matthew Reddy said his organisation had traded more than $1 million in contracts since starting in March last year.

It is estimated carbon trading worldwide will be worth more than $3 trillion by 2020.

silviculture-research-to-assist-large-scale-commercial-farm-forestry-in-queensland.pdf

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 The new edition of the summary publication on plantations and water use was released yesterday. The major changes from the previous edition include the use of plantation area data to 2005 to show the proportions of plantations in catchments, a wider range of catchments, restricting the land use proportions to areas where average annual rainfall exceeds 600 mm and descriptions of research by CSIRO and BRS into the Murrumbidgee and Upper Murray catchments.You can down-load it from:http://www.affashop.gov.au/product.asp?prodid=13798

             Growing Rainforest

                  Timber Trees        

The book is the result of a research project funded by the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program, which is managed by RIRDC and jointly funded by Land & Water Australia, Forestry and Wood Products R&D Corporation, and Murray-Darling Basin Commission. The book is a practical guide for growing rainforest timber trees, and although the title says north Queensland, it is relevant to other regions of wet tropical and subtropical

The book’s full citation is: Bristow, M;Annandale, M. and Bragg, A. (2005) Growing rainforest timber trees: a farm forestry manual for north Queensland. Publication No 03/010, RIRDC, Canberra.

RIRDC have also recently published a book about red cedar and tip moth, and have another book in the publication pipeline on reforestation in tropical and subtropical Australia (looking back on ten years experience). These can be viewed on the web site. JVAP and RIRDC publications since 1997/98 can also be viewed or downloaded from here.

 Available from: RIRDC at www.rirdc.gov.au  or order by phone 02-6272 4817 or fax 02-6272 5877. The price is $30 (including postage). (RIRDC gives a 20% discount for purchases of more than 10 copies, a 20% discount for booksellers or educational institutions, and a 50% discount for students supplying ID). 

Case Study 1. – Erosion mitigation at North Deep Creek

by:   Gary Clarke and Kaara Shaw

Since September 2002 the Noosa Landcare Farm Forestry Program has maintained and increased its services to the community and to individual landholders by undertaking consultancy contracting and total property management services.

Total property management has meant that the program has taken on a wide range of services integrating field operations to gain long term sustainable benefits for the landholders and the environment.

Erosion mitigation projects endeavour to stabilise and repair damage caused by erosion .processes. They often involve engineering solutions followed by stabilising cover crops of grass and then the establishment of long term forest cover.

Some properties are so affected by long term erosion as a result of poor land-use practices that major earthworks need to be carried out.

One such property is North Deep Creek. Clients have contracted Noosa Landcare to reafforest approximately70 hectares of cleared land that has been used (abused) for pineapple production over many decades. After initial surveys it was found that more than 50% of the property had suffered massive soil erosion and was still actively eroding due to water movement across the landscape. There were large land slips, tunnel erosion, gully erosion and severe trenching along the old pineapple bay roads which run up and down the hills every 28 meters (see aerial photograph).  

It would appear that no substantial attempt to control this erosion had been undertaken during the thirty years since it had been cleared. The result is thousands of tonnes of topsoil, subsoil and even the substrate rock has made its way from the slopes down into the gullies further downstream of the property. Even though agricultural production had ceased for some years, the massive erosion patterns were continuing.

Before reafforestation could take place the whole landscape needed to be stabilised and rejuvenated to a point where natural soil process could begin to take place again. The following processes were carried out:

• Extensive survey work and mapping to quantify the problem.
• Consult widely to determine the most feasible and cost effective method of repair
• Put broad ideas to trusted and experienced earthmoving contractors
• Create operational plan
• Put operational plan and budget estimation to clients

The concept in this case was to construct large contour drains with a 2% fall across the slopes to divert potentially damaging flows towards the vegetated gully lines. The soil removed from the drains was utilised to do foundation filling of the trench erosion, negating the need to quarry and transport large quantities of fill back from the gullies to the hillsides. This work was temporarily stabilised with a cover crop of grass applied to minimize soil loss from sheet and rill erosion. The whole area was then to be ‘top dressed’ with top soil salvaged from the silted gullies.

The process continued after the proposal was accepted by the clients:

• Survey contour lines at 2% fall using a laser level and then mark out with pegs for the contractors.
• Construct contour drains
• Stockpile subsoil and shales that are removed during construction of contour drains to await appropriate soil moisture content for distribution along erosion trenches;
• Distribute stockpiles up and down the hill from stockpiles to fill and then track roll trenches;
• Await rain event to check stability and workability of contour drains;
• Construct temporary drainage to minimize soil loss. Spread cover crop of jap millet and carpet grass;
• Create quarries in gullies where silt has been deposited over the years since clearing;
• Utilise 6×6 25 tonne trucks to take top dressing materials for redistribution to repaired trenches and over the surface of the constructed drains;
• Utilise machinery to layout top dressing and complete final trim of drainage channels;
• Reapply cover crop;
• Exclude stock, maintain integrity of drains and erosion works (keep clear of debris);
• Reafforest for long term stability.

Machinery used includes:

• A.T.V.: Access, surveys and spreading of cover crop
• Bobcat: final trim of drains
• Drott: 2nd trim of drains, road construction, spreading topsoil
• Excavators: initial cut of contour drains, filling and compaction of trenches, quarrying of erosion deposits, road construction, loading of trucks, spreading of topsoil and road drainage
• 4×4 loader: transport materials to trench sites that are easily accessible, and to load body trucks.
• Body trucks: transport quarry materials from quarry sites to upper and accessible slopes.

The erosion mitigation project, as a sub-project of the total property reafforestation plan is complicated and represents a large investment by clients to restore this landscape.

The success of a project like this requires:

• Developed skill levels and experience of all staff and contractors involved;
• Good client/project officer communications;
• Good communication between project managers and experienced contractors;
• A combination of practical solutions carried out efficiently to gain effective utilisation of resources e.g. bucks;
• Some luck with coordination of various aspects of project amongst the vagaries of weather;

The moral of the story is to stop erosion before it starts by maintaining forest cover in erodible landscapes. Sustainability is impossible to achieve whilst our soils and hillsides are rapidly making their way towards the coast.

Success Stories

Following on from our last success story “Not just a walk in the park” which highlighted the lessons learnt and success achieved by Mr and Mrs Dittrich, this edition we are provided another real life example of the trial and tribulations of private forestry. The following article was kindly written and provided by Mr and Mrs Whitlam. Barung Point is the home of George and Christine Whitlam, a couple who retired from a busy life of development banking in Asia to take it easy, or so they thought.

The property, half of an old dairy farm, is located near Maleny, in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Covering some 100 acres, it encompasses a variety of landforms on the edge of the escarpment overlooking Lake Baroon. Some say that retirement should entail synchronicity. Given the planning, stress and discipline of working life, the thought of waking up each morning to 100 acres of calm green solitude whetted their appetites, and provided the mental crock of gold at the end of the rainbow that kept them going after purchasing the property in 1987 until retirement ten years later.

Small hiccups along the way might, however, have foreshadowed events to come. First, a major drought was followed by intense rain, and large slip scars on the eastern slope greeted their arrival for a holiday. Instead of sipping chardonnay on the verandah they found themselves in lengthy meetings with forestry contractor, Robert Tap.

The meetings resulted in the planting of mixed rainforest species on their eastern slopes. Suddenly their paradise became part lunar landscape, covered with tree seedlings in newspaper-roll weedmats. A few years later, retirement beckoned and a Master Tree Growers’ course set its parameters. The course made it clear that trees were not just for slips: they were an important overall part of rehabilitating/developing the property.

 Wherever they looked the potential for trees appeared. There was opportunity for trees to provide windbreak, trees to maintain privacy, trees to stabilize slopes and slow runoff. As the bank balance shrank trees also were used to provide, if not an immediate income, then at least capital appreciation of the property. Already the prospect of languid mornings over coffee and the newspapers was diminishing. It was clear that productive effort to develop and maintain one’s relationship with one’s trees started very early in the morning if anything was to be achieved, particularly during the summer months.

Trees had to be planted, weeds had to be controlled, and pruning had to be initiated. What the Whitlam’s did not fully understand was that rainforestry was more art than science. Paucity of technical and financial data meant that neither the technical nor financial viability of rainforest plantations could be assured. The best trees, of course, are those that produce the most wood of the highest value, in the shortest possible period, at the lowest cost. The problem is to know which ones they are, let alone how to grow and sell them.

A pragmatic-incremental-diversified approach is, therefore, being followed. So far the results have shown some promise. With well over 10,000 trees planted, the old dairy farm has been reshaped to look a little bit like a well-treed country estate. Much has been learnt in the process. Some of it is obvious (e.g. that it is easier to maintain trees on flat land than on steep slopes) and some is less obvious (that canopy closure can be as bad for diameter growth as poor maintenance).

Overall, best results have resulted from combining mechanical mounding with mulching/fertilizing, and weed control. Of course, more deep red soils and a more regular rainfall would also have helped. Small trials of shade-compatible cover crops (pinto peanut and villomix) are growing well.

The major problem for the Whitlams as they grow older is that their ambition to expand exceeds their capacity to produce appearance grade timber. It is increasingly obvious that planting fewer trees each year and perhaps bringing forward silvicultural operations will help reduce escalating costs of thinning and pruning. Some thought, therefore, is being given to planting trees (at one meter apart) in same-species groups of three with the mid-tree of each group at final-crop spacing of seven meters . Early thinning by year four (of two out of each three-tree group) should result in a density far more consistent with the physical constraints of the site and result in faster diameter growth of fewer more evenly spaced trees.  

Final-space group planting should also encourage a more energetic hands-on approach to individual tree management, at the heart of getting better returns; and enhance landscape values. Another lesson has been the importance of clearly defining a business strategy and letting that drive planting decisions.

With smallholdings of many different rainforest species it may be difficult sell thinnings for a profit, given the dis-economies of small size. It is one thing to envisage selling clearfall sawlogs into a market for appearance timber products, but it might be another to achieve it for small lots of thinnings from staggered plantings. Focussing on a particular market niche may help, however, instead of just growing mixed species, it may be prudent to diversify into craftwood for which there will be a readier market at a higher price, even for thinnings. Red cedar (toona ciliata) and black walnut (juglans nigra) are but two well-known craftwoods with traditional appeal, selling at premium prices. In the past, growing red cedar as a monoculture crop wasn’t commercially viable, due to the debilitating effect of the tip moth (hypsipyla robusta), which destroys the commercial value of the tree. However, the Whitlams have found that by accelerating height growth through two-metre-high tree guards, valuable butt logs can be grown. (Apparently, tree guards foster growth by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations and decreasing transpiration.)

On protected sites at Barung Point, black walnut also seems to grow well, and even better, Andean walnut (juglans neoptropica) as far as growth rates are concerned. Being older foresters, the Whitlams have given considerable thought to forest landscape design.

As they are unlikely to be here when most of the trees are harvested, trees are planted consistent with landscape features to optimize the present capital value of the property. If for some reason the property has to be sold then there should be some reward for the years of hard work. There is little worse for property values than the artificial shapes of woodlots conflicting with rounded landforms and the natural irregularity of vegetation. The role of paths in structuring landscape design and linking forest spaces also cannot be underestimated. Barung Point provides an interesting example of what can be achieved through small-scale forestry on a less than optimum site of exposed ridges and steep slopes.

Apart from providing a rainforest environment in which to live and create potential for future income, there are important landcare outcomes of wider benefit to the community. Trees are now, for example, stabilizing slopes and reducing erosion that was silting/polluting Lake Baroon, a major source of water for coastal communities.

Apart from our workshops our staff can offer professional assistance on a fee for service basis. If you need a forest managament plan developed, a harvest managed, or professional advice the PFSQ team can assist. If you would like to take advantage of our consultancy services you can contact us during business hours or send us an email and we will be happy to assist.

The PFSQ Small Growers Guide to Nursery Establishment has been written to give advice on the establishment of an inexpensive and low maintenance small-scale nursery.

It is aimed at the small-scale farm forester who wishes to progressively establish a commercial hardwood plantation (eg: 500 to 4000 trees at a time). The photographs displayed in this fact sheet show one design option, however, the basic principles can be applied to a number of nursery layouts.

Click here to download the full article. (pdf document, requires acrobat reader or similar)