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Forestry Booming

4/12/2017

 
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A report released in November by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) highlights that Australia’s forestry sector is continuing to enjoy some of the best conditions in its history.

ABARES Executive Director, Steve Hatfield-Dodds, said the report, Australian forest and wood products statistics: March and June quarters 2017, showed the industry is now in its fourth consecutive year of growth.

“In 2016−17, the volume of logs harvested is estimated to have reached record levels, increasing 9 per cent on the year prior, to nearly 33 million cubic metres,” Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.

“The value of total logs harvested was up nearly 12 per cent to $2.5 billion, reflecting increased estimated softwood log prices and softer hardwood log prices. The report also revealed a softening domestic demand for wood products, with a 6.1 per cent decrease in dwelling commencements compared to the previous year.

“Exports of Australia’s wood products are higher than ever, reaching a record $3.4 billion on the back of strong demand for roundwood, newsprint and miscellaneous forest products exports.

“This means Australia’s trade deficit in wood products is now under $2 billion – its lowest level in six years.

“The report finds the Chinese market accounted for the majority of total wood product export growth in 2016−17. In fact, nearly half of Australia’s wood product exports in 2016−17 went to China, a market worth over $1.6 billion.

“This report highlights that forestry activities remain dependent on key markets, and particularly housing and international trade.

For a copy of the report visit Latest Publications.

On the Cusp

4/12/2017

 
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The pace of forest clearing is slowing and people are making the connection between forest loss and climate change. Trees are natural consumers of carbon dioxide. Destruction of trees not only removes these “carbon sinks,” but tree burning and decomposition pump into the atmosphere even more carbon dioxide, along with methane. 

According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment, deforestation releases nearly a billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year, though the numbers are not as high as recorded previously.. Deforestation is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, ranging between 6 percent and 17 percent. (Van Der Werf, G. R. et al., 2009)

"Protecting forests can give you 30% of the emissions reduction and carbon capture you need in order to keep the planet from overheating," said M. Sanjayan, executive vice president and senior scientist at Conservation International. "The most effective way that we could spend to deal with climate change would be to spend on protecting on forests."

But the international community is failing to step up. 

"If you look at the $400 billion that is being spent globally to deal with emissions, only 2% of that goes towards protecting and restoring forests," Sanjayan said.

"If the world temperature increased by more than 1.5 or 2% it would make life extraordinarily difficult for billions of people around the planet. Forests give us the most efficient way we know for mitigating that."

According to the World Resources Institute, more than 80 percent of the Earth’s natural forests already have been destroyed and Forests now cover only 30% of the world's landmass.

Industrialized countries consume 12 times more wood and its products per person than the non-industrialized countries and almost half of world’s timber and up to 70% of paper is consumed by Europe, United States and Japan alone.

But,the burning of timber as fuel is also a major contributor. Fuel wood in sub Saharan African countries is consumed up to 200% times more than the annual growth rates of the trees. 

Indonesia, with its thriving paper and palm oil industries, is losing more forest than any other country. Despite a forest development moratorium, the Southeast Asian nation has lost at least 39 million acres since the last century, according to research from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute.

But the good news is that forest cover is now actually increasing in most parts of the world including Asia, Europe and North America -  with the Middle East and North Africa having the largest percentage increase in forest area between 1990 and 2015.  Latin America, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa regions have lost the most with the biggest total decrease in forest area in Latin America and the Caribbean who removed 970,000 square kilometres of forest between 1990 and 2015

As architects and builders start to look at wood again for building, combined with the known positive effects on climate, it looks like we are on the cusp of the next timber age.  Wood, it must be good, it grows on trees. 

Integrated timber processing yard EOI

4/12/2017

 
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In order to maximise utilisation and value of State owned forest resources which are available to be harvested under the Forest Management Plan 2014-2023 , the Forest Products Commission is investigating the establishment of an integrated timber processing yard (ITPY).

Under the proposed arrangement, native forest and plantation logs would be supplied to a central processing facility. This facility will include a merchandising line, which is equipped with the technology necessary to assess each log, analyse the log characteristics and cut the log into its highest value components. The ITPY will minimise waste from longer length logs that cannot be efficiently extracted from in-forest operations. This in turn will promote improvements in forest management outcomes.

To enhance long term industry viability, it is proposed that the ITPY will operate as a timber processing hub and be of sufficient size to include  primary and value-adding processing facilities such as (but not limited to) sawmilling, veneer processing, wood chipping and charcoal production at the same site. There is potential for timber residue to be used for the production of heat and power at the site.

The FPC does not propose to own the site or operate the ITPY. The FPC’s objective is to attract private investment to manage the ITPY and undertake timber processing at the site. The FPC and third party log suppliers will be responsible for arranging log deliveries to the site, paying a service fee to the operator of the merchandising line and entering into contracts of sale with on-site timber processors. 

The location of the yard is expected to be within close proximity of current timber processing operations in locations such as Manjimup, Nannup, Greenbushes, Dardanup, or Kemerton. The final location/s will be dependent on a number of factors including but not limited to:

• land availability
• proximity to resource;
• the scale necessary to realise efficiencies;
• opportunities to integrate with existing processors; and 
• support from regional communities.

The Closing Time for responses to this EOI is: Friday 15 December 2017, 3:00 pm, Perth Western Australia time.  

At the absolute discretion of the FPC, EOI Responses received after the Closing Time may be accepted for consideration. 

Contact Person  
For all inquiries (except probity), please contact: 
Name: Nando Muccilli
Title: Contracts and Legal Officer 
Telephone:      (08) 9363 4626
E-mail:  itpy@fpc.wa.gov.au 

​Schematic representation of proposed Integrated Timber Processing Yard  is shown above.

Carob Tree Cropping

3/12/2017

 
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These trees are all adaptable to the Mid West’s drier Mediterranean climate and can form the basis of an agroforestry system that produces a range of marketable products and improves soil health.   

​This form of Tree Cropping Agriculture is SAFE, using Neem for insect deterrent purposes, SUITABLE using the deep rooted, water-holding Carob, Jujube and Neem trees to show their superior crop-producing power in dry lands helping to reduce climate change and SUSTAINABLE because these trees will be still producing fruit in 150 years. 
1.Carob, Ceratonia siliqua, member of the legume family, with health food products from the fruit:

Carob flour, fibre and syrup are important health foods which are beneficial in the control of many health problems such as diabetes, heart diseases and colon cancer due to their anti- diabetic, ant-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

The target market for the Carob fibre and syrup is the number of diabetic people with high cholesterol and dietary ill health, about 10% of the Australian population and an increasing percentage of the Asian population.

2.Jujube, Ziziphus jujuba a tasty fresh fruit for the Mid West climate: 

Jujube trees fit very well into the Tree Cropping/Agroforestry system of compatible leguminous companion trees. Multiple cropping of Jujube with Carob and Neem, when using adequate tree spacing,can be undertaken which will improve the soil quality. The Jujube tree is drought tolerant with a deep taproot and a moderate tolerance for saline soils. The fruit can be exported fresh to S.E. Asia or China.

3. Drumstick tree, Moringa oleifera, It is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree, native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India, and widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas where its young seed pods and leaves are used as vegetables.

​It can also be used for water purification and hand washing, and is sometimes used in herbal medicine

4. Neem, Azadirachta indica, these trees provide the world’s best natural insect deterrent/plant protectors and soil improver:  

Use Neem as a drought/saline tolerant tree for organic insect and animal repellent properties around the perimeters.


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​5. Honey - beehives placed among groups of trees for different varieties of honey; a big market in Asia for organic honeys:
 
6. Grain cropping between tree rows, protected from the wind and sun:

Livestock to graze and shelter between trees when big enough.

This form of Tree Cropping Agriculture is SAFE, using Neem for insect deterrent purposes, SUITABLE using the deep rooted, water-holding Carob, Jujube and Neem trees to show their superior crop-producing power in dry lands helping to reduce climate change and SUSTAINABLE because these trees will be still producing fruit in 150 years. 

The best time to plant these trees was 20 years ago, the second best time is NOW.

More information from ainsleyagroforestry.com.au

Tree Crops by J Russell Smith 1929

3/12/2017

 
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The author is drawing a bit of a long bow when attributing the devastation and desertification from inappropriate broadscale industrial cultivation to primitive woman and her digging stick, but it still looks like some interesting holiday reading... 

​Tree Crops: A permanent agriculture, by J. Russell Smith, published in 1929.
 
"This book is written to persons of imagination who love trees and love their country, and to those who are interested in the problem of saving natural resources—the basis for civilization."

PART 1 The Philosophy

1. The Problem


"I stood on the Great Wall of China near the borders of Mongolia. Below me in the valley, standing up square and high, was a wall that had once surrounded a city. Of the city only a few mud houses remained, scarcely enough to lead one's mind back to the time when people and household industry teemed within the protecting wall. The slope below the Great Wall was cut with gullies, some of which were fifty feet deep. As far as the eye could see were gullies, gullies, gullies—a gashed and gutted countryside. 

The little stream that once ran past the city was now a wide waste of coarse sand and gravel which the hillside gullies were bringing down faster than the little stream had been able to carry them away. Hence, the whole valley, once good farm land, had become a desert of sand and gravel, alternately wet and dry, always fruitless. It was even more worthless than the hills.

Beside me was a tree, one lone tree. That tree was locally famous because it was the only tree anywhere in that vicinity; yet its presence proved that once there had been a forest over most of that land—now treeless and waste. 

The farmers of a past generation had cleared the forest. They had plowed the sloping land and dotted it with hamlets. Many workers had been busy with flocks and teams, going to and fro among the stocks of grain. Each village was marked by columns of smoke rising from the fires that cooked the simple fare of these sons of Genghis Khan. Year by year the rain has washed away the loosened soil. 
Now the plow comes not, only the shepherd is here with his sheep and goats—nibblers of last vestiges. The hamlets are shriveled or gone: Only gullies remain—a wide and sickening expanse of gullies, more sickening to look upon than the ruins of fire. Forest—field—plow—desert—that is the cycle of the hills under most plow agricultures—a cycle not limited to China.

China has a deadly expanse of it, but so have Syria, Greece, Italy, Guatemala, and the United States. Indeed Americans are destroying soil by field wash faster than any people that ever lived—ancient or modern, savage, civilized, or barbarian.

We have the machines to help us to destroy as well as to create. We also have other factors of destruction, new to the white race and very potent. We have tilled crops—corn, cotton, and tobacco.

Europe did not have these crops. The European grains, wheat, barley, rye, and oats, cover all of the ground and hold the soil with their roots. When a man plows corn, cotton, or tobacco, he is loosening the earth and destroying such hold as the plant roots may have won in it. Plowing corn is the most efficient known way for destroying the farm that is not made of level land.

2. The Idea

Again I stood on a crest and scanned a hilly landscape. This time I was in Corsica. Across the valley I saw a mountainside clothed in chestnut trees. The trees reached up the mountain to the place where coolness stopped their growth; they extended down the mountain to the place where it was too dry for trees. 

This chestnut orchard (or forest as one may call it) spread along the mountainside as far as the eye could see. The expanse of broad-topped, fruitful trees was interspersed with a string of villages of stone houses. 

The villages were connected by a good road that wound horizontally in and out along the projections and coves of the mountainside. These grafted chestnut orchards produced an annual crop of food for men, horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and goats, and a by-crop of wood. 

Thus for centuries trees had supported the families that lived in the Corsican villages. The mountainside was un-eroded, intact, and capable of continuing indefinitely its support for the generations of men. 

Why are the hills of West China ruined, while the hills of Corsica are, by comparison, an enduring Eden? The answer is plain. Northern China knows only the soil-destroying agriculture of the plowed hillside. Corsica on the contrary has adapted agriculture to physical conditions; she practices the soil saving tree-crops type of agriculture..."  

“Our present agriculture is based primarily on cereals that came to us from the unknown past and are a legacy from our ancient ancestress —primitive woman, the world's first agriculturist.  Primitive woman gleaned the glades about the mouth of her cave for acorns, nuts, beans, berries, roots, and seeds. Then came the brilliant idea of saving seed and planting it that she might get a better and more dependable food supply.  Primitive woman needed a crop in a hurry, and naturally enough she planted the seeds of annuals. 

Therefore, we of today, tied to this ancient apron string, eat bread from the cereals, all of which are annuals and members of the grass family. As plants the cereals are weaklings. They must be coddled and weeded. For their reception the ground must be plowed and harrowed, and sometimes it must be cultivated after the crop is planted. This must be done for every harvest. When we produce these crops upon hilly land, the necessary breaking up of the soil prepares the land for ruin—first the plow, then rain, then erosion. Finally the desert. 

Must we continue to depend primarily upon the type of agriculture handed to us by primitive woman? Many of the present day grains, grasses, and cereals would scarcely be recognized as belonging to the families that produced them. Present day methods of cultivation but dimly recall the sharpened stick in the hand of primitive woman. But we still depend chiefly on her crops."

fACEBOOK rOUNDUP

3/12/2017

 
Don't forget to like the SWAN Facebook page for regular updates on forestry and timber topics. We include a selection of the more popular stories in each newsletter.
FACEBOOK

​The Weird, Wooden Future of Skyscrapers

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"..Mass timber’s biggest advantage may be environmental. Buildings are by some estimates responsible for a third of global greenhouse-gas emissions. The manufacture of concrete and steel accounts for an estimated 10 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions. Trees, however, are “carbon sinks”—they absorb and hold carbon until they decompose or are burned.
According to a study in the Journal of Sustainable Forestry, substituting wood for other materials used in buildings and bridges could prevent 14 to 31 percent of global carbon emissions."  Read more...

280-Million-Year-Old Forest in Antarctica

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​The southern polar forests were dominated by one type of tree, those in the Glossopteris genus. These were behemoths that grew from 65 to 131 feet (20 to 40 meters) tall, with broad, flat leaves longer than a person's forearm, Gulbranson said. Before the Permian extinction, Glossopteris dominated the landscape below the 35th parallel south to the South Pole. Read more...

world’s biggest wooden clock in Nannup

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​Plans are under way in Nannup to build a tower to house the world’s biggest wooden clock in a bid to provide a “tremendous” boost to tourism in the region that could rival Walpole’s Tree Top Walk.

Nannup Shire Council approved plans on July 27 for a Nannup Clock Tower on the corner of Warren Road and Forrest Street to house the clock, built by craftsman Kevin Bird, which will include a purpose-built visitor centre and retail shop. Nannup couple and owners of Nannup Lavender Farm Rob Marshall and Heather Walford bought the commercial property in 2016. Read more...

Boosting wood stocks on Farmland

Professor Rod Keenan said any new schemes must be built on long-term partnerships between landowners and forestry companies.

There were lessons to be learned from Managed Investment Schemes of the 2000s — driven by tax benefits and capital gains credits — which were “not desirable, there was lot of social push-back”, Prof Keenan said.

“The future lies in integrating industries (farming and forestry). There is a large area of farmland in Australia where different types of planted forest could be integrated with existing agriculture.”   Read more...
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Irish farmers almost view forestry as failure

A stigma among farmers that planting their land with forestry is a failure that must be addressed, according to Minister for State with responsibility for forestry Andrew Doyle. His comments come as the states national afforestation programme lags significantly behind in its target to plant 10,000ha of forestry per year.
..“I am convinced that forestry remains an extremely attractive option for landowners and can serve as a complementary income stream for farmers.

“This is because the Department funds 100pc of the cost of establishing the new forest and guarantees an annual premium of up to €635/ha payable each year for 15 years, tax free. Forestry is also compatible with other agriculture schemes and farmers can continue to receive their basic payment on land which is also planted,” he said.  Read more...

SWAN Network News

3/12/2017

 

Field Day

The next SWAN field day be held in the Pemberton district on Saturday 5 May 2018.  Initial ideas for the program include visiting the properties of 1 or 2 landowners who have participated in the Mentoring Program, inspecting a plantation or two owned by a SWAN member and obtaining an update from Jess Beckerling on the “Forests for Life” proposal.

Basic Chainsaw and falling courses

SWAN can coordinate Basic Chainsaw and falling courses through FITS training. The fee is $350 per person. They require a minimum of 5 people to travel from Bunbury to Margaret River. 

Contact Bob Hingston if you are interested bob.hingston@iinet.net.au 
Ph. (08) 9752 3052 M. 0409 109 051

Make it Wood

On facebook, SWAN recently shared a Planet Ark video on their campaign to promote the use of wood. The video covers some of the health and wellbeing benefits of wood as Planet Ark promote "...the renewable building material that tackles climate change. It's beautiful, sustainable and the only material made from the sun."

Make It Wood aims to promote that responsibly sourced wood products can help to tackle climate change. This is because they store carbon that growing trees have removed from the air, even after they have been harvested. Wood also requires less energy to produce than most other building materials. Of course the wood must be sourced from responsibly managed forests where trees are replanted after harvesting absorbing more carbon dioxide.

http://makeitwood.org/ 

The link was sent by Greg Meachem Technical Manager-Timber at Timber Insight

Knowledge and experience supporting timber utilisation and performance.​
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Options for staying connected

Sign up for SWAN’s eNewsletter – it’s free
Stay connected to news and events on agroforestry in South West WA
Comes out every 2 months  www.swagroforestrynetwork.com.au/contact-us.html

Register with South West Agroforestry Network
(SWAN – a branch of Australian Forest Growers)
Annual cost - $50

Services include:
- listing on SWAN register
- Peer Group Mentoring Program
- Master TreeGrower courses
- discount for field days
- gate sign with SWAN logo

Email – afgswan@gmail.com
Website - www.swagroforestrynetwork.com.au/
Facebook - www.facebook.com/SouthWestAgroforestryNetwork/

For more info and to register 
www.swagroforestrynetwork.com.au/join.html
 
Join Australian Forest Growers:
National organisation representing and supporting private forestry and tree growing. Annual cost of membership is $185 (small-scale tree farmer category)

Benefits include:
- competitive rates for insurance of plantations
- national AFG magazine – annual printed edition, quarterly electronic editions
- connection to local branch and tree growers
- discount rate to biennial National AFG Conference
- access to SWAN services
​
For more info and to join www.swagroforestrynetwork.com.au/join.html

International news

2/12/2017

 
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In Virginia, 373,600 family forest landowners control 75 percent of Virginia’s timber supply. A half a million acres are in forest, he said, but “the forestland base is decreasing.” There is “a long term trend of losing a lot of acres of forest,” mainly in northern Virginia, he said.

Almost half – 47 percent – of Virginia’s forest – is on lots averaging 27 acres, and that is considered small scale. “Think of how hard it’s going to be to get a logger out to their place if there’s only 27 acres,” he said.

Keeping property in forest, intact and in the family is a goal many families have, “but for some people, the land is an investment,” he said. That’s why the state created an Easement Program, to offer financial incentives to keep existing forestland intact. Read more...

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Israel to Reintroduce Syrian Goats to Its Forests. A ban by Israel on herding black goats – on the pretext they cause environmental damage – is to be repealed after nearly seven decades of enforcement that has decimated the pastoral traditions of Palestinian communities.

The Israeli government appears to have finally conceded that, in an age of climate change, the threat of forest fires to Israeli communities is rapidly growing in the goats’ absence.

The goats traditionally cleared undergrowth, which has become a tinderbox as Israel experiences ever longer and hotter summer droughts. Exactly a year ago, Israel was hit by more than 1,500 fires that caused widespread damage. Read more...

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In India, Social forestry growers, who have been agitating for a remunerative price, now have a reason to smile as the State government has conceded a majority of their demands.

“We have been agitating for fixing a uniform purchase price across the State for subabul and eucalpytus logs and also allow traders to compete with paper mills within the State and outside to create buoyancy in the market. It is heartening that the government has agreed to both the demands,” Prakasam District Development Forum president Ch. Ranga Rao says.

“We are thankful to the government for giving a listening ear also to our demand for a periodic review of the prices offered by paper mills and traders,” Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam District Secretary Vadde Hanuma Reddy says, adding that the paper mills were allegedly bypassing the Agriculture Market Committees (AMCs) and purchasing logs at a lesser price through brokers from farmers. Read more ...

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In Ireland, farmers will be paid more as forestry rules changed  so environmental restrictions on the area of land eligible for payment have now been eased. 

Changes to the rules on biodiversity areas within forestry plantations will result in an increase in the area for which farmers can get paid.

Minister of state for food, forestry and horticulture Andrew Doyle has made changes which mean the land farmers are obliged to set aside for environment enhancement and protection should not exceed the 15% Area of Biodiversity Enhancement (ABE) payable under the Afforestation Scheme. The changes apply to all grant-aided plantations established after 1 November 2017. Read more...

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In England, a new forest spanning the equivalent of 650 football pitches has received the green light. More than 600,000 trees, a mixture of broadleaf and conifers consisting mainly of spruce, birch, pine and oak, will be planted at Doddington North Moor, near Wooler, Northumberland, over the next two years.

The 350-hectare (860-acre) forest will be the largest of its kind planted in England for more than 30 years, and has been given the go-ahead by the Forestry Commission.  The scheme, developed with the help of Government funding will receive grants for planting, and will store 120,000 tonnes of carbon, help manage flood risk and boost timber industry businesses and jobs. Read more... 

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The forest area in Sindh, Pakistan has been decreased by 80 per cent since 1971, i.e. from 500,000 to 100,000 acres. 

Commenting on the matter, Nizamani remarked that massive harvesting happens everywhere but actions should be taken to protect the forests.

He also shared that this is not the problem just in Pakistan, but across the globe. “Foresters worldwide have been ambitious regarding chopping down forests."  

​Forest Secretary Syed Asif Haider Shah had said that the forest department remained indifferent, saying that the mode of taking over state land gradually changed from surreptitious to blatant.

He said the encroached land should be reclaimed through agro-forestry auction with strict lease term of growing 50 per cent of forest on land granted on lease. Read more...

Australian Agroforestry Foundation

1/12/2017

 
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It has been a quiet year for the Australian Agroforestry Foundation. Funding has been scarce but we remain committed to delivering Master TreeGrower (MTG) courses and extending the Peer Group Mentoring concept. Our first MTG was back in late 1996. There have since been 110 courses across Australia involving over 2000 landholders.

This year we did deliver an Australian MTG course in the wheatbelt of Western Australia. It was run by the SW Agroforestry Network and coordinated by Richard Moore. I attended the last two days and it was clearly a great success.

Internationally we are still involved in supporting MTG courses in Africa and Indonesia. Our partner, Beyond Subsistence, just completed a course in Ethiopia and we are still involved in the Australian Government supported research program (ACIAR) in Indonesia. I am also hopeful that we can build on our voluntary work in East Timor.

We are hopeful that the new round of Australian Government funding will recognize the contribution that the MTG and PGM can play in supporting farmer innovation and adoption of more sustainable land management practices.

Personally, the quiet year allowed Claire and I to have a holiday overseas for our 30th anniversary (of both our wedding and our farm). Although, as you would expect, I spent a lot of time looking at trees. This included inspecting forests, gardens and farms in the UK, Ireland, Iceland and the USA.

While I was away my new book was being printed. "Heartwood: The art and science of growing trees for conservation and profit" is a 300 page, full-colour, hardback about the joy and practice of growing trees on farms. It includes so many things I have learnt from the hundreds of tree growers I have been so fortunate to have met over the years. Thank you to all you tree growers and researchers for your support and advice over the years.

My aim with the book is to make the act of growing and harvesting trees for conservation, agriculture, timber, and other values attractive to the wider community. For those of you with land, I want to share our science, practice and enthusiasm for tree growing. I hope you like it.

If you purchase a book through the Australian Agroforestry Foundation online shop I will sign the book and package the order myself. I can also include a dedication if you wish (add details in the "comments/special instructions" section of your order)

The shop has other items including other books, moisture meters and tapes.

Thanks for your support and best wishes for the summer season. May there be no fires, hail storms or cyclones!

Regards

Rowan Reid

Managing Director of the Australian Agroforestry Foundation

A Signed copy for christmas?

1/12/2017

 
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Heartwood by Rowan Reid
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The life story of a forester, fascinating insights about growing trees, and innovative concepts about community development – it’s a winning combination bound to engage.  Heartwood: The art and science of growing trees for conservation and profit by Rowan Reid is a satisfying read with new ideas for farmers, tree-changers, conservationists, land managers, educators and scientists alike.

Rowan’s work as a forester has led him to teach and work with farmers around the world, and he draws on these diverse experiences throughout the book.  And it was during his 20-year tenure as a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne that he started to develop his ideas on how to help landowners learn about and use trees for conservation and profit.

In 2010 Rowan won the Australian Eureka Prize for Excellence in Environmental Education with his Australian Master TreeGrower Program for landowners.  He continues to oversee this program nationally and internationally through the not-for-profit organisation Australian Agroforestry Foundation, of which he is a director.  Rowan also has his own property, Bambra Agroforestry Farm, adjacent to the Otway Ranges in southern Victoria.  Over the past 20 years more than 10,000 visitors have toured this outdoor learning centre. 

Heartwood describes important people, conversations and moments along the author’s journey as he develops ways to help landowners learn about and use trees to meet their own particular needs and circumstances.  It’s a story not of an expert spreading his knowledge but rather the dynamic project of engaging with others in their challenges on the land.  The book’s personable tone endears readers both to the author and to his philosophies – and they are philosophies that sometimes challenge accepted views.

The 300-page hardcover book is richly illustrated with coloured photographs and wildlife illustrations, with diagrams making the data more digestible.  While the 15 chapters are each themed around a different tree species, mostly Australian, these are not prescriptive – often the title species serves just as a jumping off point to explore a whole range of topics spanning social, historical and scientific.

And so the book has three strong and interwoven themes – contemporary social issues such as the environmental movement, the science that underpins the wise use of trees in rural landscapes, and the author’s personal story.  The skilful weaving together of these three separate but interrelated themes has produced something quite special – a narrative with a rich context, absorbing connections and valuable insights.

Rowan’s vision is of a more resilient, diverse and prosperous rural landscape – a landscape in which trees have a vital role in providing a multitude of benefits for landowners and for their communities – benefits that range from land protection to shelter, from biodiversity to timber.  The book provides insight into the out-reach programs Rowan has developed - programs that help landowners gain some of the skills and contacts they need to feel confident about investing in trees and revegetation.  

Heartwood, like Rowan’s approach in the field, recognises that most landowners care deeply about the land they manage – and that they would like to hand it on in a better shape than when they received it.  It also recognises that what happens in rural and forested landscapes is – at its core – about people, and people’s hopes and aspirations.  

Heartwood showcases the diversity of ways in which trees can and are being used by landowners to bring about positive change in rural landscapes. It recognises that there’s heart, art and emotion to living with trees, and that, to use Rowan’s own words, “as growers, we are part of the story”. 

Signed copies available from the author:  http://agroforestry.org.au/

Richard Moore
December 2017
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