We are pleased to report as follows:
Not a bad season
The Canterbury/Marlborough weather in the last 12 months has been pretty good from a forest grower's point of view. Except spring could have been a bit warmer.
We had a mild autumn and winter; a cool wet spring; a very wet first half to summer and a moderately dry second half; now a mild, sunny, still autumn. Until the other day!
Less wind than average and lots of rain in December have been excellent for growth and form, particularly your Douglas-fir which does most of its growing in November, December and January.
Forest Stand Progress
At this point, looking at the reports over the last year in July, November and March, there is not a lot more to report to you. They described the blanking, extra planting and further releasing we were doing or had done over the period.
However, at Glens of Tekoa we did in fact second released the whole site from the air. This is a cost effective technique and has benefited the crop greatly by severely knocking back or eliminated most of the competition. No more releasing should be required.
Fury Fiends
Plantation trees, particularly Douglas-fir in autumn and winter, are quite vulnerable to animal browse in the first three years. We rely on the farmers to keep their stock out and they do, but wild animals do not respect fences and can invade from all directions, including less well managed land. Possums are probably the worst culprits but hares can be bad too.
One item of good news for those of us who love plants and hate possums is that possum numbers are now very low on the three North Canterbury properties containing your forest. Credit for this mostly goes to comprehensive poisoning work in large areas of North Canterbury to combat Bovine Tb. The Tb containment and eradication campaign is slowly working and as a side effect, the region's flora and fauna (except marsupials) are benefiting significantly.
If you have any queries about anything, or want more information, please don't hesitate to contact us at any time.
Regards,
Charles Etherington
WARREN FORESTRY Ltd
[Home] [About Us] [How We Operate] [Current Project] [Units for Sale] [Progress Reports] [Forestry Info] [Contact Us]
Warren Forestry Ltd. PO Box 36-358, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Tel/Fax: +64 3 377 3514/366 5669. Email: office@warrenforestry.com
