Annual Report
18 June 2007

Forest Stand progress: All Silviculture being completed this year

Glens of Tekoa 'GT7' (55ha). Virtually the entire area has been high pruned to 5.5m and now it's being thinned down to close to 300 stem per hectare ('sph'). That will complete its silviculture. This stand is pretty much as forecast and we are very happy with it. With the Forestry Consultant's blessing we have pruned a little less than originally planned, thereby saving costs and increasing the likely return on investment.

Glens of Tekoa 'GT10 (51ha). Your Douglas-fir is healthy and growing well. No work is needed now but in due course we will put in some permanent sample plots to accurately measure mean tree size and stocking. We will need this data in order to model growth so we can schedule optimum thinning(s).

Hopefield Station 'HF1' (31ha). A partial third pruning lift to 6.5m is being carried out leaving a full thinning early next summer to complete work on this stand. Growth and form are very good indeed.

Leslie Hills 'LH2' (41ha). This is now your unpruned forest stand. Growth continues & no work is required.

Ahuriri Farm 'AH1&2' (79ha). These stands are now pruned to 6.5m & 6.0m and are having a final thinning.

News & Views

Export log prices have been rising strongly but shipping costs and our high dollar are cancelling this out. It looks like there are on-going permanent cutbacks in Russian & tropical exports. The appreciation of the environmental value of plantations is growing everywhere, even NZ. So overall, optimism is more prevalent than it has been for a while.

While your beautiful trees are quietly sucking in lots of lovely CO2, many forest owners are fed up with the government over their Kyoto policies. The industry is pretty united in our view their policies are wrong, again. We are happy to help with the rising CO2 problem, but Kyoto bureaucracy is not the way. A little encouragement & carbon trading is all we seek.

There's a growing view this Euro-Japanese treaty is failing and will be eclipsed in a couple of years by a global 'cap & trade' treaty. The US will never join Kyoto (even Al Gore voted against it) but they may lead its replacement. US corporate and state government climate change action is now ahead of Europe's & ours, so Kyoto looks increasingly silly. Once the Bush, Blair, Howard and Clark regimes have all been consigned to the dustbin the decks will be clear for a replacement of Kyoto. I am confident that eventually, one way or another plantation forestry will benefit from the political, economic & environmental effects of climate change.

Charles Etherington
WARREN FORESTRY Ltd, Manager for the Committee

Warren Forestry Ltd, New Zealand forestry investment provider
Warren Forestry Ltd, New Zealand forestry investment providerWarren Forestry Ltd, New Zealand forestry investment providerWarren Forestry Ltd, New Zealand forestry investment provider