Replanting At Eyrewell

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31117, 21 July 1966, Page 8

Replanting At Eyrewell

The replanting of Eyre well State Forest began last week. Planning and preparation for the task has been going on since 10,000 acres of the forest were windthrown more than two years ago. Now an air of relief and optimism i s stimulating the forest camp.

Exceptionally violent northwest gales wrought havoc at Eyrewell in March 1964. A forest geared to produce two million cubic feet a year was confronted overnight with the salvage of 40 million cubic feet of windthrown timber, mostly Pinus radiata between 32 and 36 years old. Sales and production had immediately to be organised on a large scale to uplift as much timber as possible before it deteriorated. To December, 1965, 21 million cubic feet of timber valued at £l|m had been salvaged. Since then a further four million cubic feet have been salvaged, and the operation has now virtually concluded. The objective of this year’s programme is to plant 200 acres in two-year-old Pinus radiata. It is envisaged that between 400 and 500 acres will be planted in succeeding winters, and that short rotation crops will be established

by direct sowing in a year or two. Once salvage logging operations were completed in that part of the forest due for replanting this year, contractors using heavy bulldozers were employed to push the tangle of roots, stumps and waste into windrows three chain apart. Heavy rippers were then used to loosen the soil along the planting lines to aid establishment. In most lines the gravelly soil has been ripped to a depth of about 18 inches, but in others this has been done to four feet for experimental purposes. It is hoped that this ripping will enable the root system to penetrate deeper and help lessen the danger of windfall. The planting is being done with the aid of a Lowther tree-planting machine drawn

by a crawler tractor. The best rate of planting achieved last week was 2000 trees an hour. The operator places the roots down a slot at the back of a single coulter as it is drawn along the previously ripped line. Two cambered wheels at the rear consolidate the soil as they pass either side of the planted tree. Forward movement is about 3J miles an hour. About 800 young trees are carried in metal boxes on either side of the machine operator. They are normally lifted the day before planting from the Forest Service nursery at Rangiora. The photograph shows the tree planting machine in use, with a windrow of waste material in the background.