A boom time for tree growing

Press, 24 June 1983, Page 15

A boom time for tree growing

DERRICK ROONEY

A combination of an almost unbroken run of good planting conditions since the autumn and a new grant scheme under which the Government meets up to two-thirds of the cost of establishing new plantations has brought smiles to the faces of Canterbury tree growers.

Nurseries specialising in shelter and plantation trees have apparently been enjoying a mini-boom. According to the Christchurchbased senior forestry extension officer, Mr Theo Russell, most nurseries between Mid-Canterbury and Amberley have virtually sold out of the popular lines of forest trees.

The boom has spilled over into the public sector, and a surplus of radiata seedlings in the Rangiora nursery of the Forest Service is disappearing rapidly. About 300,000 seedlings surplus to the Forest Service’s requirements were available at the start of the season, but according to Mr Russell not many are left.

The new grants, which were introduced on April 1, are available to companies, societies, local bodies, and other organisations, as well as to individuals. They replace with two, straightforward, flat-rate grants the complex range of incentives previously offered to private forest growers by the Forest Service.

The qualification for eligibility for the grants is a verifiable interest in an existing or proposed forest area. The applicant need have only an interest in the trees, and neea not own the land.

This means that the grants are available to investors, companies, or trusts entering a sharecropping arrangement with the landholder — a type of arrangement which is being actively promoted in forestry circles.

The grants apply to the annual costs of maintaining and tending forests, as well as to establishment

costs. They are in two categories: production grants, paid at the rate of 45 per cent of qualifying expenditure year by year, and protection-production grants, which cover 66 per cent of the costs during the first three years, and 45 per cent afterwards. Applications for the latter grants must be supported by local catchment authorities.

The number of individuals and organisations in Canterbury likely to take advantage of the grants during the present planting season is not known, but Mr Russell, who is based in Christchurch and is responsible for an area from the Rakaia River to the northern conservancy boundary, has received 135 notifications of intention to apply, mostly for farm plantations, since the beginning of April. Many more may be pending. Unlike the old grant schemes, which were complex to administer and sometimes restricted the options open to applicants, the new

grants have no maximum or minimum area of planting and impose virtually no restriction on the grower’s choice of tree species — the only stipulation is that it must be a “recognised commercial wood-producing species,” and be “a productive unit.” The old farm-forestry incentives applied to a minimum of two hectares. Trees planted for amenity or for shelter are not eligible for grants, but the Forest Service does not object if a production planting doubles as shelter. In practice, this means that while a two-row shelter belt may not qualify for a grant, a three-row belt may do so. “There may,” says Mr Russell wryly, “be a big increase in the number of wide shelter belts in Canterbury.” Prospective recipients of the

grants need not, Mr Russell points out, make formal advance application before doing preparatory work, or even the planting. However, the Forest Service would appreciate advance notice of intention to claim under the scheme — a year’s notice, so that it can prepare its budget. “Such advice should be provided by June 30 of the year before a claim is to be made, and should include details of operations, area, species, finance required, and financial balance date,” Mr Russell says. “This will enable the Forest Service to prepare informed financial estimates.”

* Costs which qualify for reimbursement under the scheme include the cost of clearing and preparing land for forestry, buying, planting, tending, pruning, and spraying trees, pest control, the provision of access tracks, and fencing — the last being regarded as an important point. Rents, rates, insurance, subscriptions to forestry associations, and various other costs also qualify. The costs of land, buildings, and permanent roads or bridges do not quality. A grant based on the award wage for a forest hand will be paid for pruning or other work done by the owner or a member of the owner’s family, but will be taxable.

One almost inevitable consequence of the grant scheme will be an increase in the dominance of the private sector over the timber supply in Canterbury. Statistics recently published by the Canterbury Forestry Foundation indicated that the private sector would continue to be the major supplier of timber to Canterbury millers well into the 19905. According to Forest Service figures, there is at present some 23,000 ha of private plantations in Canterbury. Only about 3000 ha of

this was planted under the old forestry incentive schemes. This is not quite so capitalistic as might seem, because “private sector” in forestry terms includes all non-Government forest owners. Thus the Christchurch City Council, the Ashburton County Council, the Selwyn Plantation Board, and all other local or ad hoc bodies which own plantations are regarded as “private sector.” The freedom of choice of species and elimination of the 2ha minimum is likely to attract more interest in small forestry blocks on farms.

On Banks Peninsula, for example, Mr Russell reports that there is already keen interest in growing specialised timbers, such as eucalypts and wattles which do not thrive elsewhere in Canterbury. Under the old schemes the average size of subsidised farm woodlots was about 12 ha. The biggest in the Canterbury conservancy is a 200 ha block on a farm near Kaikoura.

Mr Russell and other forestry extension officers have attended meetings of farmers and farmforestry associations in various parts of Canterbury to explain the grants scheme. It is believed that they are probably even happier with the new scheme than the farmers are, because the grants are much simpler to administer than the old system was. There are four forestry extension officers in Canterbury — Mr Russell, and Mr A. H. Allen, based in Christchurch, and Mr R. V. McAslan, South Canterbury district extension officer, and Mr J. D. Williamson, both based in Geraldine. Messrs McAslan and Williamson attended a joint Federated Farmers-Forest Service seminar in Tekapo recently to explain the grants to Mackenzie Country farmers.

Advice is freely obtainable from the extension officers on all aspects of woodlot, shelter, and amenity planting, and on agroforestry.