54 | FORESTRY City Forests Profits go back into community Dunedin-based City Forests manages 24,000 hectares of land and has 20,000ha of forests spread across Otago. T Hugh de Lacy With the payment of $8.2m in dividends to the Dunedin City Council last year, City Forests, the oldest large forestry firm in continuous ownership in the country, is now making a major contribution to the finances of the southern city. City Forests is wholly-owned by Dunedin ratepayers and has been for the past 115 years, after making its first plantings at Ross Creek in 1906. “We take pride in operating a locally-owned business that makes a really positive contribution to the economic, social and environmental fabric of Otago,” City Forests manager Grant Dodson says. “Company forests are used extensively for recreation and are very much part of Dunedin and South Otago. “The forests store some 1.8m tonnes of CO2 and are the home to many native species, some of which are threatened.” Based in Dunedin, the company manages 24,000ha of land, and has 20,000ha of forests spread across coastal Otago from north of the Clutha River to south of Silverpeaks, with most of it in the hills around Milton. The company employs 13 professional staff under five directors, and all planting, silviculture, roading, harvesting and port operations are contracted out, employing around 80 people full-time. All City Forests’ contractors have long-standing associations with the company, and in the case of Gamble Forest Harvesting, its biggest harvesting crew, the relationship goes back 50 years. “Many of the contractors and their staff have spent most of their working lives on City Forests’ estates, and have made rewarding careers out of working as part of the wider City Forests team,” Grant says. He describes the operation as “a giant bio-factory growing wood, storing carbon and providing habitats for many native species.” Every day around 80 truckloads of timber “We take pride in operating a locally-owned business that makes a really positive contribution to the economic, social and environmental fabric of Otago.” are harvested, roughly the amount of fibre the total forest area grows daily. The company sells only logs, 350,000m3 of them a year, having tried unsuccessfully in the past, like other forestry companies, to get further processing of their output under way. The best of the logs go to local mills, with the rest exported to South Korea and China. “The New Zealand forest industry has just come off a six-years period of very strong returns and high log demand, led by China, but currently the China market is going through a correction due to the financial troubles with a number of its large building companies,” Grant says. “This is unsettling the wood products market in other countries, and log export demand and price have dropped.” City Forests has expanded its forest area by about 5000ha over the past few years, buying up both existing forests and farmland. The rationale behind the farmland purchases is that commercial forests grown for wood and carbon sequestration earn roughly twice as much per hectare as sheep and beef farming, while employing twice as many people per hectare on equivalent land. “Forestry is productive land use, just like farming and horticulture, and New Zealand is a wealthy country because we have produc- tive land and the flexibility to use it,” Grant says. TPT ARE PROUD TOWORK ALONGSIDE AND SUPPORT CITY FORESTS LTD AT TPT, WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON TAKING CARE OF THE SMALLEST DETAILS, WHILE OBSESSIVELY PURSUING THE END GAME. That is, moving quality logs and lumber to more destinations, more efficiently, achieving more value for our clients. For more information visit www.tptforests.com CONTACT MARK: mark@tptforests.com | +64 21 466 349 David Gale 0274 989 205 Graeme Gale 03 489 7322 Email: heli@heliotago.co.nz Quality Guaranteed Why Wait, Call: Your Complete Engineering Services Workshop 100 Ravensbourne Road, Dunedin, Ph: (03) 471-0516 www.palmersmech.co.nz for further information Proud to provide support services and equipment to City Forest Ltd - Hydraulic and pneumatic service/sales/repairs/design - EWP certified / maintenance/ servicing /compliance - Full mechanical workshop and breakdown service - Full machining workshop - Heavy and light fabrication - Hydraulic hose and fittings 100 Ravensbourne Road, Dunedin, Ph: (03) 471-0516 www.palmersmech.co.nz for further information
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