62 | Family firm tackling the ‘slash’ The Balclutha-based company runs seven gangs equipped with multiple machines. FORESTRY Mike Hurring Logging & Contracting T T Hugh de Lacy Since Cyclone Gabrielle, “slash” has become a serious concern for the country’s loggers, but there’s not much of it left behind after Mike Hurring Logging has been to work thinning and harvesting. The Balclutha-based company runs seven gangs equipped with multiple machines, including harvesting machines that are called “waratahs” in New Zealand logging circles, thinning and harvesting for corporate forestry companies and private woodlots. The term “slash” entered common usage following this year’s Cyclone Gabrielle floods, when waste logs and branches from forestry thinning and harvesting washed into waterways and did immense infrastructural damage as they were swept down to the sea by the floods. Much public head-scratching followed as to how slash could be eliminated from forestry, and it would appear that Mike Hurring Logging’s got the answer, at least on machine-accessible terrain. The company’s fleet of six-wheeled – and one eight-wheeled – harvesters use the slash left behind to cover their tracks and prevent bogging, though even that can be picked up by mobile chippers following behind. The rest of the tree, after being stripped of its branches by the harvester, is deposited behind to be picked up by another machine and loaded onto trucks. The wheeled harvesters are particularly environment-friendly in thinning operations where the 10-20-year-old culled trees are normally left to rot where they’re felled. Mike Hurring Logging was founded by the man of that name, the second of what is now three generations of the family in the forestry business. His father, Lovell Hurring, logged rimu back in the day, and his son Josh is the Health and Safety Manager of the thriving family company that employs 55 staff. The business’ clients are all big long-term forestry investors like Rayonier Matariki Forests, Earnslaw One Ltd and Port Blakely Ltd, but they also include the Lakes District Council and the Department of Conservation. The company produces around 250,000 tonnes of wood a year, making it a mid-sized operation in an industry where major players may harvest more than two million tonnes a year. “We’ve got machinery that’s able to get to those steeper places, and get them out and onto a logging truck.” As alarm increases over the spread of wilding pines in both main islands, Mike Hurring logging is not only attacking the plague but turning it into saleable timber and chips. “We got into it because we saw we could salvage the timber, even though the trees, being wild, are all of different sizes,” Josh Hurring says. “We didn’t like to see them being sprayed or cut to waste. “We’ve got machinery that’s able to get to those steeper places, and get them out and onto a logging truck.” Josh says there are ready domestic and export markets for the wilding pines, either as lumber or chips, the latter being sought after seasonally by dairy farmers for stock bedding. Nearly all of Mike Hurring Logging’s machines are diesel-powered, but in late 2021 the company added to its environmental credentials by buying the country’s first-ever hybrid-powered wheeled harvester. The Finnish-built Logset 8H GTE travels under diesel power while charging the batteries that drive the harvester-head that cuts and trims the trees. The machine offers substantial savings on fuel, burning only 10 litres of diesel an hour compared to the fully diesel-powered machines at 18 to 20 litres an hour. It also has eight wheels rather than six, which helps it minimise ground disturbance. Ernslaw One is proud to support Mike Hurring Logging & Contracting Ltd www.ernslaw.co.nz www.matarikiforests.co.nz Rayonier Matariki Forests: Proud partners of Mike Hurring Logging and the Mike Hurring Forestry Training School Port Blakely Ltd are proud to support Mike Hurring Logging & Contracting Ltd PO Box 13-980, Christchurch | Ph: 03 338 6741 | Fax: 03 339 1689 info-NZF@portblakely.com | www.portblakely.com NZ Forest Owner
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