PRESIDENTS REPORT

This week your new council meets for the first time to plan the next term.  There is much to do and it will be an interesting two years; especially as the Forest Advisors Registration Scheme comes into effect 06 August.  More on this latter.   

An important discussion point for me will be how we can communicate better with you the members.  How can we improve volume of feedback we receive. Many of you will know I harp on about this; however NZIF exists for you and as such I strongly feel you have a duty to let the council know what direction you want us to take it.  If you feel we are heading down the wrong track let us know, or even better, tell us we are heading in the right direction.  For over a decade I have been asking for this, and I can probably count on two hands the amount of members who have actually engaged directly with council or through the newsletter.  Yet, whenever I meet a member, more often or not I hear as a sector we are poor at communicating our message, we are not countering negative messages enough etc etc.  I am more than willing to do this if I know I have the support of the majority of members.  I am willing put my head up but I need to know members are behind me.  So I encourage you in the next 24 hours to let me or Raewyn know what you would like to see the council work on.  I also encourage you to aim to start or respond to a conversation in members voice in this newsletter (after all the newsletter is written for you and takes time to produce, it would be nice to know it was being used). I encourage you to suggest what we should react to.  I promise I will push our message once I am clear on what message members want pushed!

Over the next term we intend to produce more CPD options.  Getting CPD points will be a requirement under the Forest Advisors Scheme and I intend for our members to be able to build these points at a discount as a benefit of being a member.  We will also be charging non members if they attend any of our CPD (including local sections) as they try to build their CPD points as required under the Forest Advisors Scheme.   You may have noted we are working hard to run more local section meetings and ensure speakers are also online allowing non local members to listen in.  We are working on ways to make online Q&A more efficient, and I would encourage local sections to perhaps build a meeting around one of these presentations and then stay together afterwards to network and catch up.  

The date for registering as a forest advisor is rapidly approaching (06 August); however you do not have to be registered until 06 Aug 2023.  At this stage we are recommending members do not register as we continue to try to ensure the scheme costs our members little additional cost and until there is more clarity around what is a forest advisor and what are the requirements to continue being a forest advisor.  At this stage this is still unclear, but we continue to work with MPI to achieve clarity around these factors.  

Our annual conference and awards dinner is only 12 weeks away.  I hope you have it in your calendar.  My understanding is there is a draft program within this newsletter and registration will open by the end of the week.  Please register early if you intend to come, it certainly helps with the planning.  Also this conference will be considered as CPD for both the Forest Advisors scheme and  our own Registered Members scheme, so I suggest you attend and start building your CPD.  You will need it.  The conference committee are putting together a fantastic program and I look forward to attending and seeing you all there.  

We are also calling for nominations for our awards.  Nominations forms will be available from Raewyn.  We need nominations for Forester of the Year and The Prince of Wales Award for Sustainable Forestry.  We will also be accepting nominations for Fellows, and I believe Future Foresters will be looking for nominations for the inaugral FRESTRA Future Forester of the year award.  Please put your thinking caps on and nominate a deserved member.  Information on each award is on the website, under awards. 

I look forward to hearing from you, seeing many of you at the conference and continuing to serve you for another two years.

Thanks

James

2022 CONFERENCE

This year we are offering two field trips for conference attendees to choose from. The field trips are a great way to maximise the benefit of the conference and leave directly from Hilton hotel after conference close on the Tuesday morning, returning to Hilton by 4:30pm. The first is to Woodhill Forest and will be an opportunity to learn not only about the production forestry attributes, but the diverse range of other activities currently operating. Woodhill is one of the highest public use forests in the country for a wide range of recreational activities such as mountain biking, 4WD and horse riding, complementing other non-forestry uses including sand mining and film production.
The second field trip is focused on mass timber construction and will feature a South Auckland site visit together with guided tour of the Timberlab facility. Timberlab had a key role producing the structural timber elements of the award winning Scion building and this is an excellent chance to learn more about their involvement and what should be increasingly main stream adoption of mass timber.
The final aspect of the conference taking shape are the CPD sessions being run on the Sunday, which sees a return of the very popular full day leadership development course run by David O’Connor with strictly limited places. We welcome NZIF member input to the remaining two CPD sessions being run – if you have a great idea of what you would like to attend there is still time to influence this part of the program so get in touch with me of Phil Elworthy with your ideas.

Jeremy Keating

Accommodation Option for Conference Delegates:

The Hilton Auckland has offered Conference Delegates the discounted room rate of $230.00 for the nights of Sunday 11^th and Monday 12^th September. To book see here

Other options
Hotel Grand Chancellor Auckland see here

Auckland Harbour Suites see here

ibis budget Auckland Central see here

NZIF would like to thank our sponsors for the upcoming Auckland Conference.

INSTITUTE NEWS

Journal of Forestry

Click link to access the latest edition Read more

"What is the most appropriate role for new forests in mitigating New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions?", by David Evison & Euan Mason

If you were unable to attend the zoom meeting, View recording 

2022 EPI Results

Results Overview

The 2022 EPI provides a quantitative basis for comparing, analyzing, and understanding environmental performance for 180 countries. We score and rank these countries on their environmental performance using the most recent year of data available and calculate how these scores have changed over the previous decade.

Read more

FORESTRY EVENTS

SWC, NZIF, NZFFA Forest Industry Dinner Meeting

Date:              Wednesday 6 July 2022

Venue:           Rosebank Lodge, Balclutha

When:            5.30pm – Drinks, 6.30pm – Dinner, 7.15pm - After-Dinner Presentation

It’s time to gather as an industry again.  It’s been two long two years of lockdowns and meeting and travel restrictions that has kept us in-doors.  It’s finally time to get together again and have a catch up.

The Southern Wood Council (SWC), in conjunction with the local branch of the NZ Institute of Forestry and the Mid Otago and South Otago Branches of the NZ Farm Forestry Association have planned an evening’s networking – along with more good food and some excellent company. 

These dinner meetings used to be a regular occasion but sort of fell off the radar.  The message from forestry and wood products companies across Otago and Southland is that they’ve been sorely missed in recent years.  The idea is to get together anybody involved in or associated with forestry and wood products in the lower South Island.  You have to admit, increasingly, evenings like this to meet up and to network are rare. 

The after-dinner presentations that we’ve lined up are going to appeal to all of you who have a yearning for or are working in the outdoors.  This time, we’ve lined up two after dinner guest speakers. 

Manging Fire in the Rural Landscape

The average direct impact of rural fire on New Zealand’s economy is estimated to be around $67 million per year.  Add to this the indirect costs which are estimated to be at least two to three times this amount.  As foresters and rural land owners you’ll know, that aside from the impact that climate change has brought to the issue, extreme fire events are already here.  New Zealand is not immune to the extreme fire behaviour that is normally associated with Australia, North America or the Mediterranean. 

Step in the Rural Fire Research Group from Scion.  They’re based in Christchurch.  They’re an international team of fire science experts that have been brought together.  Their job is to undertake practical research and to work with land owners and fire authorities to help identify, mitigate and adapt to the threat of extreme fires. 

Hugh Wallace, Rural Fire Scientist, Rural Fire Research Group, Scion will present to the dinner meeting.   Included in his talk will be details of a “Learning to Burn” online training course that’s going to be used to introduce and upskill landowners on safely using fire as a land management tool.  Details from a report on public fire related injuries and fatalities being used to further develop best-practices for safe fire use will be outlined along with information on a real-time smoke modelling tool that can be used to determine where smoke from large fires may go, as well as how intense the smoke might be. An extension of this tool is a limited-access fire growth tool used by fire suppression crews to predict fire spread.

Plenty here – and it’s certainly aligned to any rural land or forest owner. 

NZ Game Animal Council

And as an added bonus, we’ll hear from the Chairperson of the NZ Game Animal Council (GAC), Grant Dodson (yes, wearing a few hats at the meeting).  The GAC is a statutory body established under the Game Animal Council Act 2013.

It represents the interests of the hunting sector across NZ.  Since its inception, it’s been involved in a raft of initiatives to help improve the management of the country’s hunting resources and conservation efforts.  Grant will be outlining some of the wins for the Council and some of the key issues that are being tackled on behalf of NZ hunters. 

So, what do you need to do?

Mark the date into your diary.  Get the notice around the office, forestry contacts or your work colleagues and ensure you get a car load or two of you coming through.  Rarely, as you know, do these opportunities come up so make the most of it. 

Dinner registrations need to be received BEFORE mid-day Monday 4 July 2022. 

Note: Catering can’t be made available to those who turn up on the night who haven’t pre-registered. 

Registrations to the dinner can be made directly on line at: https://www.southernwoodcouncil.co.nz/regional/

Any further information, then get in contact with Brent Apthorp (brent.apthorp@southernwoodcouncil.co.nz or Tel: 021 117 5177)

Launch of Young Professionals in Forestry (ForYP)

The ForYP was launched at the recent World Forestry Congress in the Republic of Korea

The ForYP’s mission is to empower a global, diverse, and inclusive community of young professionals in the forest sector. The goal is to increase the visibility of young professionals in the forest sector, provide an inclusive space to share ideas, learn and showcase contributions, and strengthen intergenerational engagement through connections within the membership and with other organisations. This will create a community of young professionals in the forest sector who network, develop their professional skills, gain confidence, and feel empowered to engage and lead forestry through the 21st century.

Through a global survey conducted by the ForYP young professionals identified priority services that included an on-line networking platform; webinars and in-person sessions; a dedicated website to share key information; a blogging portal; and access to mentorship.

If you are within the target demographic (< 40 years) embarking on your career in the forest sector, whether navigating the early stages, or progressing through a mid-career phase, membership to the ForYP may benefit you.

To contact the ForYP please e-mail forestryyp@gmail.com or visit the ForYP contact portal https://www.foryp.org/contact

Global Network for Forestry Young Professionals

New global network empowers young professionals across the forest sector
5 May 2022, Seoul - The Global Network for Forestry Young Professionals (ForYP) was
launched at the World Forestry Congress in Seoul, Republic of Korea on Thursday, 5 May.
ForYP aims to increase the visibility of young professionals, providing an inclusive space to
share ideas, learn, and showcase the contributions of young professionals to the forest sector.

Young professionals are both the present and future of the forest sector, which needs to be
more inclusive of youth and to ensure that generational divides are bridged. ForYP is a global
community for young professionals to network, to develop their professional skills and
confidence, and to gain empowerment. The network aims to collaborate with the International
Forestry Students Association (IFSA) and other forestry networks and associations to increase
the visibility, engagement and career development of young professionals.

ForYP’s mission is to ‘empower a global, diverse, and inclusive community of young
professionals in the forest sector’ with the vision to grow experts in the forest sector.

Members of ForYP will benefit from services such as, online networking platform, social and
networking events, career development and training. At the World Forestry Congress, ForYP
facilitated the Project Learning Tree Canada/WFC Green Mentorship programme, which
connected 51 mentorship pairs around the world. It also provided pre-Congress training for
youth and young professionals, hosted a networking event and organized a Special Event on
young professionals and career development.

To join ForYP, register with the network. For more information on ForYP, visit ForYP.org or follow
@ForYPorg on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
ForYP is a network for and led by young professionals in the forest sector, including
professionals up to 40 years of age and/or with less than 15 years of experience in the sector. It
provides services that are tailored to the unique needs of young professionals including
networking and career development opportunities for early to mid-level professionals in the
forest sector.

INTERESTING RECENT FORESTRY ARTICLES

'A national disgrace' – Te Waikoropupū Springs advocates open submissions in Environment Court Read more

NZ years behind when it comes to carbon-neutral housing, specialist architect says Read more

Angry farmers take carbon forestry protest to Stuart Nash's doorstep Read more     

‘I thought I was imagining things’: New Zealand readers on close encounters with city birds Read more

Ancient cypress in Chile may be the world’s oldest tree, new study suggests Read more

Drought, heat and extreme wind bring ‘explosive fire behavior’ to US Read more

Work begins to turn 99,000 hectares in England into ‘nature recovery’ projects Read more

Sharp cut in methane now could help avoid worst of climate crisis Read more

Rewilding, or just a greenwashed land grab? It all depends on who benefits Read more

Why the pine tree might land the Government in court Read more

Warning primary sector will miss out if gene editing not allowed Read more

New Zealand’s once all-powerful farmers split amid anger over Ardern climate policy Read more

The Groundswell protest claimed regulation and taxes are unfair to farmers – the economic numbers tell a different story Read more

11,000 litres of water to make one litre of milk? New questions about the freshwater impact of NZ dairy farming Read more

King Country farmer chops his way to glory in Austria Read more

The big idea: can forests teach us to live better? Read more

New tech should not be only option for farmers to meet their emission targets: Commission Read more

The Observer view on the summits that forecast global environmental dangers Read more

Victorian and Tasmanian governments under fire for laws that target environmental protesters Read more