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Tigercat has released its L857 feller buncher and LH857 harvester, both built on the new sloping tail platform for steep terrain logging. Source: Timberbiz Tigercat has released two new track carrier models based on the new sloping tail platform for steep terrain harvesting operations. Both the L857 feller buncher and LH857 harvester are powered by the efficient Tigercat FPT N67 engine. Power is delivered to the track drives via a refined, efficient open loop hydraulic system, providing high tractive effort and excellent performance on steep slopes. The sloping tail platform takes ground based steep terrain logging to the next level. Optimized weight distribution and low centre of mass, along with Tigercat’s patented super duty leveling undercarriage provide the operator with comfort, stability and confidence on steep terrain. The sloped tail profile provides increased leveling capability to 26 degrees, and better cable clearance in winch assisted applications. For roadside processing applications, the sloping tail with its ability to clear obstacles allows the LH857 to work more effectively on smaller, congested landings. Other enhancements include further improvements to service access, and in-tank hydraulic filtration for extended service intervals. The side opening engine enclosure completely exposes the engine and most hydraulic components. When open, the enclosure roof serves as a safe, spacious and convenient work platform. The harvester can be equipped with several Tigercat boom and harvesting head options including the 573 and 575. The feller buncher is well suited to the 5702 and 5702-26 felling saws and 5185 fixed felling saw.

Metsä Group is constructing a research and development laboratory in Äänekoski, Finland, dedicated to developing veneer-based wood products. Source: Timberbiz The new facility will be located alongside the new Kerto LVL mill currently under construction in Äänekoski. The laboratory is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, and the investment value is approximately EUR 6 million. The laboratory will be a test environment for researching and developing new high-value veneer-based wood products in collaboration with Metsä Group’s partner network. The investment will establish the conditions for testing material-efficient load-bearing structures and enable product research based on a broader raw material base. “We are enhancing the production process of our products to improve material efficiency and reduce environmental impact. “We aim to utilise our raw materials precisely and generate the highest possible added value. With the new research and development laboratory, the lead time of our research and development projects will be significantly shortened, accelerating the development of our product portfolio in the long term,” said Jaakko Anttila, Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood. The Äänekoski mill area in Finland is the largest of Metsä Group, housing the company’s cartonboard, veneer, and bioproduct mills. A new Kerto LVL mill is currently under construction in the mill area, with production expected to start by the end of 2026. Metsä Group’s Kuura textile fibre and Muoto fibre product pilot plants are also located in Äänekoski. A demo plant for lignin products is also under construction in the mill area, and it is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

In 2023, the global glue laminated timber market size was valued at approximately $US 5.3 billion and is expected to reach around $US 8.7 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period. Source: Timberbiz The primary growth factor driving this market is the increasing demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly construction materials, coupled with advancements in adhesive technologies and rising awareness about the long-term benefits of timber structures. Glue laminated timber, being a renewable resource, fits perfectly into this paradigm. It not only reduces the reliance on steel and concrete but also offers superior strength and versatility, making it an attractive option for modern construction projects. Additionally, it contributes to better indoor air quality and provides excellent insulation properties, which further enhances its desirability. Sustainability and Environmental Benefits: Glulam is recognized for its eco-friendly attributes, including a lower carbon footprint compared to traditional building materials like steel and concrete. Its production from renewable wood resources aligns with global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable building practices Design Flexibility and Structural Performance: The material offers superior strength, design flexibility, and aesthetic appeal, making it an attractive choice for architects and builders. Its ability to span large distances without intermediate supports allows for innovative architectural designs. Technological Advancements: Innovations in adhesive technologies and manufacturing processes have enhanced the durability and reliability of glulam, expanding its application scope in various structural applications. The glue laminated timber market is set to experience robust growth, propelled by the increasing demand for sustainable construction materials, technological advancements, and supportive government initiatives. As the construction industry continues to prioritize eco-friendly practices, glulam is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of sustainable building solutions. The glue laminated timber market is characterized by a high level of competition, with several key players operating in the industry. Most prominent key players are: Stora Enso Binderholz GmbH Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG B&K Structures Structurlam Mass Timber Corporation Boise Cascade Company Pfeifer Group Hasslacher Norica Timber KLH Massivholz GmbH Schilliger Holz AG Eugen Decker Holzindustrie KG

Dion McKenzie has joined Private Forests Tasmania (PFT) as its new Forestry Specialist and Jenna Hammond has joined PFT as Engagement and Innovation Specialist. Source: Timberbiz Ms Hammond is a committed and passionate communications and stakeholder engagement professional with continually growing knowledge of the forest industry in Tasmania and strong established relationships and networks. Most recently, she has worked for Sustainable Timber Tasmania as its Senior Engagement Advisor, working collaboratively with regional operations teams to navigate and engage a variety of stakeholders and to develop communications approaches that supported sustainable forest management practices and outcomes across Tasmania’s public production forests. In 2023, Ms Hammond’s enthusiasm, authenticity, highly engaging approach and work was recognised with Forestry Australia’s Princes of Wales Award for outstanding achievement as a young professional in forestry. Ms Hammond started with PFT on 14 April and will be leading Private Forests Tasmania’s engagement, communications and innovation activities. Her work will include delivering stakeholder engagement, marketing campaigns, partnerships and collaborations, communications and media management. She is excited to bring creativity and meaningful engagement to support facilitating and expanding the development of Tasmania’s forest resource on private land. Mr McKenzie has a background in farming and agricultural science; however, he is a career forester with more than 25 years’ experience working in a variety of roles for Tasmania’s public forest sector. In his extensive career following an agricultural science degree at the University of Tasmania, Mr McKenzie has worked as a soil surveyor, research technician, silvicultural technician, operational systems manager, technical analyst, forest manager, stakeholder engagement coordinator and engagement and land management manager. Across these roles, he notably enjoyed his experience working in plantations research and promoting best practice establishment and growing. Mr McKenzie thrives on helping people develop and improve their on-ground practice by sharing science-based knowledge in a style which is simple and meaningful and can be translated into effective operations. Mr McKenzie started with PFT on April 14 and will be providing information and resources to a range of stakeholders to support the implementation of programs and activities to facilitate and expand the development of sound forest and land management practice in private forests. He is based in the Hobart office and is looking forward to getting out and about across the state, visiting landowners and understanding their properties and questions.  

New Zealand’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has confirmed that restrictions on full farm-to-forest conversions on LUC 1-6 farmland will be in place this year, and reaffirmed that they will take effect from 4 December 2024, the date of the original announcement. Source: Timberbiz Enabling legislation will be introduced to Parliament during Q2 of this year. “The Government is focused on maintaining strong food and fibre production while supporting sustainable land use. We remain concerned about the effect that farm conversions are having on highly productive land, particularly sheep and beef farms in Northland, the East Coast and parts of Otago and Southland,” Mr McClay says. The new rules, now progressing through Cabinet, will ensure balance and recognise the value of both forestry and farming, while providing certainty for our food producers according to Mr McClay. Key changes include: A moratorium on full farm to forest conversions from entering the ETS for Land Use Classification (LUC) 1-5 actively farmed land. An annual registration cap of 15,000 hectares for forestry entering the ETS for LUC 6 farmland. Up to 25% of a farm’s LUC 1-6 land to be planted in forestry for the ETS, ensuring farmers retain flexibility and choice. Excluding specific categories of Māori-owned land from the restrictions, in line with Treaty obligations, while ensuring pathways for economic development. Mr McClay says that transitional measures for landowners who were in the process of afforestation prior to the 4 December 2024 announcement would be available where they could demonstrate qualifying evidence of a forestry investment “These sensible rules will give certainty to rural communities, while providing clarity for foresters,” he said. For more information visit https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/68436-Update-on-proposed-changes-to-limit-farm-conversions-to-exotic-forestry-in-the-Emissions-Trading-Scheme-ETS

Australia’s chances of hitting nationally agreed housing targets and bringing down the prices of new homes are being hurt by challenges to the timber industry. Source: Australian Associated Press Thousands of regional jobs are facing the axe unless a new national forest policy is delivered, including an expansion of plantations, a report provided to AAP has found. Native forest logging is in terminal decline after contracting 80% across two decades, with plantations not expanding quickly enough to cover the losses. That will become a problem as Australia aims to build 1.2 million well-located homes by 2029, a target vowed by the federal government. Plantation forestry provides 42,000 jobs, 30,000 of which are in manufacturing. The industry was at a “tipping point,” said the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, which commissioned the report. “This report shows that failure to support the plantation timber industry can drive up housing costs and undermine regional employment,” Ken Henry said. “Investing in plantation expansion, mill capacity, and workforce transition will be critical to securing Australia’s timber supply and meeting climate and biodiversity goals.” Australia is already at risk of missing the nationally agreed housing arget. Industry groups including the Property Council of Australia and Master Builders Australia estimate current rates could leave the nation hundreds of thousands of homes short. The foundation’s report found existing plantations and sawmills were unlikely to meet short-term demand peaks, and long-term challenges in attempting to build the requisite homes. Dr Henry said national forest policy had not been updated in more than 30 years. “The next federal government needs to facilitate plantation expansion, support local industries creating engineered wood products, and develop carbon methods and environmental laws that transform the new management of native forests to create regional jobs and protect areas from hazards like fires,” he said. He has consistently called for native forest logging to end, citing environmental factors and an expected manufacturing boost. Industry group Australian Forest Products Association said the government should be incentivising investment in sustainable wood, and pressed back against ideas that would increase duties on plantations. “We don’t need further cost imposts on construction, let alone on the most carbon-friendly building material we have in Aussie-grown timber,” chief executive Diana Hallam said. “Not only will this tax drive up the cost of construction by taxing carbon-friendly timber production, it will also disincentivise new production tree plantings that are desperately needed to ensure Australia’s future sovereign capability in timber and wood fibre.” Victoria and Western Australia ended native forest logging in 2024, while the sector in NSW has struggled with deficits and fines in recent years.

There were 168,050 new homes that commenced construction in 2024, which remains at its lowest levels in over a decade. The ABS released its building activity data for the December quarter 2024. This data provides estimates of the value of building work and number of dwellings commenced, completed and under construction across Australia and its states and territories. Source: Timberbiz “Home building is currently at the bottom of a cycle and is losing skilled workers to other industry sectors, which impedes future building capacity,” HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon said. “Australia has consistently built more than 200,000 homes each year and will need to exceed 250,000 annually to meet the Australian Government’s 1.2 million homes target. “Despite the low volume of new homes commencing construction, demand for skilled tradespeople remains high, just not in the new home building sector. The exceptionally low rate of unemployment, and their rare skills, see them in high demand from other industry sectors,” Mr Reardon said. “The more workers that are lost from the home building sector in this cycle, the harder and more expensive it will be to increase that capacity, as interest rates fall and activity picks up. “The exceptionally low level of unemployment in Australia is a double-edged sword for the industry as it creates demand for new homes and at the same time, leads to higher labour costs to build a new home. “This week the major parties have announced measures aimed at building more new homes. “In the short term, the only measure that an incoming Australian Government can do to increase the supply of new homes is to offset the cost of taxes fees and charges, by providing financial support for those that build a new home. “Whether this is done through removing the imposts, such as Lenders Mortgage Insurance or removing first home buyers from the established market and incentivising them to build a new home, can increase the supply of new homes. “These are the ‘easy-good’ solutions to the housing shortage. “This doesn’t negate the need for the ‘hard-smart’ policies tackling land supply, infrastructure costs, planning regimes and delays to home building and reform of taxes on new homes. “An investment in infrastructure, or tax reform or reducing delays, wont impact on the price or supply of housing within an election cycle, but if they are sustained over a decade, they will begin to ease the cost of a new home. “This should not be an excuse for politicians to renege on their responsibility to address housing affordability by arresting the high cost of delivering new land and rising taxes on housing. “HIA forecasts that only 983,530 new homes will commence construction over that five-year period, unless meaningful changes to remove the barriers to supply are made,” Mr Reardon said.

The soon-to-be-established Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union has claimed Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s plan to cut key nation-building programs essential to securing the timber industry’s future would be disastrous for timber communities across Australia. Source: Timberbiz The TFTU – created after members of the CFMEU Manufacturing Division voted overwhelmingly to leave the CFMEU and establish an independent union – says the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF), the Future Made in Australia (FMIA) fund, and the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) are all on the chopping block at this weekend’s Federal election. These programs were identified as critical by a Forestry Industry Roundtable attended by over 80 industry leaders and experts in December in Hobart, hosted by the Strategic Forest and Renewable Materials Partnership to inform the development of the soon-to-be-released Timber Fibre Strategy. “If Peter Dutton cuts these programs, it’s not just jobs at risk — it’s the future of our industry,” said Mr Michael O’Connor, TFTU National Secretary and Co-Chair of the Strategic Partnership. “Slashing these programs against the advice of industry experts would slam the brakes on investment in our industry.” “These are exactly the programs that industry leaders and experts have identified as highly suitable for leveraging future growth.” The NRF and FMIA have been earmarked as vital sources of investment for manufacturing, innovation, new product development, and lower-emissions intensive production (such as green production credits). Meanwhile, the HAFF has been recognised as a key driver to underpin demand for structural framing timber used extensively in residential construction and investment in timber prefab component manufacturing to service the expansion of high-quality prefabricated and modular housing. “While Peter Dutton claims to support regional industries, his cuts would drag the timber industry backwards,” said Mr O’Connor. “At a time when we should be expanding processing and value-adding onshore, Dutton’s cuts would leave workers and regional communities isolated.” “Timber workers, their families and communities cannot afford to pay the price for Peter Dutton’s cuts.” “We need a government that invests in regional industries — not one that abandons them, as a Peter Dutton-led Government would.”

New polling commissioned by the Australian Forest Products Association in the NSW Mid-North Coast based federal electorate of Cowper shows voters are strongly supportive of the region’s sustainable native forestry and recognise the importance of the industry for local communities, the economy and environment in the area. Source: Timberbiz Importantly, more than half of those surveyed who said they’d vote for Teal-Independent Caz Heise said they wanted the industry maintained in the region – despite the candidate’s public commitment that she wants to shut the industry down. It follows UComms polling in the NSW Federal seat of Gilmore that found voters overwhelmingly backed the electorate’s critical native forestry industries, while also expressing strong support for the sector’s contribution to the economy and environment, and polling in the Tasmanian federal electorate of Lyons which showed voters in that seat want all sides of politics to back in Tasmania’s native, plantation and downstream forest industries. Other key results from the UComms commissioned poll of 726 residents in Cowper over the 14-15 April, include: More than 70% of respondents either ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ that the NSW Mid-North Coast should maintain a sustainable native forestry industry 3 in 4 respondents believe state forests in the region should be maintained for recreational uses, like camping, horse riding and dog walking, over conversion to national park 95% of respondents either ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ that timber and timber products should be labelled with their country of origin Almost 60% of respondents disagreed that forestry plantations should be subject to any special new taxes Teal-Independent Caz Heise is ahead in the seat over the Nationals’ Pat Conaghan, with a 53-47 two-party preferred result returned in the poll Almost 8% of voters are still undecided as to which candidate or party will receive their first preference vote. “Voters in Cowper need to be aware, if they vote for Caz Heise, they’re voting for a candidate that wants to shut native forestry down, a decision that would devastate the Mid-North Coast of NSW,” AFPA CEO Diana Hallam said. “Furthermore, according to our polling, Caz Heise’s position on native forestry is the opposite of what the majority of her own voters want.” The NSW native forest industry is responsible for almost 9000 full-time local jobs, many of which are located in Cowper. It also delivers almost $3 billion in gross revenue and adds more than $1 billion to NSW’s gross value add. “This polling is also a message to other Teals and industry opponents contesting the Federal Election that native forestry cannot just be crossed out with the flick of a pen,” Ms Hallam said. “You’re dealing with people’s lives here and without native forestry, the economic and community devastation would be far reaching in places that have built themselves on the sector over decades, some places longer than that,” she said.

For Tasmanian farmers, native forestry is similar to any other crop, but with a longer rotation period and greater utility, it’s a land type which also includes multiple enterprises such as grazing, cropping, wood production, carbon production and animal husbandry. We see the majority of forestry today as contributing to ecosystem services and enhancing biodiversity through contemporary forest management practices such as selective harvesting, thinning as well as being a profit centre in long-term financial planning. But what is native forest? The term is used almost as a weapon in some circles where calls for an end to native forest logging are made almost on an hourly basis. But native forest logging is not clear fell logging – far from it. For farmers, logging native forest is all about the manner in which farmers manage their native forest estate to further develop the health of the overall forest. We’re talking about fuel reduction burns that protect the broader environment and community and with it the production of high-quality timber and value-added timber products. This process stimulates new tree growth that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, generating high-value wood products that can sequester carbon for up to 200 years and serve as sustainable building materials, as demonstrated in the recent construction of the new St Luke’s building in Launceston It’s time to shift the conversation about forestry on farms and look at it through a lens of credible science – the mainstream narrative should be all about responsible land stewardship, delivering economic, social, and environmental benefits, improving biodiversity, reducing fire risks and generating income for farming families. Ultimately, stopping native logging in state forests is a government decision. But there’s no rational science-based argument to stop private landowners and custodians of large private forests in Tasmania from managing native forest resources proactively and sustainably. Private forests are there for the use and benefit of everyone – it’s hypocritical for some to say stop all logging. We all know that if we stop well-managed practices here, there’s still timber being logged out of rainforests throughout Southeast Asia. The bulk of Tasmania is dry sclerophyll forest, and for it to regenerate it needs active management, weed control and fuel reduction. This is a way to biodiversity in our forests without clear felling as the only form of harvest. The work of farmers on private forests is increasing the biodiversity, and sequestering more carbon as a consequence, providing both public and private benefits. Private native forest management must be driven by contemporary science that will unlock a whole range of economic and social benefits. In a bigger sense, it all about food security and ensuring the amount of farmland isn’t decreasing in Australia, where urban encroachment driven by an increasing population creates more demand for more food. The community trusts farmers to produce the food, fibre and pharmaceuticals needed by all of us – why wouldn’t we do the same with our native forest estate? Ian Sauer is the president of TasFarmers. He has been actively involved in agriculture, natural resource management, policy formulation, project development, management and community development over the past 30 years.