NZFM Cyclone Response - July Update
It has been almost five months since the forests around Turangi were significantly affected by the extreme winds of Cyclone Gabrielle. NZ Forest Managers (NZFM) has been working hard since then to respond to these events, as we work to minimise the impacts for our forest owners. This has primarily involved undertaking salvage harvesting to uplift logs from the damaged stands at a rate that is beyond our normal operating regime.
Approximately 6,500 hectares of plantation forest was affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, with around 3.4 million tonnes of plantation trees blown over. Many of the plantation stands affected were mature and near harvesting age. By comparison – NZFM ordinarily annually harvests around 1 million tonnes of logs so the salvage operation to date has required a significant scale up of harvesting, trucking and ancillary capacity which has been a major challenge.
The response has involved an increase from 8 - 9 harvesting crews employed by NZFM pre-cyclone to 35 crews currently employed, which includes many harvesting crews displaced from cyclone affected areas in the Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti Regions.
NZFM’s trucking capacity has increased substantially to support the salvage harvesting activities, which reflects the visible increase in the number of logging trucks on the roads in and around our community. As we look to increase salvage production, the number of logging trucks will increase further.
NZFM Trucking capacity increase to Cyclone Gabrielle Response
There is only a finite window to salvage the wind damaged area before the stems deteriorate and lose significant value. The increase in salvage production is essential to minimize losses.
This chart below shows the progress NZFM has made to the end of May 2023 in all of our salvage harvesting activities.
Salvage Harvest progress by volume (t) salvaged from Feb to end-May 2023.
There is a long journey ahead but NZFM’s aim for the next 12 months is to maximize the salvageable volume from wind damaged areas for our forest owners.
The use of satellite technologies has been very useful to map and visually demonstrate the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle. Below are two timelapse videos showing the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle to the forests and the harvesting activities that have progressed since February.
Time-lapse: Lake Taupo Forest - Behind Motuoapa village
Timelapse: Rotoaira Forest - Access 4 Road
SafeTree has also produced a series of videos about dealing with windthrow trees, including interviews with some of NZFM’s contractors and their employees. Check them out the link below.