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Eucalyptus Silviculture: Making money grow on trees
Gustavo Iglesias Trabado 
GIT Forestry Consulting SL - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS
GIT Forestry Consulting SL - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS
Barely some hours after jumping off the plane bringing us back to Spain from the cultivated eucalypt forests of Brazil, Eucalyptologics had the honor of sharing with a batch of future engineers for the Forest Authority of Galicia some local examples of silvicultural technique to do and not to do when trying to produce high value logs from Eucalyptus plantations.
Fig. 1: Galician "Forestry Commission" forestry engineers attending to GIT Forestry Consulting's Eucalyptus Silviculture seminar in Santiago de Compostela.
We presented to these nice peoples the "Side B" of Eucalyptus silviculture: how to maximize individual log value and individual tree value aiming to produce timber for 3 different industrial lines... at once.
And how the difference between "minimum silviculture" (also know as "plant and forget") and high value silviculture for small woodlot owners can mean only 7 extra labour days per hectare during the early life of their Eucalyptus plantations... for at least +300% increased potential income.
Fig. 2: GIT Forestry's Eucalyptus silviculture seminar at the High Silviculture Course for Galician Forestry & Timber Industry.
Which, of course, is not as easy to get done efficiently in practice as it sounds, or someone else would have worked it out for Galicia already beyond theoretical speeches.
In fact, some have tried to work it out without paying much attention to the trees, or to the impact of their operations further in the timber industrial chain, which translates into something quite different to "successful silviculture".
Fig. 3: Evidence of bad silvicultural technique increasing low quality product by +350%
So a quick trip through quality pruning techniques, the importance of early identification of the best trees to focus the costs of silviculture on them, examples of early thinning to increase diameter growth, and evidence of the need for good genetics to successfully and efficiently produce high value logs... were explored.
And examples of successful early high value silviculture for Eucalyptus plantations were presented: pruning wound healing and clearwood production from basal logs in just 1 growing season.
Fig. 4: Example of good silvicultural technique yielding clearwood from the basal Eucalyptus logs since year 4.
Which means that if things are done okay with further operations, as early Eucalyptus high pruning done according to a Technical Silviculture Plan...
Fig. 5: Example of use and performance assessment for a STIHL telescopic pole pruner on duty in a High Value Eucalyptus nitens Model Forest in Galicia (Northwestern Spain ). Click Play to watch the video!
Then the target of obtaining a diversified timber production (multi-product), including as high value as possible potential products for the local timber industry chain, and doing it as fast as possible taking advantage of one of the biological wonders of the tree world... can be achieved!
Fig. 6: Example of good silvicultural technique about to yield high quality Eucalyptus clearwood logs for veneer or sawnwood in just 20 year cycles.
With the keen trans-oceanic aid of the NZFFA (the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association) we were also able to show these forestry engineers what a farmer and silviculturalist can do, just by applying common sense to a first-hand knowledge of tree biology to the end of a timber production rotation.
Which, by the way, meant jaws dropping! Go kiwis!
Fig. 7: Basic layout of GIT Forestry Consulting's High Value Eucalyptus Model Forest in the Highlands of Galicia (Northwestern Spain).
In the end, an invitation to the open gates of this agro-forestry and high value timber multi-production Model Forest was extended to all the attendees, so they can see first hand what Eucalyptus trees are capable of when well managed.
Invitation that right now we make extended... to you! If interested in visiting this and other forestry hubs in Galicia, Northwestern Spain, we are just one email away!
All this work, and the jaws dropping, would have been impossible without the keen collaboration of the Consellería do Medio Rural (Xunta de Galicia), the Galician Center for Wood Innovation & Technology Services (CIS-Madeira), Financiera Maderera SA (FINSA), the Galician forestry industry sectorial organization Asociación Monte-Industria; and the support provided by the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association (NZFFA), the Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry (CRC for Forestry, Australia), and the Instituto Forestal (INFOR, Chile).
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GIT's Eucalyptology Topics© 2007-2009 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.
