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Eucalyptus: the wonder trees creating bonds between foresters, forest industries & timber nations

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado

GIT Forestry Consulting SL - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

For over five decades now similar trends for planted forest establishment and management in temperate Atlantic climates have developed in several areas of the world after Max Jacobs & the pioneers of that time sparked the Global Eucalyptus Development Era. New technologies and know how developments in forestry tend to work like that. One or several "tree hubs" start pioneering one or several processes, starting by tree species trialling and refining the silvicultural practice, and later by working out or refining the different timber based industrial processes. And as forestry R+D spreads both within the public & private sectors in each of these "tree hubs", the different pieces of the know how puzzle can bee identified and put together, at the same time large scale operational timber plantations spread.

Temperate Atlantic Eucalyptus planted forests around the world: Eucalyptus globulus, Eucalyptus nitens and others - Global Know How and Tree Hub Map / Bosques cultivados templados atlanticos de eucalipto: Eucalyptus globulus, Eucalyptus nitens, y otros - Mapa Global de Centros de Actividad y Know How / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 1: Temperate Atlantic Eucalyptus planted forest hubs & pathways for know how exchange during the Global Eucalyptus Development Era (1950-2010)

For the particular case of temperate eucalypt cultivation, these processes have meant the creation of bonds between foresters of distant places, between forestry research teams around the world, and between different nations, normally with many things in common, besides the same trees.

As an example of this, Galicia, the timber reserve of Spain, producing +50% of its yearly roundwood output, the rainy and green Northwestern Corner of Iberia, has many things in common with some other areas of the world where these particular eucalypts have become a sizable planted forest timber resource. One of those other areas is Southeastern Australia, particularly Tasmania and its virgin forests and planted forests. The area of the world where several of the key eucalypt species cultivated in Atlantic temperate climates do originate. Reason enough to inspire forestry discovery trips joining both sides of the world. From Tasmania, to "Tasmania del Norte".

But the ubiquitous temperate and cold hardy eucalypts, spearheaded by Eucalyptus globulus and E. nitens, are also key timber crops in other areas of the planet, providing increasing amounts of renewable and recyclable timber products, particularly wood fibres, to quite dynamic industrial lines. One of this areas is Central Chile, where temperate eucalypt timber crops have, as in Spain, Portugal, Uruguay and Australia, already surpassed the 600,000 cultivated hectare threshold. Reason enough for forestry discovery trips and the renewal of forestry bonds. From "Nueva Galicia", to Galicia.

Planted forest silviculture: New trends for Eucalyptus nitens & other promising species for solidwood & dendroenergetic biomass in Chile.

as presented in Lourizán Forestry Research Center, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

by Dr. Fernando Muñoz-Sáez, University of Concepción (Chile)

This online slideshow is a courtesy of WikiSilva - Aula de Silvicultura - Universidade de Vigo.

Thanks to the initiative of Dr. Roque Rodríguez-Soalleiro & the UXFS-USC, based in Lugo, thanks to the keen collaboration of the Galician Forestry Authority through the Lourizán Forestry Research Centre, and the excellent response of the Forestry School at Universidade de Vigo in Pontevedra and the Spanish eucalypt based forest industry, Chilean forester Dr. Fernando Muñoz-Sáez, arriving from the Forestry School at University of Concepción, visited Spain for two weeks, inspecting timber crops and timber industries in Galicia and the Northern coast of Spain, along the coastal eucalypt rainforest timberbelt. And an excellent summary of the current state of the art for forestry in Chile, with a particular emphasis on Eucalyptus timber crops and their cultivation, current silvicultural trends and perspectives of future for the trees and their timber based industries was made available to Galician foresters.

And now, thanks to the kindness of Dr. Muñoz, and the digital magic of Aula de Silvicultura, you can also access and download a slideshow depicting the state of the art and new trends for Eucalyptus nitens planted forest silviculture in Chile, including very interesting angles, as the necessary operations to achieve an efficient utilization of this eucalypt timber for solidwood uses, and experiences carried on to make the species become, besides an excellent material for the pulp & paper industry, a very promising source of organic, renewable woody biomass when cultivated as energy crops. In addition, further lines of R+D on eucalypt cultivation and industrial processing were outlined: after Eucalyptus globulus & E. nitens, Chile aims now to develop market niches for planted forest products based on specialty timber crops: the new days of Eucalyptus regnans & E. camaldulensis are waiting ahead.

And, once more, Eucalyptus trees have become the perfect excuse for the establishment of trans-oceanic collaborative bonds between Eucalyptus people. No wonder, these are the wonder trees.

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