Petrol from pines

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 14

Petrol from pines

Sir, — Derrick Rooney’s article (“The Press,” August 21) looks fine except for several points. (1) Where are 40.000 hectares within a 10 km radius to average an annual increment of 20 cu m over a 20-year cycle? It does not exist in them thar hills. (2) In the photograph, backgrounded by Constitution Hill, where is the country that can be worked by the equipment illustrated? It will work successfully only on flat land. (3) Where did the

Forest Research Institute do its cost study to achieve a total of $l2 per tonne to harvest, chip, and cart 20 km? The central North Island pumice plateau, maybe—but not Craigieburn. We desperately need to be doing something to grow our own fuel, but let us keep it practical. The proposal shows scant regard for the finer feelings of West Coast sawmillers (retired by then, of course) having to look at the desecration of all that wonderful wilderness area by millions of runaway Christmas trees.—Yours, etc., ROY S. SHIRLEY. Hokitika, August 22, 1980.

[Derrick Rooney comments: “To take the correspondent’s points in order: (1) The 10km radius mentioned was merely an estimate. Clearly, in practice there would be few, if any, sites where trees for harvesting could be planted in a perfect circle around the factory. The annual increment of 10 cu m (dry matter), i.e. 20 cu m green, was measured in trials on difficult sites at Craigieburn. The scientists say there are about IM hectares of land capable of growing this quantity of timber. (2) The photograph illustrated only the type of land on which research has shown it is possible to grow trees. On steep slopes felling would be done manually. This point was discussed in the article. (3) Rotorua. It must be understood that the proposal outlined by the Forest Research Institute scientists is just that—a proposal. It is one of the options open to the Government when it considers ways to provide a long-term supply of liquid fuel. Most of the scientists to whom I spoke expressed the opinion that if fuel production from ‘biomass’ were accepted, then trees would provide the cheapest source of raw material. Jf the Government accepts this view, then even retired West Coast sawmillers will have to get used to seeing a lot more trees in the landscape.”]