Project Update January - June 2022 - NZ Dryland Forests Innovation

Specialty Wood Products work: progress update

NZDFI has been a partner in Forest Growers Research Specialty Wood Products Research Partnership (SWP) since the SWP began in 2015. The MBIE funding provided by this seven-year industry/government partnership ends on 30th June 2022 with the final completion of the research programme due by the end of 2022.

By being engaged in this wider industry partnership NZDFI has benefited from the support and collaboration with industry alongside Scion which has made it possible to successfully make significant progress in developing our multi regional strategy and in making significant advances in our tree breeding, research and development programme.

Here we present some recent highlights of our SWP work.

NZDFI's vision and strategy - regional wood supply catchments

NZDFI’s vision is for 60,000 ha of durable eucalypts to be established in up to 12 wood supply catchments over the next 30 years. We have identified multiple potential locations for these catchments (principally in the North Island) – our key criteria are that any catchment needs to have suitable land and environments for durable eucalypt plantations and a suitable central site for a future wood processing hub. Processing hubs need good road and ideally rail and port connections, and a population centre to supply labour. Work by Scion advises that, for a small-to-medium scale processing operation to be economically viable in the medium term, a catchment of 3,000-5,000 ha of forest needs to be planted over the next 30 years.

We have continued work on the detailed mapping and land use analysis for all the initial 12 wood supply catchments identified. For each location we have mapped a circular wood supply catchment boundary using a 40km radius or ‘as the crow flies’ travel distance. The area of land in LUCs 5-7 (plus existing plantation forests) within each catchment provides an indication of land we consider potentially suitable for planting durable eucalypt forests. In most catchments the establishment of 3,000-5,000 ha is only 5% or less of the total suitable land area identified.

The key to success is getting these forests established over a 20-30 year period so as to ensure a steady and sustainable future log supply. Marlborough, Hawke's Bay, and the Wairarapa are regions that are already committed to this concept and have been significant supporters of NZDFI’s R&D activities over many years. Forest growers and farm foresters in these regions have already started planting and we hope this continues. NZDFI has future plans to continue working with more councils that want to grow a future durable hardwood industry in their region. However, extension and promotional work to engage with all the regions that have the potential for durable eucalypt forests has been put on hold until NZDFI has further funding to continue this vital work.

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Online workshop draws a diverse audience

NZDFI had plans to deliver a series of face-to-face workshops in 2021-2022 that were disrupted by Covid19. An alternative on-line workshop was developed in November 2021 with a video tour undertaken around four Marlborough NZDFI trials. The online workshop was hosted by the University of Canterbury School of Forestry on February 10 2022. The virtual trial-site visits were complimented with live powerpoint presentations by Clemens Altaner, Paul Millen and Marco Lausberg. Participants were able to join in Q and A sessions chaired by Shaf van Ballekom, NZDFI Chair.

We were very pleased that the workshop attracted 120 registrations by people with a broad spectrum of professional expertise and interest in the potential for durable hardwoods. This included forest growers and farm foresters, MPI, Te Uru Rākau, regional councils, universities and CRIs, farmers, corporate forestry staff, private forestry professionals, and Māori organisations.

There were numerous overseas registrants including at least eight people from Australia.

The support team from the School of Forestry, Meike Holzenkampf and Monika Sharma, did a great job ensuring the workshop was delivered smoothly. All videography was by PhD student Daniel Boczniewicz.

The full proceedings and individual videos from each stop on the Marlborough tour are available on the NZDFI YouTube channel.

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Using remote sensing to map specialty species in New Zealand

Dr Vega Xu, a GIS specialist at the UC School of Forestry, has been developing a methodology using remote sensing and artificial intelligence to locate and describe specialty species growing in New Zealand. This work, part-funded by SWP, seeks to address the problem of the lack of accurate data about the specialty species resource we have in NZ. Better information about the location, area, age and tree quality of specialty species will help the industry make more of the potential of this resource in current and future supply chains.

Using Hawke’s Bay as a pilot region, Vega has successfully reached ‘proof of concept’ stage, having developed a technique enabling specialty species to be recognised from their spectral signatures. The aim is to use machine learning to enable automatic recognition of different species. The potential capability is very promising, and Vega is extending the pilot area to the East Coast region.

Details of the project are available in this report: National forest owner survey and resource inventory of alternative species: Mapping alternative species using remote sensing.

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Permanent Sample Plot measurement programme

Data from permanent sample plots (PSPs) is needed to evaluate the performance and phenotypic variability in survival and growth between species across the different environments of NZDFI’s trial sites. NZDFI started to establish demonstration trials from 2011 that were designed to assess individual species’ performance across varying environmental conditions and to compare the long-term adaptability, form and productivity between each species. Prior to 2018 NZDFI had already established 508 PSPs in diverse sites that included a diversity of species.

Under our SWP work programme, since August 2020 we have been making field visits to establish new PSPs in the eight NZDFI demonstration trials that were planted in 2018. This measurement work has recently been completed with a total of 130 new PSPs now recorded across these trials.

In addition, during this same period another 366 PSPs were re-measured – these are in older NZDFI trials established between 2009 and 2014 as well as forest PSPs located in woodlots the same age or older. This was possible with additional UC financial support and in-kind support by some forest growers.

All this new data has been uploaded to NZDFI’s Katmandoo database and over the next few months we plan to complete the following:

analyse the variation in adaptability and growth between durable eucalypt species in different NZ environments
develop a second version E. globoidea growth model that will be available for industry to use to evaluate the potential productivity of E. globoidea in NZ environments.

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NZDFI working alongside the Radiata Pine Breeding Company

The School of Forestry provides scientific support to both NZDFI and the Radiata Pine Breeding Company (RPBC), and there is some common ground particularly as both organisations are in the business of tree improvement. Tree breeding involves the collection and analysis of very large data sets, requiring sophisticated database management.

In a recent move, NZDFI’s Katmandoo database, which is managed by Monika Sharman at the School of Forestry, has joined RPBC’s database in being hosted by Christchurch-based Paragon Computers.

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Drying collapse in durable Eucalyptus: Vikash Ghildiyal

Vikash Ghildiyal is from India, and is mid-way through his PhD.

Over the past year, I have almost completed fieldwork and data analysis for my first objective.

Results indicate that heartwood collapse was under genetic control in both species (E. globoidea and E. quadrangulata) with the heritability ranging from 0.19-0.44. Heartwood collapse was negatively correlated with basic density and positively correlated with extractive content. The collapse was lower in the sapwood than in the heartwood. Consequently, collapse in this future eucalypt resource can be minimised through breeding, potentially eliminating the problem.

Results are summarised in Figure 1. An explanation of this graph is as follows:

"The graph was plotted between the ranking of family breeding values and sites (X-axis=site and Y-axis= breeding values rank).

First, the families were ranked using their breeding values for a particular trait. i.e., 1 to 163 (as we have 163 families). For example, if the breeding values for heartwood collapse range from -5.76 to 5.98, then the families having below zero (0) breeding values are the good families i.e., low collapse families and above 0 are bad families i.e., high collapse families. Then, we need to rank them in ascending order (i.e., a family having -5.76 breeding value is the “rank one family” and 5.98 is the “rank 163 family”).

Then we do the same for the three sites. Finally, we plot the graph.

So, on the Y-axis, you can see numeric values 0 to 163. These values are the family rank. All the families were ranked from 1 to 163 according to their breeding values i.e., in ascending order. If you can zoom in on the figure, you can see the family numbers for all three sites and these families are connected between the sites through the blue lines. If the line is straight between sites for a particular family, that means the performance of this family in all three sites was the same. As you can see in the graph, the top and bottom blue lines are straight- it indicates that the collapse in those families is strongly correlated between sites (i.e., low G*E interaction)

In addition, you can also select good families (top ones in the graph) and remove bad families (bottom ones) from this breeding population."

For my second objective, we conducted an experiment looking into a technical solution to timber drying quality. I collected logs from 25-year-old Eucalyptus nitens trees grown in North Canterbury, Christchurch. Logs were subjected to Joule heating at two power intensities (MP and HP in Fig 2.) prior to conventional drying. Subsequently, shrinkage and collapse were determined and compared to a control. Tangential collapse reduced significantly (~53%) with Joule heating. Normal shrinkage was not affected by Joule heating. Thus, Joule heating of logs prior to drying has potential for improving the drying quality of collapse-susceptible timber.

I have finalised two chapters (verifying the collapse measuring methodology for breeding trial assessments and a technical solution to collapse (Joule heating)) of my PhD thesis; the latter was submitted in a peer reviewed Journal. My research has also been accepted for a presentation at the SWST (Society of Wood Science and Technology) International Conference held in Australia next month. This conference provides me with an excellent opportunity to share my research with the SWST community and professionals from different parts of the world.

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Congratulations to Ebenezer Iyiola

NZDFI’s latest successful PhD candidate is Dr Ebenezer Iyiola. Ebenezer arrived at the School of Forestry from Nigeria in 2018: his research focused on early screening of three eucalyptus species for properties such as growth, growth strain, checking/collapse, heartwood diameter, extractive content, volumetric shrinkage, acoustic velocity and stiffness, and the genetic correlation between these properties.

Ebenezer’s full PhD thesis ‘Wood quality of durable eucalypts’ is available; he has also co-authored a recent publication in the NZ Journal of Forest Science: Genetic variation in the wood properties of mid-rotation age Eucalyptus globoidea

Ebenezer’s earlier reports describing his progress towards his PhD can be found in Project Updates January-June 2019 and January–June 2020 .

**Machinability of Eucalyptus globoidea: Hamish Scown**

Hamish Scown is a fourth year BForSc student currently working towards Honours via dissertation.

The topic I have chosen is to quantify the machinability characteristics of Eucalyptus globoidea timber by machine testing. This research fits within the wood science research group of the NZDFI led by Dr Clemens Altaner. I find wood an interesting material, and one way to enrich my understanding of it was to assist the NZDFI breeding programme in further understanding Eucalyptus timbers.

Machinability needs to be understood by wood processors. It is measured through a series of tests and the surface quality is visually graded. I am using radiata pine as a control as the machinability characteristics for it are well understood.

There are six machining tests that are accepted as indicators of machinability: Planing, sanding, routing, drilling, mortising, and turning. These are chosen as they are typical wood processing methods that also consider the anisotropy of wood and provide variable results. I will be performing all these tests on E. globoidea.

Data collection is nearly complete, and though full analysis has not been carried out yet, preliminary results suggest E. globoidea machines to a very high-quality finish.

(Click to enlarge images below.)

New expertise in engineered wood products at the School of Forestry

Dr. Hyungsuk Thomas Lim joined the School of Forestry, University of Canterbury, as a senior lecturer on August 2021. His appointment is supported by the Wood Industry Development and Education (WIDE) Trust. Thomas completed a Ph.D. in Timber Engineering at the University of British Columbia, where he also worked for glulam, i-joist, oriented-strand board, and CLT manufacturers. Thomas then worked for Mississippi State University as an assistant professor in the Department of Sustainable Bioproducts for over four years.

Thomas has developed the new Advanced Wood Products Processing course which covers a wide range of essential concepts, including production yield, product evaluation, quality control management, manufacturing technology, and environmental impacts. He is also overseeing an upgrade to the wood processing laboratory at the School of Forestry, which, alongside the new course Thomas is delivering, provides students with practical skills in the processing of solid wood, wood-based composite, and modified wood products.

Our two-year One Billion Trees partnership with Te Uru Rākau ends on 30^th June. This partnership focused on research and development of seedling and clonal propagation so as to scale up commercial production of our first generation of improved nursery stock.

In the past six months, the main outcomes of the project have included collecting improved seed for propagation for 2022 planting season (including from Proseed’s clonal seed orchard) and assessing tree survival in the trials planted in 2021.

2021 Trial assessments

In our December 2021 update we reported on the establishment of seedlings and cuttings in NZDFI’s new genetic and demonstration trials. There were three trial types established: E. bosistoana progeny tests, E. globoidea seedling seed stands and demonstration/genetic gain silviculture trials. A matrix of 11 different trials was established across nine sites from Northland to North Canterbury.

E.bosistoana Progeny Trials

Takou Bay, Landcorp, Northland
Tukituki, Hawkes Bay Regional Council, Hawkes Bay
Hamilton, North Canterbury

E.globoidea Seedling Seed Stands

Takou Bay, Landcorp, Northland
Upton, Hawkes Bay
Holdaway, Wairau, Marlborough
Lissamans, Marlborough
Fleming, North Canterbury

Demonstration/Genetic Gain Trials

Kapiro, Landcorp, Northland
Whaka Forest, Timberlands, Bay of Plenty
Waitere, Landcorp, Hawkes Bay
Holdaway, Wairau, Marlborough

The trials were planted with a mix of NZDFI seedling and clonal nursery stock raised from improved germplasm (seed and cuttings) and seed from Australian sources. The trials were planned and deployed by NZDFI with the generous support of the eight forest owners involved. A survival assessment of all trials has now been completed (Tables 1 and 2).

Table 1: Overall % survival of E. bosistoana trial blocks (April 2022).

Site	% survival	Comment
Takou Bay	96	Well-established, good crown health and height growth. Requires a further spray release from heavy kikuya grass competition.
Tukituki	92	A flood in March caused some toppling, trees will be staked.
Gibb	96	Good survival and growth, some losses in SE corner of the trial.

Table 2: Average % survival of replicated 100-tree blocks on three trial sites (April 2022).

NFS - native forest stand; SSO - seedling seed orchard; CSO - clonal seed orchard; SSS - seedling seed stand; CCS - clonal cuttings.

The survival of the species blocks planted at the Waitere and Holdaway sites is excellent and uniform across the sites. The Timberlands site has excessive losses particularly in one corner. This site is a pine cutover compared to ex-pasture of the Waitere and Holdaway sites. There is heavy slash in some areas which has impacted on tree survival. Some areas within the site had been spot-mounded to alleviate the likelihood of frosting but this was done prior to the trial layout and could not be utilised when planting the trees at the required 2.8m x 2.8m spacing. Commercial plantings of E. bosistoana, E. globoidea and E. quadrangulata in the surrounding compartment have also had poor survival.

The challenge of getting around all of these sites to complete our assessments was complicated by Covid so we are again grateful for the direct support by some of our landowner hosts in undertaking some of the assessments.

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Floods test the Tukituki trial

One of the sites assessed was the Hawkes Bay Regional Council 2021 trial located in the flood plain of the Tukituki River. On March 24^th-25^th 2022 this E. bosistoana progeny trial was flooded when around 154 mm rain fell in the river catchment in a short, intense rainfall event. Despite being inundated, the trial has survived relatively unscathed, with the assessment showing 92% tree survival. Some trees that were toppled have been staked by HWRC staff (click to enlarge images).

: The Tukituki trial during and after the March 2022 flood.

: Council staff clearing debris.

: Some trees needed to be staked.

Commercial propagation of durable eucalypts

A final report, by Paul Schroeder (propagation manager at Proseed NZ) and Ruth McConnochie (NZDFI tree breeder), describes the work by Proseed NZ in Amberley to develop clonal propagation techniques for E. bosistoana. This innovative work has had some big challenges - see earlier Project Updates for more details of the work that's been involved.

Clonal propagation is an established technique in nurseries in Australia and South America for some Eucalyptus species, but it had not been attempted previously with E. bosistoana. We learnt that not only is there a big difference between the requirements of different Eucalyptus species for successful clonal propagation, but also between families within a species.

Despite the propagation work being impacted at critical times by Covid lockdowns, the first 11,000 clonal planting stock were deployed in our 2021 trial series and the promising early growth we have measured of the clones in the new demonstration trial at the Holdaway’s property in Marlborough is encouraging to see.

Table: Survival and growth of clonal plants at the Holdaway trial in 2022.

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Tissue culture of E. bosistoana

Dr David Leung of the University of Canterbury School of Biological Sciences, has been making good progress developing a tissue culture protocol to enable micropropagation of E. bosistoana. If micropropagation proves to be possible, in theory it would enable very rapid propagation of improved nursery stock as is done with redwoods.

Dr Leung has successfully achieved bud break, shoot cluster formation, and most recently, root formation – all critical milestones in plantlet development. He has developed recommendations on the most suitable protocol for E. bosistoana micropropagation: the experience gained while working on E. bosistoana should also be useful in developing micropropagation methods for E. globoidea.

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Update on the Eucalyptus variegated beetle (Paropsisterna cloelia): Carolin Weser

Carolin is a PhD student in the early stages of her research, working with Dr Steve Pawson.

I carried out field assessments between September 2021 and March 2022 at the young Eucalyptus bosistoana planting at the Dillon site in Marlborough to quantify phenology of Pst. cloelia and the diversity of potential predators. Two definite generations of Pst. cloelia and Paropsis charybdis were observed, with egg and larval abundance peaking mid-October to end of November and early January to beginning of February, respectively. Paropsisterna cloelia was clearly more dominant than P. charybdis.

Several predatory species were recorded at this site. Abundance of ladybeetles was generally low; nevertheless, predation of Pst. cloelia eggs and larvae by Harmonia axyridis and Cleobora mellyi was observed. Only spiders and Schellenberg’s soldier bugs (Oechalia schellenbergii) were present throughout the season and numerically dominant during the second generation of Pst. cloelia. Oechalia schellenbergii appeared to be the main predators, preying on eggs, larvae, and adult Pst. cloelia. Spiders were never observed predating immature stages of Pst. cloelia.

Over the next two years, I intend to develop a molecular method to detect DNA of Pst. cloelia in the guts of field-caught predators to evaluate their importance as predators, and assess phenology and the impact of parasitoids on Pst. cloelia egg survival at two different field sites.

Using remote sensing to assess paropsine defoliation: first trial in the Canterbury region: Leslie Mann

Leslie Mann is a PhD student from Switzerland.

With such massive forest areas in New Zealand, monitoring forest health through remote sensing is an important topic to consider. Remote sensing technology can map and monitor sites quickly to give valuable information such as tree mortality, tree growth, and tree health related to climate or pest activity.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) may be an appropriate tool for measuring paropsine defoliation. The main goal of my work is to use LiDAR to assess paropsine damage rather than subjective techniques like the Crown Damage Index (CDI).

A Eucalyptus trial in the Canterbury region was LiDAR-scanned, with different scanners attached on both a drone and a helicopter. Fifty five trees in the trial were also manually measured using CDI. The LiDAR data from the 55 tree crowns were then manually delineated, and different tree metrics were extracted and tested to see if a good prediction of the observed CDI was possible. The best model could predict CDI with ±19.1% accuracy from the observed values, which is not satisfactory. There are several possible explanations for the discrepancy; one is that the trial was not defoliated enough to enable the model to work accurately. Nevertheless, this initial research shows promise, and I will continue with further research in defoliation assessment using remote sensing.

Eucalyptus resistance to Paropsine beetles

PhD candidate Leslie Mann, together with Dr Steve Pawson (Eucalypt health theme leader), recently produced SWP Technical Report 140: Eucalyptus resistance to Paropsine beetles .

The report describes work to determine how paropsine insects Paropsis charybdis and Pst. cloelia interact with plantation eucalypts in New Zealand. The work involved quantifying the resistance and/or tolerance of Eucalyptus species, families and genotypes to paropsine attack. Two of NZDFI’s Marlborough trials, Dillons and Lissamans, were used for the research.

For each tree sampled, the number and length of the new growth shoots, height increment, DBH increment, and defoliation using a Crown Damage Index (CDI) were assessed to quantify defoliation and resistance/tolerance on two or three occasions between 2019-2021. CDI was used to measure resistance, whereas growth measurements (DBH, height and new shoot growth) were used to assess tolerance to paropsine browse.

Results included that E. globoidea, E. cladoclayx and E. macrorhyncha appear the most promising in terms of their resistance to paropsine browse; E. tricarpa and E. quadrangulata appear most vulnerable. There is variation in resistance between individuals in E. globoidea, and families in E. bosistoana, but it proved difficult to separate out the influence of microsite on resistance to defoliation. Recommendations from the work include establishing some controlled trials using homogenous conditions (soil, moisture, slope etc.) to assess the heritability of the observed resistance/tolerance in the absence of potentially confounding microsite factors.

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In March this year, SWP project manager Marco Lausberg visited the Sunshine Coast to participate in a Durable Eucalypt Growers Forum. The SWP and NZDFI have developed close links with Australian durable eucalypt growers since the forum was established in 2018, and will continue to collaborate closely. A visit by the Australian growers to New Zealand, originally planned for 2021, will now take place in March 2023.

Some of the highlights from the trip included hearing about the following developments:

Radial Timbers are installing a new spindleless lathe to produce posts and veneer. The lathe will have a longer knife than standard (3.2 m vs. the standard 2.5m). The investment has been part-funded by Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA).
Also the Forestry Corporation of NSW have been trialling a drone to collect seed. This improves speed and safety of seed collecting.
Heartwood Plantations are trialling pruning with a cherry picker for safety. They have also been looking at what type of smaller logging machinery can be used to thin and fell eucalypts safely while protecting remaining crop trees. Commercial felling of trees with chainsaws is no longer allowed in Victoria.

Small-scale machinery thinning eucalypt stands.

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Final word from Paul

June 30^th 2022 marked the end of the seven year Forest Growers Research/MBIE Specialty Wood Products Research Partnership.

This partnership has funded extensive research projects by NZDFI’s Science Team that includes staff and students at the University of Canterbury’s School of Forestry and the staff and consultant team at the Marlborough Research Centre.

We also completed our two-year 1BT R&D partnership with Te Uru Rākau this month with our final report under preparation. This partnership has been critical to successfully commencing the delivery of XyloGene nursery stock of Eucalyptus bosistoana and E. globoidea for operational plantings last year - the first improved material from NZDFI’s tree breeding programme .

All our team are committed to NZDFI’s vision for 60,000 hectares of durable eucalypts to be established in up to 12 regional wood supply catchments over the next 30 years.

Over the past few months, we have been working with the SWP team that includes Forest Growers Research, NZFFA and Scion. Our focus has been to develop a new collaborative funding proposal to government and industry to build on the success of the Specialty Wood Products partnership. Extending this government/industry R&D collaboration is essential to the long-term successful development of NZ’s emerging specialty wood product supply chain.

Our proposal is to expand the establishment of regional wood supply catchments to include other specialty species, namely the naturally durable softwoods - i.e. redwoods or cypresses - that are already extensively grown in New Zealand.

Together with new forests of durable eucalypts, new forests of durable softwoods can make a major contribution to expanding our Specialty Wood Products sector.

Throughout New Zealand there are a wide range of regional communities and environments. We propose a nationwide research and extension programme to encourage and support planting of 200,000 ha of new specialty species forests by 2050. These forests could supply logs and biomass for a strategic network of regional scale hardwood and softwood central processing hubs. The durable hardwood and softwood products generated could be a significant part of the New Zealand forest industry’s contribution to the emerging bio-economy.

By working together for this new proposal we want to ensure there is industry leadership and support to bring together the capability, knowledge and expertise needed to develop and deliver an effective research and extension pathway to achieving our overarching vision.

Our proposal is under consideration.

I hope that we receive the commitment needed from government and industry to support this and that the teams we have developed can continue to build on the significant gains made this past seven years.

Paul Millen

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