Forestry Technical
“To make the MOST out of what you’ve got,
you need to KNOW what you’ve got”
The objective of the TIMBERLANDS' Technical Team is to maintain an up-to-date, accurate and complete description of the current and future forest estate. Our Technical Team has the knowledge, skills and ability to manage the forest and land information and then use this information to improve the value of the forest asset. We convert forest information into accurate forecasts of near and long-term volume flow, providing sales and harvesting teams with the information they need to minimise costs and maximise forest stumpage returns. Our ability to predict forest growth, coupled with our capability to model costs and revenues, gives the forest owner that strategic edge that comes from an understanding of what the forest looks like today, what it might look like tomorrow and where the opportunities and threats might come from in the future.
Current achievements and capabilities include:
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Capture and record data describing operations carried out, on over 30,000 ha per annum.
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100% cover of the forest with LiDAR and its use in digital mapping and forest mensuration.
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Measure and analyse in excess of 3,000 plots per annum and run periodic LiDAR acquisition for resource assessment.
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Reconciliation of actual harvest outturn is within 2% of that predicted by the raw inventory.
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Prepare annual ten-year financial and physical forecasts to facilitate tactical planning processes.
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Provide advice to owners on strategic options and opportunities.
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Prepare annual valuations or assist with independent valuation processes.
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Ability to match site and silviculture to maximise the value of the resulting asset.
Our Technical Team also manages land assets, be it freehold or leasehold. The Land Management Team, within the Technical Team, manages all land related tasks ranging from land owner concerns and local authority rating through to negotiating rentals and working with local Iwi.
Our Technical Team’s philosophy is “if you don’t measure the asset, you don’t know what the asset is capable of producing”, running the risk of cruising along blindly and not achieving maximum potential. We help identify where the investment has not reached maximum potential and recommend solutions to remedy this.
Forest Information
The Forest Information team provides an up-to-date, accurate and complete description of the forest estate, including land and crop information. This information is critical to forest value and to operational costings, hence the importance attached to data integrity and control.
Spatial data is managed at two levels (i) core data and (ii) operational planning. To ensure appropriate area measures are available, formal mapping projects are undertaken using the latest GIS software. The system used also holds spatial representation of data such as soils, cultural sites, environmental hazards and land ownership. Closely aligned to this is stand record management and our stand record system, GeoMaster, which is well integrated with GIS. GeoMaster holds records of all operations carried out on individual stands as well as future management intentions.
The objective of the Resource Management Team is to bring forest information and inventory data together in a coherent plan for the future.
Forest Mensuration (Forest Measurement)
Accurate and timely inventory management supports resource modelling as well as harvest and market-based operational planning. TIMBERLANDS' Technical Team carries out a series of mid rotation and pre harvest MARVL-based inventories that flow into harvest and market planning, financial analysis and forest valuation. Growth and yield programmes are also carried out in order to develop and maintain site specific growth models, which are used in forest modelling. The use of LiDAR is a significant advancement in Forest Mensuration, and the development of its uses provide more dynamic and accurate mensuration information. The TIMBERLANDS' Technical Team is a the forefront of using UAV's for forest measurement and surveillance.
Forest Estate Modelling
TIMBERLANDS' Resource Foresters are highly proficient in forest estate modelling and have developed and maintained forest specific Woodstock models designed to reflect the complexities of the forestry business. These models enable the Technical Team to accurately forecast physical and financial performance. The resulting models provide plans and information for the operational teams and are the cornerstone to annual budgets, three-year and ten-year physical and financial planning and annual forest valuations.
Reconciliation of Harvest Performance
To complete the picture we reconcile what we think the forest could produce with what was actually produced. This enables us to improve our predicted capability, which in turn enables us to better forecast future operational and marketing performance. This process is key in our commitment to provide continuous performance improvement and value to our forest owner.
Forest Valuation
Forest valuations are achieved by bringing together all of the financial and physical information to provide periodic, accurate and robust assessments of the forest value.
Land Management
The objective of the land management team is to minimise land related costs (rents and rates) and to manage the relationship with land owners and other stakeholders. We manage all aspects of land tenure, including forestry rights, leases, crown forest licences and freehold land. We also manage, on behalf of the forest owner or lessees, all land related obligations including rates, rent negotiations and Iwi and regulatory authority consultations and negotiations.
Forest Investment Analysis (Silvicultural Analysis)
TIMBERLANDS strives to maximise the value of the forest and land on behalf of the forest owner and uses forest information, stand records, and mensuration information to achieve this. TIMBERLANDS is also actively involved in industry research to improve the returns to investors from their land and capital assets. This work involves understanding the site, the interaction with silviculture and genetics and how they can be manipulated to maximise owners' objectives (FRC, WQI, RPBC and others).
