A CENTURY OF PLANTATION FORESTRY IN NEW ZEALAND: HOW PLANTATION MANAGEMENT BECAME A SCIENCE

摘要

The 1882 advent of refrigerated shipping in New Zealand resulted in major forest clearance. Concerns, including those from the early conservationists, resulted in the creation of an Afforestation Department (later to become the NZ Forest Service) withthe prime function of creating a plantation resource to maintain the nation's wood supply. Because they are slow growing, plantations of indigenous tree species were not an option. The New Zealand climate proved ideal for some introduced trees and manygrew rapidly. Of the introduced species, one -Radiata pine - grew fast on a wide range of sites, proved suitable for a wide range of end-uses and was very responsive to plantation management. Initially, the expectation was that there would be plantationsof many tree species and that management would mimic the natural forest. This approach failed (ninety percent of the plantation resource is now Radiata pine) and plantation management is very sophisticated - management parallels agriculture. Many aspects of plantation management are predictable. An increasing amount of the world's wood will come from plantations and many will be intensively managed. The result probably will be a repeat of what has happened in New Zealand - the concentration on very fewtree species. The author expects that five to seven species will eventually supply most of the world's wood.