Programme Two newsletter - The Wood From The Trees - Issue Four

Welcome to The Wood From The Trees e-newsletter

From the Programme Coordinating Committee Chair

The work described in this newsletter covers a range of high-quality studies, presenting industry with the opportunity to improve plantations established for multiple products as well as for pulpwood alone. Programme Coordination Committee Chair Trevor Innes looks over the research portfolio as it  relates to company goals [read more...]

21 scholarships now available

The CRC for Forestry is currently advertising 21 scholarships, including four in High Value Wood Resources:

Meet new PhD student Mia Spain

New Southern Cross University PhD student Mia Spain works on subtropical plantation eucalypt wood quality with a team of university researchers and industry partners. Mia says she'd never considered postgraduate study before, but through an undergraduate course and work experience, she gained an understanding of both production forestry and environmental stewardship [read more...]

Genetic analysis goes inside the sawmill

Does a good shining gum (Eucalyptus nitens) pulpwood tree also make a good sawlog? University of Tasmania PhD student David Blackburn is finding out.

David's work will help breeders to develop and deploy shining gum varieties specifically targeted to solid-wood products [read more...]

Molecular breeding taking off

Our research teams are examining variation in genes that control wood traits. The goal is to screen breeding populations for favourable gene variants and combine this information with already-existing genetic data from breeding programmes [read more...]

Processing studies informed by Green Triangle visit

Silvicultural research trials in Western Victoria and the Green Triangle region established in the 1990s can now provide a great resource for processing studies. CRC for Forestry High Value Wood Resources scientists and industry partners toured this region to inspect trials and plantations, and plan future work.  [read more...]

New growth models

New growth models have been developed that predict the growth responses of three plantation species of eucalypt to early-age thinning and pruning. Project scientists anticipate that the models, which are based upon data from three thinning and pruning experiments in northern Victoria, will find application in stands managed for sawlog production [read more...]

Effects of silvicultural treatments on blue gum wood quality

The "drought risk" trials in Western Australia played an important role helping growers judge the balance between productivity and risk of drought damage. Now wood cores taken from the trees before final harvest are giving us insights into the effects of thinning and fertilising on blue gum wood quality [read more...]

Near infra-red spectroscopy goes bush

A new Phazir portable near infra-red (NIR) analyser is being used to predict cellulose, kraft pulp yield and other wood properties for a range of CRC projects.  This analyser offers the prospect of lower-cost prediction of wood properties. NIR may also be effective in predicting some other traits important to solid wood [read more...]

Knot detection in unpruned blue gum logs

Junli Yang is evaluating ways to assess levels of knot-related defects in unpruned blue gum stems that affect the potential value of the species for solid-wood products. Knots and kino traces that develop from dead branches don’t affect pulpwood value, but can substantially downgrade the value of solid-wood appearance products, even though they occupy a very small proportion of the log volume [read more...]

New silvicultural  trial tests Corymbia hybrids

Corymbia hybrids are promising candidates for sawlog eucalypt plantations in Queensland.

Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries' researchers have just planted a major new silvicultural trial of Corymbia hybid families as part of their contribution to CRC for Forestry Project 2.5 (High-value wood products from sub-tropical plantations) [read more...]