Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 30


     
     1        A.  Yes, I think Silvi cultural techniques have improved.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What would it have been in the mid-80s, do
     4        you have any idea, to compare?
     5        A.  I would not have thought it was below 80 per cent, sir.
     6
     7   Q.   In this country?
     8        A.  In this country, it would be in the mid-80s, about 85
     9        or 86 per cent and it has risen over 90 per cent.  It is
    10        very carefully monitored.
    11
    12   MR. MORRIS:  A lot of the trees would be thinned out before they
    13        become mature trees?
    14        A.  That is part of the technique of Silvi cultural
    15        management, yes.
    16
    17   Q.   On top of the ones that do not succeed in actually
    18        growing?
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  A lot more would not succeed in growing you
    21        if you did not thin them, would they?
    22        A.  The whole point of the thinning operation is to ensure
    23        that the trees grow well in the first instance, grow
    24        straight and true.  Then by thinning they become more
    25        rapidly mature.  In other words, as you thin the forest, so
    26        the remaining trees, having started well, will actually
    27        grow at a faster rate.  The thinning, obviously, produces
    28        the first economic return for the original investment.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  Just on making the point of the question,
    31        anyway, that of the 2.3 billion potential trees, something
    32        may be less than half a billion might end up as mature
    33        trees?
    34        A.  Yes, I think that is correct.  I mean, the thinning
    35        operation will gradually reduce over the years because
    36        thinning in most plantation forests now is not a single
    37        operation; it is almost certainly two and usually three
    38        thinning operations in the full life of that forest
    39        plantation.  The remaining trees at the end will have a
    40        greater volume because they have been thinned.
    41
    42   Q.   Just a general question about that, that obviously in
    43        plantation forests the trees generally are not allowed to
    44        become, what you would call, over mature; they are logged
    45        before they are reach old age, if you like?
    46        A.  Again, I think it depends which forest region you are
    47        talking about.  Certainly, in Scandinavia it has for a long
    48        time been part of their practice to leave standing trees in
    49        an area otherwise clearfelled as seed trees, as sheltered
    50        trees as well, and also in more recent times with a 
    51        potential of improving the biodiversity. 
    52 
    53   Q.   But, in general, in most countries that we are talking
    54        about, for most of the last 30 or 40 years, that has not
    55        been the practice, has it?  The practice has been to clear
    56        the trees once they become mature; that is the general
    57        practice?
    58        A.  Once a forest which is managed, including a thinning
    59        regime, has reached maturity, coups of a given size have
    60        taken place, some of which have cleared all the trees of

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