Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 37
1
2 Q. That is done once in a lifetime, a fixed amount. Then
3 there is a one in five thinning?
4 A. Not necessarily, no.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The thinning was one row in three or two in
7 five. I do not think it meant that it was done one way one
8 time and then the other way the next, but those were two
9 ways in which you could thin.
10
11 MR. MORRIS: Right, and that is done once?
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. One in three or two in five once?
15 A. One has to say one is talking about very well organised
16 plantation forest, and in certain instances you will find
17 the thinning is done manually, and then the system maybe
18 that which they are accustomed to in that area. When it is
19 done with machines (as is now done) then you do have to
20 open up a sufficiently wide path for the machine, and that
21 is when they take two in five. So, you have variations on
22 that theme, according to the particular method of Silvi
23 cultural management.
24
25 Q. So when you say that there is likely to be, say, maybe
26 three thinnings, apart from the initial one, would they be
27 one in three thinnings or two in five thinnings?
28 A. No.
29
30 Q. Or whether there would be selective thinnings?
31 A. The first thinning, if it is going to be done
32 mechanically, if it is done with a machine, has to open up
33 a wide enough path at regular intervals through the forest
34 for the machine to pass through. But modern machines today
35 have arms with a long reach so that the second thinning
36 will done much more on the basis of which trees are not
37 maturing well and which trees are maturing well.
38 Therefore, it is not on the basis of taking out a single
39 row; it is on the basis of selecting the inadequate trees.
40
41 Q. So, the three further thinnings after the initial one, for
42 example -----
43 A. The two further after the initial one.
44
45 Q. The two further after the initial one, they are likely to
46 be ---
47 A. Selective.
48
49 Q. -- selective trees. What kinds of proportion of selective
50 trees will there be? What will the average or general
51 figure be? Will it be one in 100 trees or one in 10?
52 A. Again, it depends on the species, it depends on the
53 region where you are and the terrain, but if you take --
54 again one has to take Scandinavia, if for no other reason
55 that Scandinavia is a major supplier of the resource, the
56 forest resource for McDonald's, and if we take that area
57 alone, then what they are doing is reducing the original
58 number of trees planted from somewhere in the area of 3,000
59 trees per hectare, plus natural regeneration which may well
60 make it up to 5,000 trees per hectare, because you get
