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
