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We are pleased to announce that a joint submission between PFSQ, SEQ Catchments and CQ Forest Association has been approved by the Australian Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry under the Caring for our Country program.  The program is called  Revegnet.au and in due course we will have links applied to let you all see what it’s all about.  Below is the precis delivered by the Federal Government.

Revegnet.au has been developed to progress through a logical flow from definition of best management forest, reafforestation and revegetation practices, mapping and risk assessment of priority areas, the improvement in skill and capacity building of landholders, developing property management plans and the implementation of those plans via an incentive program for on-ground works. These works will include fencing riparian areas and unstable drainage lines, revegetating recharge zones, linking fragmented essential habitat forests and improving the health, ground cover and productivity of overstocked regrowth forests. Revegnet.au will ensure a network of critical endangered ecological communities buffered and linked via reafforestation to allow for a resilient recharge/discharge of biodiversity functions across the landscape.

This link will take you to the Qld successful submissions

Please contact us if you have any queries regarding these matters. 

We currently have a number of large corporate clients who use our expertise in calculating carbon sequestration, carbon vegetation credits and auditing of plantations for the coming carbon trading economy. We utilize the only Government accredited Carbon Toolbox to interpret your data for the carbon future.

With the arrival of Gary Clarke, our new Operations Manager, PFSQ now has the capability, expertise and expanded field crew to advise, design, implement and establish plantations within the PFSQ region and beyond.  Gary has a list of extremely successful plantations which he has been established and currently maintains under the PFSQ banner.  Many landholders now understand the relationship of preserving their forest areas, revegetation of their degraded land and the many benefits, both commercial and environmental that this impacts upon.

We can devise a management plan for your property and we can either do the work for you or support you in doing the processes yourself.

Private Forestry Southern Queensland (PFSQ), based in Mary Street Gympie, has recognised that the services provided by the Noosa and District Landcare Group’s Farm Forestry Program must continue to be offered to landholders and the community.

Gary Clarke will be joining the PFSQ team as their Operational Manager, with responsibilities covering delivery of services previously provided by The Farm Forestry Program as well as extended duties associated with the overall role of PFSQ as a Private Forestry Development Committee (PFDC).

Gary has 25 years professional experience in natural resource management including:

* Eight years as a Forest Officer in the Queensland Forestry Service

* Five years private consultancy and landscape management

* Three years Resource Manager in the timber processing industry

* Eight and a half years as the Farm Forestry Program Manager for Noosa and District Landcare’s Farm Forestry Program

Gary has a great passion and knowledge of forests and forest processes that he applies to all his dealings with landholders and their forests. He has his own plantation and native forest projects under active management and also has a keen passion for making furniture from Camphor Laurel and native species.

PFSQ will now be able to offer a wider range of educational consultation and on-ground implementation services including:

* Total property planning

* Plantation consultancy and design

* Revegetation establishment and regeneration

* All aspects of plantation maintenance

* Fire management plans

* Weed management

* Forest infrastructure

* Plantation inventory

* Seedling supply

* Erosion mitigation

All consultancy and implementation will be delivered in a whole of landscape style, allowing for integration of existing farm practices and lifestyle objectives and maximum economic and environmental benefits. Gary has implemented many projects in partnership with PFSQ over the past eight years and has developed good working relationships with current staff.

To kick off the 2009 farm forestry season we will be holding a farm forestry field day at Uri Muri Plantations on Louis Bazzo Road at Cootharaba on the 18th April 2009. A flyer with workshop details will be sent around in the coming month. Gary Clarke will be starting work with PFSQ on the 2nd March 2009, although he will be contactable prior to March on 0413 967 833.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y&feature=related

Media Release

12 January 2009

We see them along our beachfronts and in many streets and gardens, but the iconic palm tree may soon have a new place in the Queensland lifestyle as a high quality building product.

Research conducted by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) has found that Cocowood, produced from coconut palm tree trunks, is suitable for use as high value flooring, bench tops, kitchen cabinets and furniture.

DPI&F senior technician Gary Hopewell said the latest findings from the three year $520,000 Cocowood project showed that processed coconut palm wood was actually superior to many other commercially available timbers.

”A number of Australian flooring product manufacturers are evaluating the material for their domestic manufacturing operations,” he said. 

“Timber industry representatives from Australia, Fiji and Samoa, including flooring market and production specialists and potential suppliers and processors, are studying drying and processing technologies to ensure strict quality control of the product.

“Even medium density palm logs can be processed to make attractive veneers and plywood.

“The positive results achieved to date support development of palm stem processing in Pacific island countries of origin, with valued added flooring and other products produced in Australia.”

Many Pacific island nations including Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu have large but ageing coconut palm plantations, where there is declining coconut and copra crop production. 

Mr Hopewell said the project was looking at opportunities to use these plantations to generate new timber industries, and create new Australian export and consumer markets, while providing a new source of income for Pacific island peoples from a locally available resource. 

“With strong demand for flooring products in Asia, America and Europe, Cocowood products could be very lucrative for Queensland and our Pacific neighbours,” he said. 

“By developing a Cocowood industry to provide a range of timber products, we could help reduce the demand for timber from old growth forests in Pacific island nations.”

This year the project enters a new stage with the further refinement of Cocowood processing for commercialisation and entry to domestic and international markets. 

The Cocowood project is co-funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural research (ACIAR). DPI&F is a partner agency with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Fiji Coconut Industry Development Authority, (CIDA), Fiji Ministry of Fisheries and Forests, Samoan Ministry for Natural Resources and Environment and Strickland Brothers, Samoa.

Caption 1
Cocowood showing its distinctive woodgrain pattern
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Caption 2
DPI&F senior technician Gary Hopewell evaluating Cocowood samples.