Marlborough at the heart of new $1 billion timber industry – Stuff.co.nz

Marlborough is at the heart of a new $1 billion hardwood industry project that aims to eradicate the need for chemically-treated timber in New Zealand and provide a boost for the environment and regional economies.

With the New Zealand timber industrys continued use of toxic agents, such as the carcinogenic Chromate Copper Arsenic (CCA) to treat timber, the countrys inability to reuse or recycle the waste has meant more than 400,000 tonnes of contaminated wood is being sent to the nations landfills each year.

New Zealand is one of the world's largest users of CCA-treated timber, but the masses of waste wood, broken posts and off-cuts cannot be safely disposed of and are too contaminated to be recycled.

It is illegal to burn CCA-treated timber as it releases poisonous chemicals, including high-levels of arsenic, into the air that can be harmful to people and the environment.

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Just over a decade ago, the New Zealand Dryland Forest Initiative (NZDFI) began its quest to develop a durable hardwood industry and to find a suitable replacement for radiata pine - New Zealands most commonly used wood.

Radiata pine, a species that requires chemical treatment prior to use, is used heavily in the agricultural industry, especially across vineyards where an estimated 15 to 18 million CCA-treated timber posts are being used in the Marlborough region alone.

Andy Brew/Marlborough Express

University of Canterbury PhD student Yanjie Li using a coring drill to test the durable properties of the heartwood in a young eucalyptus tree.

As many as 630,000 posts are damaged each year, ending up in landfill sites and adding to the ever-increasing stockpiles of contaminated waste mounting up around New Zealand.

NZDFI said the region was a prime location for the burgeoning industry to take root.

Marlborough is the home of the NZDFI, initially established because of the wine-growing industry's perceived need for an alternative to CCA-treated radiata pine posts and poles. This post and pole market, combined with high summer temperatures and very low summer rainfall in many regions, make Marlborough highly suited to growing drought-tolerant durable eucalyptus as a land-use diversification and as the basis for a sustainable regional hardwood industry, NZFDI said.

The projects motto, Whakatipu taikk mauroa (Breeding tomorrows trees today), emphasises NZDFIs vision to build a $1 billion hardwood industry by 2050 that will be able to supply all New Zealands timber requirements while, at the same time, making the need for toxic timber treatments redundant.

Marlborough Research Centre chief executive Gerald Hope said the wine industry was the backbone of the district's economy and was always looking to reduce its environmental footprint.

Marlborough is the bulk of the New Zealand wine industry, 80 per cent of our exports come out of this region. However, from an environmental point of view there is one thorn in our heel and that is the disposal of, and use of, CCA-treated timber.

Durable hardwood is the future, Hope said.

Scott Hammond/Stuff

NZDFI project manager Paul Millen was named New Zealand Forester of the Year last year for his 18 years of work breeding eucalyptus.

The NZ Institute of Forestry 2021 Forester of the Year winner and NZDFI's project manager Paul Millen said the industry would attract investment into Marlborough, provide employment opportunities and inject millions into the region's economy.

Millen said it was estimated that the project could be worth up to $82.5m annually to the Marlborough GDP.

In Marlborough our vision is for a sustainable hardwood industry to be centred on a small-to-medium sized processing operation based at Kaituna, near Blenheim. We could build an adjoining mill onto the Kaituna saw mill, and it would be the perfect place for transportation and access to Picton port, Millen said.

NZDFI said the eucalyptus hardwood could be used beyond vineyard posts as its natural durability also made it ideal for power poles, wharfs, boat-building, decking and furniture.

Andy Brew/Marlborough Express

The University of Canterbury's Wood Technology Research Centre Co-Director and science team leader at NZDFI Clemens Altaner has sampled more than 800 species of eucalyptus to find the best ones suited to NZ conditions.

The University of Canterbury's Wood Technology Research Centre co-director and science team leader at NZDFI Clemens Altaner said it was these attributes, along with consumers growing appetite for organically grown products, that inspired the creation of NZDFI.

It started with the problems in the vineyards, he said. If you are an organic grower, you cant use CCA-treated timber in your vineyard, and you cant covert one to organic if the CCA is still in the soil. So, they need something else.

Little over a decade later, and the testing and trailing of several hundred different types of eucalyptus, Altaner and his team have developed several distinct species that offer rapid growth, high durability and can be used and recycled in its natural condition.

There are over 800 different species of eucalyptus, and some of them are extremely durable, he said. So we brought over hundreds of seeds from Australia to see which ones would grow in New Zealand conditions.

Andy Brew/Marlborough Express

The logging and timber industry has changed considerably over the past century, with science and technology now at the forefront.

NZDFI used world-first research techniques that involved coring into the trunks of young trees for analysis of the heartwood and extractives to determine their natural resistance against biodegradation, decay and wood-degrading insects. Heartwood grows in the centre of the trunk and is the only part of the tree that holds the natural durability properties required.

The NZDFI, working in conjunction with its partner Proseed NZ Ltd, were able to whittle down their search to several species of eucalyptuses that could withstand environmental decay and insect infestation without the need for chemical treatment.

NZDFI has 13 plantation sites across Marlborough with a range of landowners hosting trials on their land, including farmers, vineyard owners, local authorities, and large-scale forest owners and processors.

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Marlborough at the heart of new $1 billion timber industry - Stuff.co.nz