The effect of thinning on wood quality and solid wood product recovery of regrowth forests: E. regnans from central highlands

The objective of this research was to determine if, after the application of conventional processing methods, there were differences in solid wood quality, recovery and board defects between E. regnans logs obtained from thinned and unthinned native forest regrowth in Victoria.

This was not a significant difference in recovery % of log volume for thinned and unthinned forests. However, overall wood quality and product value was significantly better from the thinned logs.

The results also indicate that the general wood quality of thinned forests is better, with lower incidence of tight kino veins, and surface and internal checking.

There are no major problems processing such logs as those used in these trials from thinned forests, enabling industry to have some confidence in using this resource. However, the results are only relevant to logs of the specific quality, height and diameter range used in the trials. These came from the largest of the trees in the thinned coupes and it would therefore be useful to undertake further trials to assess the processing performance and wood quality across a larger log diameter range from the thinned forests.

Reference Number:
PNC051-0607

Findings Report:
PN06.3015regrowththinningC.pdf

Other Attachments:
PN06.3015 Thinning regrowth nsw_0.pdf
PN06.3015 Thinning regrowth TAS.pdf
PN06.3015 Thinning regrowth Vic.pdf
PN06.3015 Thinning regrowth WA.pdf