Forestry
South Island Forests
In 2004 Isthmus purchased two modest South Island forests off a listed forestry company which was disposing of assets. These were an opportunistic purchase at the time, but were also seen as an interesting counter cyclical diversification.
East Takaka Forest
The larger of these forests had been substantially logged out by the previous owners, but only partially replanted. The property was fully roaded and Isthmus wanted to continue with the use of the land for forestry purposes, both because it was the most suitable use of the land and because it is environmentally desirable.
Accordingly Isthmus has since replanted the balance of this property with pinus radiata for its second rotation. Planting ages range between 2003 – 2006 with only a small area of mature planting remaining. This is scheduled to be logged out in 2012.
Our forestry philosophy is to target the domestic saw log market. Accordingly
in time we will thin these plantings, but not prune them.
Skyfarm Forest
At the time of purchase Skyfarm Forest had 35 year old mature pines on
it, but required significant amounts of money spent on roading before harvest
could proceed. This included a lot of “blasting” of rock on the access
road in order to get logging trucks through.
Isthmus used local contractors to carry out the required roading during
the first half of 2007 and commenced logging operations in June 2007. Logging
operations continued until January 2009 and the entire property was replanted with its second rotation in the winter of 2009.
As no logging gangs in the area had their own aerial hauler, Isthmus purchased
its own for use on the block. This was a more economical solution than
bringing in a logging gang from a more remote location.
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