- New Planting and Restocking Estimates
- Table 4: Land Cover Prior to New Planting (Calendar years)
- Harvesting Data
Planting & Harvesting Estimates
New Planting and Restocking Estimates
The 2003 calendar year estimate of total planting is 58,100 hectares. This is made up of 19,900 hectares of new planting and 38,200 hectares of restocking. The new planting estimate is calculated from total seedling numbers sold by forest nurseries, and the restocking estimate is based on data collected from forest owners in the 2004 NEFD survey. Approximately 54,600 hectares of previously harvested forest remained unplanted awaiting restocking as at 1 April 2004. It is provisionally estimated that 10,600 hectares of new planting occurred during the 2004 calendar year.
Of the new planting captured directly in the 2004 NEFD survey, 46 percent occurred on unimproved pasture, 28 percent on improved pasture and 26 percent on land where scrub was previously the predominant land cover. Table 4 shows in percentage terms the predominant land cover prior to planting since 1993.
Table 4: Land Cover Prior to New Planting (Calendar years)
| Previous land cover | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Improved pasture | 28% | 49% | 67% | 36% | 43% | 44% | 56% | 68% | 31% | 28% |
| Unimproved pasture | 56% | 35% | 22% | 50% | 46% | 47% | 30% | 9% | 49% | 46% |
| Scrub | 16% | 16% | 11% | 14% | 11% | 9% | 14% | 23% | 20% | 26% |
The estimates of land cover prior to new planting are based solely on the new planting information collected in postal surveys: refer to Table 2. In some instances postal survey respondents who had undertaken new planting did not state the land cover prior to planting. While the sample size used to derive the proportions of land cover type prior to new planting is considered to be adequate, the estimates are biased towards the practices of the larger forest owners who are fully represented in the postal surveys.
For definitions of these land cover types refer to Appendix 1.
Harvesting Data
The 2004 NEFD survey estimated that the total volume harvested for the year ended 31 March 2004 was 19.4 million cubic metres. It is estimated that 18.6 million cubic metres came from clear felling 40,800 hectares of planted forest, and 0.8 million cubic metres from production thinning.
The total volume of radiata pine harvested in the year ended 31 March 2004 was 18.3 million cubic metres, from clear felling 38,100 hectares of forest. The area-weighted average clear fell age of radiata pine increased from 27.3 years in the year ended 31 March 2003 to 27.6 years in the year ended 31 March 2004.
An independent estimate of roundwood removals from planted forest for the same period was 20.9 million cubic metres (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, November 2004). This estimate is based on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s annual surveys of forest processing plants and export data from Statistics New Zealand. Conversion factors are used to indirectly estimate roundwood removals.
Contact for Enquiries
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