OPINION: For sheep and beef farmers, trucking out 400 tonnes of product off your land in a day would be pretty impressive.
This week M&R Forestry Management opened up their forestry operations to the public, to showcase their environmental management while taking big loads of wood off the hills of Marlborough.
The Marlborough-based team of foresters won the 2022 Cawthron Marlborough Environment Award, forestry section. And for good reason.
Kyle Heagney, M&R, said the harvesting job that won the accolade was on very steep land with patches of indigenous forest. The stream water quality was monitored before, during and after, and the quality was the same or better.
Practices included pulling all the waste wood (slash) to flat skid sites, not leaving on the hill face in 'pockets'. They raked waste wood in lines running downhill, away from the natural water flow areas.
The swing yarder pulled logs across the block, reducing deep lines going straight down the hill which can increase sediment. It also means fewer tracks. Spending a bit more at harvesting time, even though the sun is shining, can really pay dividends when heavy rain arrives.
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