New Zealand forest article

[brianW]

Stumbled across this article about the projected revenue that forests are to take in yearly in New Zealand and the sources of the revenue. Surprised that logging was in third place with walking and mt biking ahead of it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/6010038/Study-finds-price-of-free-access

 

[DSettahr]

It's pretty common place that timber harvesting alone doesn't pay the bills anymore in developed nations.

This is why so many large industrail forestry operations lease out their land to hunting and fishing clubs, particularly in the Adirondacks and in Northern Maine. With the combined incone streams of both timber and fees for recreation/hunting on their property, they can actually turn a profit.

 

[TomD]

I'm not sure how they calcuated these numbers, but I'm pretty sure the forests they refer to are tree farms not natural forests. NZ has had tree farms for a long time. They usually grow radiata pine, which is a fast growing pine tree. Here is the states, it is called the Monterey Pine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_radiata#New_Zealand

A fair amount of the natural forests is protected as national parks, especially on the South Island. None of the tracks I hiked on went through commercial forests, but I was hiking on the South Island for the most part.

I was there quite a while ago, and mt. biking was pretty unknown. I think I had one of the few mountain bikes in the country at the time and sold it before I left. The girl I sold it to bought it virtually sight unseen over the phone, came and got it and was off on a long road trip on it the next day. Typical Kiwi.