Graham and Liv Scott

The founders of a unique fair that celebrates wood were inspired set it up to bring an “age-old tradition” to New Zealand. Liv and Graham Scott attended a variety of wood fairs across Europe, United States and Canada, where these popular events were commonplace. But when the couple moved to Rockville, Golden Bay from the United Kingdom, they noticed “a big gap” in what should be a celebration of all things wood. … There were so many wood enthusiasts in Golden Bay – from carpenters to craftspeople and sawmillers, as well as small pockets of bio-diverse forestry taking place. “But they’re all just doing their own thing in their sheds or growing timber quietly, there’s not really this cohesion or celebration.” … Scott said her husband started talking about “how amazing it would be” to create a traditional wood fair that supported local people; a place where woodworkers, craftspeople and saw millers could showcase their work.

Logging of native forests makes them much more flammable and elevates the severity of bushfires when they occur, pushing some species closer to ecological collapse, according to a review of published science by two leading universities. The meta-study – which assessed 51 peer-reviewed papers – found logging increased the severity of forest fires from about 10 years after the trees are extracted with effects lasting more than three decades. Selective logging or thinning can also increase fire risks, according to the Bushfire Recovery Project, a joint project between Griffith University and The Australian National University. The research showed that “it is up to seven times more likely that the canopy in a logged forest will burn compared with an unlogged forest”, said Patrick Norman, an ecologist with the Griffith Climate Change Response Program, and one of the report’s authors.

Robots help us in many ways – from assembly lines to looking after the elderly. Now they’re turning their attention to combating climate change by helping to plant trees. Milrem Robotics, an Estonian company which started off building autonomous tanks, has developed an autonomous robot forester that can plant and nurture young trees. The new robot planter carries up to 300 saplings and can plant a hectare of forest in less than six hours. Although the robot forester is primarily designed for working in commercial forests, … it could be used to restore natural forests too. … The robotic planters are equipped with Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) which uses laser pulses to build up a three-dimensional image of the robots’ surroundings and global positioning (GPS) to navigate precisely across the terrain. …  the project has been backed by a $2.4 million grant from the European Union.

A winery owner is suing a West Australian Government agency and its contractor for more than $500,000 over damage to its vintage caused by a devastating fire it says started on a government-owned timber planation. The fire in February 2019, is believed to have started on the government-owned Lewana pine plantation between Nannup and Balingup about two hours south of Perth, and burned more than 3,000 hectares, for three days, and escaped on to neighbouring properties. Hillbille Wines owner Lloyd Douglas lodged a formal writ yesterday in the WA District Court on Tuesday seeking more than $500,000, for damage caused by fire and smoke to his wine grapes and property. His lawyers alleged the Forest Products Commission and its contractor, Total Harvesting had breached its duty of care, the fire was started by sparks from harvesting machinery grating on granite, and fire suppression efforts had been inadequate.