The 2025 year has brought some significant challenges to the TOTS forest industry with mid-year floods across the region followed by a significant windthrow event in the Tasman district.

This coupled with closure of the CHH sawmill in the region and declining log export prices, has certainly made it a year to put behind us. It was very encouraging to see how very little harvesting slash was mobilised in the storm events and the positive response of forest owners in assisting neighbours and the wider community with the aftermath clean up. Our TOTSWC continues to gather recognition momentum with government MP’s, local authorities and community groups and is working well with other Wood Councils around the country in sharing information and addressing issues in common.

Our Important focus areas for the 2026 year ahead are:

• Strategic Plan implementation, we have members assigned to each area of the plan to ensure progress.
• Promoting the council to new members.
• Keep up positive communication that forests are good for land, economy and communities.
• Continue to develop close working relationships with local councils, government agencies, NZFOA and other Wood Councils
• 2026 TOTSWC Forestry Awards evening
• Te Hoiere Forestry Projects.
• Generating more funding for the council.

I would like to thank Angela for her hard work & everyone else on the committee for their support and contribution. All the best for the holiday break, I trust it is a relaxing time with family and friends.

Steve
Chair, TOTSWC

Following the departure of Public Impressions, who successfully delivered the Top of the South Forestry Awards over the past few years, TOTSWC is pleased to announce it has now taken over the management of this important industry event.

We’ve appointed Julia Brown as our new event coordinator and are currently working to bring all aspects of the Awards under the TOTSWC banner, including the transition of the Forestry Awards website. We’re well supported by key people who have been involved with the Awards since their inception and aim to deliver another fantastic night of industry celebration in 2026.

We’ll keep members updated on key dates and milestones as planning progresses.

For any queries or questions relating to the Awards, please contact Julia directly at: forestryawards@totswoodcouncil.org.nz

Recently I attended the annual NZ Institute of Forestry conference in Napier where 280 foresters listened to a wide range of presentations on the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle on East coast forests and the windthrow event in the Lake Taupo area and how the recovery was managed to strengthen the forests,infrastructure and affected communities.

As the conference progressed the significant rainfall event unfolded in the Nelson/ Marlborough region with wide spread flooding particularly in the Motueka valley area. There is no silver bullet to preventing such events happening, what we can do as foresters is get alongside our neighbours and communities to ensure appropriate assistance and good communication is provided where required.

One of the learnings from cyclone Gabrielle was that effective communication with stakeholders must start long before any storm damaging event. Promoting the environmental benefits of both native and plantation forests and best practice forest management is something we can all do to improve stakeholder and the public’s knowledge of our industry.

Best Regards,

Steve
Chair, TOTSWC

We’re proud to share that the Top of the South Wood Council was named the Forestry Category Winner at the 2025 Port Marlborough Environment Awards for its entry showcasing work under Te Hoiere Project.

The judges commended TOTSWC for its leadership in fostering environmental improvements within production forestry landscapes. The entry highlighted a suite of on-the-ground initiatives supporting water quality, biodiversity, and long-term land resilience in the Te Hoiere catchment. The judges praised the project’s strong partnerships with landowners and alignment with the broader Te Hoiere Restoration vision, calling it “an outstanding example of industry-driven environmental leadership that delivers results.”

A huge thank you to all the forestry partners, contractors, community members, judges and the wider Te Hoiere Project for contributing to this work — this award is a reflection of many people’s collective efforts.

Finally, congratulations to all the entrants in the Awards, especially our fellow forestry category contenders – BEL Forestry and MacKenzie Management Ltd, and Tasman Pine Forests Ltd- it is heartening to see the sound environmental initiatives going on across the region and the shared commitment to telling some positive forestry stories.

Check out all of the entries and the entry videos on the Port Marlborough – Marlborough Environment Awards website.

Te Hoiere Project is a collaborative project which is working with the whole community to carry out landscape scale restoration projects to increase catchment health and put measures in place to prevent further degradation. TOTSWC is proud to support this project in an area where many of our members work, live, recreate and visit.

Top of the South Wood Council is working with the Project on five forestry innovation projects:

• A sediment loading study to establish a clear understanding of the current sediment levels in streams within specific forests in Te Hoiere prior to harvesting. This will serve as a critical baseline for future monitoring and management efforts and inform similar studies on other land uses in the area.
• A post-harvest riparian native planting project to establish and test a number of current options in post- harvest riparian management in Te Hoiere with the intention of identifying either the most successful – in terms of biodiversity and stream health – or the factors that contribute to the most successful restorative outcomes.
• A land transition study to identify owners who may want to transition areas within their property to another land use; understand where transitioning land may lead to better environmental and economic outcomes; and create an industry-led roadmap for landowners to effectively transition to alternative land uses, including funding and resources available.
• A research project aimed at investigating the exclusion of introduced ungulates – deer, pigs and goats – from forests in Te Hoiere and the potential restorative impacts this could have on indigenous flora and fauna, aquatic health and carbon sequestration.
• An access toolkit and forest database for researchers and monitoring teams to better engage with forestry owners throughout the catchment.

For more information on Te Hoiere Project see Te Hoiere Project.

Doug McLeod is a true pioneer in the forestry industry, making an enormous impact on harvesting in the Nelson Region and beyond. His journey began as a labourer in Ngamu Forest, and since then, his dedication and passion for the industry have shone through every step of his career.

Throughout Doug’s time as a Golden Downs Woodsmen in 1982, his exceptional technical skills and unwavering commitment to helping others stood out. His ability to train and support his colleagues, both technically and emotionally, made Doug a standout leader in the field. Along with his kindness and willingness to stand up for those in need, combined with an unparalleled training style, earned Doug the respect and admiration of all who worked with him.

In Doug’s role as a trainer for CHH in the Kinleith region, his reputation for excellence and dedication to safety set him apart. His unique approach to training, which required individuals to earn their units through hard work and commitment, resonated with contractors and trainees alike. Doug’s genuine care for people and dedication to improving safety practices made him an invaluable asset to the industry.

During challenging times such as the windthrow events in 2004 and 2008, Doug’s leadership and innovative solutions proved invaluable. By advocating for changes in felling and logging practices to enhance safety, he significantly contributed to the industry’s advancement and helped prevent serious injuries.

His involvement in initiatives such as the development of winch assist technology further solidifies their status as a game-changer in the industry. As a Bush Inspector, Doug continued to make a positive impact by driving safety advancements and promoting best practices among crews.

Doug’s recipient’s unwavering dedication, exceptional leadership, and genuine care for the industry and its people make him a truly deserving candidate for the Hall of Fame award. His legacy of excellence and commitment will continue to inspire future generations in the forestry sector.

Caption: Doug McLeod and Stephen Borlase

Proud Sponsor:

Borlase Transport

Top of the South Wood Council is a proud supporter of Climate Action Week Marlborough.

Climate Action Week Marlborough has been designed to create awareness, develop Marlborough’s business community’s knowledge by embracing education, and take action towards creating a low carbon emissions, highly productive, and thriving community.

We will facilitate a Roundtable Session on the 22nd of February:

More than Trees: Soil and the Understory in Marlborough’s Commercial Forests

Recently, forestry has been in the news, rightly or wrongly—and forestry slash even more so. This high-value industry is important for Te Tau Ihu on many levels, and the forestry and wood processing industries have for decades looked for solutions to turn the waste product slash into a valuable, renewable resource. Techweek23 and the Marlborough Forestry Hackathon on Friday 19th May provides a platform for an entirely new approach to welcome ideas and solutions for the industry to interrogate the potential of slash as more than just a waste product. The aim for the industry is to future-proof, enhance the advantages and mitigate the risks, and ultimately, be the best it can be.

Sky Ventures will be facilitating a hackathon for local industry representatives, school students, scientists, innovators, technologists, engineers and human-out-of-the box thinkers and create a platform for finding solutions and paths forwards.

Participants will take part in either the “practitioner” or “student” competitor category, and can register to participate as an individual or in a team to which they will be assigned. We encourage students to take advantage of this opportunity that will challenge their creativity and give them the chance to compete for a cash prize!

What’s a hackathon?

It’s an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours — but we’re doing it in six!

After a long dusty trip up through Chestnut Forest, we reached the skid site with amazing views down over the Marlborough plains.

We observed the crew hauling felled trees up the hillside, transporting them up to the skid site where they were processed and cut to size and sorted due to quality.

The students were able to get up close to the harvester head to see the large saw and chain as well as the hydraulics that are operating the many functions it does. We also caught up with a student who joined the crew last year and is thoroughly enjoying his time on the site. The trip was a great opportunity for the students to visit an active forestry harvesting site and to be able to link their learning in the classroom to the site and machinery. 

The word slash is probably one of the most contentious in Aotearoa at the moment. Following the events of Cyclone Gabrielle management of slash is highly topical, especially as we experience more intense weather events.

For those of you in the Top of the South we wanted to share how slash is being managed locally.

Firstly, what is slash?

Slash is a direct consequence of forest harvesting or tree thinning activities and the National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry (NESPF) defines slash as “any tree waste left behind after plantation forest activities”. What this definition does not cover however is woody debris not associated with harvesting, such as trees that have died or branches that have fallen from natural events. Slash has traditionally been viewed as an under-utilised resource by the forest and wood processing industry. This view is changing and initiatives to realise the potential of this resource on a large scale are being investigated.

One local company innovating in the management of pine slash is Tasman Pine Forests who own and manage 37,000ha of plantation forest in the Nelson/Marlborough region.

Since the 1990’s, harvesting slash has been managed on Tasman Pine Forests sensitive sites and more recently chipping their slash on-site is being undertaken. This has the benefit of minimising environmental risks and allows for slash to be converted into hog fuel, a biomass considered carbon neutral and used to power boilers in large facilities like hospitals or factories, or to be used as a mulch to protect bare soil areas.

Steve Chandler, Chief Executive of Tasman Pine, says the use of slash as hog fuel will increase as more industries invest in boiler technology to burn biomass rather than fossil fuels. Tasman Pine’s management of slash is impressive and represents industry best practice.

Along with the hogging of slash, they also ensure:

• Tree breakage is minimised during felling by using specialised felling heads. These heads allow the tree to be gently placed in a particular direction, minimising the risk of the tree breaking falling into a watercourse or into a difficult to reach area.
• All harvest sites are risk assessed for slash mobilisation potential. On high-risk areas where practical the removal of dead or windthrown logs is also undertaken.
• Once on a landing log recovery is maximised, the slash that remains on the landing is stabilised, then allowed to dry for further processing into hog fuel chip or wood pellet fuel.
• Tasman Pine also avoid pushing slash over the edge of a skid site. Not only does this reduce the risk of slash mobilising, but also maximises the area available for replanting. In fact, Steve says Tasman Pine planters are usually able to freely plant harvested sites without clambering over woody debris left behind from operations.

Steve believes that maximising the use of slash as a resource is vital. In the future there is the potential to earn greater returns from slash disposal through portable on-site processing plants that can produce biofuels like ethanol and hydrogen from slash material, and these are already being used in Australia. Currently there are limitations on introducing this technology in New Zealand due to a lack of markets to utilise the fuel produced and production costs, however as biofuels become more utilised in transport this may become a valuable resource in the future.

Steve also says better public education is needed around how forestry manages slash. While Tasman Pine can control their operations to reduce the impacts of slash, they cannot control extreme weather events. Non-forestry land is also eroding into watercourses, and he says perhaps it is time to research the best types of trees, both native and exotic, to reduce erosion and maximise land retention in high-risk areas.