In New Zealand, by the Forests Act amendment of 1993, all indigenous timber can only be harvested from forests which are managed to have continuous cover,  maintain an ecological balance and where yields do not exceed the natural growth rate  ie: is sustainable in perpetuity. To ensure this, private foresters of native forest must obtain either a Sustainable Forest Management Permit (SFMP) or develop and submit for approval a Sustainable Management Plan. In addition sawmills may only mill logs sourced from forests managed according to sustainable management plans or permits and any sawmills wanting to mill indigenous timber must be registered.

The SFMP is less strict in its requirements for documentation because it provides a standard cutting allowance of 500 cu.m over a 10 year period ( for NZ Beech). All that is required to obtain an SFMP is an application to the the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) Indigenous Forestry Unit (IFU) providing evidence of the type and amount of forest covered by the application. Primarily MAF are looking for you to provide proof that the standard allowance is covered adequately with normal growth rates ie: harvesting will not exceed growth yield and that you have a plan in place for managing the forest cover and maintaining the health of the forest.  There is no charge to apply though it may cost you if you need to bring in a forester to provide some of the basic information required in the application. MAF may choose to inspect your property to verify the claims.

  Once approved by MAF, the permit must be registered against the title of the property and it is therefore transferable to subsequent owners. The forester's obligations are then to submit an annual logging plan before any work is undertaken and to adhere to a program of non-native pest management and to the forest management plan described in the application.

A Sustainable Management Plan is required if a rate of extraction is desired which is greater than the standard amount under the SFMP. Plans are valid for 50 years and so these applications are more involved and require far more documentation.

NZ Beech Forest

We owe a great debt of appreciation to the previous owners of Stainart Forest who were respected foresters and who developed the original plan and laid the groundwork for much of what we know about Stainart Forest. These are NZ top foresters and researchers Gordon Baker and Udo Benecke. We aim to continue their work by applying many of their research findings about beech forests.

NZ Beech is estimated to grow at 6cu.m per Hectare per year ( roughly 1000 bd.ft per acre per year ). With 78Ha of NZ Beech under management, that's 468 cu.m per year and therefore 4680 over a 10 year period. You can see that the 500 cu.m allowed by the permit is just a little under 11% of yield well within a sustainable limit.

The main pests wich impact the beech forst specifically are deer and goats. Deer and goats graze tender shoots in the lower canopy. In the case of beech trees, these are most likely beech saplings. Beech saplings sit and wait for an opening in the canopy. They can remain quite small for a very long period of time waiting for this natural occurence. Grazing animals would effect the ability of the forest to naturally regenerate if they are reduced or eliminated.

While we have other pests to worry about( possums, stoats, mice, rats, weasels, feral cats and pigs) mainly they effect the birdlife in the forest, it would be naive , however, to think that the two are not related. In New Zealand, there are no natural occurring  mammals and birds have developed to take the on all of the functions in the ecosystem normally performed by mammals in other parts of the world.

 As part of our Sustainable Management Forest Permit, we have a responsibility for monitoring/controlling pest animal species.

Deer specifically are not known to be abundant in Stainart Forest, though there have been sighting of goats in nearby forests ( the result of releasing tame goats into the forest when no longer desired ) and evidence of wild pigs ( also the product of intentional release - first done by the colonialists to encourage a source of food), which also can create great damage with their uprooting of the forest floor. One interesting side benefit of the pigs ( besides exciting some people about pig hunts and pig roasts) is that they tend to be creatures of  habit and so keep to certain areas ( mainly near the muddy areas near the source of some small stream. They  also have also formed and maintain some tracks through the forest, which form the base of some of our trail system.