Talking Trees

A Blog by John Halkett

Category: Wood (Page 2 of 2)

Dr Lyndall Bull, director, Forestry Tasmania, and Cr Christine Sindt, Latrobe City, Victoria, congratulate John Halkett at the book launch at the Melbourne Outlook and Insights Conference.
Dr Lyndall Bull, director, Forestry Tasmania, and Cr Christine Sindt, Latrobe City, Victoria, congratulate John Halkett at the book launch at the Melbourne Outlook and Insights Conference.

Jungle book now available

September 14, 2016 /

Billed as the Book of the Month for September Jungle Jive: Sustaining the forests of Southeast Asia takes a constructive look at jungle conservation, arguing that implementing economic measures that value jungle trees is the way to sustain them and their biological values. The central thesis of the book is the need to inject a dose of economic realism into a subject that has been long on superlatives and emotion, but short on commercial reality.
The book sets out an argument for that in part lies in the increasing prospects of sustainable, legally verified wood production and climate change abatement… Read more “Jungle book now available”

Radiata pine now one of the major plantation trees across temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere and the basis of substantial forest industries.
Radiata pine now one of the major plantation trees across temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere and the basis of substantial forest industries.

Radiata pine – ‘super wood’ of the 21st century

August 28, 2016 /

Pine plantations began to be established in Australia from the 1870s as insurance against diminishing supplies of timber from native forests. Early attempts to find suitable pine plantation species for Australian conditions gave rise to planting trials using a wide variety of species. Pines from north and central America, Europe and the Mediterranean, from the Himalayas and Eastern Asia were all tried.

While several showed promise, the most successful was Monterey or radiata pine. This species grows naturally only in three small localities on the central Californian coast, in an area … Read more “Radiata pine – ‘super wood’ of the 21st century”

Harvesting radiata pine – blog coming soon.
Harvesting radiata pine – blog coming soon.

Feedback on correspondence

May 4, 2016 /

We have had an issue with the posting of comments directly on the blog site – corrected now. That aside, I have received some interesting emails and even a positive, pleasant comment from the Federal Government Department of Apiculture and Water Resources – so thanks.

Roger Underwood from Western Australia likes the blog and sent me an article advocating the planting of northern hemisphere deciduous trees in bushfire-prone areas of WA. His article also provides a really interesting commentary on H L Edlin’s “wonderful book” Trees, Woods and Man.
The article is really quite long Roger so we are… Read more “Feedback on correspondence”

Sole remaining mahogany tree from those planted in 1885.
Sole remaining mahogany tree from those planted in 1885.

Penang mahogany tree

April 12, 2016 /

Just back from working in Penang, Malaysia. This mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) tree is the sole remaining survivor of those planted in the church grounds in1885.

The church, St George The Martyr, is the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia. It was built by convicts brought in from India in 1819. A critical component of the church’s construction was mahogany beams that travelled from India to Penang on the same ship as the convicts.

The church was damaged by Japanese bombing in 1941 and repaired in 1948. It was given national heritage status by the Malaysian Government in 2007, together… Read more “Penang mahogany tree”

Confiscated boat to be disassembled and the timber recycled.
Confiscated boat to be disassembled and the timber recycled.

Disassembling and recycling confiscated boats saves trees

April 12, 2016 /

For perhaps a couple of decades now governments in Southeast Asia, and the Australian Government have been sinking or otherwise destroying boats seized because of alleged people smuggling and illegal fishing activities. The motive behind this action seems to have been to deny perpetrators the opportunity to reuse these vessels for unlawful purposes.

Most of these boats originate from Indonesia and are made from high quality Indonesian or Malaysian hardwood timber. Some contain teak.

To their credit the Malaysian Government has recently permitted confiscated boats to be disassembled,… Read more “Disassembling and recycling confiscated boats saves trees”

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