High quality,sustainably sourced Tasmania Special Timber Logs Island Specialty Timbers IST recovers and sells whole logs, stumps and burls from Tasmania’s native special species. The annual report does not give separate accounts for IST so their income and costs are unknown. Being a profitable tree grower is not the vision of either of these public forest managers. For the year 2013-14 a total of 12 blackwood logs were put up for tender by IST. Overall IST put 112 cubic metres of specialty timbers to tender in 2019-20 of which 97 cubic metres sold for total revenue of $94,200. Seven (7) plain grain blackwood logs totalling 10.0 cubic metres sold at tender during the year for a mean of $390 per cubic metre, or a volume-weighted mean of $370 (see Table 1).
The blackwood market desperately needs more tradability, more transparency and much more commercial credibility. Tasmania Special Timber Island Specialty Timbers' locations at Geeveston, Derwent Park, Smithton and Strahan are now open to the public. For plain grain blackwood logs prices ranged from $180 to $600 per cubic metre. Unfortunately IST does not produce any market reports or annual summaries of their sales or other activities, which is why I produce this report every year. 118 cubic metres were sold for total revenue of $150,860 at an average price of $1,276 per cubic metre. Remember these prices are equivalent to mill-door delivered prices, so harvesting and transport costs need to be deducted to approximate stumpage paid to the grower. As provided by the FSC Interim Dispute Resolution Protocol and the SCS Forest Conservation Program Quality Manual, dispute resolution procedures are in place and available to interested parties at http://www.scsglobalservices.com/your-feedback. My own belief is that it is both genetic and physiological in origin. Meanwhile in Tasmania these 800+ year old trees are destroyed with no process transparency, no FSC certification, at considerable public expense and no thought for the heritage that is being destroyed. The 4 plain grain lots that sold averaged $418 per cubic metre for some reasonable quality logs, with prices up to $550 per cubic metre. The rest is sold at Government prices on long term sales contracts. There is no point cloning feature grain blackwood unless you can grow the stuff in profitable plantations. It is highly sought after by woodworkers for furniture, craft wood and turning blanks. All 3 blackwood logs put to tender sold, 1 log had figured grain, the other 2 logs were plain grain.
One small feature-grain log that sold for a unit value of $2,400 per cubic metre in the January 2015 tender, and.
Two small blackwood logs were included amongst the 27 lots tendered. Tasmanian blackwood is the only Tasmanian “special species” that has the potential to be grown commercially; the other species being too slow growing.
These are tiny volumes in a small domestic Tasmanian market. Sustainable and profitable farm blackwood for the future, Sustainable Timbers Tasmania Special Species Timbers Fiasco, The burning of Notre Dame and Tasmanian Special Timbers, http://www.scsglobalservices.com/your-feedback, IST Special Timbers Tender 6 Monthly Update, An invitation to join the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Timber processor alarmed over ‘massive amount’ of softwood exported to China, 2000 Powell St, Suite 600; Emeryville CA 94608, USA, Tel +1 (510)452-8034, Fax +1 (510) 452-6882, Most specialty timbers from harvesting public native forest are sold “off market” at “government prices” =. http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/speciality-timbers-go-under-hammer. Posted in Commentary, Island Specialty Timbers, Prices. Such a log could really only be grown in a (public or private) native forest environment. Island Specialty Timbers, an enterprise of Forestry Tasmania, was established at Geeveston in 1992 to increase the recovery, availability and value of specialty timbers from harvesting activities in State forests. Poles - celery-top pine & craft grade Huon pine. Public notification: distribution of the standard and solicitation of comments on the certification applicant; Audit planning and document review; Field assessment: A representative sample of field sites and operations within the defined forest area are inspected by a team of auditors; Stakeholder consultation is carried out prior to and during the field assessment; Synthesis of findings: conformity to the standard is ascertained and the certification decision is formulated; Reporting: a draft report describing the evaluation process, findings, and certification decision is produced; Peer review: the draft evaluation report is peer reviewed by 2 independent natural resource professionals; Finalization of the report and conveyance to the SCS Certification Committee for the final certification decision; Certification decision: the final report and certification decision is conveyed to the applicant; a public summary of the certification report is released if certification is awarded.