Proper forest management is the key to producing the right trees for making the right products. We take pride in the way we manage and take care of our forests - from land preparation, seed selection, planting, disease and pest control, thinning, pruning, and harvesting. It's a deliberate, methodical and continuous process to ensure that the product requirements of customers are met.

We have 54,000 hectares of planted forests in 3 North Island regional locations - Northland, East Coast and Wairarapa. Our forests are close to our Mill operations ensuring freshly cut logs can be quickly and efficiently delivered for processing with minimal damage to the logs and with minimal impact on the environment.

Our predominantly Radiata Pine forests are plantation grown with a particular tree quality and end-product in mind. We operate on a 30-year rotational cycle, but within this cycle we adjust tree stocking rates and silviculture regimes to ensure that we end up with wood that is true, that is stable, that looks good and that is well-suited to the innovative and high quality products that we make.

We carefully select and prepare the land and the seedlings to be planted, and we monitor and control diseases and pests. Our tree stocking adjustments include selective "thinning" to ensure managed and uniform growth of remaining trees, and our silvicultural practices include higher than normal "pruning" to achieve tree logs with a larger proportion of unblemished (clear) wood. Harvesting is undertaken with sensitivity to the environment and to natural features and habitats. And once trees are harvested the ground is prepared again in readiness for replanting, usually within 6 months. 

Good policies and practices will only work when experienced, knowledgeable and committed people are "on the job". We foster and encourage strong and enduring relationships with our staff and our contractors - people who are passionate about the forests they work in, about what they do, and about their importance in the supplier-to-customer product chain.  

All of this means that a continual and sustainable supply of raw wood of the right grades is going into our Mills to be transformed into high quality products for our customers. And without touching our natural indigenous forest resources.