Australasia's home for timber news and information

Americans on a roll

The voracious use of toilet paper in the United States, with the average American using almost three rolls each week and major manufacturers spurning alternative fibres, is destroying Canada’s forests and causing widespread environmental damage, according to a report from two internat
Continue Reading →

John Deere Forestry swings into production of 5000th machine

John Deere commemorated the production of its 5000 Forestry Swing Machine, a 2656G Log Loader, with a special ceremony at the John Deere-Hitachi Specialty Products (DHSP) factory. Held at the end of January, John Deere invited the customer who purchased the milestone unit, Bighorn Log
Continue Reading →

Unpalatable outcome post Brexit for UK

The UK government is holding talks with distributors after realising that the UK has a dire shortage of the “right sort” of pallets to import and export goods in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will hold meetings with distr
Continue Reading →

Meet the Lumberjills of WW2

When war was declared in 1939, Britain was almost completely dependent on imported timber but only had seven months of it stockpiled. Timber was critical to the war effort: it was needed for everything from aircraft and shipbuilding to communications and coal mining. The British timbe
Continue Reading →

Aggressive forest thinning needed but resources thin on the ground

Spurred on by the devastating wildfires of the past few years including the Carr Fire and Camp Fire, state officials in California are pursuing ambitious plans to double the amount of wildland tree and brush thinning over the next five years. But they also acknowledge it is likely to
Continue Reading →

Komatsu to acquire TimberPro

Komatsu America has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TimberPro. The acquisition is expected to close on 1 April 2019, subject to completion of the closing conditions. Source: Timberbiz Established in 2002, TimberPro is a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of purpose-built fore
Continue Reading →

Treevia designs a SmartForest for Brazil

A remote monitoring system rolled out in Brazil is taking over the exhausting and risky task of keeping an eye on commercial forests. The system allows researchers and technicians to track forest growth rates in real time, in order to estimate if they are developing properly and detec
Continue Reading →

Biggest carbon sinks are in young forests

More than half of the carbon sink in the world’s forests is in areas where the trees are relatively young – under 140 years old – rather than in tropical rainforests, research at the University of Birmingham shows. Source: Timberbiz These trees have typically ‘regrown’ on land previou
Continue Reading →

Smart Thumper app to test wood strength

Determining the stiffest piece of lumber is now easier with a new smartphone app created by scientists in Mississippi State University’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center. Called “Smart Thumper,” the app uses soundwaves or vibrations to determine stiffness, a quality that relates to
Continue Reading →

Logset’s new test track for forest machinery

At the end of 2018, Logset built a 500-meter test drive track next to the company’s forest machine factory in Koivulahti, Finland. The conditions on the track simulate the forest conditions. Every forest machine leaving the factory is evaluated on the new track. Source: Timberbiz The
Continue Reading →