An Example of a Large-Scale Forest Assessment. Vanimo TA 1970

An Example of a large-Scale Forest Assessment in 1970, undertaken for Pulp and Paper Forest Resources -Vanimo Timber Area Project.

The PNG Administration initiated a project designed to evaluate the pulping and papermaking potential of mixed tropical hardwoods in the Vanimo Timber area in detail. The intended outcome of this work is that it would then identify other timber resource areas in PNG as a source of wood chips. To determine the quality and potential market quality of the PNG forests for pulping potential, the Department of Forests through its Forest Products Research Centre Hohola engaged CSIRO Forest Products Laboratory56 to undertake that work. The CSIRO investigation57 initially selected Block 6 Vanimo Timber area (some 54,000 ha). Block 258 Vanimo Timber area (some 60,000 ha) was included in the investigations. Evan Shield59 described the Vanimo Timber Area as one of the more important components of the forest resources of PNG. This was because of its size and its species composition. The high frequency of occurrence of Kwila was the dominant feature of this.

Vanimo Township 1990’s. Photo credit Evan Shield.

56 CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper # 1 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Phillips F H and Harries E D TPNG Forests 1955-1976. 57 CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper # 2 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Phillips F. H., Logan A.F. and Balodis V. 58 CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper #34 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Logan A.F., and Phillips F H. 59 Evan Shield personal communication 17 April 2020.TPNG Forests 1958-1971. 49

Details of the Vanimo Timber Area:

Block Number Forested Area (Ha) Forested area as % of area Production Forest Area (ha)

1 28,070 76.8 21,560

2 3 4 5 58,010 24,560 64,670 60,010 80.6 46,740 73.8 18,140 93.9 60,700 79.4 47,670

6 51,900

75.7 39,270 Totals 287,240 81.5 234,080 [Later, the net loggable area was defined as 207,080 hectares (or 72 % of the gross area) after making allowance for village reserves, stream reserves, inaccessible areas, and areas for preservation of significant natural features.] The Timber Rights to the Vanimo Timber Area were purchased in 1967. In 1970, a major forest inventory was conducted to augment the original inventory work. It was integrated with the collection of a representative sample of the commercial wood resource’.

In 1970, field sampling for wood samples was combined with an inventory survey led by Evan Shield. For the inventory survey, sampling circular plots were established along strip lines at 100 metre intervals. The strip lines, 1.5-2 km long, were chosen to give adequate representation of the forest. The wood sample collection parties followed the inventory

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survey and collected samples from several plots from each strip line. Samples were then carried to the end of each strip line for collection by helicopter.

Vanimo T/A location forest sampling strip line map. Mike Jones Dept of Forests 1970.

Vanimo – Ossima mission air strip. Photo credit Mike Jones.

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From a base camp located on the airstrip at Ossima, two Bell 47G-3B1 helicopters ferried staff to sites throughout the Timber Area. A total of 93 Forestry Department staff was involved, together with two pilots and two aircraft engineers. The Departmental staff were divided into four-man teams, each team allocated to one of three functions that were carried out sequentially on each site sampled: (1) inventory, (2) verification and (3) wood sample collection.

Vanimo Survey 1970. Photo credit Ian Whyte.

A small number of staff at base camp organized these activities and, just as importantly, the supplies required to maintain the momentum of activity. Of importance was the arranging the air delivery from Vanimo (typically in a Cessna 206) of fuel for the helicopters and food for the staff. Given that this was the largest fixed-wing aircraft that could use the airstrip at Ossima, and it carried only two (200 litre) drums of Avgas per trip, this service had a high frequency. Besides the typical inventory results, this work produced a representative sample of 44 tonnes of wood, packed into copra sacks. Each sack was flown from Osama to Vanimo, then shipped by coastal vessel to the Hohola Research Centre in Port Moresby. There they were chipped prior to dispatch to CSIRO Melbourne for pulping trials. Evan Shield60 recalls a tale re PNG times all those years ago: “As you well know, in 1970, we ran a large survey of the Vanimo region. In the course of this work, we collected 44 tonnes of wood samples for CSIRO DFP in Melbourne for evaluation of pulping behaviour of these resources. These samples were reduced to chips under the supervision of Des Harries61 at the Utilization Division's office (laboratory facility at Hohola). The CSIRO team leader for this

60 Even Shield personal communication 27th May 2018 TPNG Forests 1958-1971. 61 Des Harries TPNG Forests 1955-1976.

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project was Bill Balodis. Many years later, I met Bill in Launceston, Tasmania ... and I remember his telling me of the admiration he had for what we (the Forestry Department staff) were able to accomplish in those days. He contrasted this with his more recent experiences in PNG when hurdles seemed so numerous as to be insurmountable.”

Pual River Area 1970. Photo credit Mike Jones.

Vanimo Survey 1970 Dick McCarthy with (Big Ev) Evan Shield at the scales at Ossima/ airstrip optimising pulpwood samples for loads for the Cessna trips. Photo

credit Ian Whyte.

Photo credit Ian Whyte 1970 Survey Ossima Dick McCarthy participating in ceremonial burning of the haus pec-pec at the Base Camp (comment by Ian “your effort at putting the fire out did not work”).

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Forests Survey Camp Osima. Photo credit Mike Jones 1970.

Mission Church Osima Vanimo. Photo credit Mike Jones 1970.

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