Species trial at Baku, Gogol

1971

Species trial at Baku, Gogol

The criteria for selection of species for reforesting areas of tropical lowlands rainforest that had been clear felled were numerous because in any large project area such as at Gogol different sites were likely to be involved, such as lowland terraces, hills and swamps, and a clear goal had to be formulated around the probable use of at least the first generation of the plantation forest.

Norm Endacott had just listed certain specifications that should be met by prospective plantation species28, including fast growth, tolerance to variable site quality, readily available seed supply and adaptability with respect to genetic improvement. In PNG, beyond silvicultural aspects of selection, and apart from E. deglupta, little attention to date had been paid to specific requirements of the chemical and morphological characteristics of the wood, the results of various pulping processes and the suitability of the pulp for the final end uses in the pulp and paper industry. It was important to consider that E. deglupta might not be the single species that fulfilled all the requirements. Also requiring consideration was the prospect of vulnerability of a monoculture to natural predators and diseases and this alone might lead to selection of a range of species for a particular project area.

One of the main indices of the economic potential of a pulpwood resource managed in perpetuity is the annual yield of chemical pulp per unit area. That is: 10-5 x ΔV x D x Y metric tonnes of oven dry pulp/ha/yr where ΔV = is the volume increment in m3/ha/yr (growth rate), D = basic wood density in kg/m3 and Y = pulp yield (weight of oven dry pulp as a % of weight of oven dry wood).

The unbleached screened yield of chemical pulp for 10-year-old E. deglupta at Keravat was about 50%. For a wood density 400 kg/m3 and 50 m3/ha/yr of wood production, the yield would be 10 tonnes of oven dry chemical pulp/ha/yr.

E. deglupta, Anthocephalus cadamba29 and Terminalia brassii were among a small number of species raised in the local nursery and planted on a cleared site near the Baku Station at the end of 1970. Other species with acceptable pulping qualities, singly or in mixtures, that could have been trialled at the time,

28 Endacott N D 1971 Australian Timber Journal 37(4):54-61. 29 Now Leolamarkia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser, though the name Anthocephalus is still widely used.