A Parallel Journey John Davidson
(Part 7)
CONTENTS
PART 1
1967 2
Botanical exploration 2
Preparation of a paper for the Ninth Commonwealth Forestry Conference 29
Natural regeneration of E. deglupta 30
Artificial regeneration of E. deglupta from seed 32
Grafting E. deglupta 33
Growing cuttings of E. deglupta 37
Confirmation of E. deglupta as a major native tree species for continuing study 44
I enrol in a Master of Forestry Degree at the ANU 46
PART 2
1968 47
Ninth Commonwealth Forestry Conference 47
Duty travel to Canberra and ANU for initial wood properties examination on E. deglupta 47
Density of the wood of E. deglupta 48
Structure of the wood of E. deglupta 51
Fibre length 51
Statistical design required for the proposed tree improvement programme for E. deglupta 56
Continuation of research on E. deglupta at Keravat 57
Planting trials of E. deglupta 58
Preparation of a paper for a Conference of the Institute of Foresters of Australia 59
Selection and assessment of “candidate” and “breeding” populations of E. deglupta 59
Grafting and cuttings of E. deglupta 60
First visit to Keravat by Professor Pryor of the Department of Botany ANU 62
Helicopter reconnaissance of the Gazelle Peninsula and Central New Britain 66
Flowering and fruiting studies on E. deglupta 69
Emasculation technique developed for flowers of E. deglupta 71
Vegetative propagation of E. deglupta using epicormic and coppice shoots 71
Second visit to the Territory by Professor Pryor of the Department of Botany ANU 75
Wood density variation in E. deglupta 85
Silvicultural Research Conference Bulolo 26 to 30 August 1968 87
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1968 96
Writing up a report on the fibre length and density work to date 96
Ordering of a rifle for seed and scion collection 96
Experimental proposals 96
E. deglupta fertilizer trial 98
Professor Pryor visits Mindanao in the Philippines to examine E. deglupta 98
Vegetative propagation of epicormic and coppice shoots of E. deglupta 99
Lopping and tying down branches of E. deglupta to control height growth 99
Establishment of a trial grafted seed orchard for E. deglupta 100
Ordering of a machine for removing wood samples from standing trees 102
Arrival of rifle for collection of seed and vegetative material from tall trees 103
1969 105
Collection of seed and vegetative material of E. deglupta 105
Grafting and cuttings experiments 105
Move to Canberra to take up PhD studies at the ANU 105
Aims of the experimental work to be undertaken during my PhD 104
FAO Forestry and Timber Bureau E. deglupta collecting expedition to Indonesia 106
Fibre wall thickness and lumen diameter 107
Arithmetic ratios of fibre length, wall thickness and lumen diameter 108
Cross sectional area of fibres, fibre wall material and lumens 109
Arithmetic ratios of fibre cross sectional dimensions 109
Percentage of tissue types by volume 109
Number of vessels per unit area of cross section 110
Mean cross sectional area of vessels 110
Co authored paper for 2nd World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding 110
Formal transfer to a Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholarship 111
Chemistry of the wood of E. deglupta 112
End of wood parameter measurement 113
Associations among the primary and derived variables 114
The association between wood density and other measured wood parameters 116
Baku Forest Station 117
1970 117
Wood sampling in standing trees at Keravat 117
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Growing plants in controlled environments 119
Experimental methods for growing plants of E. deglupta in the phytotron 120
Provenance studies in the phytotron 122 Fieldwork in Keravat 123
1971 126
Species trial at Baku, Gogol 126
Membership of Forest Research Working Group No 1 Forest Genetics 127
Wood density among random and candidate populations of trees 127
Environmental and genetic variation in wood density 127
Heritability of wood density in E. deglupta 129
Selection differential 130
Selection of propagation population trees 131
Establishment of provenance trials of E. deglupta in Keravat, Dami and Gogol 132
Investigation of heart rot in E. deglupta 133
Volume tables for E. deglupta 135
1972 139
Site Quality computation for E. deglupta 139
Growth and Yield for E. deglupta 139
Completion of my PhD studies at ANU 141
Bridging Report for Silvicultural Research in PNG 142
E. deglupta seed orchard establishment in Bulolo 142
Hybrid eucalypts 145
Hybridization of E. deglupta and E. “decaisneana” 147
Provenance trials of E. “decaisneana” at Bulolo 148
Simulated pulpwood logging at Baku 151
Confirmation of the award of PhD for my work on E. deglupta 153
First species trial at Baku at age two years 154
PART 4
1972 continued 161
Exploration of E. deglupta in the Garaina area, Morobe Province 161
Latest (1972), more detailed description of E. deglupta 164
Second provenance trial of E. deglupta at Baku 168
Reconnaissance on New Britain 170
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1973 183
JANT start up in the Gogol 1973 183
Membership of Appita 187
JANT harvesting and reforestation activities 187
E. deglupta spacing trial, Baku 190
Thinning trials Keravat 1973 192
Heartwood decay in E. deglupta 192
Continuing harvesting plots at Keravat for pulpwood volume table compilation 194
Overseas duty travel to east Africa and New Zealand 195
Travel Bulolo PNG to Johannesburg, South Africa 196
IUFRO Division 5 Forest Products meeting 24 September to 12 October 1973, Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa 198
PART 6
1973 continued 203
Rhodesia 203
Malawi 203
Zambia 207 Kenya 208
Back to Australia and on to New Zealand 210
Recreation leave in Australia from 18 November 1973 to 3 January 1974 212 1974 212
Visit by Christian Cossalter of the Centre Technique Forestier Tropical Congo 212
Visit to Bulolo by Edgard Campinhos Jr of Aracruz Florestal S A 221
Papua New Guinea Tropical Forestry Research Note series 221
Assessment of E. deglupta provenance trial No 2, Keravat, New Britain in 1974 at age 2 years 223
Second provenance trial of E. “decaisneana” at Bulolo 226
July Oct 1974: Vegetative propagation of epicormic and coppice shoots of E. deglupta 229 Bole shape of E. deglupta 234
Provenances 235
Initial spacing or initial stocking 235
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PART 5
Site quality 236
Tree age and average size 237
Practical implications of bole shape 238
An updated general volume table for E. deglupta 241
Further provenance trial of E. “urophylla” 241
Forest Tree Series Leaflet on E. deglupta 243
Progress report on tree introduction and improvement 244
1975 244
Provenance seed collection of E. deglupta in the Celebes and Ceram Islands May 1975 244
Provenance seed collection of E. deglupta in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, 3 17 June 1975 247
Natural distribution of E. deglupta 261
Taxonomy of E. deglupta 268
Taxonomic characters 270
Measurements on E. deglupta leaves preserved as herbarium specimens 272
Measurements on leaves from a provenance trial at Keravat 277
Single taxon at the level of species for E. deglupta 281
Reprinting of my PhD thesis 282
Permission to publish my work on E. deglupta 284
PART 7
1976 285
E. deglupta progeny trial two years old, Kunjingini 285
XVI IUFRO World Congress, Oslo, Norway 287
1977 289
FAO/IUFRO Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding 289
Post Consultation tour to Coffs Harbour 291
IUFRO Workshop, Brisbane 293
1978 293
Visit to Ulamona to investigate damage to a plantation of E. deglupta owned by the Catholic Mission and impacted by a recent volcanic eruption 293
Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia 300
Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines 302
Jari Brazil 306
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Seed production from the E. deglupta seed orchard, Bulolo 308 1979 310
Conference on Forest Land Assessment and Management for Sustainable Uses 310 1980 310
Visiting Scientist at the CSIRO Division of Forest Research, Canberra 310
IUFRO Symposium and Workshop on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species, Brazil 311
Case studies on forest and watershed development in Asia and the Pacific 325 Reprint of Forest Tree Leaflets 326
1983 326
Publication of the papers given at the IUFRO Symposium on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species in Brazil, August 1980 326
IUFRO meeting on frost resistant eucalypts 327 1984 328
Award of the Marcus Wallenberg Prize to the research team at Aracruz working on Vegetative propagation 328
PICOP at its peak in 1984 329
1986 329
Data book on endangered tree species 329 1993 330
PICOP revisited in 1993 330
PART 8
1993 continued 333
UNDP/FAO Regional Project FORTIP 333
Publication of Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding 333 1994 334
Second edition of Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding 334
1995 335
Genetic variation in height growth and leaf colour in E. deglupta 335
1997 336
Pulping and papermaking potential of plantation-grown E. deglupta from PNG 336
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2003 336
Molecular studies on Eucalyptus subgenus Minutifructus 336
2007 342
Breeding programme for E. deglupta in the Solomon Islands 342 2008 342
E. deglupta Seed Orchard Bulolo 342 2011 342
Herbarium collections of E. deglupta by K Damas 342
Open Bay Timber Company 344 2013 345
E. deglupta chloroplast genome sequenced 345
ACIAR Project “Facilitating the availability and use of improved germplasm for forestry and agroforestry in Papua New Guinea” 347 2014 348
Reference genome of E. grandis released 348 2015 349
Article on E. deglupta in “The Forester” 349 2017 350
E. deglupta in the Adelaide Botanic Garden 350 2018 350
E. deglupta in “Trees for Life in Oceania” 350 2019 353
Our book on “Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding” 353 Geological time line with reference to some eucalypts 354
Open Bay Timber Plantations 359
Keravat 2019 360
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 361
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E. deglupta progeny trial two years old, Kunjingini
A half sib progeny trial/seed orchard was established at Kunjingini west of Wewak in the East Sepik District in 1974. The progeny were raised in Bulolo and were part of the half sib seedlings raised for the seedling seed orchard in Bulolo. The design at Kunjingini was meant to be random single tree plots, each surrounded by a buffer of routine planting stock. That is consecutive half sib rows would have a row of routine stock in between and each half sib within a row would have routine stock either side of it within the row. However no routine stock was available from Wewak or Maprik nurseries, so the buffers were not established. This would be an issue later as the first thinning was for the planned removal of only the buffer trees thus retaining all of the half sibs for continued measurement and seed collection.
Actual thinning was carried out by removal of the poorest stems on an individual basis. Ideally, thinning should have been carried on a family basis, removing only the individuals comprising the families with the poorest average family performance across the trial.
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1976
Above and left: E. deglupta half sib progeny trial/half sib seedling seed orchard at Kunjingini, age two years in 1976 just prior to thinning. Neville Howcroft is in the top right photograph. Design was singletree plots randomly arranged. There were marked improvements in straightness and bole cylindricity in the progeny. At this location and age, the bark was not showing the typical smooth multi coloured appearance that would be seen in New Britain.
Narrow sense heritability for wood density using parent offspring regression (n=74) = 0.54, using half sib families (n=28 families) = 0.35. Narrow sense heritability for diameter growth (n = 38 families) = 0.64.
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Unfortunately, no further work could be undertaken and no seed was collected from these trees because this trial and several other experimental plantings at Kunjingini were destroyed by fire shortly after our visit. Also burnt at Kunjingini was a fertilizer trial of E. tereticornis planted in September 1973 (left) that was about three years old in this photograph.
XVI IUFRO World Congress, Oslo, Norway
The XVI (16th) IUFRO World Congress was held in Norway 20 June to 2 July 1976. The theme was “Forestry in a World of Limited Resources”. At this Congress, which I attended, it was pointed out that informal “Action Group on Tropical Eucalypts” that was being led by me within the IUFRO Working Party S.2.03 01 Breeding Tropical and Subtropical Species, though successful with over 200 members worldwide, did not have any formal standing in the IUFRO hierarchy. As a result, I was nominated for Chairman of a new Working Party on Breeding Eucalypts (S.2.03 10), which I accepted. Also, there would be a new Working Party on Eucalypt Provenances (S.2.02 09). I immediately set about finding co chairmen in Africa, South America and Australia. I produced a Newsletter called “Breeding Eucalypts” that reached out to an eventual membership of over 250 scientists worldwide. I served as Chairman of the Working Party for 10 years, the usual maximum stint for such a voluntary post, before handing over to a successor.
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137 IUFRO now uses the terminology of Divisions and Units. The modern day equivalent of the Working Party I led is 2.08.03 Improvement and culture of eucalypts This Unit in Division 2 concerns all eucalypt species of commercial use around the world. Key research areas are: (1) a better understanding of the genetics of the genus; (2) appropriate breeding and genetic conservation strategies and effective silvicultural practices. The aim is to ensure a sustainable exploitation of this forest plantation resource in both the short and long term.
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Above: Delegates to the IUFRO World Congress in Norway at the welcome get together. Below: The opening session.
After the Congress the Davidson family travelled Oslo Myrdal Flåm Bergen Stavanger in Norway, then flew Stavanger to London. From London we took a train to Oxford and stayed several days in nearby Woodstock. With a rented car I visited the Commonwealth Forestry Institute in Oxford and we later travelled to Stonehenge and Stratford upon Avon. Then it was back to London Heathrow by train for the flights back to Lae.
1977
FAO/IUFRO Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding
From 21 26 March 1977 200 scientists met in Canberra for the FAO/IUFRO Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding. The Consultation reviewed worldwide progress, problems and prospects in the field of exploration, selection and conservation of forest germ plasm resources. There were accounts of research results and trial results of breeding work with different tree species of coniferous species and angiosperms, including conifers mainly, and eucalypts. Presented were studies on plant propagation, hybridization, crosspollination, genetic variability and heritability of genetic characters. A theme of directed gene management was held throughout the six sessions held. The first two sessions covered gene conservation, the second two breeding methodology and the last two economics and future strategies.
In the first session, I presented a paper on exploration, collection, evaluation, conservation and utilization of the gene resources of E. deglupta. 138In the first two sessions the main emphasis was on the usefulness and economics of species’ conservation and on the need to conserve tropical species that faced rapid elimination and the immediate loss of potentially valuable gene resources. E. deglupta was one of those species. It was pointed out in discussion that breeding programmes of the future in some of the poorer nations required provenance and species collections right away but they could not afford to undertake such work. In situ preservation could be useful occasionally, but new emphasis was given at this Consultation to ex situ planting of large secondary gene pools, especially when one of the objectives was achieving adaptation over a wide range of sites. The block plantings of the Philippines provenances of E. deglupta we had established at Gogol in 1971/72 were examples of this strategy. The success of land races after one generation of adaptation led many delegates to call for establishing base populations to store of useful genetic variation. The base population for E. deglupta Alan Williams and I had identified at Keravat in 1970/71 was already an example of this tactic being applied in PNG.
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Davidson J 1977 Exploration, collection, evaluation, conservation and utilization of the gene resources of tropical Eucalyptus deglupta Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 26 March, Canberra, Australia.
Papers on conifers in which substantial genetic gains were being made dominated the third session. However, I presented one “invited special paper” on breeding E. deglupta as a case study139 and one on vegetative propagation of eucalypts.140There was argumentative discussion on how to accommodate intensive recurrent selection with its resulting narrowing of the genetic base in comparison with low selection intensity in gene pool conservation, which needs a broad genetic base. There was agreement that an absence of heterosis is the common outcome in species hybrid breeding and the usefulness of hybrids lies in capturing the additive combination of the desired traits in clonal propagation, as in the mass propagation of eucalypt cuttings that had been achieved with E. deglupta in PNG. We learned for the first time of early results of the huge programme on breeding eucalypts and mass clonal propagation by cuttings underway at Aracruz Florestal in Brazil.141
Seed orchard technology was discussed in the fourth session. Breeders reported they were increasingly able to exercise control over mating. The subject of genotype x environment interaction was discussed including the issue of breeding one population for general adaptability across several diverse sites. This discussion was relevant to PNG since I was at the time using a single Keravat breeding population that, after installation in the seed orchard at Bulolo, was being distributed from there to several sites.
The last sessions were on economics and future strategies. I presented a paper on advances that could accrue from international cooperation on tropical eucalypts.142
During the Consultation I chaired an evening business meeting of the IUFRO Working Party S.2.03 10 on Breeding Eucalypts. We discussed the intention to produce a book on breeding eucalypts and that the drafting would be led by the four co chairmen of the Working Party with support and contributions from members.
139 Davidson J 1977 Breeding Eucalyptus deglupta a case study. Invited special paper. Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 26 March, Canberra, Australia. (Pages 1187 1203, Vol. 2, in the later published Proceedings)
140 Davidson J 1997 Problems of vegetative propagation of Eucalyptus. Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 26 March, Canberra, Australia. (Pages 857 882, Vol. 2, in the later published Proceedings)
141 Campinhos E and Ikemori Y K 1977 Tree Improvement Program for Eucalyptus spp preliminary results. Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 26 March, Canberra, Australia. (Pages 262 270, Vol. 1, in the later published Proceedings)
142 Davidson J 1977 Advances from international cooperation on tropical Eucalyptus. Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 26 March, Canberra, Australia. (Pages 355 369, Vol. 1, in the later published Proceedings
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Post Consultation tour to Coffs Harbour
The proceedings of the 1977 Consultation were published by the CSIRO, Canberra in three volumes in 1978.143
I joined the post Consultation tour to Coffs Harbour 27 March to 3 April 1977. On show was the North Coast Silvicultural Research Centre of the Forest Commission of NSW (FCNSW) and its breeding programme for E. grandis
About 12,000 ha of E. grandis plantations had been established by Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) in the 1960s and 1970s primarily on areas of cleared farmland in the Coffs Harbour and surrounding areas. APM sold their estate to the FCNSW in 1975, when the company decided not to proceed with a pulp mill at Coffs Harbour.
The growth rates of these stands were the result of genetic and silvicultural inputs at the time.144Lack of a market back then meant thinning was delayed or not carried out at all and yield at about 10m3/ha/yr was well below potential.
The FCNSW efforts back then using improved silviculture, genetic improvement and planting on better sites had led to significantly higher growth rates, in some places over 30 m3/ha/yr. At the time of our visit Peter Burgess of the FCNSW was leading the FCNSW genetic programme for E. grandis at Coffs Harbour, some aspects of which are illustrated here.145
143 Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, Canberra, Australia, 21 26 March 1977. Documents Volumes 1 3 [1978] Published by the Forestry Department, FAO, Rome and CSIRO, Canberra. (My E. deglupta case study paper FO FTB 77 6/6 is at pp 1187 1203.)
144 Professor Lindsay Pryor back then was engaged as a consultant by APM and the FCNSW programme was under the supervision of Mr. A G Floyd.
145 See also Burgess I P 1974 Vegetative propagation of Eucalyptus grandis. New Zealand Journal of Forest Science 4(2):181 184.
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Post Consultation tour 1977. Top left: Patches of E. grandis plantations on former cleared farmland in an area dominated by banana plantations near Coffs Harbour, NSW. Top right: A larger block on FCNSW land. Middle left: A “plus tree” of E. grandis selected for the breeding programme. Middle right: Peter Burgess, North Coast Silvicultural Research Centre, FCNSW, Coffs Harbour, with a tray of E. grandis seedlings ready for pricking out. Left: Progeny trial of E. grandis near Coffs Harbour.
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Two stages of tissue culture of E. grandis at Coffs Harbour in 1977. In the tube on the left the callus was been grown in a medium that promoted a prolific mass of shoots. This mass was then divided as far as possible into single plantlets which were placed on a fresh different medium that promoted the growth of roots. This was a promising technique for propagation since grafting of E. grandis was not successful at the time in northern NSW because of delayed incompatibility. Attempts to root cuttings from seedlings and coppice shoots from the bases of older trees also were only moderately successful at the time.
IUFRO Workshop, Brisbane
IUFRO Working Parties S2.02.8 and S2.03.1 combined held a Workshop in Brisbane 4 8 April 1977, following the Consultation in Canberra. I presented a paper on breeding tropical eucalypts.146
1978
Visit to Ulamona to investigate damage to a plantation of E. deglupta owned by the Catholic Mission and impacted by a recent volcanic eruption
Mount Ulawun in West New Britain Province near Ulamona and close to the East New Britain Provincial border has erupted periodically. A fissure opened up low on the eastern flank of the volcano about 6 km from the summit during the week 8 15 May 1978. Fast moving hot waves of gas (nuée ardentes) and solid rocks were hurled down the slope. Trees were snapped like matchsticks. Near the Pandi River a small hamlet of five houses was threatened and the inhabitants fled to the riverbank. Brightly glowing lava issued in a fountain 20 30 m high and flowed towards the Pandi River to the east at 20 50 m/hour eventually temporarily blocking the river. After the eruption had subsided, a young plantation of E. deglupta near the Matasisibu River west of Mt. Ulawun was found severely damaged by volcanic ash. At the invitation of the Catholic Mission and Provincial Forest Officers East and West New Britain, I proceeded to Ulamona on 31 May 1978 to investigate the damage. The Research Committee of the Papua
146 Davidson J 1977 Breeding Tropical Eucalypts. IUFRO Working Parties S2.02.8 (Tropical Species Provenances) and S2.03.1 (Breeding Tropical and Subtropical Species) Workshop, 4 8 April 1977, Brisbane, Queensland.
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New Guinea University of Technology financed the Lae to Rabaul return flight. The Provincial Forest Office, Hoskins funded the Rabaul to Sule (Ulamona) return flight. Brother Spellmeyer of Ulamona and Father O’Neill of Rabaul provided hospitality, ground transport and assistance.
The Catholic Mission was operating a sawmill at Ulamona, which drew most of its logs from nearby mature kamarere forests in the vicinity of Mt. Ulawun.
Map of the area showing Mt. Ulawun (“The Father”) located above right of centre and Mt. Likuranga (“The North Son”) near the coast at the top. Areas in black were natural stands of E. deglupta in the 1970s on the slopes of Mt. Ulawun, and along parts of the major rivers, including the Tiauru (Toiru) River in the bottom left corner and the significant stands in the Wilelo area further north and west of Mt Bamas (“The Sout h Son”).
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Mature kamarere trees in the Bakada Logging Area on the northeast lower slopes of Mt. Ulawun before logging. On the edge of the vehicle track in the bottom right hand corner is a man in a white shirt (arrow) giving a visual impression of the huge size of many of these trees.
The Ulamona sawmill operated by the Catholic Mission is shown in July 1978. Mt. Ulawun is in the background still smoking about two months after its then most recent eruption in May 1978. Inside the mill a large kamarere log was being sawn. The log was solid all the way to the centre.
The Catholic Mission had been planting E. deglupta in the Matasisibu area since the beginning of 1975, with about 108 ha planted up until April 1977. Wild seedlings were collected from the riverbanks in the area where there were stands of mature trees providing the seed source. The seedlings were collected without soil and brought back immediately to a nursery located at the Ulamona station where they were dibbled into black plastic tubes filled with decomposed pumice grit. They were kept under high shade for about six weeks. By that time roots were beginning to grow through the bottom of the tubes and the seedlings were taken to the field for planting after removal of the tube using a spacing of about 3 x 3 m or just over 1,100 stems/ha.
Survival after tubing was very high (better than 95%). This method was considered extremely practical and low cost under the local circumstances and avoided the issue of coping with damping off in seed trays. In the absence of provenance origin trials this method relied on the fallback position that local seed was best because it was adapted to the local conditions. Refilling required in the planting area ranged from none to between 5 and 10%.
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Part of the nursery at the Catholic Mission Station Ulamona photographed in 1978. Small seedlings had been lifted bare rooted from stream banks and dibbled into the small plastic tubes shown here and raised at first under high shade then later transferred into beds in the open
Initial growth data for young E. deglupta obtained before the eruption were impressive, equating to Site Quality Class 1 (Table).
APPROXIMATE MEAN ANNUAL INCREMENT (MAI) OF VOLUME FOR YOUNG E. DEGLUPTA PLANTATIONS AT MATASISIBU, NEW BRITAIN Block Area (ha) Age (yrs) Original standing volume (m3) Volume MAI (m3/ha/yr) 5 3.42 3.1 404 38 6 2.85 3.0 307 36 7 2.82 2.8 310 39 8 10.34 2.7 732 26 9A 5.48 2.5 387 28 9B 6.58 2.2 458 32 10A 7.29 2.1 504 33 10B 7.73 2.0 537 35 Averageè 33
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Damage to the young plantations was caused by a few millimetres of fine volcanic dust that had settled on the leaves over a couple of days when the wind was blowing to the west towards the Matasisibu River area. Some light drizzle also fell at times and this along with the transpiration of moisture from the leaves caused the dust to form a solid crust bound tightly to the leaves. This was still evident during the visit on 31 May on leaves that had fallen to the ground. It was estimated as much as 250kg/tree of dust had encrusted the three year old stands. This weight was sufficiently heavy to bend the crown towards the ground causing the main trunk to snap off at between 60 and 70% of the tree height above ground.
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Matasisabu River shown two months after the May 1978 eruption. Native E. deglupta forest is in the background on the far bank. A wheeled excavator had been used to move volcanic ash, boulders and tree debris to unblock and reestablish the stream flow in the more confined and straightened path near the far bank (arrow).
The most severely damaged blocks looked like this. A recently planted block was undamaged. The spars seen here had regained their upright position after the tops snapped off.
The conclusion was that the plantations of E. deglupta were only susceptible to severe damage between the ages of two and four years. Less than two years of age the stems were flexible enough to bend over without breaking off and later straighten up again, more than four years of age the stems were too rigid to bend over and break, but did lose some small branches. In the surrounding logged over forest certain size classes in the natural regeneration showed a similar result.
A secondary risk was that the broken stems and branch stubs could provide entry points for heart rot to develop, but it was too soon to observe any such occurrence during the visit.
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Compared to the two year old block (top left) that had the severest damage with almost all of the trees losing their tops, blocks of trees more than four years old (top right and bottom left) lost branches, retained much of their crowns and did not always snap off because the trunks were thick enough to resist bending over. On the other hand, in an 18 months old block (bottom right) the damage was also less because the trees were slender enough to bend over under the load of pumice dust and not break off, returning to an upright position after the dust was soon washed off by rain.
Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia
The Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia (ITCI) had been involved in commercial wood production in Indonesia since the early 1970s. Initially the company was partly controlled by the US multinational Weyerhaeuser Corporation.147 The company was managing a HPH (Hak Pengus Hutan) timber concession in East Kalimantan, harvesting native forest mainly for plywood production.
During a pre conference tour before the Eighth World Forestry Congress in Indonesia in 1978, I was able to visit the company’s nursery and plantations of E. deglupta in East Kalimantan, after taking a short motorboat ride upstream from Balikpapan City.
147Weyerhaeuser withdrew in 1984.
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PT ITCI’s nursery, East Kalimantan, 1978. Left: Dibbling E. deglupta seedlings into tubes. Right: E. deglupta seedlings being hardened off in the nursery after removal of the high shade.
Five year old provenance trial of E. deglupta Left: Philippines provenance. Right: Keravat provenance. No figures were presented but there seemed to be little difference between the two plots.
Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines
While I was on leave with the family in the Philippines late in 1978, I was given the opportunity to travel to Mindanao where I visited some commercial operations in the north and east of the Island. The main one in the northeast was the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) operation located in Bislig Bay, southern Surigao del Sur Province.
PICOP was originally incorporated on 1 April 1952 as Bislig Industries Inc. and renamed in 1963. It was operating in a forest concession of about 187,000 ha. Some 20,000 ha of about equal areas of kamarere and falcata (then called Albizia falcataria) had been planted by the company.
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1978. Left: PICOP pulp mill. Right: The adjacent PICOP newsprint and kraft paper mill, with warehouse, ship berth, jetty/breakwater and log pond in the background.
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1978. Left: E. deglupta in natural forest on the PICOP concession. Right: PICOP plantation of E. deglupta
1978. Left: PICOP plantation of E. deglupta. Right: Thinned 100 x 100 m plot in a “vigour growth/yield study”, Rd 58 Km 11, age 7 years 4 months.
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Left: E. deglupta mother tree, with white painted lower bole, located in native forest and used for seed collection that has resulted in most of the limbs being removed over time. Right: Seedlings of E. deglupta in a nursery in wood veneer tubes, a practical solution given PICOP also operated a veneer and plywood mill.
1978. PICOP E. deglupta seed orchard. Differing crown architecture was the result of the different age of the trees and the type and frequency of lopping carried out.
1978. PICOP research staff preferred marcotting for E. deglupta rather than grafting to multiply the trees already in the seed orchard. Marcotting meant there were no issues with compatibility since the eventual severed propagule was on its own roots. Left: Three marcots (arrows) covered with plastic sheet in place on a tree in the seed orchard. Right: Successful marcots in large veneer tubes after removal from parent trees.
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1978 PICOP. Left: Successful marcot of E. deglupta. Right: Control pollination carried out near ground level on an early flowering marcot of E. deglupta.
1978. At about 900 m altitude in the headwaters of a tributary of the Agusan River, natural grown E. deglupta did not have the smooth, multi coloured bark normally associated with the species (right). Regenerating seedlings and small saplings here had very glaucous leaves and twigs (above). Since the appearance of the bark was like that on the trees that were planted at Kunjingini in PNG I could not support these trees being classified as a different species, as a few observers had claimed. More likely it was a result of a dryer environment. Of note at the time was the encroachment and clearing by squatters on this part of the PICOP concession that was endangering the survival of the non typical stands of E. deglupta in this area.
Jari, Brazil
In Amazonia, Brazil, the Jari industrial complex covered 1.3 million hectares in Pará (55%) and Amapá (45%) States divided by the Jari River, a tributary of the Amazon River, that forms the boundary between them (map next page).
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The US entrepreneur and billionaire Daniel K Ludwig began the Jari project in 1967. He purchased 6,475 km2 of land for US$ 3 million. Without any prior testing he started to grow Gmelina arborea after clearing the rainforest. Ludwig commissioned two large barges to be built in Japan and floated to the Jari Project. On the first the pulping section of a pulp mill including digester and bleaching plant was constructed. On the second the power section of the mill including a recovery boiler and evaporators was built. In 1978 the modules were towed from Japan across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at the project site in Monte Dourado to be sunk on previously driven piles.
The growth rate of the Gmelina was poor and attention turned to planting eucalypts to produce bleached pulp. From 1980 to 1983 inclusive over 14,000 ha of E. deglupta was planted along with 6,000 ha of Pinus caribaea. From 1983 planting of E. deglupta stopped in favour of an increased rate of planting of P. caribaea and a switch to E. urophylla and later another switch to the hybrid E. urophylla x E. grandis. 148
148 After a few changes of ownership, the company is now called Jari Cellulose, Papel e Embalagens S A. With a recent investment of US$80 100 million, the pulp mill has been modernized and rebuilt to have an annual capacity of 240,000 to 250,000 t of dissolving pulp grades instead of paper pulp. The mill’s feedstock lately is mainly hybrid E. urophylla
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Seed production from the E. deglupta seed orchard, Bulolo
Records for flowering and seed production in the grafted and seedling seed orchards that were planted at Bulolo in mid 1975 commenced in October 1976 when the first major flush of buds was observed in the seedling orchard. (Some of the grafts had flowered after only one month in the field.)
In the diagrams here, the monthly records are presented for a two year period 1977 1978 covering three major flowering flushes.
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The seed produced by the 5 ha of orchard by mid 1977 totalled about 3 kg, sufficient to produce about 4 million plants. Allowing for wastage and culling this was sufficient to establish 2,000 ha of pulpwood plantation at 2.5 x 2.5 m spacing.
By the end of 1978 63% of families had produced seed. Of these 36% had set seed once in one of the flushes, 40% twice in two out of the three flushes and 24 percent in all three flushes. A maximum of about 43% of the families present had flowered in each of the three cycles, sufficient to allay fear of inbreeding in the seed collected. Not all representatives of a family flowered at the same time, which meant that culling non or low flowering families by family selection was not an option. On any one flowering individual a maximum of 40 70% of branches were in bud or in flower at any particular time.
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E. deglupta seed orchard, Geshes, Bulolo in 1978. Left: Grafted clonal section. Right: Half sib seedling section. Lopping had taken place in an attempt to restrict height growth of the crowns but was mostly unsuccessful.
Conference on Forest Land Assessment and Management for Sustainable Uses
The East West Environment and Policy Institute (EAPI) of the East West Centre in Hawai‘i convened a workshop and conference of about 30 foresters, ecologists and land use planners from 18 28 June 1979 to discuss “Forest Land Assessment and Management for Sustainable Uses”. I presented an invited paper on the status and methods of land classification and land use planning in PNG. The paper was published later in the proceedings of the meeting.149
1980
Visiting Scientist at the CSIRO Division of Forest Research, Canberra
Six months, in two tranches of about three months were spent formally at the CSIRO Division of Forest Research in Canberra as a “Visiting Scientist”. This formed part of my paid terminal study leave from the PNGUT. I was accommodated free of charge in one of the small flats located between the main building and the former Forestry School. This provided the means at last to press on with drafting the eucalypt book, backed up by the excellent forestry library. The opportunity was also taken to write up research that I, and others, had undertaken on E. deglupta. I was able to use a typist for the first time to make a digital copy of my writing on disc with new technology that had just become available, though it was still wise to save one’s handwritten drafts to be sure of a lasting record in case the electronic copy was lost.150I did not start typing up my work myself on a computer until 1985!
149 Davidson J 1981 Status and Methods of Forest Land Classification in Papua New Guinea. Pp 247 276 In Carpenter R A (ed) Assessing Tropical Forest Lands: Their suitability for sustainable uses. Tycooly International Publishing Ltd, Dublin. 337 pp. 150 After the publication of “Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding” , a selection of our handwritten drafts with annotations and corrections and original photographs and drawings were deposited in the National Archives of Australia, because this was one of the last major scientific publications by Australian authors to be developed through a series of handwritten drafts before word processors came into universal use.
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IUFRO Symposium and Workshop on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species, Brazil
The IUFRO Symposium and Workshop on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species was held in Aguas de São Pedro, São Paulo, Brazil, 25 30 August 1980. My attendance at the symposium, and study tours before and after, formed part of my paid terminal study leave from the PNGUT. Overall, I spent the period 17 August to 6 September (three weeks) in Brazil.
I flew Armidale Sydney Honolulu Los Angeles Lima São Paulo City, arriving on Sunday 17 August 1980. 18 to 20 August were free days.
In summary, the then situation with forestry in Brazil was that of a large rapidly developing country with a huge demand for wood of all kinds. Government policy was aimed at the rapid development of the country without increasing the already substantial international debt that had expanded rapidly because of rising oil prices during the 1970’s energy crisis. Fiscal incentives had been introduced to stimulate
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the enormous investment required for domestic production of wood products. The result was that private enterprise companies aided by foreign investment were running the majority of forest activities in Brazil.
Set against the poor genetic bases of the original species introductions, especially for the eucalypts, the potential of large productivity increases from tree improvement programmes led to their rapid inception and substantial funding. At the time of the visit many programmes were in various stages of development and Brazil had one of the largest endeavours in the world for plantation forestry development and associated research on genetic improvement.
The pre Symposium tour started in São Paulo City on 20 August with a visit to the Instituto Florestal de São Paulo. Its work programs were described and some of its facilities visited. Participants returned to São Paulo City overnight.
On 21 August the Companhia Melhoramentos de São Paulo was visited. Tours were made to plantation trial plots of Araucaria angustifolia, Cunninghamia lanceolata and Cryptomeria japonica ending with an overnight stay in Piracicaba.
Duratex S A was visited on 22 August. Trips were made to plantations, seed production areas and progeny trials of E. grandis, E. saligna and E. urophylla. Until 1968 Duratex had based its eucalypt plantations on “Brazilian alba”. At the suggestion of Professor Pryor, a new introduction of E. grandis had been made from near Coffs Harbour (NSW, Australia), which raised MAIs from 15 to 20 m3/ha/yr to 35 m3/ha/yr over a seven year rotation. The plantations seen on this visit were mainly derived from the new introductions of E. grandis from Coffs Harbour. A small trial of E. saligna and E. urophylla had been made. The Company had conducted a small provenance trial for E. grandis from four locations in northern NSW. Kyogle was best and the Coffs Harbour control was ranked third leading to the conclusion that a choice of a provenance from farther north in the range of E. grandis could bring a further gain in yield but at the time of our visit Duratex had no plans to introduce more new material on a large scale. The overnight stay was in Baurú.
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A six year old eucalypt species trial. This trial was an example of collaboration between Riocell (a forestry, pulp and paper company), Embrapa (the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation in the Ministry of Agriculture) and IPEF (the Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Florestais [Forest Science and Research Institute], Piracicaba).
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Progeny trial of E. grandis age 3.5 years.
On 23 August the visit was to Companhia Agro Florestal Monte Alegre S A (CAFMA). Trips were made to Pinus caribaea, P. oocarpa and other species provenance trials, progeny trials and seed production areas. The tour ended in Aguas de São Pedro, the venue for the symposium.
Sunday 24 August was a free day. Registration and the opening session of the symposium and presentation of position papers took place on Monday 25 August. There were 352 registered participants from 29 countries, 251 were from Brazil. About 250 papers were presented and sessions were conducted in English, French and Portuguese with simultaneous translation. Sessions on tropical eucalypts and pines drew the largest numbers of attendees reflecting the interests of the large number of participants from the host country Brazil. Sessions on other tropical species were poorly attended.
The first technical session on eucalypts took place in the afternoon of 26 August. This was “Exploration, conservation and variation of Eucalyptus grandis Study of the present situation of the program”. The next session on eucalypts took place on the morning of 27 August: “Provenances collected and provenance tests in other species of eucalypts”. (That is other than E. grandis). In this session I presented a paper on “Provenance trials of Eucalyptus deglupta in Papua New Guinea”. In the afternoon the session on “Methods of selection and improvement in eucalypts” took place. I was Rapporteur for this session and also presented a paper on “Progress in breeding Eucalyptus deglupta”. This paper covered E. deglupta in other countries like the Philippines as well as in PNG.
A morning tour on 29 August was made to Champion Papel e Celulose S A in Mogi Guaçu. Here the participants learned that the most important early introductions of eucalypts to Brazil were made at the nearby Botanical Garden at Rio Claro in 1919. A number of species was introduced including what was known then as E. alba but since identified as E. urophylla. The E. “alba” seed had come from one or two trees in the Bogor Botanic Gardens in Indonesia151raised in turn from seed collected in natural stands of E. urophylla on the island of Flores in Indonesia. The first extensive plantings of eucalypts in Brazil were made using seed collected from the Rio Claro introductions and mainly from plots of E. “alba”. The plantation stands that resulted showed a high degree of variability in many characters suggesting a high frequency of hybrids. The E. “alba” was planted next to plots of E. tereticornis, E. saligna and E. robusta and this combined with an overlap of flowering across some ten months of the year would make hybridization very probable. Examination of the original plot layout at Rio Claro gave an indication of which combinations were improbable or impossible. Professor Pryor examined many plantations of the
151 These two trees still existed in the Bogor Botanical Gardens in the 1990s. One still labeled as “E alba” and photographed by me appears in Fig. 16.3 on page 146 in: Eldridge K, Davidson J, Harwood C and van Wyk G 1994 Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding Clarendon Press, Oxford.
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hybrid mixtures and concluded most were hybrids of E. urophylla x E. tereticornis and E. urophylla x E. robusta. Plantations still called E. “alba” during the tour showed the characteristics of uncontrolled hybridization such as variable bark colour, pattern and texture as well as a wide range of leaf shapes and sizes.
Champion being an older company had originally established most of its plantations with seed from Rio Claro resulting in poor yields. In 1967 the Company was obtaining only about a MAI of 15 m3/ha/yr over bark over a seven year rotation. This was raised to about 21 m3/ha/yr with additional silvicultural measures such as better soil preparation and fertilisation. New and better introductions were made around this time including E. saligna (25 m3/ha/yr over a seven year rotation) and E. urophylla (30 m3/ha/yr). Pryor suggested Champion also obtain E. grandis from the Coffs Harbour area. At the time of the symposium participants’ visit large areas of the low yielding plantations were being clearfelled and coppicing prevented by treating the stumps with arboricides or by successive de budding. New improved seedlings were planted between the stumps. The seed was being obtained from seed production areas of their new introductions of E. grandis. The Company had calculated that an increase of 10.5 m3/ha/yr in MAI over a seven year rotation would pay for the programme. Since an increase of 13.5 m3/ha/yr MAI had been obtained already, this goal had been achieved. However, Champion had not conducted any provenance trial(s) of E. grandis to find out if any would be better than the lone Coffs Harbour one.
The review of the symposium by Dr E C Franklin of North Carolina University and closing session were held on the morning of 30 August. With the advent of mass vegetative propagation, it was clear that breeding work for the tropical eucalypts was far ahead of that for other tropical species and justified the formation earlier by me of a dedicated Working Party for Breeding Eucalypts at the IUFRO World Congress in Oslo in 1976. Dr Franklin made the following observations:
1. The need for full and comprehensive species and provenance testing had been emphasised and must be the most important stage in selection and improvement. Before any work is started a detailed programme must be set out. This should list possible alternatives and projected gains.
2. Basic density and wood quality are important factors which should be assessed in a programme as soon as is feasible. As a programme develops, emphasis must be placed on quality rather than gross yield, aiming for uniformity in wood properties of wood properties both within plantations and within individual trees.
3. At the moment too little emphasis is given at an early stage to disease and insect problems.
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Hexagonal extruded earth tubes with holes (left) ready for dibbling eucalypt seedlings. This innovative method meant that no rigid plastic or polybag containers were required and there was nothing to be removed before planting. A heavy clay mix was used in a machine modified from sawdust briquetting equipment. The relatively large holes allowed the seedlings to be bedded in with a friable potting mix (right) to give them a good start.
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Climbing to lop seed bearing branches from E. grandis in a seed production area.
Left: A stand of E. grandis managed under a coppice with standards silvicultural system to produce both large (saw log) and small (pulp log) dimension timber. Right: A coppice stool just after reduction to three leaders. The leaders are 8 to 10 cm in diameter here and firmly attached to the stump.
4. Vegetative propagation has been highlighted as the newest and most exciting prospect in the improvement of eucalypts and pines. The broad scale application of tissue culture is forecast as the next major step.
5. The use of cloning brings with it certain requirements from improvement programmes: a) it does not remove the need for sexual programmes using genetic recombination, b) clones must be proven in properly designed clonal tests and not presumed on the basis of ortet performance (not adequately done so far at Aracruz), c) the genetic base should not be narrowed too much, the potential gains from cloning are high but so are the risks, a programme must strive for optimal gains while incurring minimal risks.
6. The role of the forest geneticist is to assess the available variability for characters involved in utilization as soon as is practically possible and that because variability in forest trees is much greater than in animal or annual crop breeding the same techniques are not necessarily applicable to trees.
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I was pleased that the tree improvement programme on E. deglupta in PNG that started more than 30 years earlier had already incorporated most of these points.
The post symposium tour started on 31 August with a bus trip from Aguas de São Pedro to São Paulo City for a flight south to Vitoria in the State of Espíritu Santo, passing over Aracruz Florestal S A pulp mill and eucalypt plantations on the way.
Right: Aracruz Florestal S A pulp mill, port and nearby eucalypt plantations.
The visit to Aracruz Florestal S A started on 1 September 1980. The project started in 1967 and is located in two different regions 150 km apart on the coast of Espíritu Santo State. One block is in Aracruz County, with an area of 43,784 ha; the other is in São Mateus and Conceição da Barra Counties with an area of 30,633 ha. Of the total gross area of 74,417 ha, a net area of 59,100 ha had been planted with Eucalyptus species by the time of our visit. This area had been planted in only a decade, starting with 1,300 ha/year in the beginning and reaching 15,300 ha/yr. The flat topography had allowed maximum use of mechanization.
The mill located in the Aracruz region went on stream in October 1978 and at the time of our visit had just reached its capacity of 400,000 tons of pulp per year, consuming 1,680,000 m3 of wood with bark. Pulp logs were 3.5 to 6 metres long, mostly the latter. The maximum haulage distance to the mill was
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only 190 km and several of the earliest plantations were so close to the mill that they could be felled and moved directly to the mill log yard with a wheeled loader.
An extensive tour of the nursery was conducted where mass vegetative propagation techniques for eucalypts and the production of planting stock from both seed and cuttings were demonstrated.152
Species trials, provenance tests and progeny trials were visited in the afternoon before returning to Vitoria overnight. The next day, it was back to Aracruz, where the pulp mill and adjacent port facilities were inspected. Then tours were made to eucalypt spacing trials and to areas of coppice used to produce cuttings. Seed orchards were inspected. A controlled pollination technique for E. grandis was demonstrated. Harvesting and planting operations were observed before proceeding into Linhares for the overnight stop.
At the time of my visit to Aracruz in 1980 the oldest clonal plantation was six years old and located adjacent to the nursery.
152 The mist control equipment followed a circuit design and other details that I had presented in two Tropical Forestry Research Notes in 1973 that I had given to Dr Edgard Campinhos Jr of Aracruz when he visited me in Bulolo in 1974. However, the scale of the nursery operation at Aracruz in 1980 was huge in comparison to what had been achieved in PNG.
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The clonal plantation programme was demonstrated at Aracruz in 1980. Top left: Coppice sprouts from which shoots were harvested. Top right: The coppice shoots in buckets of water were transported to the nursery in a closed van to minimize wilting. Bottom left: The coppice shoots were processed into one or two node cuttings depending on the internode length. The leaf area was halved. The bases of the cuttings were dipped in a systemic fungicide for 15 minutes then into hormone (indole butyric acid, indole acetic acid, naphthalene acetic acid) diluted in talcum powder. Bottom right: Cuttings were inserted into growing medium of subsoil with no fertilizer in plastic polybags.
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Aracruz in 1980. Top left: Cuttings under intermittent mist spray after 50% overhead shade had been removed after 35 days. Top right: Lifting cuttings at the end of the nursery stage for transport to the field for planting. At this time about 1 cm was cut from the bottom of the polybag plant container to eliminate coiled or twisted roots. Right: Typical two node cutting at the time of lifting shown removed from the polybag and washed free of growing medium (and already wilting). If more than one axillary bud developed, only the largest was retained. (Photograph about one third actual size.) The total process from harvesting coppice shoots from the stump to planting the cuttings in the field typically took about 75 days.
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Aracruz 1980. Larger pulpwood billets were debarked by machine in the forest. In the right hand photograph small and crooked billets were left to one side to be debarked manually. The leafy tops and branches seen here in windrows on either side were put through a chipper, which discharged directly on to truck that took the material to the mill to be burned in the power boiler, producing 170 tons/hour of high pressure steam. This procedure prompted questions about what effect these removals and the nutrients contained in them would have on long term sustainability of yields.
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Aracruz in 1980. Grafting E. grandis. Left: A trial of patch grafting PNG 1967 style. 1. Patch still bound by non adhesive clear plastic tape, 2. Patches after removal of the tape but no shoot yet visible, 3. Shoot developed from a patch. Right: A developing double cleft graft, successful at least until this point in time.
Manual debarking of small stems.
Aracruz in 1980. Control pollination of E. grandis. Left: Removal of the stamens. Right: After application of the donor pollen a cloth bag was drawn over a wire frame to surround and isolate the pollinated flowers from outside contamination.
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Aracruz 1980. Planting. Left: Disk cultivation, with a profiled roller attached behind that left a low mound in the middle of the row. The hopper on top delivered a measured dose of fertilizer (100 gm of NPK (5 37 5) at each planting position). These fertilizer drops also visibly indicated the correct spacing to place each rooted cutting (spacing was 3 x 2 m). Planting holes were made manually with a mattock. The eucalypt cutting, optimum size about 25 cm, was removed from the plastic bag, placed in the hole and firmed down with the fertilized soil around it. Right: The plants were watered immediately after planting. The planting crew is shown in front of the tanker with the supply of rooted cuttings carried along ahead on a trailer in the distance. The mound profile after disking and rolling is also evident in the right hand photograph. Four rows were being planted and watered in each pass. At this location at the time of our visit an average of 100,000 cuttings was being planted per day.
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Using heavy machinery to remove stumps and rake up coarse woody debris prior to disk cultivation.
The next morning Florestal Rio Doce S A was visited. A E. urophylla progeny/provenance trial, a spacing trial and a seed orchard were inspected. A visit was made to look at and discuss management of a natural forest reserve and a trial of enrichment planting with indigenous species. The participants travelled back to Victoria for the overnight stay and end of the tour. On Thursday 4 September I flew from Vitoria to Rio de Janeiro, spending two nights there before flying back to Armidale via Los Angeles, Honolulu and Sydney.
Case studies on forest and watershed development in Asia and the Pacific
The Eighth World Forestry Congress in Jakarta in 1978 demonstrated the importance of authoritative information about forest land management practices. Consultations among staff of the East West Environment and Policy Institute (EAPI) of the East West Centre in Honolulu and visiting experts resulted in a recommendation that case studies of ongoing or recent forest development projects be prepared. Fifteen candidate case studies were considered and after working outlines were submitted seven sites were chosen. One was the Gogol Woodchip Project near Madang. I was able to use my study leave time as a visiting scientist at the Division of Forest Research CSIRO Canberra to prepare a draft manuscript. A workshop was held in Honolulu in September 1980 for authors to finesse the case studies. The EAPI submitted each manuscript to peers for review and final revisions were made according to the comments and criticisms received. The case studies were published in 1983.153
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153 Davidson J 1983 Forestry in Papua New Guinea: A Case Study of the Gogol Woodchip Project Near Madang. Pp 19 138 In Hamilton L S (ed) Forest and Watershed Development and Conservation in Asia and the Pacific. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. 560 pp.
Reprint of Forest Tree Leaflets
In 1980, the CSIRO Division of Forest Research republished 200 of the Forest Tree Leaflets unchanged in four bound volumes, including No. 175 E. deglupta, Kamarere in Volume 4 (left).
1983
Publication of the papers given at the IUFRO Symposium on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species in Brazil, August 1980
Publication of the papers given at the IUFRO Symposium on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species held in Aguas de São Pedro, São Paulo, Brazil, 25 30 August 1980 later were published in full in special issues of the journal Silvicultura with summaries in Portuguese. The papers on eucalypts were in the July/August edition (No. 31), 1983 (left).154
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Including: Davidson J 1983 Provenance trials of Eucalyptus deglupta in Papua New Guinea. Silvicultura July/August 1983 (31):434 440. IUFRO and SBS (Sociedade Brasileira de Silvicultura), and, Davidson J 1983 Progress in breeding Eucalyptus deglupta Silvicultura July/August 1983 (31):529 533. IUFRO and SBS.
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IUFRO meeting on frost resistant eucalypts
I attended this meeting in Carçans Maubuisson in France 26 30 September 1983.155My attendance was mainly to join the week long pre meeting tour of eucalypt breeding activities in France and later meet up with my Co chairmen of the IUFRO Working Party on Breeding Eucalypts (S2. 03. 10) to discuss progress on writing our book Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding. A notable event that took place during this meeting was that Australia II had just won the Americas Cup and Professor Pryor took up a collection among the Australians to shout a round of champagne in the dining room!
Co chairmen of the IUFRO Working Party on Breeding Eucalypts (S2. 03. 10) at Carçans, France in 1983. From left: Me, Gerrit van Wyk (South Africa), Ken Eldridge (Australia) and Arno Brune (Brazil). We four were initially to be the authors of our book Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding but Arno later pulled out to be replaced by Chris Harwood (Australia).
155 See: Proceedings of the Colloque International sur les Eucalyptus résistants au froid, Carçans Maubuisson, France, 26 30 September 1983. Nangis: AFOCEL.
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Award of the Marcus Wallenberg Prize to the research team at Aracruz working on vegetative propagation
The winners of the 1984 Marcus Wallenberg Prize were Dr Leopoldo Garcia Brandão, Ms Yara K Ikemori and Dr Edgard Campinhos Jr of Aracruz Florestal S A, Brazil. The Marcus Wallenberg Foundation published the proceedings and lectures given by the winners at the Symposium held during the awards ceremony in Falun, Sweden on 14 September 1984 with the title “The New Eucalypt Forest”.
The cover on the published proceedings featured the much lauded single node cutting of E. urophylla x E. grandis hybrid (without roots) (above left) looking very much like the single node cutting of E. deglupta (with roots) I developed and was using at Keravat 17 years earlier (right)! This juxtaposition is interesting. Professor Bruce Zobel Emeritus Professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina USA was the external examiner for my thesis in 1972. The ANU under its rules allowed him to retain the bound copy submitted to him for examination. On page 159 of my thesis there is a diagram of a single node cutting with half of the leaves removed and looking just like this. Professor Zobel later was retained by Aracruz as a consultant for its tree breeding programme. He was also a member of the Selection Committee for the Marcus Wallenberg Prize at the time.
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1984
PICOP at its peak in 1984
I returned to PICOP in Bislig Bay Mindanao in 1984 on a consultancy mission when the Corporation was near its peak performance.156 In the concession there were 2,100 km of all weather roads capable of carrying 50 tonne loads. Sawn timber, newsprint, containerboard, plywood and blockboard were being produced.157
I was accommodated again in the PICOP guesthouse. The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which had its beginning in eastern Mindanao in 1969, was conducting an armed rebellion against the Government and was becoming more aggressive around the time of my visit. Fellow guests slept with automatic rifles under their beds. During my field visits to investigate disease issues in E. deglupta in the PICOP plantations I had an armed escort of several men in a truck. I was given a two hour flight to examine the plantations from the air. This was in a two tandem seat open cockpit single engine company aircraft operating from the Corporation’s airstrip. All was well with my flight, but I learned later that the aircraft had been shot down two weeks after my visit.
1986
Data book on endangered tree species
I contributed a chapter on E. deglupta to this FAO publication in 1986.158
On page 267 I gave three main reasons at the time to be concerned about the decline of the species across several areas of its natural distribution:
“(i) The species is intolerant. Older stands are invaded by rainforest. There is no regeneration of E. deglupta under itself. (ii) Older stands are being heavily logged for building timbers and firewood. (iii) The species occurs on fertile river flats, which are rapidly being cleared for food gardens and
156 PICOP began to decline during the financial, economic and institutional crises that afflicted the Philippines from the late 1980s. The Bislig Bay mills were shut down in 2001when the company learned its 25 year Timber License Agreement, which was due to expire on 26 April 2002, would not be renewed. The concession, plantations, tree breeding stands (seed stands, seed orchards, clone banks), nurseries and mill site and facilities were abandoned in 2007. Only fragments of the planted stands survive today (2020).
157 Annual production in 1984: Newsprint 86,000 mt (metric tonnes), Containerboard 68,000 mt, Plywood (from two plants) 150,000 mt, Timber 50,000 m3 , Blockboard 10,000 m3
158 Davidson J 1986 Eucalyptus deglupta Bl. Pp 262 270 in Databook on endangered tree and shrub species and provenances. FAO Forestry Paper 77, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. 524 pp.
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agricultural purposes especially in Mindanao and Indonesia. For example, it is estimated the more than 60 percent of the finest stands on the Caliawan River, an east bank tributary of the Agusan River in Mindanao has been destroyed ahead of agricultural activity. This destruction is continuing and, unless the stand is reserved for seed collection purposes, it will be virtually non existent in a few years. This is one of the largest riverain stands in Mindanao and has been used by the Bislig Bay Lumber Company as a seed source. This particular provenance has been determined to be one of the best for forestry purposes in ecologically similar areas.”
In the present day I would add under the heading of “agricultural purposes” the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in the lowland tropics as one of the risk factors threatening the survival of native stands of E. deglupta, especially on New Britain in PNG.
1993 PICOP revisited in 1993
Provenance trial of E. deglupta at PICOP. Keravat provenance on the left, local provenance on the right.
Eight hectare block of E. deglupta, 11 years old, set aside as a preservation stand of good seed source derived from locally collected seed. (Photographs: N Zabala)
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Clone bank of E. deglupta at PICOP in 1993. The unusual shape of the trees had resulted from repeated cutting in the past to make marcots and lopping to rejuvenate the stem low down to produce coppice shoots from which to make cuttings. (Photograph: N Zabala)
Clone bank of E. deglupta♀ x E. pellita♂ hybrids 4.12 ha in area planted in September 1988 and photographed about four years later. Recent cutting back of the trees had allowed new coppice shoots to form about one meter or less above the ground. One or two lateral branches had been left to nurture the hedged stump. Low down some of these branches also produced sprouts. The coppice shoots and sprouts arising at this height in E. deglupta were physiologically juvenile and enabled cuttings from them to be struck with close to 100% success. (Photograph: N Zabala)
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Scaffolding erected by PICOP around elite trees of E. deglupta to enable control pollination in situ with pollen from E. pellita and E. urophylla. Right: Clonal plot of the hybrid E. deglupta♀ x E. pellita (Tree No. 1)♂ at PICOP planted 12 May 1989 and photographed at age 3.5 years. This cross was best at the time in terms of height and diameter growth, relatively high wood density, and resistance to leaf blight, kino disease and varicose borer (Agrilus sp) attack. At 19.9 m in height and 16.4 cm in diameter by age 4 years the hybrid was twice as tall and 60% greater in diameter than the parents at that age. (Photographs: N. Zabala)
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