MEDIA RELEASE
Pine harvesting due to start near Ellenbrook
12 May 2006
The Forest Products Commission (FPC) will conduct a clearfall operation of maritime pines on the Gnangara water mound west of Drumpellier Drive in the week commencing 22 May for three to four weeks.
The pine logs will supply customers in Neerabup and Dardanup for the production of laminated veneer lumber and structural timber.
In recent years the FPC has increased the focus of harvesting the Gnangara pine plantation to meet its contractual obligations to supply Western Australia’s timber industry and to assist water recharge on the Gnangara Mound.
In the interests of public safety access to the plantation will be via authorisation from the FPC for the duration of the clearfall operation.
At the request of the Ellenbrook developers, a block of pines immediately west of Pinaster Parade will also be cleared for future development.
As part of the harvest, higher volumes of heavy haulage traffic will be experienced in the immediate vicinity. On average approximately 10 to 12 trucks will be entering and exiting the plantation via Drumpellier Drive 500 metres north of Gnangara Road intersection. Traffic associated with the Ellenbrook developmental operation will enter and exit Drumpellier Drive from the limestone track adjacent to the plantation (formerly Wetherall Road).
In addition, harvesting equipment will be felling, processing and forwarding products to waiting trucks within the plantation area.
A narrow one kilometre long strip of pines along Drumpellier Drive from Gnangara Road will be retained as they are part of early trial plots planted by forester Dick Perry whose pioneering work was the basis for the plantation industry we have today.
The plot has a mix of maritime pine varieties from Portugal, France and Corsica. Through this and similar trials established in the 1920s and 30s, it was verified that seeds from Portugal produced the best results.
The pioneering tradition of Dick Perry and other early foresters is continued and built upon by the research and tree breeding programs carried out by FPC. Through this work a new variety of maritime pine has been successfully developed, which is 80 per cent more productive than the original trees.
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- Pine harvesting due to start near Ellenbrook - 84kB PDF (12/05/2007)
