Well-deserved recognition for local forester
Woodside is a rolling hillside farm with lots of forest and to-die-for views on the southern flank of Mt Oxford near Coopers Creek. It appears as unassuming as it’s custodians, John and Rosalie Wardle, but both have received some well-deserved recognition.
John, a pioneer in sustainable forest management, received the prestigious Forester of the Year award from the New Zealand Institute of Forestry in September last year for his outstanding contribution to forestry.
Woodside farm has received several awards over the years in addition to recognition as one of three forests in New Zealand that practice exemplary forestry from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) - at least in part for the unique method of selective and sustainable harvesting used on the farm.
John and Rosalie Wardle with the Forester of the Year award.
If we backtrack to the 1970s, the Wardle family were based in Rangiora, and after an active career (including a PhD) in forestry, John decided he wanted his own farm. Rosalie, or Ro for short, got onto the estate agents. It took about two years to find a suitable property. Woodside, at that time, was a remote and rundown block.
The couple bought the property in 1973 and invested weekends working as a family to build up the farm until they were able to move to the farm full time when John turned 50 in 1986.
“It was logged in the 1890s and burnt in the subsequent fires - and was virtually log bare and used as a grazing unit when we bought it. Part of it was covered in regenerated beech forest (which was considered valueless), and the rest was gorse,” says John, who grew up in small-town Hawea in Central Otago.
They planted radiata pine in the areas covered in gorse. “We planted the trees ourselves. John could plant about a thousand trees a day, while I could only manage about one hundred,” says Ro.
“We cut timber to build our house – and built that ourselves in stages. There was no market for beech at the time, so we developed a firewood market out of deadwood (which also reduced the fire risk for us) and split about 300 cords a year, and went into honeydew production with about 250 hives,” says John.
Predator control was also a big part of establishing the farm – trapping possums, stoats, weasels and rats. The farm is now run under a QEII Open Space Covenant which allows for the continued sustainable harvest of both beech and pine.
The Wardles have practised selective logging, targeting the larger trees that meet their specific diameter requirements rather than felling an entire area or stand. They have a government-approved management plan but harvest a conservative 30 and 40 cubic meters a year which provides a regular income rather than the boom and bust income of traditional forestry. This harvesting method is also kinder to the environment, proving a continuous canopy, and allows for managed regrowth instead of requiring new plantings.
“It’s effectively like selling off the fat lamb. We use the old methods, hand dropping trees and using skidders with ropes to remove them,” says John, who has proved that the method works despite being told that selective harvesting was not possible with radiata pine.
It is unusual for foresters to live on the property and live off the land in New Zealand as John and Ro do. Forestry students often come to Woodside to see sustainable harvesting in action, and John has written a 130-page book – Woodside, a small forest managed on multiple-use principles – to share his knowledge.
This is the third book John has written. The others are New Zealand Beeches (1984) and Wardle’s Native Trees of New Zealand and their story (2011), with the income going to either the NZ Forest Service or the Farm Forest Association.
At 84, John is still active on the farm, although he has reduced his workload. You’ll find him in the forest in the mornings. He’ll be trimming trees so that they grow straight, clearing undergrowth where their mob of 70-odd sheep haven’t kept it contained, thinning out the natural regeneration, and more.
While he concedes that there isn’t a viable replacement, John is not a fan of 1080 for pest control. He has seen a reduction in several native species, especially insects and insect-feeding birds, when it has been applied on neighbouring DoC land and manages pests entirely by trapping at Woodside.
John and Ro have built up a solid reputation for beech wood in the local market. About 80% of their production is used locally for flooring and kitchen units.
As to future development, John is concerned about the longer-term implications of the Billion Tree Programme. He worries that a focus on large swathes of unmanaged forest (potentially established by international conglomerates with an eye on carbon credits) fails to adequately account for environmental concerns and fire risks. He would like to see the integration of forestry within farmland as an alternative, ideally following a more sustainable harvesting method.
This article by Shaz Davis was published in the August 2020 edition of The Observer.
