Rotorua gets three awards for forestry

Rotorua researchers and foresters have dominated this year's Future Forests Research (FFR) Awards.

Three of the four awards, presented at a function in Rotorua on Tuesday night, were won by Rotorua men - Graham West and Mark Riddell, of Scion, and Mark Self, of Timberlands.

FFR established the awards last year to recognise the role played by science and innovation in the sector and to acknowledge outstanding achievements by researchers and industry end users.

Mr West, programme manager of FFR's Radiata Theme for five years, won the award for communication and sector engagement.

The three judges said Mr West had set high standards for communicating research results and at the same time maintained a thorough understanding of the underlying science. They said he had consistently ensured research results were delivered in ways that could be applied by forestry managers and planners.

"He does this with the enthusiasm and passion he has for forestry and ensuring research is adding value to the sector."

Another Scion researcher, Mr Riddell, won the award for science of international quality for the development of a new method of assessing spiral grain in trees.

Spiral, rather than straight, grain can affect the strength and uniformity of wood products. Mr Riddell came up with the idea to use transmitted light - his prototype system uses a converted flat-bed scanner and can provide information on spiral grain at much higher resolution. He and colleagues developed algorithms to process the data from the scans to calculate the spiral grain angle.

The methodology has been published in an international journal and has the potential to become the gold standard for the measurement of spiral grain.

Mr Self, of Timberlands Rotorua, was the award winner for research participation and uptake by a member of FFR.

The judges said Mr Self participated fully in the technical steering team and member meetings for the Diversified Species Theme and was a keen supporter of evaluating species which may have potential in the future for forest owners.

The fourth award went to non-scientist Kerry Hill of Trinder Engineering, Nelson, for innovation that added value to the forestry sector. The judges cited Trinder Engineering's joint development of a winch-assisted steep slope feller-buncher machine, which has a front-mounted winch, rear-mounted blade and integrated hydraulic control systems.

Other Rotorua nominees were Scion's John Moore and Toby Stovold (communication and sector engagement), Tony Evanson, of Scion, and Hamish Marshall, of Interpine Forestry, (innovation that adds value), Scion's Damien Sellier (science of international quality) and Brian Rawley, of Silmetra Ltd, (research participation and uptake).