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the first and most important decision

Possibly the most important decision you will make is this first decision. “Why are you establishing a plantation?”

The reason it is important is that most decisions that follow link back to what your are trying to achieve.

There are 4 broad reasons or “products” of your plantation

1. Conserving environmental values.

2. Creating recreational opportunities or a sense of well being.

3. Protecting agricultural production (soil, climate), providing pollination services or habitat for predators of pests.

4. Producing forest products such as wood, food, plant extracts or other “physical” product.

It is obvious that the optimum plantation is different for each of these. If mixed objectives are accommodated then the range of possible scenarios are extensive.

Some other issues to be aware of as you plan:

1. The area to be planted is influenced by maximising outputs, but more important is the resources available to manage over time and before returns are captured. Forest plantations are not cheap to establish, and require onging investment in maintenance to be succesful. It is better to think about how much you can manage physically and financially ahead of how much land is available in total.

2. Forests grow for very long times. At any time, extremes of weather such as drought wind or flood can threaten survival as can pests Similarly, pests