18 May 2013
The supreme winner of the 2013 Eastland Wood Council Forestry Awards epitomised the very essence of a professional in a growing industry, according to chief judge Julian Kohn."Ricky Kuru, the Skilled Forestry Professional of the Year winner, highlights just what forestry contracting and business acumen can do — not just for him, but also his immediate and extended whanau," he said.
Mr Kuru and his family also won the new Forestry Family of the Year crown and the Eastland Port Roading Excellence Award before a sell-out 380-plus crowd at the Showgrounds Event Centre last night.
Forestry council chairman Iain McInnes said Mr Ruru was well known, respected and held in high regard within a challenging industry.
He was a "stand-out and highly efficient operator", dedicated to running the family business Kuru Contracting. One of 13 from the Kuru whanau involved, he and wife Leanne now ran the company after taking over from his parents Jack and Sue.
Three generations of Kurus work in the business, which was established in 1997. Since 2002 it has been contracted full time to Hikurangi Forest Farms, providing road line logging and road building services.
The second new award introduced this year was the Bain and Sheppard Start Up Business Award, which was won by Rimurapa, East Coast Silviculture Solutions Ltd.
Mr McInnes thanked those who continued to support the forestry industry, and particularly those "out in the bush doing the hard yards" who had responded to some "interesting" letters to the editor in The Gisborne Herald.
Whether people liked it or not, Gisborne was a forestry town and that was something to be proud of.
"Gisborne could be a ghost town without us," he said.
"Neither party can live without the other."
There was talk that Gisborne needed to attract entrepreneurs and investors to the region, but Mr McInnes suggested those very people were sitting at the forestry awards last night.
Source: Gisborne Herald. To read the full story, click here.
Established plantations of pine, macrocarpa and Douglas-fir over 40 hectares now co-exist with carefully positioned ornamental trees on the long and narrow property running 16 kilometres from the highway to the sea.
Often circling the plantations are lusitanicus and cypress that will remain standing when timber trees are harvested.
Another 30 ha of native bush is protected by QE11 covenant and the couple have fenced from stock about 100 ha in gullies for their personal pleasure.
Charles Wiffen said the trees had been planted at the 1400 ha farm as much for providing a pleasant working landscape as for shelter and shade for stock. He said they had made a point of planting oaks, poplars and cypress for variety.
The Wiffens, who also run a Blenheim vineyard and manage the Charles Wiffen label, have been at Inverness for 48 years with Charles' father first running the farm. Elms, maples and "every oak you could think of" now line the property.
Farm Forestry Association award judge Neil Cullen, Balclutha, said the trees were an example of good land use.
Many of the "awkward" corners and gullies had been planted in small tree blocks, shelter belts and ornamental trees to provide shade and shelter appreciated by stock this dry summer, he said.
"I was impressed with the way they have managed the property as far as land use goes. It's a long, stretched out property 16km to the ocean and although there is only 40 ha of tree blocks in 1400 ha a lot of the property isn't suitable for forestry because of access problems."
Wiffen said he was a farmer first and a forester second, but he had always appreciated trees for the qualities they brought to a farm.
Story by Tim Cronshaw, © Fairfax NZ News. To read the full story, click here.