Tomorrows Forests

Tena koe, welcome to Tomorrow’s Forests website.

Tomorrow’s Forests is a forestry consultancy company which specialises in innovative forestry solutions in today’s diverse land environment. These solutions take account of land owner demands and expectations and create management options to improve economic, environmental and social sustainability of land and business.

When developing forestry solutions for a property, Tomorrow’s Forests utilises many indigenous and exotic tree species available and matches these to the particular landscape and the owners objectives. With careful planning using a wide range of management tools and techniques including GIS and continuous cover forestry, Tomorrow’s Forests can expand business opportunities while improving sustainability and viability.

NZ Dryland Forestry Initiative

The NZDFI is a research project investigating the potential of growing ground-durable Eucalyptus species in the drier parts of New Zealand and has been running since 2008. Tomorrow’s Forests Ltd is contracted to map all 40 research sites which includes over 3,527 plots and over 136,000 trees individually mapped. This project is supported by a number of industry stakeholders, Councils and central government. Click to Zoom on Image.

Cameron Farms Food Forest

The well-known movie maker, James Cameron’s property in the Wairapapa was mapped in order to establish an 8 hectare food forest. This involved placing over 5,000 fruit, nut and shelter trees as canopy circles across a 40 ha area using 138 different species and varieties to create a mixed forest of food-bearing plants. The planting was carried out using a database of the positions of all trees and locating each spot in the field using GPS. Click to Zoom on Image.

Ngai Tahu Afforestation Projects

Tomorrow’s Forests Ltd has completed a number of afforestation planning projects on Ngai Tahu tribal land on Banks Peninsula and Kaikoura. Both of these took into account integration with farming operations, timber production, carbon sequestration, soil stabilisation, improving water quality, enhancing biodiversity, educational and local employment opportunities. The project reports also included a cost/benefit analysis. Click to Zoom on Image or read more for more images.

Carbon Sequestration Forestry

Tomorrow’s Forests has helped numerous clients in preparing and lodging applications for entering their forests in the Emissions Trading Scheme as well as lodging their Voluntary and Mandatory Emissions Returns. There are many examples of small, medium and large land owners realising the multiple benefits of tree planting on marginal land including carbon revenues.
More recently, Tomorrow’s Forests has been working with EKOS preparing proposals and cost/benefit analyses for larger corporates and some Councils wishing to offset their emissions by establishing Kyoto-compliant forests, mostly using a mix of exotic hardwoods and native tree species. Click to Zoom on Image.

Forest Restoration Management Planning

Brian and Barbara Parkinson owned 57ha of strongly rolling hill country in the Motueka Valley. The property contained some small woodlots of Cypress and Eucalyptus species, some grazing for their highland cattle, scattered indigenous forest remnants in the gullies and large areas of gorse, broom and blackberry in between. Their long-term aim was to restore the native forest for both amenity and productive purposes. Tomorrow’s Forests devised the timber and nurse species management regimes which provided a harvest of exotic timber in the transition to a productive indigenous forest. Shelterwood and continuous canopy harvesting systems were key elements to the plan. Plant and animal pest management was another important component of this project. Click to Zoom on Image.

Woodland Management and Habitat Restoration – Tai Tapu

Stephen and Bindy Dakin owned 30ha of erosion-prone hill country at Tai Tapu on the Port Hills just south of Christchurch. The property contained some small woodlots of Macrocarpa and Oak together with small areas of planted shrub hardwoods and regenerating Manuka. Most of the remainder was open grass and tussock land with scattered patches of gorse. Their long-term aim was to restore the native forest for both amenity and productive purposes. A forest restoration management plan was prepared which set out the species mixes, techniques and regimes to be used to convert the existing vegetation patterns into a productive indigenous forest. Nurse species plantings were devised to encourage natural regeneration from native seed dispersed by birds. Continuous canopy silvicultural systems together with judicious plant and animal pest management were important elements to the plan. Click to Zoom on Image.

Integrating Farming and Forestry – South Canterbury

A significant mapping project for a property owner in South Canterbury has been completed which involved mapping the entire 1,950 ha property and differentiating farm land from forest land. With the assistance of GPS, all fences, gates, paddocks, tracks and stock water systems were mapped. All the forest stands were mapped with each stand in the GIS actively linked to a MS Access database containing all stand records. The entire system was then delivered to the client with free map viewing software for use on site. Click to Zoom on Image.

Mapping for Biodiversity & Habitat Restoration

Tomorrow’s Forests provide the New Zealand Landcare Trust with GIS mapping services. The trust is using in-house GIS to help a number of landcare groups around the country map and manage their environmental and restoration projects. Click to Zoom on Image or read more for more images.

Urban Forestry

Productive forestry within metropolitan areas using high value timber and amenity species is not uncommon in parts of Europe and North America. In 2000, Roger May was contracted to provide forest management planning services to Wellington City Council in the Wellington Town Belt. Much of the 330ha Town Belt is covered with exotic forest, mostly pine, much over 80 years old. Under a new management plan, 60% of this old (and in places hazardous) forest in the centre of Wellington is to be carefully felled and restored to the mixed species coastal forest native to the region.
Click to Zoom on Images or read more for more images.

Other Significant Projects

• Forest surveys on SILNA land for Landcare Research.
• Sustainable Native Forest Management Permit assessments for MAF on 27 properties across the country.
• Sustainable Native Forest Management Plans for eight forest owners in Nelson, Canterbury, and Taranaki.
• Town Belt Management Plan pilot project and Town Belt Management Plan (with Boffa Miskell) for Wellington City Council.
• Significant Natural Area mapping for Selwyn District Council.
• Build and run native forest management systems for Forest Stewardship Council certification of 11,600 ha Waitutu Incorporation beech forest in Southland (8 years).

Aerial Photography

In 2016 Tomorrow’s Forests Ltd invested in UAV technology purchasing a DJI Inspire II drone and utilizing specialised Swiss software to produced very detailed aerial photography and contour data for clients. Typical pixel resolution is 3 cm and contours down to 0.5 metres can be produced. One example is the organic orchard of Ashley River Organics in Canterbury. Click to Zoom on Image.

The Company

Tomorrow’s Forests provides professional forestry expertise in a range of areas including sustainable indigenous forest management, indigenous and alternative exotic species plantation management, riparian management and indigenous forest restoration.

We also provide advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, certification systems (including FSC), land use analysis, plantation establishment and management planning and carbon forestry all based on 30 years work experience in the forestry sector.

The People

Roger began his working life in engineering but the passion for New Zealand forests and timber grew out of recreational pursuits and planting trees. He has a New Zealand Certificate in Forestry and has worked as a consultant for over 25 years. Projects undertaken have focussed on indigenous forest management and restoration, ‘alternative’ species management and GIS mapping and analysis. He is a member of Tanes Tree Trust and has been a member of the New Zealand Farm Forestry for over 30 years.