The Sugar Pine Walk is a popular must-see site for visitors to the Tumbarumba area. Planted in 1928, the enormous sugar pines provide a short, easy stroll among some of the tallest and largest pines in the world.

Forestry Corporation of NSW recently commenced a regrowth project to ensure the unique experience is preserved for future generations.

“We would expect some of the trees to start showing stress or becoming dangerous as they continue to age, which is why we are planning now to grow their replacements,” said Forestry Corporation Harvesting Supervisor, Elle Kromar.

“Our hope is that when the current Sugar Pine Walk ages over the next century, we will have grown a new forest as large and majestic as the walk we see today.”

A suitable replacement site has been selected and so far five hectares have been harvested.

“The trees removed from the new site are from a 1922 pinus radiata plantation, hence there are large post-harvesting stumps and debris remaining,” Ms Kromar said.

“Thanks to Onetrak and Tigercat we have been fortunate to have access to a Tigercat demonstration 480B mulcher, which has spent a week grooming the site and chewing debris into mulch.”

Preparations planting rows and walkways have been completed and the next step is for local school children to take part in planting the new pines.

In addition to Sugar Pine, older growth species such as Douglas Fir will be added.

Tigercat forestry equipment and Onetrak provided the 480B mulcher to Forestry Corporation for the duration of the land preparation works, said Onetrak Managing Director, David Hazell.

“Onetrak, our local team in Tumut and Tigercat are happy to be able to support the local forestry industry and this important community project,” Mr Hazell said.

“Our close direct relationship with Tigercat and their full factory support helps make these activities possible.”

The Tigercat 480B Mulcher was launched in Australia in May this year. In addition to stump grinding and vegetation mulching, its uses include clearing regrowth, right of way clearing for powerlines, land divisions and fire breaks.

This project is a great opportunity to demonstrate the new machine and its suitability for forestry applications and local conditions, said Onetrak Territory Manager, Phil Turnbull.

“The before and after photos of the site speak for themselves and we are very happy with the mulcher’s performance,” Mr Turnbull said.

The objective of the project is to create a shared space with the local community – people who are so heavily invested in forestry and who’s townships depend upon the industry.

“Our local softwood timber industry is built around radiata pine; we have never grown sugar pine seedlings in our production nurseries and the process of growing new high-quality seedlings will involve a bit of trial and error,” said Ms Kromar.

“We collected seeds from the existing Sugar Pine Walk last year and sent them to our Grafton Production Nursery to be propagated.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to germinate suitable seedlings and are now looking at alternative options.”

“While this is a small setback, growing a replacement Sugar Pine Walk is a long-term project and there is plenty of time to grow good quality seedlings”.

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