Greetings from Russell Dale
With the Covid19 lockdown and restrictions largely behind us, for now at least, the Forest Growers Research team – that is Veronica Bennett, Keith Raymond, Marco Lausberg, Russell Burton and I, are back in our office in the PF Olsen Building, Sala Street, Rotorua.
We are, however, limiting travel and larger meetings to minimise risks and reduce travel costs as everyone has been impacted financially by the impacts of Covid19. We are using Zoom for all of our Forest Research Committee, technical steering team and programme steering group meetings. These meetings are working well although participants are still keen to schedule face-to-face meetings occasionally.
The full effects of Covid19 on the world economy are yet to be seen but along with the climate-change induced forest decline in Europe and the resultant surge of logs and timber into our traditional markets, we can expect significant impacts and uncertainty for the forest industry for some time to come.
This in turn creates uncertainty in terms of the levy income stream that supports our research programmes: however, the Forest Growers Levy Trust is committed to supporting existing research programmes this year through use of reserves and potentially short-term borrowing.
Work is now starting on developing the 2021 work programme with final decisions being made on this by early December 2020.
We hope you enjoy our latest newsletter.