Welcome to the December 2007 edition of CRC
for Forestry News, the first edition in this new format. With
the Christmas break just around the corner, many of you, like me,
may be wondering what happened to 2007. Looking back, it’s
been an eventful and exciting year for the CRC and our partners, a
year that has seen some significant milestones in our development
as an organisation.
The year has also seen some big changes to our operating
environment; the political scenery in Australia has altered, and a
number of new federal ministers have moved into our orbit. Climate
change and carbon trading loom larger in the landscape, and the
impact of a decade or more of low rainfall across much of the
continent continues to grow in significance. These changes all
serve to highlight the importance of the work we are doing, and
reinforce many of the strategic directions we’ve chosen.
On a different front, the CRC Programme
itself will have a new departmental home in 2008, and the goalposts
are likely to shift back to more of a focus on national
benefit. The CRC Programme Review is likely to be brought
forward, but all signs are that the programme has a positive
future.
Updates on programme activities in this newsletter highlight
some of the exciting work that is emerging across all research
programmes. Particularly during the latter part of the year,
workshops involving significant numbers of industry and other
end-user participants have helped to ensure that our research
outputs are hitting the mark. Some of these events are described in
the following pages.
Some new faces have joined the lineup, including Mark Brown who
now leads our Harvesting and
Operations Programme, and Tom Fisk, our
Industry Engagement Manager. As this newsletter goes online, we
will be finalising the appointment of a new Business Manager
– more on that in the new year. Two new PCC chairs,
Justine Edwards and Trevor Innes, have been helping set the
strategic directions for Programmes One and Two, while our
visiting forest engineering professor, Loren Kellogg,
has played an important role in guiding the long awaited
establishment of Programme
Three.
On the down side, our long standing CRC Visitor, Dr Max Whitten,
has regretfully resigned from that role. CRC Visitors are important
and influential contacts and mentors for CRCs and Max has given
CRCs for forestry the benefit of his wisdom and experience since
2000, both as Visitor and Chair of our Research Advisory Panel. We
have been privileged to have a scientist of Max’s calibre
associated with the CRC, and his influence will be missed.
We have a new website! Communications Manager Taylor
Bildstein and others continue to load material onto the CRCs
public website www.crcforestry.com.au, and I
would urge everyone to log on and have a look around. Ultimately
all of the CRC’s web based information will be migrated to
the new site, although some of it will remain password protected
and accessible to CRC members only. The public and members areas
contain a wealth of valuable information, from the early days of
the CRC for Temperate Hardwood Forestry through to some
up-to-the-minute research findings.
Early 2008 will be off to a flying start with the Old Forests
New Management conference in Hobart, starting 17 February.
This is a high-profile, international conference supported by the
Australian
Academies of Science, Engineering and Technology. Having such a
conference associated with the CRC and our partners is
acknolwedgement of the significance and international standing of
our science and scientists. More information on the conference can
be found at www.oldforests.org.au
Timing for the 2008 (09?) CRC Annual Science Meeting is still up
in the air, and we are waiting on the Commonwealth for information
about the timing and format of our third year review. The punters
among you would get short odds on mid-late October in Hobart, and I
hope to confirm early in the new year. Again, watch this space.
Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all
members of our community for your contribution to our shared
endeavors during 2007, and wish you and your families a peaceful
and joyous Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year.
Professor Gordon Duff, CEO.
