Heartwood Plantations is committed to long-term, ongoing research and development that will result in greater returns for its customers. Since 2003, Heartwood Plantations has initiated a diverse range of research trials aimed at improving the quality and growth of the plantations it establishes and manages. In addition, Heartwood Plantations is committed to the development of new techniques to improve the efficiency and safety of our operations.

Projects

Some of the R&D initiated and partnered in recent years includes studies in:

• Fertiliser trials in mid rotation yellow stringybark;
• Fertiliser trials in early age sugar gum;
• Provenance trials in yellow stringybark;
• Provenance trials in southern mahogany;
• Genetic gains trials in sugar gum;
• Genetics gain trials in spotted gum;
• Impacts of fertiliser and weed control in spotted gum and yellow stringybark;
• Growth responses to thinning in yellow stringybark, spotted gum, southern mahogany and sugar gum;
• Investigation of technologies and techniques for small-scale forest harvesting;
• Harvest machinery trial.

In addition to these formal trials, Heartwood monitors more than 80 permanent samples plots across plantations in Victoria. These plots, located in Heartwood-managed plantations, provide valuable data about the performance of a range of species across various climates and soils.