but does the OP actually own the trees, or are they owned by someone else and his responsibility is to weed and water them while they grow?
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but does the OP actually own the trees, or are they owned by someone else and his responsibility is to weed and water them while they grow?
Yes. Definitely more information required as in which of the two parties had responsibility and what exactly were they. Once that is established you can begin to work out what the obligations and repercussions might be under the receivership. Gunns did not have an enviable reputation while they were solvent and there is little hope that in insolvency they will have become a benevolent society.
Do whatever you can first to understand the situation based on your contract and then get independent, professional advice early on, but not in huge detail unless your pockets are deep or you don't mind paying for extravagant holidays for your legal consultant.
As to the species, it is probably irrelevant apart from the potential it has to yield a return, but much of that has diminished with Gunn's demise. It is, however, of great interest to Forum members as to what has been planted :) .
I hope everything turns out for the best, but as others have said, watch your step and be wary.
Regards
Paul
Thanks everyone that has posted here with information, I'll endeavour to get proper wording from the contract and some pictures :U
Do you know whether they were being grown for pulp or sawlogs? And what species? This should be in the contract.
A big expense in forestry is initial establishment. That has already been done on your block. There's a range of possible outcomes depending on what state the trees are in. If they're nitens or globulus they could possibly both be grown on for sawlog and maybe veneer for the better stems. Globulus could be harvested earlier for roundwood construction if a local market exists. Some farmers in Vic who have had leases ended on their globulus pulp plantations are now coppicing the trees and selling the rounds as plantation firewood! Some other farmers in this cohort are looking at biochar.
If the trees have been planted at high stocking rates they will need to be thinned if you decide to grow them on for sawlogs. And possibly some pruning might add some value. Private Forests Tasmania could possibly help with advice on management and markets Private Forests Tasmania
Good luck with it. In Europe having a large woodlot is seen as a sign of wealth! Here we seem a bit more ambivalent about trees on farms
MAI
We've finally gotten some feedback in relation to the trees and have been given one of three options
- We buy them and then arrange for the harvesting, selling etc.
- The trees are harvested and there's some funding in the way money is split up
- The lease just terminates
I think we'd like to go with option 2 and be done with it, let them take the trees and give us whatever money we're due. We never really bought the land expecting it to make us returns, so any money is good in our eyes. The only issue is, I think option 2 will only be on the cards for people who have mature trees and ours are supposed to have another 7-10 years to grow before they're expected to be harvested.
Based on your reported the time of planting "5 years ago" and "the 7-10 years to grow before harvest" suggests to me that you either have "wood chip" or "pulp feed stock" trees.
That is unless the 7-10 years to harvest refers to when the first thinning is due to occur
We have been told they are pulp trees with a total 15 year growth plan.
There are still too many unknowns, but we want to offload them to someone, we don't want to end up sitting on a plantation that we don't know what to do with or that isn't going to benefit us.
Offer to buy them all at an absolutely ridiculous, knock down, obscenely horrible nose bleeding rate.
The administrators have to look at it.
Start at $1000 for the lot.
Why not $1 :U
I don't really want 29 acres of pulp wood because I don't want to look after the maintenance side of things. They're apparently not good for anything else because they start rotting from the inside before they get big enough to mill.
Some pics of the plantation:
http://i.imgur.com/OraUmNO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EeLGmur.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/E8xhJzt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Rmh6bFG.jpg
The trees are perhaps 4-5 metres high