IKEA set to buy up more land in NZ

[C_T_Russell]

Careful what you wish for there CT. Eucalyptus have been described as 'The Largest Weed'. They are extremely flammable and toxify the ground in their vicinity to a greater degree than even pines do. Their toxicity also means that very few organisms can eat them, except of course koalas.

Grown in NZ conditions their root systems are meagre due to the abundance of fertility here compared to their native habitat which makes them prone to blowover in strong winds, and they also shed large limbs often without warning. They were planted in large quantities here in the period around WW2 as eucalyptus was seen to be the durable timber of the future, compared to the much less durable pinus radiata, but the CCA 'tanalising' process saw those plantings become historic groves representing the change in timber technology. The timber is also more difficult to mill than the straighter grained pine and twisting and warping of the resulting lumber is problematic.

Current plantings of eucalyptus are primarily for paper manufacture but the processing of this resinous and toxic wood presents added environmental impacts.

Essential exchanging pines for gums is very much a frying pan to fire scenario.

Well I think NZ only has the male(or female, can't remember) trees just like we do with poplar trees, so they can't reproduce. Aren't all ours grown just taken from cuttings? I've never seen a single one self seeded growing on its own anywhere wild.
Smart move what was done with poplar or else we would have a real problem on our hands.
Yes they are flammable, but less of a problem in our climate, it's not like pines don't catch fire easily though.
We have possums here which I'm sure I've seen eating them, but you would think that if less pests affect the trees, that would be a good thing?
Yes your right, they do shed limbs and have witnessed it before when a branch landed on a car and dented the roof.
Probably a far more of a danger to the public if planted in parks than a stand of them in a forest.
Would be very useful feature in forestry because it requires little to no pruning(they are essentially a self pruning tree)
I do see the odd one blow over and have cut firewood from blown over ones that the owner wanted gone.
It's awesome firewood, that's for sure.

They definitely have their place for timber and would be great to see more grown here.
Treating timber uses a mix of fairly toxic chemicals, you would think that using timber that can last longer without treatment would be a good thing.
But at the end of it all, selective breeding should have gotten us better genetics if researchers wanted to go down that path and we would have varieties available with better properties.