If we ignore the bad and promote the good, people come a gutser. Mr McConchie says they have yet to come up with a tree that thrives in strong winds and poor soils. He says trees planted on steep faces exposed to prevailing northwest winds will not give a good return. The growth rings are compressed on one side of the tree and are more naturally spaced on the other side. This makes the wood useless for sawn timber.
Compression wood is notoriously unstable.
It cracks and bows. Mr McConchie says after paying the felling and trucking costs the profit could be negligible. In reality we know there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be disappointed with their radiata. They aren't going to get the return they expect. The negatives aside, there are still many sheltered sites for growing quality pine in the eastern hills.