Veneers and the environment

Veneer logs are sourced from State forestry coupes managed by Forestry Tasmania scheduled for logging as set out in an ongoing Regional Forestry Agreement. All forests are managed on a sustainable basis and all coupes are replanted following the completion of logging.

Logs are only purchased from private landowners when there is an approved 'Timber Harvesting Plan' as required by the State 'Forest Practises Act' and there is a commitment to replant following logging.

Logs are numbered and transported to Gunns Veneers for cutting into flitches. Flitches are segments of the log sized to suit the veneers slices. Each flitch is numbered and identified as part of its parent log.

Flitches are soaked in a hot water bath for a number of days to soften the wood in preparation for slicing.

The flitch is mounted in the slicer and passed over a stationary knife, slicing up to 1000 slices from each metre of flitch. Veneer slices or leaves are dried and bundled into bundles of 36 leaves. Each bundle is numbered as a bundle number within a crate.

Gunns Veneers production management system allows for the tracking of each bundle of veneer back to the log from which it was sliced. Details recorded on the Forestry Tasmania 'Log Delivery Docket' allows the log to be traced back to an individual forest coupe.

These records are available for scrutiny at any time.

A summary of the audit trail of a typical crate is illustrated in Figure 1. shown on the right.

 

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