Puriri - Current and Potential Future Usage

Current and Potential Future Usage

Currently small quantities of puriri timber are available from time to time around the greater Auckland province and Northland(17), these tend to be mostly used for wood-turning or, as in the case of puriri fence posts, be recycled as garden furniture (6, 18). The erstwhile Forest Research Institute (now Scion) recommends planting fast-growing high quality timber species such as puriri as special purpose species, particularly in view of the rising cost of importing these and the scarcity of native timber(19).

A special-purpose species is defined as "a species producing timber with special wood properties required for those uses where radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don.) is not entirely satisfactory". Therefore, the timber will usually be complementary to that of Pinus radiata, not an alternative. Some of the special-purpose end uses advocated were; furniture, veneer, turnery, exterior joinery, boat building and tool handles(20). Puriri has fulfilled these roles in the past. Other potential roles for puriri include post, wharf and bridge pilings, as pine requires a high degree of preservative treatment and can break too readily under pressure due to lack of cross-grained wood(21). Indications are that puriri could coppice well, and, as it is one of New Zealand's hottest burning timbers(6), it might prove suitable as a source of biomass or for charcoal production.