1. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Plate1: 10-year-old E. pellita stand; Plate 2: Sawing logs at the CV Mustika Abadi saw-mill ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Staff of CV Mustika Abadi saw-mill; Agus Wicakasono, Wardana, Budiman (MHP); David Blackburn (UTas); Maria Ottenschlaeger (CSIRO) ACIAR Project FST-2009/051 An evaluation of sawn timber from a 10-year-old stand of Eucalyptus pellita in South Sumatra Methodology Sawn timber was processed using logs harvested from a 10-year-old stand of E. pellita (Plate 1); The stand had been established at a stocking density of 1111 trees ha -1 using seedlings from a first-generation seedling seed orchard of Muting (Papua, Indonesia) origin. The stand had not been thinned and pruned; Twenty logs were selected and sawn into boards using a vertical band-saw (Plate 2). The standard log length was 4 m and minimum small-end diameter 15 cm. The sawing pattern created 120 x 30 mm boards from the centre cant and 90 x 23 mm boards from other sections. Logs yielded between 6 and 10 boards. Upper and lower surfaces were recorded for a number of wood-quality variables; The boards were air-dried in shade for 30 weeks; the last 5 months was in the dry season; mean relative humidity was 74%. Introduction Eucalyptus pellita has been established in South Sumatra as a back-up species in an area historically dominated by Acacia mangium grown for pulpwood. The pulpwood quality of E. pellita is acceptable; however the quality of sawn-timber harvested from young E. pellita plantations is little known. In this study we examined the sawn-timber quality of wood harvested from a young E. pellita plantation. The work forms part of an ACIAR-funded project that examines ways to increase returns from small-holder plantations by their managing these stands in part for saw logs. Maydra Alen Inail 1, Chris Beadle 2, Eko B. Hardiyanto 3 1 Musi Hutan Persada; alen_inail@yahoo.comalen_inail@yahoo.com 2 CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences; Chris.Beadle@csiro.auChris.Beadle@csiro.au 3 Faculty of Forestry, Gadjah Mada University; ebhardyanto@ugm.ac.id Results Green sawn-timber evaluation All the boards had good colour and there was no rot; The most important defect was dead knots; Distortion was dominated by bow; End splits (Plate 3)and wane were present but not severe. Air-dry sawn-timber evaluation (Plate 4) Shrinkage of width but not thickness; Distortion was still dominated by bow, with some spring (both not severe) but no twist; Majority of boards were free of surface checks (Plate 5) except for boards originating from the centre of the tree; The moisture content (Plate 6) of the board surface ranged from 12.0 to 14.7%, and at 15- mm depth from 13.9 to 16.9%. Plate 5: Surface check in board after drying; Plate 6: Testing timber for moisture content using Dermhorst RDM-3. Conclusions E. pellita grown in a wet/dry tropical environment yielded acceptable sawn boards at age 10 years; Dead knots indicated that pruning will be required for production of appearance-grade timber suitable for international markets; 30-mm thick boards can be air dried in one dry season to acceptable levels for processing; Surface checking of boards from the centre of the tree indicates that internal stresses are still present at age 10 years; this will lead to downgrading of some boards; Thinning to promote diameter growth and longer rotations may be associated with less internal stress and should be examined. Plate 3: End-split in green board; Plate 4: Boards being air-dried during dry season Plate 7: Make yourself comfortable in your new plantation-grown E. pellita-made armchair!