• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.191-209
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• 2021

Australia has significant wood resources in its native forest, but the resource available for harvest becomes lesser due to the conversion of native forest to conservation reserves. The natural occurrences of bushfires, droughts, and cyclones are highly destructive, making the situation worse. The shortage of wood resources is having a significant negative impact on Australia because wood is so scarce that they cannot meet domestic demands, especially durable wood. Australia cleared approximately 100 million hectares of its land to establish forest plantations, and two million trees were planted. However, most of these plantations are for pulpwood production; however, their application for high-value products is limited due to their undesirable properties. Wood modification is a process of improving unfavorable wood properties to be utilized for a wide range of applications. Australia has not adopted any of these modification processes; it still depends on the less toxic wood preservative to treat wood. This study focuses on the recent advancement in industrial wood modification worldwide and how it may be used to modify Eucalyptus wood for high-value applications. The opportunities and suggestions for Eucalyptus wood modification in Australia will be discussed. Before the study concludes, the future of commercial wood modification for Eucalyptus plantation in Australia will also be presented.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.46-58
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• 2022

Wood from tropical plantation forests has lower physical and mechanical properties than mature wood. Furfuryl alcohol (FA) impregnation into the wood could help to enhance hydrophobic properties, dimensional stability, and structural strength. Furfurylation was applied to specimens of the following four fast-growing tropical wood species: jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba), sengon (Falcataria moluccana), mangium (Acacia mangium), and pine (Pinus merkusii). The discoloration and physical and mechanical properties were subsequently measured, and the results showed that furfurylated wood had a darker color and better physical and mechanical properties than untreated wood. Specifically, the furfurylated wood had higher density, modulus of elasticity, and hardness and lower moisture content, water absorption, swelling, and shrinkage. The furfurylation significantly enhanced physical and mechanical properties.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.171-174
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• 2008

The increasing price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has forced many households to shift to firewood/charcoal in the Philippines, causing tremendous pressure on the dwindling forest. This transition is more obvious in the rural area where firewood price is almost half of that in the cities. Both problems on big demand for firewood and the pressure on our forest can be partly solved by going into firewood plantation. After all, the country has vast track of idle lands, both private and government lands, waiting to be developed. What the government can do are: a) aggressive promotion of firewood plantation, b) simplify further the old technology on establishing firewood plantation to encourage more farmers, c) improve charcoal processing and d) promote the use of efficient stoves. This write up discusses the need for firewood plantation, areas available for planting, where to plant in farms, what species to plant in a particular soil type/location for optimum growth, planting methods, harvesting, marketing, and the side lights on the ecological benefits derived from plantation aside from wood.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 1997

In fast grown softwood, there are very large changes in material properties going outward from the pith to bark such as anatomical, physical and mechanical characteristics. Some of variations in anatomical properties with annual ring were then examined from Pinus koraiensis, Larix leptolepis, and Chamaecyparis obtusa, which are major softwoods of plantation in Korea. The large variations of annual ring width during young age of tree tended to stabilize after 25year through the transitional period in 17~23year. The ring density was 1.5~2.4 in 1~10year period, and 3.5~6.3 in 30~35year period, in which juvenile and mature wood were certainly assumed to be formed, respectively. Variations of tracheid length showed functional relationships with annual rings as logarithm. Demarcation between juvenile wood and mature wood could be 16~19year, which was determined from increase rate of tracheid length of 0.2%. Cell wall thickness increased with increase of annual ring even though large variations were observed as well. Variations of cell wall thickness within species were pronounced in latewood than earlywood. The increase of cell wall thickness from juvenile wood to mature wood was predominant in Larix leptolepis as 2.0times, and least in Chamaecyparis obtusa as 1.1 times. Cell diameters showed trends of increase during young age of 1~15year, and consistent afterward. The variations of cell diameter between radial and tangential direction were greater in latewood, and most pronounced in Chamaecyparis obtusa.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2013

Fast-grown wood generally contains a high proportion of juvenile wood that results in inferior dimensional stability and durability against biological deteriorations. In the present research, the Acacia mangium wood from plantation forests in Vietnam was treated with high temperature in air. The effects of heat treatment on physical properties of Acacia mangium wood, including mass loss (ML), water absorption (WA), water-repellent effectiveness (WRE) and anti-swelling efficiency (ASE) were examined. The results showed that the dimensional stability and the water-repellent effectiveness are increased by about 15-46% and 8-18%, respectively. However, the mass and dimension of wood are decreased. The results also indicated that both treatment temperature and treatment duration significantly affect the wood properties of Acacia mangium. It is thus concluded that heat treatment demonstrates an interesting potential to improve the wood quality of Acacia mangium for solid timber products. This technology provides an environmentally safe method of protecting sustainable common woods to give a new generation of value-added biomaterials with increased stability without the use of toxic chemicals.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2013

Acacia mangium is an evergreen fast-growing tropical tree, which can grow up to 30 m tall and 50 cm thick, under favorable conditions. It is a low-elevation species associated with rain forest margins and disturbed, well-drained acid soils. It is native to Papua, Western Irian Jaya and the Maluku islands in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and north-eastern Queensland in Australia. Due to its rapid growth and tolerance of very poor soils, A. mangium was introduced into some Asian, African and western hemisphere countries where it is used as a plantation tree. A. mangium has good quality wood traits, such as a comparatively low proportion of parenchymatous cells and vessels, white and hard wood, and high calorific value. Therefore, it is useful for a variety of purposes, such as furniture, cabinets, turnery, floors, particleboard, plywood, veneer, fence posts, firewood, and charcoal. It is also being used in pulp and paper making because it has good pulp traits, with high yields of pulp, quality of kraft, and produces paper with good optical, physical and surface properties. Because there are significant provenance differences in growth rate, stem straightness, heartwood formation and frequency of multiple leaders, the productivity and quality also varies depending upon environmental conditions, so genetic improvement programmes have been undertaken in countries like Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. The programme includes provenance identifications and testing, plus tree selection and clonal multiplication, establishment of seed orchards and hybridization. The phenology, reproductive biology, fruit characteristics, silvicultural practices for cultivation, pest and diseases problems, production of improved planting stock, harvesting, wood properties and utilization have been discussed in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.324-335
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• 2019

Timber from plantation forests has inferior physical and mechanical properties compared to timber from natural forest because it is mostly from fast-growing tree species that are cut at a young age. Filling cell voids with methyl methacrylate (MMA) can improve the wood properties. The purpose of this study was to determine the physical and mechanical properties of MMA-impregnated wood from three fast-growing wood species, namely jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba (Roxb.) Miq.), mangium (Acacia mangium Willd) and pine (Pinus merkusii Jungh. & de Vriese). Wood samples were either immersed in MMA monomer or impregnated with it and then heated to induce the polymerization process. Jabon, which was the lowest density wood, had the highest polymer loading, followed by pine and mangium. The physical and mechanical properties of samples were affected by wood species and the presence of MMA, with higher-density wood having better properties than wood with a lower density. Physical and mechanical properties of MMA wood were enhanced compared to untreated wood. Furthermore, the impregnation process was better than immersion process resulting the physical and mechanical properties. Based on MOR values, the MMA woods were one strength class higher compared to untreated wood with regard to Strength Classification of Indonesian Wood.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.406-419
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• 2011

This study was carried out to offer basic information on the wood anatomy of domestic yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.), a new plantation species selected by Korea Forest Service as one of the promising hardwood and bioenergy sources of the future, through comparison of stem wood with root wood in the qualitative and quantitative features. In the qualitative anatomical features, growth rings were distinct in stem wood but relatively less distinct in root wood. And stem wood appeared to have pores in radial multiples of 2 to 5, sometimes clusters but root wood to have pores in radial multiples of 2 to 3, rarely clusters. And numbers of bars in scalariform perforation plates were somewhat numerous in vessel elements of root wood than in those of stem wood. Interestingly, on the other hand, more extraneous materials in the wood rays of tap root than in those of lateral root and stem were confirmed in the chemical composition analyses. In the quantitative anatomical features, pore densities were significantly greater but vessel elements were considerably narrower in stem wood than in root wood. Vessel elements and wood fibers of root wood were considerably longer than those of stem wood. Rays were somewhat more numerous in stem wood than in root wood, and only ray heights of stem wood were more or less greater in cell numbers but both ray heights and widths of stem wood were lower in dimension than those of root wood. The anatomical differences between stem wood and root wood were thought to be associated with different growth environments between the stem above ground and the root below ground.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

Indonesian log production is dominated by young trees harvested from plantation forests. The timber contains of sapwood and juvenile wood, which are not resistant to termite attack. Smoking treatment can enhance wood resistance to termite attack, but it also changes the color. Specimens of mangium (Acacia mangium) and sengon (Falcataria moluccana) wood were exposed for 1, 2, and 3 weeks to smoke produced from the pyrolysis of salam (Syzygium polyanthum) wood. The color change of the wood was measured using the CIELab method. In addition, wood specimens were exposed to subterranean termites (Coptotermes curvignathus Holmgren) under laboratory conditions. Untreated and imidacloprid-preserved wood samples were also prepared for comparison purposes. The results showed that the color of smoked wood differed from that of untreated wood, and the color change for sengon was greater than for mangium. In addition, the 1-week smoking period changed the wood color less than the 2- and 3-week periods, which did not differ. Imidacloprid-preserved wood had distinctive color changes compared to untreated wood. Untreated mangium wood had moderate resistance to subterranean termite attack (resistance class III), while sengon had very poor resistance (resistance class V). Salam wood smoke enhanced wood resistance to termite attack, and smoke treatment of 1 week for mangium and 2 weeks for sengon resulted in the wood becoming very resistant (resistance class I). Both types of smoked wood were more resistant to subterranean termite attack than imidacloprid-preserved wood (average class II resistance).

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.61-66
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• 1993

24mm-thick specimens from three species of plantation-grown softwood were press dried under two platen pressures of 1.75kgf/$cm^2$ and 3.50kgf/$cm^2$ to obtain drying information regarding to drying rate, thickness shrinkage and drying defects. The influence of platen pressure on drying fare in range of moisture content (30 to 10 percent) increased for pitch pine and larch, but reduced for korean white pine at higher pressure. Thickness shrinkage was increased at the higher pressure, and estimated thickness shrinkage at final MC of 10 percent became unrealistically greater for specimens containing higher final moisture content under the great influence of compressive strain. The effects of pressure on the amount of surface checks and honeycombing were different from species used. These species should have applied lower temperature than 177$^{\circ}C$ in this study to reduce surface checks and honeycombing.