Forests with a Future : M&R Forestland Mangement

Early morning light streamed through the treetops as we arrived at one of the many forests under the care of M&R Forestland Management, a locally owned company at the forefront of sustainable forestry. At the helm is Managing Director Kyle Heagney, a forestry veteran committed to doing things right - for the land, for the people, and for the industry.

“M&R is a full-service forest management company,” Kyle told us. “From planting and silviculture to harvesting and marketing, we handle it all.” The company was formed when Kyle and two business partners purchased the long-established Merrill & Ring New Zealand operation from its American owners in 2019. Today, it’s fully Kiwi-owned and operated.

Based in Marlborough, the company manages forests across much of the upper South Island - from Kaikōura to Kaiteriteri - and even further north in the King Country, where they oversee around 4,000 hectares of redwoods. The team consists of 15 staff, including highly qualified operational managers, a freshwater ecologist, and in-house finance and admin support.

Most of the team hold forestry science degrees from the University of Canterbury, and a few of the older hands came through the former Forest Ranger School. “We’ve got a great mix of youth, experience, and technical knowledge,” Kyle said.

Like most radiata pine forests in New Zealand, M&R’s rotation ages range between 25 to 30 years. Every tree starts as a carefully selected seedling, chosen for quality and resilience. “We always advise clients to plant the best available stock - it’s not worth skimping,” Kyle said.

“We do foliage sampling to see if there’s any nutrient deficiencies, and then apply fertiliser or any micronutrients where applicable. Most Pinus radiata forests in New Zealand grow relatively pest-free, but we conduct annual forest health checks, where we get an independent service provider to come in and check for any diseases that we may not be aware of in the forests.”

When it comes to harvesting, every detail counts. From the location of roads to the timing of extraction, everything is designed to maximise return for clients. “Tools like RoadEng help our engineers plan the most cost-effective road networks,” Kyle said. “We’ve got a large amount of sawmills in the region, so our log sales team will try and sell as many logs to the sawmills as possible, to try and maximise the net return for the owners.”

Environmental responsibility runs through every part of M&R’s operation. “Our environmental manager signs off all harvest and road plans,” Kyle explained. “That covers everything from culvert crossings to operations around streams and how we’re going to extract the trees. So if we look at most forests in New Zealand, certainly where we are at the moment, it’s all on the steep, sort of low-value land. That brings about some real challenges in terms of soil stability. That’s where we need to work pretty closely with the harvesting contractors, our harvest planting team and our environmental manager as well, to make sure we get the right result from an environmental point of view,” he said.

Working on steep, erosion-prone land adds another layer of complexity. “That’s where close coordination is essential - between our contractors, planners, and environmental team,” he said. “Forestry’s often on the land that’s too steep or poor for grazing or cropping. That means we have to work that much smarter.”

One standout area of focus is water quality. Before any road is built or tree is felled, M&R begins a 12 month monitoring programme. “We test sediment levels and track macroinvertebrates - those tiny freshwater species that indicate stream health,” Kyle explained. Sampling continues during and after harvesting. If the data shows any negative impact, they adapt their methods immediately.

The forestry industry has made huge strides in safety in the past decade - especially with the rise of tethered harvesting. Where workers once felled trees manually on steep slopes, machines now do the job from enclosed cabs. “It’s been a massive improvement in terms of safety,” Kyle said. “Today, about 90% of our tree-felling is mechanised.”

The next wave of progress, he believes, is happening in environmental protection. “In the last 10 years, the real improvements have come in the environmental management of the forest. We’ve realised that some of the techniques we used to use are completely unacceptable. We would have pulled directly across gullies. We would have created sediment. We would have left slash in waterways. But now, with improved techniques and education right across the whole workforce, we all know what the standards are and what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

New techniques are helping. M&R now shreds slash on-site to reduce impact, and they’ve started using aerial imagery and AI to measure post-harvest debris.

“We used to rely just on foot plots. Now we’ve got tools that give us a clearer, more consistent view of what’s happening on the ground, and how to manage it,” Kyle said.

For Kyle, the real test of success isn’t just growing trees; it’s how you do it. “I’m most proud of how we manage operations in really tough, sensitive areas - like the Marlborough Sounds or the Separation Point granites,” he says. “Those forests are steep, they’re visible to the public, and they’re often close to rivers or the coast. You’ve got to be on your game.”

Despite its challenges, Kyle sees forestry as a vital industry for New Zealand. “We produce a renewable resource that the world needs - timber for houses, fibre for tissues, and we’re doing it on land that’s not really useful for much else.”

He’s optimistic, but realistic. “We’re still going to continue to produce a fantastic product but as an industry, we’ve got to continue to improve, from an environmental point of view,” Kyle said “Also for export or for the domestic sawmills, we’re still going to employ a lot of people, which is fantastic. Everybody needs wood, so it’s a great product we can grow sustainably in New Zealand.”

When it comes to M&R, Kyle is proud of how the company - and industry - has grown. “One of the things I’m most proud of with our company is definitely our environmental management. We operate at a very high standard. We manage some very tricky forests. So our harvesting and some of our operations that we do around those delicate areas are things to be proud of. We can prove that we can operate in an environmentally sustainable way in some pretty tough environments.”

M&R Forestland Management proves that trees aren’t just timber - they are a testament to smart planning and a commitment to sustainability.