Tasmania
Name of landscape
State forest managed by Forestry Tasmania
Location
Tasmania, Australia
Size
State forest comprises about 1.2 million hectares; close to an additional million hectares of forest occur on private land.
Contact
|
Dr Simon Grove |
Sue Baker World Forestry Institute sbaker@worldforestry.org |
Major physical characteristics
Forestry Tasmania is a Government Business Enterprise responsible for management of Tasmania’s State forests for multiple uses, including timber production, biodiversity conservation and recreation.
The island state of Tasmania is one of the most forested regions of the world. Over a third of Tasmania’s land-area is permanently protected in parks and areas of World Heritage Area, and these parks include mountainous areas, coastal and grassland ecosystems and extensive areas of forest. Differences in soil types and rainfall patterns mean that there are a number of different forest vegetation communities across Tasmania, ranging from open dry forests with grassy understoreys to dense wet eucalypt forests and rainforest. Eucalypts are the dominant overstorey trees ( there are 29 species in Tasmania), and eucalypt forests contain the highest diversity of plant and animal species of any Tasmanian plant community. Tasmania’s wet eucalypt forests contain the tallest flowering plants in the world – a Eucalyptus regnans tree was found in 2008 that measures 100 m in height! These beautiful forests are popular for recreation and tourism, but are also the most commercially important forests for current timber supply.
Current land use
47% of Tasmania’s forests are reserved; however forests are also extensively harvested on areas of privately owned land, and State land managed by Forestry Tasmania. Forestry and tourism are both important industries, with many visitors from mainland Australia and around the world visiting Tasmania to experience fine food and wine, wilderness and beautiful scenery. The Australian public closely follow the activities of the Tasmanian forest industry, and protests about continued harvesting, particularly in wet oldgrowth forests, are reasonably common. Finding the correct balance between timber production and conservation is challenging, and is an ongoing topic of debate. Forestry Tasmania takes the approach of using science and adaptive management to guide forest management practices to achieve good environmental outcomes at the same time as meeting timber supply agreements. This is resulting in continuing changes and improvements to management practices. Strict forest practices legislation and threatened species legislation govern management practices, and Forestry Tasmania’s timber products are certified under the Australian Forestry Standard (PEFC).
Major causes of degradation
Although Tasmania’s permanent reserve system contains about 1.5 million ha of forest, not all habitat types are necessarily well represented, and reserves alone cannot be expected to cater adequately for conservation of all Tasmania’s forest-dwelling species. Clearing of forest land for agriculture since colonisation in the early 1800’s resulted in widespread losses of certain grassland and forest ecosystems. More recently, intensive harvesting and conversion of native forests to eucalypt plantations has resulted in some areas of the landscape that no longer contain many areas of extensive mature forest. Many species of plants and animals rely on mature forest habitats and structures (e.g. rainforest habitat; very old trees with nesting hollows for birds and mammals, and root buttresses that provide habitat for mosses, lichens and epiphytic ferns; or large logs that provide specialized habitats for insects and fungi). Many of these species also have poor dispersal abilities. It is therefore important to provide mature forest habitat, at appropriate scales, within State forests managed for timber production. Timber harvesting is allowed in a small proportion of oldgrowth forests (79% are permanently reserved), and management of these areas needs to be very sensitive to conservation of mature-forest species, structures and habitats.
Vision and strategy
In the late 1990’s Forestry Tasmania started looking for alternatives to clearfelling for management of oldgrowth wet eucalypt forests in order to better cater for species requiring mature-forest habitats and structures. The Warra Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site http://www.warra.com/warra/ was established in 1997 to better understand ecological processes and biodiversity functions in wet eucalypt forests, as a foundation for sustainable forest management practices. The Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial (SST) http://www.warra.com/warra/research_projects/research_project_WRA025.html was established with the specific aim of finding an alternative to clearfelling in wet oldgrowth forests that had better biodiversity outcomes at the same time as meeting safety, social, economic, silvicultural and timber supply objectives. Forestry Tasmania is also collaborating with other researchers to establish research projects in an Experimental Forest Landscape, http://www.warra.com/warra/research_projects/research_project_WRA124.html. This landscape, which includes Warra, is used to research landscape-scale impacts of forest management on biodiversity. Research at the Warra SST found that aggregated retention, a form of variable retention silviculture, was effective at maintaining mature-forest biodiversity at the site-level at the same time as meeting the other objectives. Forestry Tasmania has therefore committed to use aggregated retention as the main harvesting system for wet oldgrowth forests statewide, so that <20% of harvesting in State oldgrowth forests will be allowed to use the clearfelling method. In the future, aggregated retention will probably also be used in some areas of regrowth forests. The aim will be to restore mature-forest habitats and structures within sites, in areas where past management has resulted in landscape-level losses.
Concrete restoration activities
Aggregated retention is now being used statewide in wet oldgrowth forests. We are continuing to review harvesting and regeneration methods to get maximum benefits from this system, and to overcome some operational challenges. Our current landscape ecology projects will be used to inform future decisions about where aggregated retention can be used in the landscape to achieve maximum benefits. Because of timber-supply commitments it can’t be used everywhere. Thus strategic decisions will be required about habitat-types and parts of the landscape where it will achieve maximum benefit. Changes to aggregated retention practices are happening through a combination of scientific research and adaptive management on the part of the forest managers and planners who are adjusting the system to tackle different site conditions and operational challenges. For example, a new approach was required to conducting regeneration burns so that sites would get successful re-establishment of eucalypts after harvesting.
Within Forestry Tasmania, guidance is supplied in the form of technical reports to forest managers, field manuals, a GIS planning tool, a pocket reference guide, training sessions, Variable Retention Implementation Group meetings, and regular contact between research and planning staff to discuss particular coupes. Beyond Forestry Tasmania, project results have been presented in the form of scientific papers in international journals, education of school groups (e.g. through the Forest education Foundation - http://www.forest-education.com/), field days to the Warra SST and operational aggregated retention coupes, public seminars, presentations at scientific and forestry conferences, and television shows.
Main stakeholders
Timber harvesting in Tasmania attracts a lot of media attention and thus broad community interest, with a range of sometimes conflicting views about management practices. In general, however, most stakeholders are interested in having an ecologically sustainable forest industry in Tasmania, and thus are prepared to be involved in collaborative projects to help guide management practices.
The Warra LTER site was established by Forestry Tasmania in conjunction with a number of site partners: the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service; the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment; the Forests and Forest Industry Council; the Forest Practices Authority; the Bureau of Rural Sciences; the University of Tasmania; the CSIRO and the Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry. The Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial was established to look for alternatives for clearfelling in oldgrowth wet eucalypt forests. Forestry Tasmania consulted widely when establishing this trial, in particular with international experts in modern forestry, the University of Tasmania, and community and timber industry groups. Based on this research, aggregated retention was chosen for widespread implementation. Forestry Tasmania staff visited the USA and Canada to learn more about variable retention practices. International experts, including an expert science panel, then visited Tasmania to advise Forestry Tasmania about the best approach to take with development of variable retention. This panel suggested that variable retention could be used for restoration in some areas of regrowth forests.
Stakeholders and Interest
Forestry Tasmania has strong links with Universities and the CRC for Forestry, where scientists are conducting projects about variable retention in Tasmania. The University of Melbourne was contracted to conduct social acceptability research of different forestry practices at both the site- and the landscape-scales. The results of this work suggest that, compared to clearfelling, aggregated retention is more acceptable to the public because of improved visual and biodiversity outcomes. University undergraduate and postgraduate students (University of Tasmania and AgroParis Tech) have conducted several biodiversity surveys of mammals, fungi and plants in aggregated retention coupes. An Australian Research Council Linkage grant, with funding also provided by Forestry Tasmania and the Forests and Forest Industry Council, will fund a large 3-year project to investigate forest influence in aggregated retention coupes to enable coupe designs to maximise long-term benefits to biodiversity. This project will collaborate with experts in variable retention and landscape ecology in the USA.
Biggest successes
At first, most of the forest industry was very skeptical about aggregated retention, and some said that it couldn’t be done. Thus working with the industry to overcome resistance and practical challenges so that aggregated retention could be recommended for statewide use is the biggest success of the project.
The biodiversity research studies, and monitoring of ecological outcomes in operational aggregated retention coupes, all point to this being a very effective silvicultural system for maintaining mature-forest biodiversity at the site-level.
Restraining factors
Finding the balance between timber production, conservation and social expectations of forests in Tasmania is an enormous challenge. Timber quotas mean that aggregated retention can only be used in a proportion of the forest estate, and eucalypt plantations are not yet old enough to reduce timber requirements from native forests. Public awareness and support is not yet behind these new practices and anti-logging campaigns from extreme environmentalists hamper public support. However, in spite of these challenges, research and uptake of aggregated retention in Tasmania is progressing well.
(General) lessons learned so far
Developing and implementing aggregated retention in Tasmania was driven from within the industry, so managers were able to work directly with supervisors and contractors to discuss challenges and get feedback. Without clear direction from top-level managers that this was important, it probably would not have been successful. Good communication was critical to success, and twice yearly Variable Retention Implementation Group meetings brought people together to discuss progress and workshop challenges. Day-to-day communication and support was also very important. Federal Government funds under the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement were also central to success of the project. These funded the research and monitoring programs, as well as providing contractors with a harvesting subsidy in recognition of increased costs during the learning stages. Financial incentives were an excellent strategy to overcome the initial resistance among contractors to do things differently.
Tasmania ecosystem types (click on map to see larger version)
Oldgrowth wet eucalypt forests
Land tenure in Tasmania (click on map to see larger version)
Southern Forests Experimental Forest Landscape. Research is investigating the responses of biodiversity (plants, birds, beetles) to landscape structure in a landscape that ranges from intensively managed forests and plantations to the east, towards Wilderness World Heritage Area in the west. (click on map to see larger version)
The Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial is testing various alternatives to clearfelling. CBS-UI is clearfelling with understorey islands, ARN is aggregated retention, DRN is dispersed retention, GS and SGS are group selection systems. (click on map to see larger version)
Members of the International Science Panel talk to Forestry Tasmania staff about variable retention implementation.