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Progress Report 2007-2008 - Department of Environment and ...

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Criterion 4 – Soil <strong>and</strong> water resources<br />

Roads <strong>and</strong> crossings<br />

Indicator 4.1.a: Area <strong>and</strong> percent <strong>of</strong> forest l<strong>and</strong> covered by Comprehensive Road Management Plans, which include an<br />

assessment <strong>of</strong> the extent <strong>of</strong> existing road infrastructure, processes for ongoing improvement, targets <strong>and</strong><br />

milestones (UNE, LNE, Southern regions).<br />

Indicator 4.1: Road density by category <strong>and</strong> catchment, <strong>and</strong> stream-crossing density by catchment, for the total forest agreement<br />

area, including forest <strong>and</strong> non-forest areas. Calculation <strong>of</strong> an ecologically sustainable road index <strong>and</strong> ecologically<br />

sustainable crossing index (Eden region).<br />

Approximately 1.29 million ha <strong>of</strong> State forests is covered by eight regional road management<br />

plans. The total length <strong>of</strong> the road network within State forests across the forest agreement<br />

regions totals approximately 31 000 km.<br />

No new data are available from PWG on this indicator. Comparison between PWG regions remains<br />

difficult because <strong>of</strong> different road classification systems.<br />

In <strong>2007</strong>–<strong>2008</strong>, the PWG <strong>of</strong> DECC began to distribute the newly developed Asset Maintenance System<br />

(AMS) to regional PWG <strong>of</strong>fices. This system will allow for better maintenance <strong>and</strong> monitoring <strong>of</strong> all<br />

PWG owned <strong>and</strong> or maintained assets. It will include roads <strong>and</strong> trails <strong>and</strong> a tool that may support<br />

analysis <strong>of</strong> this infrastructure in future.<br />

Forests NSW has eight regional road management plans that cover the four forest agreement areas.<br />

Planted Forest Region <strong>of</strong> Monaro finalised its plan during this period. The plans are applicable to each<br />

Forests NSW s<strong>of</strong>twood <strong>and</strong> native forests region 20 . Currently, the road management plans are internal<br />

Forests NSW documents, but may be used in the future as a basis for preparing a regional ESFM<br />

supplementary plan for road management. The plans cover all <strong>of</strong> the State forests within the FA areas.<br />

The total length <strong>of</strong> the road network within State forests across the forest agreement regions totalled<br />

approximately 28 755 km (table 2-4A). Total road length recorded in Southern Region is around<br />

12 995 km <strong>and</strong> in LNE region the reported road length increased significantly from 2687 km to<br />

4 325 km, which appears to be a result <strong>of</strong> under reporting <strong>of</strong> the road network in 2006–<strong>2007</strong><br />

(the figure was reported as 5 403 in 2005–2006) <strong>and</strong> was unchanged in Eden <strong>and</strong> UNE.<br />

20 Forests NSW regional boundaries do not correspond with forest agreement area boundaries. As a result a number <strong>of</strong><br />

Forests NSW road management plans may be applicable to each forest agreement region (for example, the UNE region is<br />

covered by road management plans for the North East Native Forest Operations Branch, Western Native Forest<br />

Operations Branch <strong>and</strong> Northern Planted Forest Operations Branch).<br />

NSW FOREST AGREEMENTS AND INTEGRATED FORESTRY OPERATIONS APPROVALS 43

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