sustainable forest management - Forestry Tasmania

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To facilitate the harvesting of two steep production
areas, cables and tailholds were placed in the Mt
Victoria Forest (Figure 3) and Joys Creek Forest
Reserves. As a result of minimal visual impacts,
excellent outcomes were achieved within the Mt
Victoria Forest Reserve with impacts being considered
to be within acceptable limits within the Joys Creek
Forest Reserve. This was as result of some tree crown
damage being experienced which was attributed to
the higher eucalypt component within this reserve.
An external proponent was responsible for the
development of some new water infrastructure in
the Derby Forest Reserve. The audit of this project
revealed that some unauthorised roadwork and
clearing had taken place resulting in the use of a
track that traversed a number of creeks without the
appropriate drainage. Minor remediation and weed
control was also identified as being required on the
main project site.
The road construction project involved the extension
of an existing forest road through the North Scottsdale
Forest Reserve and the replacement of a log culvert in
the Deep Gully Forest Reserve. Although the road in
the North Scottsdale Forest Reserve was constructed
to a high standard, a fire fighting dam was constructed
adjacent to the road which was not planned for in the
assessment of this project.
Given that these were the first set of audits and the
reserve activity assessments process was new, a number of
improvement opportunities were identified:
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Amending the project monitoring form to include
questions to ensure that permit conditions were
checked and met.
Including the project monitoring form with the
guidelines.
Introducing an amendment process that would allow
for the revision of plans ie, the project was delayed.
This would remove the need to conduct a completely
new assessment.
Recognising the need to address broader project
impacts and the requirements for rehabilitation.
Modifying the road maintenance procedures to
accommodate the replacement of log culvert
replacements outside forest reserves.
Revision of the post burn evaluation form to
adequately cater for the burning of buttongrass
and enable this form to be used to address permit
requirements.
Forestry Management Practices and the protection of
values within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage
Area
During 2007, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee sent a
mission consisting of members from The World Heritage
Centre, International Union for the Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS) to make an independent assessment about
concerns raised by some non-government organisations of
the impact of forest practices on the state of conservation
of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA).
During their visit the mission met with environmental
groups, forestry interests and Aboriginal people.
The report prepared by the mission found that although
Forestry Tasmania conducted a total of 521 silvicultural
regeneration burns within five kilometres of the TWWHA
boundary over the past 10 years, none of these fires burnt
into the TWWHA. The report acknowledged that the
regeneration of eucalyptus forests through regeneration
burns and seeding was an acceptable silvicultural treatment
for regenerating eucalypts, which is a fire dependant
species.
The report clearly stated that the balance between forests
assigned to reserves/conservation and for production
was struck through the Regional Forest Agreement
(RFA) process in 1997, supplemented through the 2005
Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement (TCFA) and
recommended that there was no need to extend the
boundaries of the World Heritage Area into Tasmania’s state
forests.
Forestry Tasmania endorsed all of the recommendations
in the report, and in particular the recommendations for
enhanced protection measures for archaeological and
Aboriginal sites within and adjacent to the TWWHA, and
the suggestion that parks and forest managers work more
closely together.
View the complete World Heritage
Committee report at:
www.forestrytas.com.au