sustainable forest management - Forestry Tasmania

Oldgrowth
The Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement or TCFA
required the protection of additional oldgrowth forest,
in order to bring the total oldgrowth reserved on public
and private land to one million hectares. This resulted in
the incorporation of additional oldgrowth forest in state
forests into formal and informal reserves, bringing the
total oldgrowth forest reserved on public land to 973,000
hectares. This means that approximately 79 per cent of
oldgrowth in Tasmania is protected. Only eight per cent
of Tasmania’s oldgrowth is available for harvesting in state
forests and it is this portion that is vital for sustaining the
supply of high quality sawlogs.
The total area of oldgrowth harvested in 2007/08 (clearfell
and non-clearfell) was 2110 hectares. Of this, 690 hectares
or 32 per cent, was clearfelled (Table 4) thus bringing the
total of oldgrowth forest clearfelled in state forests since
30/06/01 to 7390 hectares. This represents 0.6 per cent of
the total oldgrowth forest area in Tasmania. Of all oldgrowth
forest harvested in state forests since 2002/03 (the first
year from which accurate records are available), clearfelling
accounts for 44 per cent of the harvest area and the balance
is partial logging, including variable retention, shelterwood
and selective logging.
In addition to the protection of additional oldgrowth forest,
one of the key outcomes of the Tasmanian Community
Forest Agreement was also the commitment by the
State and Federal Governments to reduce clearfelling in
oldgrowth forests to 20 per cent of the annual oldgrowth
harvest by 2010. Progress towards this commitment will be
reviewed by the State against safety, regeneration and log
Table 4. Oldgrowth harvesting (clearfell and non-clearfell)
Harvest Year Oldgrowth clearfell ha Cumulative area of
clearfell 1 ha
supply objectives in 2008. To achieve this outcome,
Forestry Tasmania’s objective is to reduce clearfelling
to less than 400 hectares by 2010 through the use of
variable retention, which is the main alternative to
clearfelling in tall oldgrowth forest.
This harvesting system is supported by conservation
biologists and has the potential to maintain
biodiversity and address social acceptability
objectives while still allowing a level of economic
timber production.
Variable retention can be practised either as
dispersed retention that leaves individual trees for
habitat purposes, or aggregated retention, which
leaves patches of forest to provide for oldgrowth
biota. Following the research into variable retention,
this alternative has proven most promising in terms
of maintaining biodiversity, managing safety, and
providing an economically viable harvest.
Cumulative
clearfell as % of
total Tas. OG
Oldgrowth
non-clearfell ha
2001/02 1,350 1,350 0.11% Not available
Total oldgrowth
harvesting ha
2002/03 1,310 2,660 0.21% 1,270 2,610
2003/04 1,300 3,960 0.32% 1,520 2,820
2004/05 1,190 5,150 0.42% 1,405 2,594
2005/06 770 5,920 0.48% 1,184 1,954
2006/07 780 6,700 0.54% 693 1,472
2007/08 690 7,390 0.60% 1,420 2,110
Figure 4. Oldgrowth harvesting (clearfell and non-clearfell)
Area (hectares)
1600
1600
1400 1400
1200 1200
1000
800 800
600
400
200
00
0
2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
Clearfell Partial Partial harvesting harvesting Percent Percent partial partial harvest harvest
Clearfell Partial Non-clearfell harvesting % non-clearfell
partial harvesting
Figure 4. Shows that good progress has been made since the early 2000’s
when the average annual clearfell area was about 1300 hectares.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
80
70
60
50
Percent (%)
40
30
20
10
0
Percent (%)
15