sustainable forest management - Forestry Tasmania

Successful plantation establishment
The successful establishment of a plantation starts with
growing of high quality seedlings. Over the past two years
Forestry Tasmania has invested $1.4 million on renovations
to the Forest Nursery and Seed Centre which has included
the installation of a new glasshouse which will benefit
Forestry Tasmania and its business partners through
increased capacity and reliability.
The new state-of-the art germination facility has provided
the nursery with 2600 square metres of growing space or
enough room for 1.3 million eucalypt plantation seedlings
at any one time. The installed technology enables seedlings
to germinate and grow at a more even pace that allows
for peak productivity and substantiality reduces the need
for the time-consuming task of manually sorting seedlings
according to their growth stages.
Following planting out in the field, survival surveys are
carried out initially at nine to 12 months to determine the
percentage of seedlings that have survived and whether
any refill planting is required to meet target stocking. A
further survey is conducted by age two to determine
the plantation area successfully established. Figure 13
illustrates there is a consistently high percentage survival
rate in our plantation estate. The challenges for plantation
establishment in these early years include damage from
insect and animal browsing, frost incidents, drought and
weed competition. Further detail on the management
of these damage agents has been provided in the Forest
Health section of this report.
Strategic use of fertilisers
Meeting pruned wood targets
Many Tasmanian soils are low in several key nutrients
In order to meet Forestry Tasmania’s requirement for high
required for long term sustainable timber production from quality eucalypt sawlogs and veneer logs, plantations
plantations. Sites are examined to determine which (if any) need to be pruned to grow clear-wood (knot-free timber).
fertilisers are required and a program put in place to ensure Pruning occurs in one to three lifts, to a target height in
the trees receive the essential nutrients for proper growth line with industry requirements. Recent data shows that
and development. Most sites receive an initial fertiliser
not only is the percentage of the area pruned increasing
application at planting. This involves hand application of
over time, but that pruning is being done at an earlier
nitrogen and phosphorus, with copper where required.
age, due to improvements in growth rates of the younger
Secondary (or later age fertilising) generally involves the
plantations.
aerial application of nitrogen or a combination of nitrogen
Figure 13. % Area successfully established by age two
and phosphorus. Table 7 illustrates the areas that received
Figure 13. % Area successfully established by age two
110
secondary fertilising in Forestry Tasmania’s plantation
estate.
100
Forestry Tasmania research staff continually review the
products in use and application techniques, in line with
Australian Forestry Standard requirements, to favour
cost effective methods with reduced outcomes on the
environment. In addition, site preparation techniques for
second rotation sites are continually being improved to
maximise nutrient retention on sites, so as to minimise
fertiliser.
90
80
70
60
50
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Reporting Year
Table 7. Percentage area identified for secondary (aerial) fertilising that was fertilised*
Reporting Year 2005 2006 2007 2008
Area Fertilised 4137 ha 2011 ha 2522 ha 3562 ha
% Area Fertilised 100% 100% 100% 100%
* The figures in this table are per calendar year and not financial reporting year as per the figures in this report.
% Survival
23