sustainable forest management - Forestry Tasmania

Chemical pesticides
Forestry Tasmania strives to manage native forests
organically using processes that mimic nature. Generally,
native forests are pesticide (herbicides, insecticides
and fungicides) free, except in exceptional cases where
introduced weeds, pests and disease pose an unacceptable
risk to the environment.
Plantations are an increasingly significant component of
Tasmania’s forest estate, providing highly productive and
valuable sources of solid wood and veneer products. State
and Federal Government policy initiatives, such as the 2020
Vision and the Forestry Growth Plan, and transfer of native
forest into reserves created under the Regional Forest
Agreement and Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement,
have all highlighted the importance of plantations in
securing Tasmania’s economic future. For commercial
eucalypt and pine plantations, pesticides are required to
reduce weed and pest infestations to acceptable levels.
Fertilisers are required to promote optimum growth.
The usual chemical pesticide regime for plantations is to
apply herbicides in the first two years and insecticides or
fungicides in response to pest outbreaks. Weed control
usually takes place as an initial site clean-up to remove
difficult to kill species prior to planting the crop trees.
Once planted, and depending on weed growth, follow-up
weed control may be required in the same planting season
or later in the following year. For each of these spraying
operations, Forestry Tasmania prepares a comprehensive
spray plan in which streams, wet areas and mandatory
buffer strips are delineated.
The details relating to the volume and nature of pesticide
(insecticide and herbicide) applied for the purpose of
weed control or pest management are shown in Tables 10
and 11. They show that a total of 9877 kilograms of active
ingredients were applied in state forests. Of that 88 per
cent or 8711 kilograms was applied on Forestry Tasmania’s
Defined Forest Area (area certified). The remainder was
applied in joint ventures and leases. In order to detect if
there is any off site movement, Forestry Tasmania conducts
water sampling following the broad scale application of a
chemical pesticides.
Table 10. Pesticide usage in plantation management by Forestry Tasmania
Poison Schedule Rating 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008
Active ingredient used (kg) Active ingredient used (kg) Active ingredient used (kg) Active ingredient used (kg) Active ingredient used (kg)
Unscheduled 306 260 123 2,493 3,441
Schedule 5 5,393 4,150 2,782 4,314 6,276
Schedule 6 41 65 83 19 160
Table 11. Pesticide usage on Forestry Tasmania’s defined forest area 1
Schedule Active ingredient used (kg) Area treated (ha) kg/ha
Unscheduled 2,863 9,740 0.294
Schedule 5 5,755 8,311 0.693
Schedule 6 92 3,686 0.025
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