sustainable forest management - Forestry Tasmania

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Environmental quality monitoring Air monitoring Planned burning is undertaken throughout Tasmania on private land and state forests each autumn. Burning is dispersed and only a limited number of operations occur on any one-day. This burning is important to reduce the fuel hazard resulting from logging residue and to create a seedbed for eucalypt regeneration. Eucalypt seeds and seedlings need a mineral soil seedbed, abundant sunlight and reduced competition from other plants to establish and grow. In drier eucalypt forest, burning is undertaken to remove the residues remaining after harvesting so as to reduce the fuel load and fire hazard. Unfortunately, smoke is an inevitable product of this burning process. However, unlike the smoke from summer bushfires, a number of pro-active management options are available to assist in minimising the effects of this smoke on local communities. One of these options includes conducting burning operations on days where forecasted weather conditions indicate the smoke will be dispersed away from settled areas. To keep stakeholders informed about burning locations relevant information is provided through the Tasmanian planned burn website (www. plannedburnstas.com.au). National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) monitoring of air quality occurs at Hobart, Launceston and Judbury. DPIW is responsible for monitoring the Hobart and Launceston stations, while Forestry Tasmania manages the Judbury site. The maximum concentration guideline for particles is 50µg/m 3 (PM 10 ), averaged over a 24-hour period. This is based on a level above which impacts on human health may be experienced. Measurements are taken at ground level. During 2007/08 the NEPM standard as measured by the Launceston monitoring station was exceeded three times, however, through correlation with the days on which Forestry Tasmania was conducting high and low intensity burns, it is unlikely that Forestry Tasmania contributed to the exceeded levels. In the autumn of 2008 smoke management was complicated by weather conditions that saw the overly dry conditions change to overly wet, followed by a succession of high pressure systems that formed to the west and crossed the State in close succession. This brought sunny, still days and cold nights with strong temperature inversions. Landowners across the State used the calm period to undertake fuel reduction burning, and this, combined with burning undertaken by the forest industry, generated heavy smoke loads in susceptible parts of the State including the Tamar and lower Derwent valleys. The smoke produced by this burning was exacerbated by smoke produced by widespread burning in Victoria, which was carried at low level across Tasmania by the northerly winds associated with the high pressure systems. In consequence, Forestry Tasmania suspended its autumn burning program for several days after 22 April, to allow an opportunity for conditions to improve. Table 12. Water testing associated with spray operations Water quality Forestry Tasmania has had a formal water quality sampling system in place since 1993. The system has been continually refined in the past decade based on operational experience and research findings. The use of pesticides and fertilisers must comply with the environmental protection measures prescribed in the Forest Practices Code. Section E2 of the code contains specific prescriptions covering watercourse protection. Forestry Tasmania’s water sampling policy states that water sampling is to be done following the broad scale application of pesticides and fertilisers. Three sets of water samples are taken: one sample set prior to application to establish any background contamination; the second after the application; and the third set of samples is taken following the first significant rain event after spraying has occurred to detect any contamination due to run-off and leaching. The health and guideline values for drinking water prescribed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) are used as the standards for determining the need for investigation and corrective action when pesticides are detected in water samples. Where no guideline values are prescribed for particular pesticides, Forestry Tasmania uses any detection of the pesticide in water samples as the trigger for investigation. For the 2007/08 spraying season, 139 samples were submitted for chemical analysis with no samples returning a positive result. 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008 Number of samples associated with chemical spraying operations 361 410 635 302 139 No. of detections and percentage of no chemical detections (15) 95.8% (3) 99.3% (1) 99.8% (0) 100% (0) 100% against ADWG Guideline Value 1 for chemical residues 2 1. Australian Drinking Water Guidelines Health Value or any detection where no value indicated. 2. Measured by DPIW testing laboratory.
Pesticide Impact Rating Index PIRI (Pesticide Impact Rating Index) is a risk assessment tool developed by CSIRO Land and Water, to assist planning and decision making associated with pesticide operations. It can assess the relative risk of pesticide mobility to offsite waterways, as well as the toxicity to a user-selected organism (algae, daphnia, rainbow trout and rat) as well as comparison to drinking water quality guidelines. PIRI requires site-specific information (soil texture, slope, pH etc.), climatic information such as Soil Dryness Index (SDI), and operational information on the pesticides to be applied and their application rates. It then uses this information, in conjunction with an extensive pesticides database, to perform the risk assessment. Forestry Tasmania has now commenced the integration of PIRI into operational decision-making processes. Risk assessment will be a mandatory part of planning pesticide operations within Forestry Tasmania. In the future, PIRI-Tas will provide detailed and valuable information to planners so that risks can be assessed, and reduced where necessary, during implementation and management of pesticide operations. Water quantity In partnership with the Forest Practices Authority, the Department of Primary Industries and Water engaged Hydro Tasmania Consulting to develop the Water Availability and Forest Landuse Planning Tool to enable assessment of the significance of land use change activities such as large-scale plantation forestry activities on catchments. The planning tool uses the best available knowledge of forest industry, water use and modelling techniques, and allows for improved knowledge or data to be easily incorporated. The tool was first used to test the Ringarooma catchment in northeast Tasmania to ensure it functioned as expected. The result of this test suggested that current levels of plantation development have had a minimal (one to three per cent) impact on streamflow compared to the 1995 levels of plantation development, and that a very large increase in plantation area (which is not planned) would be needed to reduce streamflow. Fuel and chemical spills All accidental spills of fuels or chemicals are recorded in the incident investigation system and monitored. DPIW is notified of spills greater than 20 litres. All incidents in 2007/08 related to spills of diesel, hydraulic oil or fire fighting foam. The total volume of spills recorded in 2007/08 was 597 litres. Two spills made up the majority of this volume. In the largest spill, approximately 200 litres of hydraulic oil was released as a result of a broken hydraulic fitting at the Southwood merchandiser. In the second, 150 litres of diesel leaked onto the road pavement as a result of a contractor’s truck colliding with a boomgate in northeast Tasmania. All spills were adequately addressed through emergency spill control procedures. During fire fighting operations, a small quantity (1-3 litres) of fire fighting foam escaped from the tanker into a watercourse. Alternative filling methods were subsequently implemented to prevent a recurrence of such an incident. Read more about the Water Availability and Forest Landuse Planning Tool at: www.dpiw.tas.gov.au 35
Page 1 and 2: 2008 REPORT sustainable forest mana
Page 3 and 4: contents Forestry Tasmania GPO Box
Page 5 and 6: eporting scope & structure This is
Page 7 and 8: economy, employment and regional ar
Page 9 and 10: X As a result of 18 recorded fuel a
Page 11 and 12: Case Study - Biodiversity responses
Page 13 and 14: In response to this, the Tasmanian
Page 15 and 16: Oldgrowth The Tasmanian Community F
Page 17 and 18: International science panel In addi
Page 19 and 20: forests now and into the future Pro
Page 21 and 22: Wood quality The Forestry Act conta
Page 23 and 24: Successful plantation establishment
Page 25 and 26: During 2007/08, 21,703 m 3 of high
Page 27 and 28: Seed and sowing Forestry Tasmania c
Page 29 and 30: Non-timber values Honey production
Page 31 and 32: The ongoing issue of defoliation ca
Page 33: Chemical pesticides Forestry Tasman
Page 37 and 38: The Tasmanian position Tasmania’s
Page 39 and 40: working with our stakeholders Deliv
Page 41 and 42: Community Access Bus In order to en
Page 43 and 44: Provision of tourism and recreation
Page 45 and 46: Figure 33. Members of the naming ex
Page 47 and 48: Forest estate value Through sustain
Page 49 and 50: egulatory environmenT Continuous im
Page 51 and 52: Other legislation Auspine launched
Page 53 and 54: where to from here? With the Sustai
Page 55 and 56: Table 2.2. Merchantable residue ass
Page 57 and 58: 3. Ecosystem health and services Ta
Page 59 and 60: Table 3.6. Days on which the Tasman
Page 61 and 62: Table 4.3. Visitor numbers to speci
Page 63 and 64: Table 4.5. Forest estate value summ
Page 65: Tell us what you think In line with

sustainable forest management - Forestry Tasmania

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