FPN vol 11 no 2 January 2012 - The Forest Practices Authority

Forest Practices Awards 2011m and then returned to the surface. I wasvery glad the others were holding a ropearound me coming up as I nearly didn’t havethe strength to climb out again. Nathan laterreturned with Rolan Eberhard (DPIPWE)to explore the channel further. About 10m from where Kevin and I had turned backthey found a thylacine skeleton. So for ashort time in my career I had stood onlya few metres away from a thylacine and Ihadn’t even realised!Can you tell us about working on theforest practices plan which earned you thisaward?Planning for the Canaways Creek coupestarted as early as 2001 when we identifiedthe need to disperse the operations intothis area.Over many field visits we discovered variousspecial values to consider: complicatedgeology (dolerite over sandstone andfault zones); domestic water issues; an oldsteam tram system; and biodiversity values,including eagle nest management andaquatic fauna. (See Forest Practices NewsOctober 2011 vol 11 no 1 for more details.)Many people were involved in planning thiscoupe – this award really recognises theirefforts too. They include Norske-Skög’sSandra Hetherington, roading supervisorCraig Stevenson, John Gowland (roadlocator), archaeologist Parry Kostoglou,geomorphologist Chris Sharples, FPA’sPeter McIntosh and Forestry Tasmania’sassessment crew as well as Dave Kyte,Vanessa Thompson and Bernard Plumpton.We worked closely with the CanawaysCreek Community Group and addressed alltheir comments and requests. I think theywere still hoping that the area would beprotected.The Tyenna forest area has been managedfor a hundred years or more and is not oldgrowthor high value conservation forest.Apart from them not wanting the forestharvested, their main concern was that theirdomestic water intakes might be affected.We established a 50 m reserve around themain creek (30 m was required by the ForestPractices Code) and ended up splitting theoriginal coupe into three separate burningunits to ensure stream reserves would notbe compromised by the regeneration burn.What skills do you think you need toprepare a forest practices plan?Communication skills are most important.A good knowledge of the area to beharvested because knowledge is power– walking through a coupe and becomingfamiliar with it provides information youneed to develop a good forest practicesplan and challenge many of the claims madeby community groups.You need to be flexible and innovative, sothat you can improve the forest practicesplan during the planning stage. For example,in the Canaways coupe we changed theroad design to one which would involve lessside cutting at the creek crossings.You need to be diligent, especially whenmaking sure that contractors are followingthe prescriptions stated in a complicatedforest practices plan – whether it be theroading, harvesting or reforestation stages ofthe plan.You also need to be determined. Plannersput so much effort into selecting coupesand preparing plans because our job is toschedule wood for industry. Every coupewhich you lose because Joe Blow doesn’tlike it is one less coupe to provide aneven flow of wood and cannot always bereplaced easily.Have you any comments on the forestpractices system?I think the Forest Practices Code and theplanning tools make the prescriptions prettyclear. I’m comfortable with each of the stepsinvolved in planning but then I’ve had a lotof experience. I’ve spent a lot of time withall the FPA specialists over the 40 years. Imust have been on Fred Duncan’s botanycourses three times. I was involved with thedevelopment of the eagle reserve system.And the amount of days I’ve spent withgeomorphologists would total more than ahundred – there would be something wrongif I hadn’t learnt something about goodforest management after that.Bruce Chetwynd (FPA’s Senior LandscapePlanner) was around back when I workedon the east coast. I remember trying tocomply with one of Bruce’s visual landscapeprescriptions for a coupe near Bicheno. Hewanted me to marry the skyline boundarywith the cutting boundary. I thought this wasa bit of an ask but being Bruce, he cameout and helped me demarcate the backboundary and sure as eggs we ended upwith a shape which was much less dominantthan it would have been.I think I manage to first guess PeterMcIntosh (FPA’s Senior Scientist, EarthSciences) on most occasions. I rememberI caught him out one day. He was alwayshopping out of the car to hack at the roadside batter with his geologist’s hammer. Oneday we were walking in the closed forestand he started digging at a bank and I said,‘True to form Peter, you are actually hackingaway at a road batter.’ He was very puzzleduntil I told him that we were actuallystanding on the formation of the Old PortDavey Track!What does getting this award mean toyou?Winning the award is quite rewarding as itgoes some way to acknowledging the effortmade by me and many other dedicatedforesters doing our job.I have had to communicate with manydifferent individuals and groups over theyears looking at very similar issues tothose we managed to overcome whendeveloping the FPP into Canaways Creek.Persistence and demonstrating that specialvalues will be protected, harvested coupeswill be dispersed and that the operation iseconomic seems to achieve the best results.Warren taking a basal sweep while preparing a forestpractices plan.4 Forest Practices News vol 11 no 2 January 2012