This classic forest management text examines the ecology and silviculture of eucalypts in forests and plantations in Australia and overseas. The book presents approaches to the formulation of ecologically sustainable forest practices through a more fundamental understanding of Eucalyptus. The 14 chapters of the book are divided into three sections covering: the ecological background to silvicultural practice; the regeneration and continuing development of the forests; and silvicultural practice, including the current practices within the eucalypt forests.

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Observations and experiments on the Jignotuberous and seedling regeneration in spotted gum -ironbark forests are recorded. The effects of annual prescribed burning, severe wildfires, and regeneration burning on lignotubers and seedling establishment are described. Factors having a bearing on the long-term maintenance of the lignotuber-form are discussed. There is a striking response to complete removal of the canopy, but development of the lignotuberous seedlings is restricted for some distance from the edge of the surrounding canopy.The hypothesis is advanced that there may be in these forests a complex type of equilibrium in which the development of a given Jignotuberous or advance-growth stem is determined by the level of stocking in a wide arc of the surrounding stand, rather than by competitive pressure from the immediately adjacent or overtopping stems.

Observations on a number of old—growth coast redwood Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl. forests indicated unusual features of stand decline. To test the hypothesis that this decline resulted from some deterioration in the forest—site relationship, a series of studies was made on forest soils under old—growth redwood and at various stages of the hardwood succession following logging. Proliferation of redwood seedling roots was restricted in old—growth redwood soil and some evidence of seedling susceptibility to a root pathogen was found. Soil respiration patterns indicated that the availability of carbonaceous material from the organic matter in a form suitable for microbial digestion may be the primary factor limiting biological activity. The end results may be failure of, or abnormalities in, the process of nitrogen mineralization, and the establishment of an edaphic condition in which pathogens can attack seedling roots. Although nitrogen was found to be strongly immobilized in soils from an age sequence of tan oak developed on former redwood sites, it seems possible that tan oak litter could stimulate a higher level of microbial activity and so accelerate the decomposition of redwood humus. Deterioration in both the soil microbiological processes and the plant—soil relationship in a redwood forest are discussed in terms of the long—term incorporation of redwood litter into the soil.