‘Off-reserve’ management in practice: Contributing to conservation of biodiversity over 30 years of Tasmania’s forest practices system

Munks, Sarah; Chuter, Anne; Koch, Amelia J.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2020.117941

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…In particular, threatened species often have specialised requirements that need to be considered when mitigating impacts of changed land-use. Mitigations can be encoded in regulations, such as in forestry practices, but the effectiveness of these needs to be assessed to ensure adaptive management and ongoing improvement 1 , 2 . Example mitigations that can benefit a range of species include retention level during harvesting and the extent of old forest 3 , 4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulated timber harvesting does not reduce koala density in north-east forests of New South Wales

Law

Gonsalves

Burgar³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The compatibility of forestry and koala conservation is a controversial issue. We used a BACIPS design to assess change in koala density after selective harvesting with regulations to protect environmental values. We also assessed additional sites heavily harvested 5–10 years previously, now dominated by young regeneration. We used replicate arrays of acoustic sensors and spatial count modelling of male bellowing to estimate male koala density over 3600 ha. Paired sites in nearby National Parks served as controls. Naïve occupancy was close to 100% before and after harvesting, indicating koalas were widespread across all arrays. Average density was higher than expected for forests in NSW, varying between arrays from 0.03–0.08 males ha−1. There was no significant effect of selective harvesting on density and little change evident between years. Density 5–10 years after previous heavy harvesting was equivalent to controls, with one harvested array supporting the second highest density in the study. Within arrays, density was similar between areas mapped as selectively harvested or excluded from harvest. Density was also high in young regeneration 5–10 years after heavy harvesting. We conclude that native forestry regulations provided sufficient habitat for koalas to maintain their density, both immediately after selective harvesting and 5–10 years after heavy harvesting.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulated timber harvesting does not reduce koala density in north-east forests of New South Wales

Law

Gonsalves

Burgar³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Impacts of harvesting on attributes such as structure and growth (and other aspects of sustainability) have received considerable attention (e.g., Attiwill, 1994;Lindenmayer, 1995;Attiwill and Adams, 2008;Lindenmayer et al, 2012). The effects of harvesting has been rarely considered in forests within conservation tenures (e.g., Munks et al, 2020;Richit et al, 2021) although some studies suggest it can enhance structural complexity (McKenny et al, 2006;Thom and Keeton, 2020) with flow-on effects for a range of other attributes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Native Forests Show Resilience to Selective Timber Harvesting in Southeast Queensland, Australia

Neumann

Adams

Lewis

2021

Front. For. Glob. Change

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There is little published information on effects of management on the structure of mixed species forests in Queensland, Australia. We used long-term growth, abundance and dimension data from permanent plots to test the hypothesis that harvesting would reduce numbers of large trees and growth increments, while increasing recruitment. This hypothesis is key to policy and management decisions for forests covering about 9.5 million hectares. Inclusion of data on changes in forest structure (e.g., tree diameter, stem density) helps in assessment of forest suitability as habitat for a range of species. Growth rate (basal area) varied widely among forest types. Growth of each of four key species (i.e., Eucalyptus pilularis, Corymbia citriodora ssp. variegata, Callitris glaucophylla, and Eucalyptus crebra) reflected variation in rainfall across the study region. Callitris glaucophylla, a native conifer, is dominant when rainfall is < 600 mm per year. Corymbia citriodora ssp. variegata grows across much wider ranges in rainfall (600–1,200 mm year–1) at rates similar to Callitris glaucophylla. Historic harvesting increased recruitment and also increased the symmetry of diameter distributions. Harvesting has not reduced the current density of larger trees (diameter at breast height, DBH ≥ 60 cm) at a regional scale. Stand growth was unaffected by management principally owing to an increase in the density of trees of smaller diameter (10–20 cm DBH). Self-thinning limits potential stocking and we tested 3 methods for predicting self-thinning across forest types. We found that the slope of self-thinning lines under drier conditions is mostly < –2, suggesting highly dynamic self-thinning. Using a species-boundary line approach, growth is predicted to slow when basal areas reach around 66.1 m2 ha–1 in E. pilularis, 19.0 m2 ha–1 in C. citriodora ssp. variegata, 16.5 m2 ha–1 in Callitris glaucophylla, and 14.2 m2 ha–1 in E. crebra. The slope of the self-thinning line for E. pilularis was –1.662, similar to Reineke’s Stand Density Index (slope –1.605). To date, there is little evidence that selective harvesting and thinning have had negative impacts on rates of growth, on timber production, carbon sequestration or on aspects of forest structure regarded as important for biodiversity.

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Retention of large, old trees in alternatives to clearcutting with a comparison of ground- and helicopter-based assessments

Baker

Chuter

Munks

et al. 2020

Forest Ecology and Management

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‘Off-reserve’ management in practice: Contributing to conservation of biodiversity over 30 years of Tasmania’s forest practices system

Cited by 12 publications

References 85 publications

Regulated timber harvesting does not reduce koala density in north-east forests of New South Wales

Regulated timber harvesting does not reduce koala density in north-east forests of New South Wales

Native Forests Show Resilience to Selective Timber Harvesting in Southeast Queensland, Australia

Retention of large, old trees in alternatives to clearcutting with a comparison of ground- and helicopter-based assessments

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