The use of alternative harvesting techniques has opened the way for Forestry Tasmania to retain stands of old growth throughout working forests.
Launching a new report into alternatives to clearfelling, Executive General Manager Hans Drielsma announced that Forestry Tasmania would trial the use of variable retention in regrowth coupes to improve ecological outcomes.
Up to now, variable retention - leaving big patches of bush in a coupe has only been used in the small number of old growth coupes harvested, consistent with the TCFA target of reducing clearfell to less than 20 percent of old growth coupes harvested.
Todays report confirms that its possible to achieve the target, but more importantly provides the pathway to achieving the next big ecological step forward for environmental forestry.
Dr Drielsma said variable retention is now the global standard for best practice when harvesting old growth.
We want to push the frontier even further, by using variable retention in regrowth forests where old growth elements are sparse.
As the report notes, using variable retention in these areas would improve habitat values for biodiversity and may be particularly beneficial for threatened species.
This approach would deliver significantly better ecological outcomes than further reserving pockets of old growth.
Scientific thinking is moving away from a narrow focus on protection of old growth towards a greater focus on maintaining old growth elements across the whole forest.
Dr Drielsma said the best balance for environmental, economic and social outcomes would be achieved by using a range of silvicultural techniques matched to the particular needs of particular areas of working forests.
The development of variable retention adds another string to our bow.
Clearfelling will always be the best option in certain circumstances, variable retention will be best in some circumstances and there will always be a place for selective harvesting in some coupes.
Operational difficulties, the increased costs, and the commitment to supply 300,000cm of saw and veneer log required to maintain employment and keep sawmills operating would constrain the amount of variable retention in regrowth.
We believe 1,000 hectares of variable retention is possible at the moment, but that number could grow if a biomass plant was established and some of the harvesting residues could be removed, lessening the risk associated with burning in variable retention coupes.
Variable retention is also more expensive costing $5.20 a tonne more. Using variable retention on 1,000 hectares would cost about $1m more than the clearfell alternative, Dr Drielsma said.
Dr Drielsma said that it was time for the community to look beyond slogans and take the discussion about forests to a deeper level.
The environment needs us to respond not only on an emotional level, but on an intellectual level as well.
In terms of the health of the planet, wood production is important. Unlike steel, concrete, aluminium, it is a renewable resource and using timber is better for climate change than any of the other products.
Rather than debating whether to add more old growth to Tasmanias already extensive reserves, it is time for a more mature consideration of how forests can be best managed for all of their values.
Dr Drielsma said todays announcement builds on a succession of measures taken since the Forest and Forest Industry Strategy in 1990 to improve environmental management of state forests.
These measures include the protection of one million hectares of old growth, a ban on the use of 1080 poison, a ban on atrazine and the end to the conversion of native forest to plantation.
The Sustainability Charter approved by the Minister and released last year affirms Forestry Tasmanias commitment to reserve at least 250,000 hectares of old growth on state forest - a quarter of all old growth protected in Tasmania.
The report, A new silviculture for Tasmanias public forests: a review of the variable retention program, is available at www.forestrytas.com.au
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