 I work in the mountain ash forests in the Victorian Central Highlands. They're some of the tallest and most carbon dense forests in the world. They are very key for Melbourne's water supply. They store vast amounts of carbon and other greenhouse gases. And they are very important for vegetation and key species like the Leadbeater's possum that is endangered. Approximately 99% of these forests have been clear-felled or burnt in recent decades. My research has found that disturbance can have long-lasting impacts on forest soils for up to eight decades post-fire and up to three decades post-cleafel logging, far longer periods than we've previously recognised. We found that clear-fell logging and fire resulted in significantly lower measures of key soil nutrients that are essential for plant growth and survival. The long-lasting impacts that we're seeing of these disturbances on soil, on plant communities, on animals means that we really need to think about how to manage these forests for the future to best preserve the functions that they have and for soils that's storing vast amounts of carbon, that's biogeochemical cycles, that's microbial communities and plant growth and survival.