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Forestry Facts: An Overview Statistics Old Growth Forests Biodiversity Bushfires Australia's changing forests Native forests Forests and the Economy Eucalypt (Hardwood) Plantations Pine (Softwood) Plantations Multiple use forests Woodchips Pulp and Paper Regrowth forests The World's Rainforests The Greenhouse Effect Glossary of Terms Timber construction in bushfire areas |
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Native forestsAustralia's native forests can be broadly classified according to their crown cover as:- Native forests can be further classified into forest types according to the dominant species. The area of forest in these broad classes is shown in the following table:
Source: Bureau of Resources ( www.brs.gov.au/nfi/forestinfo/info.html ) About 80% of Australia's forests are eucalypt forests. These forests are unique to Australia and they occur in a wide range of environments. At the time of European settlement it was estimated that the total area of forest and woodland was 69 million and 157 million hectares respectively (Resource Assessment Commission 1992 P.80. Australia has 155.8 million hectares of native forests, including 43.8 million hectares of closed forest and open forest and 112.0 million hectares of woodland (BRS 1998). Some 22.3 million hectares of closed and open forest is either privately owned or leasehold while the balance is multiple use forest (11.0 million hectares), conservation reserves (8.4 million hectares) or other categories of public ownership (2.1 million hectares) (BRS 1998). Native eucalypt forests In many natural ecosystems of the world, natural disturbance by fire has been the dominant force determining evolution and development. Nowhere is this dominance of ecosystems by fire more important than in Australia where fire has played a major role in the evolution of the enormously diverse genus eucalyptus, which now dominates our forests. The eucalypt forests have evolved over many thousands of years through a perpetual cycle of growth, fire, regeneration and regrowth. The flora and fauna in these fire dependent forests are robust and resilient. They have adapted and depend on this harsh method of forest renewal for their survival (Attiwill 1994). This cycle can take several decades or several centuries, but eventually eucalypt forests need a major disturbance, such as fire, to clear away old trees and create suitable light and soil conditions for vigorous regrowth and a healthy new forest. Knowledge of the role of disturbance and the capacity of forests to recover from catastrophic disturbances such as intense wildfires provide the basis for managing our forests as a renewable resource. With proper planning and management, logging operations can be dispersed in time and space to ensure that the diversity of plant and animal life is maintained and substantially smaller areas are disturbed than those affected by periodic wildfires. Foresters, wildlife experts and recreation and landscape planners use management plans for different areas. Examples of how forests are cared for include: The biological diversity of native forests depends very much on a continual mosaic of different age classes. Through planned disturbance of some portion of the forest estate by harvesting, a mosaic of age classes is created so that diversity is maintained for the future. Preserving the entire forest estate would diminish this critical variability is best achieved with a balanced representation of well managed and preserved native forests. It is important to note that the Resource Assessment Commission (1992) found insufficient evidence to support the cessation of native forest logging (p. 178) and no evidence that forestry operations have been responsible for the evidence of a single plant or animal species in Australia (pp. 161-78). With modern adaptive management techniques, and strict codes of practice, native forests can provide a full range of products and benefits on a sustainable basis indefinitely. Forests are a renewable resource. References BRS 1998,Bureau of Resource Sciences at: www.brs.gov.au/mfi/forestinfo/ Attiwill, P. 1994, 'Ecological disturbances and the conservative management of eucalypt forest in Australia's, Forest Ecology and Management, vol. 63, pp 301-34. Resource Assessment Commission 1992, Forest and Timber Inquiry Final Report, AGPS, Canberra. Further reading Carron, L.T. 1985, A history of Forestry in Australia, ANU Press, Canberra. Department of Arts, Heritage and Environment and the Institutes of Foresters 1985, Think Trees, Grow Trees, AGPS, Canberra. |
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