Feed aggregator

Tasmania is fortunate to have large areas of ‘Wilderness’ where nature takes care of its own. These are globally recognised World Heritage Areas. Some 58.7% of Tasmania’s forests are in some form of formal or informal reserves. However, reserves are usually poorly managed for bio (and genetic) diversity, being at the mercy of wildfire or chance events. All eggs should not be placed in one basket (reservation). There is equal conservation value in creating large areas of actively managed forest with some control and planning over the frequency and intensity of disturbances that shape these forests, especially fire dependent forest communities. A diversity of forest stages of development across both space and time is also critical. Regrowth forests can become old growth! Currently, only around 20% of Tasmania’s public forests are available for production forestry. It is acknowledged that temperate rainforest communities require extensive periods without disturbance and are excluded from forest harvesting in Tasmania. Eucalypt forest lockup favours the later stages of the forest cycle, at the expense of earlier phases characterised by a greater proportion of smaller shrubs and herbaceous plants. Eucalypt forest lockup also encourages fuel build up resulting in the inevitable, intense, uncontrolled wildfire potentially burning out hundreds of thousands of hectares in a single fire season. For example, at the beginning of 2025 the West Coast fire burnt out some 94,000 ha including areas of National Park (Source TFS.), and the 2018- 2019 fires on the central plateau and western Tasmania burnt out some 205,000 ha, some 16% being fire sensitive communities. (Source PWS) In rural communities there is increased threat to life and property from wildfire. Green policy has failed to value regrowth forests. Talk is only of the value of ‘old growth’ or ‘ancient’ forests. However, today’s regrowth forests, allowed to mature, are tomorrow’s old growth, or ‘ancient’ forests. Remember, forest species are dynamic, many requiring fire or disturbance to complete their lifecycles. Diversity in forest age is an important component of biodiversity conservation that appears to have escaped the attention of many. Total forest lock-up policy is akin to us valuing only the elderly our community, with no value placed on our children (and producing them for the next generation!) or working adults (taxpayers!) – complete forest lockup policy makes no sense. Ending native forest harvesting and active native forest management amounts to ecological madness, has no scientific basis, and are driven by political aspiration and self-interest, with no regard to forest ecology, forest conservation or regional economies. David Bower is a graduate in biological sciences, a professional forester and carbon asset manager.

The post Opinion: David Bower – Ending native forest harvesting is nonsense appeared first on Timberbiz.