Overstocked spotted gum regrowth, poor crown development and productivity and very little ground cover
The same forest 4 years after thinning good ground cover reduced erosion and markedly increased productivity
Private native forests of southern Queensland are extensive and critical to the future supply of timber to the processing sector. Source: Timberbiz
However, the majority of the private resource is unmanaged regrowth and is in a poor productive and environmental condition. With management, it is estimated that in time it could produce 10 times the quantity of timber currently grown in Queensland.
Private Forestry Service Queensland (PFSQ) is undertaking a three-year program to raise landholder capacity and understanding of best practice native forest management.
This will include updating the currently available extension material and producing a series of simple ‘how to’ online video clips on various aspects of forest management – from understanding the native forest practice self-assessable code, through to forest assessment, forest thinning, product specifications, regeneration and fire management.
The key to success will be to make this information widely available and in a format that is easily accessed, understood and implemented.
The objectives of the extension program are to:
- Build landholder and industry understanding about private native forestry opportunities through the provision of relevant, contemporary and targeted information.
- Engage landholders through a range of extension activities to build their capacity to turn understanding into on-ground practice change.
- Engage with timber industry players and other relevant individuals and organisations to build their knowledge and support for optimum on-ground private native forestry practices.
- Deliver improvements in private native forest management practices that enhance forest productivity and land management and environmental outcomes, and are complementary to other land uses.
The program will build on the results of an extensive series of landholder surveys, including those landholders who have participated in past extension activities, to ensure it delivers educational material, workshop formats and in-field activities that are specifically tailored to participant needs.
A series of workshops and field days will be rolled out across southern Queensland.
There will be funding support and one-on-one assistance available for those landholders who complete a four-day, in-field, best practice forest management workshop.
One of the key outcomes of this support will be a network of broad acre demonstration sites, showing how landholders have undertaken best practice forest management ‘on the ground’.
The program will include a series of workshops involving individual mills’, forest contractors and their regular growers, with a view to forming local area networks that can work towards improved forest production – ensuring the mills have the sustainably managed resource they need to thrive, and forest growers have a viable local processor who continues to purchase their timber.
One such Native Forest Management Field Day is being held on 8 October, with presenters Bill Schulke and Sean Ryan – Impacts of thinning on forest health, productivity, economic returns and grazing.
Details will be given on:
- Latest legislation
- Current timber products and what they are worth
- Latest growth results from regrowth thinned 10 years ago
- Inspect 3 different thinning densities sites and compare 10 years growth data and the benefits to tree growth and grazing
- Inspect extensive thinning and long term timber production on the Browns property
Sites for the field day (9am to 3pm) are the Jess property 4km west on Esk Hampton Rd then to Browns property 14km south along Esk Fernvale Rd (follow the field day signs). RSVP to [email protected]
For further information on the program visit www.pfsq.net or call 07 5483 6535.
The private native forestry extension program is supported by the Queensland Government through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
