The Science of Forestry is about growing trees on a basis that ensures that the forest supplies timber for use by the community on a perpetual basis. At the same time the forest will have other multiple uses….such as catchment protection, wildlife habitat, bee keeping, public recreation, 4 wheel driving and touring, climate amelioration, storage of carbon dioxide in the wood, release of oxygen.

What is sustained yield

Sustained yield is where the amount of wood harvested from the forest is equal to the amount of wood that the trees grow each year. By putting in statistically approved measurement plots the trees are measured by height and diameter every few years and the volume increment of the forest can be callculated.

Plantations

Plantations are grown on cleared land protecting creek reserves and wildlife corridors. The land is ploughed and it is just the same as farming only you are growing trees on a long rotation usually about 40 to 70 years. However they are planted close together and gradually thinned out to make room for the larger trees to grow. If the thinnings can be used commercially for paper production or fibre board or posts this makes the growing of the plantation more economical.

Native Forests

Native Forests have been harvested in Australia for over 200 years. In fact Australia was built on our native forests. Many of the natural timbers are durable and make excellent building material. Large areas were set aside by our forefathers as State Forests for the purpose of supplying the public with timber as well as the multiple uses of catchment protection, wildlife habitat, bee keeping and public recreation. Forest Services were set up in the early 20th Century  to manage all these operations and to protect these valuable assets from fire. These people were the earliest of the true Conservationists. Their work  was done well enough for large areas of State Forests to be declared National Parks after 100 years of timber Harvesting! Think about that one please!

Public Misconceptions

Public Misconceptions about the science of forestry are many …usually aided and abetted by the preservation lobby who would like to see everything locked away in National Parks where fires run rampant and humans are locked out. The biggest misconception is that harvesting of timber destroys our forests. This is total nonsense. It is true that many of our forests were cleared for farmland in the early 20th Century but this was not forestry this was farm clearing.
So if you think something can be done about ‘climate change’ and sucking up the carbon dioxide, why aren’t we planting more Trees? Who is scaring our weak Politicians out of planting more trees?