DEAR News Of The Area,

IN NSW we grow timber in State forests.

Plantations and native forests are carefully managed to provide a supply of timber today and in the future.

There are 500 NSW state forests and these have been harvested and regrown for more than 100 years.

The forests in NSW generate $2.9 billion from hardwood alone for the NSW economy.

One of the most iconic builds from the NSW hardwood is the interior of the Sydney Opera House.

The timber industry also supports 22,000 jobs in NSW and the NSW forests each year produce enough timber to build 25% of new homes in Australia.

Fourteen percent of Australia’s total timber needs comes from NSW State forests and becomes power poles, marine wharf piers, timber pallets, timber flooring, decking, furniture and house framing.

Beyond the obvious benefits of building materials, timber has another key benefit: carbon storage.

Carbon is stored in growing trees, but carbon is also sequestered in the timber products these trees become. Through careful harvesting the forestry industry is able to continually pull carbon out of our atmosphere.

However, forestry is more than just chopping down trees haphazardly, it is a science, and great care is taken with our forests.

Here’s some insight into the due diligence of timber harvesting and land management in NSW State forests.

Forestry Corporation undertakes thorough operational planning processes to ensure that the potential for environment impacts from all forest management activities including timber harvesting as well as activities such as road maintenance, management of recreational sites and fire management is managed and mitigated.

Before a single tree is touched, Forestry Corporation surveys for threatened species and maps and protects their wildlife habitat.

Forestry Corporation also maps and protects waterways, Aboriginal cultural heritage sites, old growth and rainforest.

Every tree removed for timber is regrown.

Strict protections, developed by scientific panels and adopted by Government, guide every forest operation from fire management, road upgrades to tourism developments and timber harvesting.

Timber harvesting in native State forests is regulated by the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA).

The CIFOA integrates the regulatory regimes for environmental planning and assessment of timber harvesting and associated operations for protection of the environment and for threatened species conservation.

Plantation operations are also managed.

Plantations fall under the Plantation and Reafforestation Act 1999 (P&R Act) and Plantations and Reafforestation (Code) Regulation 2001.

The objective of the P&R Act is to undertake plantation operations consistently in line with the principles of ecologically sustainable development.

The Regional Forest Agreements have set aside a comprehensive adequate and representative reserve network and timber harvesting only takes place within the parts of the forest estate that have be identified as sustainable for timber production.

The process of developing operational plans for timber harvesting operations includes a number of steps to ensure due diligence.

Depending on which operations are being planned these include tree marking to identify trees and additional areas to be retained, not already mapped, pre-harvest surveys for flora and fauna species and contacting affected stakeholders.

On average 40 percent of each native forest operation area is set aside for conservation.

Fourteen out of every 10,000 trees in native forests in NSW are harvested each year while 14,000 football fields of trees are planted every year.

Site-specific operational plans provide instructions to the harvesting and haulage operators showing which areas are to be harvested, individual native trees and areas that are to be retained, which roads to use to deliver the timber and a range of other site specific and detailed information.

The site-specific operational plans are used in conjunction with maps provided to staff and harvesting and haulage operators through the Forestry Corporation’s MapApp.

The MapApp ensures that the application of complex and detailed regulations can be communicated to operators as they undertake their work.

It also allows information from staff and the operators to be loaded into the maps, including GPS tracking of harvest and haulage machinery.

Plans are prepared for specific compartments in State forests and work is scheduled depending on a number of factors including market conditions and weather.

Regards,
Steve DOBBYNS,
Beechwood.