Southern Tablelands Farm Forestry Network |
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STFFN newsletter - March / April 2001
Pine plantations maintain soil fertility Mature pine plantations keep soil fertility at least as high as in neighboring areas of native forest, according to new research by CSIRO Forestry & Forest Products. "The soils under pines have been found to store as much carbon as pasture soils," says CSIRO’s Dr Clive Carlyle, who leads the research. "This suggests that replacing pasture with pine plantations will not lead to a long-term reduction in soil carbon or a large net release of carbon to the atmosphere with adverse greenhouse affects, as some feared." The findings come from research by CSIRO and the Queensland Forest Research Institute in the ‘Green Triangle’ – a concentrated area of mostly pine plantations centered on Mount Gambier, South Australia – and near Gympie, Queensland. For the pine/native forest comparisons, researchers selected about 20 sites where plantations – radiata pine (Pinus radiata) in the Mount Gambier region, and slash pine (P. elliottii) in Queensland – meet native eucalypt forest. The plantations, mostly first rotation, were in the 23-37 years age range. The scientists analysed soil samples for a wide range of chemical properties affecting soil fertility – notably organic matter content, levels of the major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, and soil acidity. "We found no major changes in soil properties, in fact some have improved," says Dr Carlyle. "The key finding, though was a lack of a major difference in organic matter levels, in fact, these were marginally higher in the plantation soil," he said. "This has important implications for carbon accounting and carbon credits as it indicates that the long-term effect of converting land from pasture to pine use is neutral." Researchers found the average levels of organic matter under pine plantations were around 16 per cent higher than in native forest soil. Dr Carlyle suggests this is a consequence of the higher productivity of the plantations. "Under the management systems developed for the Green Triangle region, pine productivity is currently increasing from one rotation to the next, making the plantations there a good example of sustainable forestry," he says. Research also found that pine and native forest sites showed no difference in nitrogen levels – an important result in light of earlier concerns about declining levels of nitrogen under plantations. Phosphorus levels were substantially higher under pine because of the use of phosphorus fertilisers. "The plantation soils were slightly more acid, but their acid levels remained safely in the range where any acidity impact on a subsequent non-tree crop would be negligible", says Dr Carlyle. "Comparisons between pine and pasture showed much higher levels of phosphorus and nitrogen under pasture than under the plantations." According to Dr Carlyle, this is the result of nitrogen fixation by clover and frequent applications of superphosphate in the improved pasture. The Forests and Wood Products R&D Corporation funded this project which began in 1998. Successful Growing of Radiata Pine Plantations on Drier Sites with Particular Reference to the Canberra Region; ACT Forests In the last issue of the Newsletter (January/February 2001) some pine tips were offered from a NSW State Forests publication, ‘Growing Radiata Pine Sawlogs on Farms in NSW’. It should be stressed that while State Forests prefers to invest in sites which are moderately fertile, with well drained deep soils and a long term average rainfall greater than 700mm, this is not to say that pines will not grow on the prevailing poorer soils of the Southern Tablelands. One simply has to venture to Kowen Forest in the ACT to see Pinus radiata excelling in shallow, infertile, shale dominant country with an average rainfall of 600mm and an effective rainfall of 450mm per annum. There are plenty of ‘growing tips’ to be gained from ACT Forests, who have 80 years experience in growing Pinus radiata in low-rainfall areas which have been regarded by many to be unsuitable for radiata pine. Tip No. 1 Site Preparation On dry sites, moisture retention is critical. To conserve moisture ACT Forests uses a method called pattern ripping, which brings water from the gullies to the dry bony ridges on a grade of about 1:200. The idea is to make more effective use of water that falls on to the site and spread the water from the wet gullies to the dry ridges. Moisture retention on the ridges promotes better and more uniform growth overall. Adding Value and Marketing Hardwoods Many farmers in the Southern Tablelands are unaware of the financial value of the timber left standing on their properties. Many local native trees have timber characteristics suitable for furniture joinery, flooring and other high value uses. With the new "Best Operating Standards for Selection Harvesting of Private Native Forests", produced by the Department of Land and Water Conservation, landholders can now use these guidelines to produce vegetation management and harvest plans and begin valuing their native timber resource. It is now recognised that careful selective harvesting of remnant and regrowth vegetation can improve the natural integrity of these woodlands, whilst also providing landholders with a potential alternative source of income. Value Adding creates market opportunities Marketing native timber has always been a major hurdle for landholders in the past. Adding value to harvested hardwood through on-farm milling and processing opens a wide window of opportunity for individuals wishing to market small volumes. A cost effective way in which landholders can add value to logs is through contracting portable mill operators to mill logs into various board sizes, depending on targeted markets. Milled timber must then be stacked in sheds to season. Post milling care is an essential process and is imperative to ensure a quality product can be marketed. On-farm post milling care Seasoning native hardwoods is a slow process and each species requires slightly different methods of care. There is much to be learned about on-farm seasoning processes for many of the native timber species in the Southern Tablelands. There is local knowledge amongst cabinetmakers and private native foresters for seasoning techniques that landholders can adopt. STFFN can provide contact details for those interested to learn more about post milling care for native hardwoods. Look out for the training workshop for on-farm post milling care of native hardwoods coming up this June. Greening Australia’s plans to develop a timber products cooperative Although many sawn, seasoned native hardwoods fetch attractive prices, landholders can rarely supply consistent volumes. The development of timber cooperatives may provide opportunities for groups of landholders to market larger quantities of timber, thus reducing the effect of inconsistent supply from individual landholders. At present Greening Australia is developing a proposal to establish a native timber products cooperative for the Southern Tablelands. Based on the sustainable harvesting of timber from regrowth vegetation and farm forests, Greening Australia is exploring the potential for creating a central marketing location to support small growers and owners of private native forests. Various timber products such as firewood, sawn timber and fence posts will potentially be sold from this location. Timber will be sold under Greening Australia certification, being a sustainably harvested product. Landholders will have the option of providing a value added timber product, such as high value sawn, partially seasoned hardwood, or may just receive a stumpage rate for timber harvested by the cooperative. In both cases, long-term vegetation management plans and coupe harvest plans will be written for each landholder providing timber to the cooperative. The plans will detail harvest techniques and yearly sustainable yields, providing landholders with adequate guidance for harvesting and management for all relevant types of woodland communities. For further information contact James Gray (02) 6253 3035. Commercial Opportunities in Private Native Forest Management By Peter & Kerry Davies Native trees are fast becoming sacred cows in the political environment, yet it needs to be recognised that if many of the native forest remnants were cattle we would be being prosecuted by the RSPCA for mistreatment. As managers of our own environment we have a responsibility not just to the flora and fauna but to ourselves. By integrating the economy with nature we can have a much healthier and robust system which meets a wider range of diverse needs. Native forest suffers under a number of misguided ideas. The most important are:
These two core concepts lead to conflict, firstly through negative impacts of over clearing, resulting from the perceived lower value of the forest. Secondly by preventing any possible access and economic use which might change the first idea, and also because it incorrectly assumes natural stasis, things only change adversely if we change them. More importantly neither idea assists genuine recovery and reafforestation. Most of these areas are heavily degraded and need active management to recover. This is being increasingly recognised by people in the field. The first step is to promote the inherent commercial opportunities in order to fund both the management required for recovery and to create a new industry which has as its core the sustainable management of native forest. Commercial opportunities are real and exist right now. These include (but not limited to):
Along with numerous niche products such as oils, flower, burls etc and of course not to forget honey and eco tourism. The future is even more exciting, slow release natural fertilisers, liquid fuels and chemicals, low emission solid fuels, renewable power plus more, the list continues to grow. The more products the greater our involvement and the higher value of community forest consciousness. On site value adding is the key to private native forestry and is one of the major differences between it and industrial forestry. There are enormous opportunities for regional development with this change in approach. Even a simple product such as firewood can provide returns of $100/ha/year managed on a sustainable basis, compare that with actual returns from conventional plantation timber, particularly since these returns are available now and not in 20-30 years time. A successful native forest based industry provides the framework for expansion of these areas. The knowledge to do this is out there. Knowledge is power and to pass it on is wisdom, keeping it to ourselves is to condemning us to making the same mistakes over and over again. Denying this knowledge through legislation that inhibits its use condemns the forest to at best remain in its degraded state but at worst to continue to dwindle. An Australian Forestry Standard Australia's Ministerial Council on Forestry, Fisheries and Aquaculture, in partnership with the National Association of Forest Industries, Australian Forest Growers, and Plantations Australia, is sponsoring the development of an Australian Forestry Standard. This Standard is being developed to provide a basis for voluntary, independent third-party certification against auditable forest management performance criteria that support sustainable management of forests for wood production, to maintain access to traditional markets for Australian timber and enter new markets that are demanding certification of sustainability. It is intended that the Standard would be suitable for use in both native and planted forests regardless of tenure or scale of ownership. It is also intended that the Standard should provide a basis for third party auditing, either separately or in conjunction with the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System standard. The project to develop an Australian Forestry Standard will be managed by a Steering Committee and supported by a Technical Reference Committee representing a wide range of interests and expertise at a national level. The committees have been constituted to ensure a balance of views at each stage of the development of an Australian Forestry Standard. A Steering Committee of eight members was established in 1999 and meets regularly to guide and promote the development process through the Project Manager. A Technical Reference Committee with a targeted membership of nineteen to cover the main sectors interested in or proposing to utilise a Standard was established in October 2000. This committee also meets regularly, at about two monthly intervals, to progress the drafting of a Standard to its intermediate point of a Public Comment Draft and to its end point of an approved Final Standard. To ensure that an Australian Forestry Standard is developed in accordance with accepted Australian and international practices, the Australian Forestry Standard Steering Committee has formally sought accreditation with Standards Australia as a Standards Development Organisation (SDO). In order to achieve an Australian Standard, the Steering Committee as an SDO, must be able to demonstrate a participatory process and a structure that gives transparency, balance and openness such that the outcome will be equivalent to those standards that are developed by Standards Australia. Things to do for March / April Pines:
Natives:
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