A:

Species extinction is primarily caused by disease, clearing for agriculture, hunting and the introduction of predators such as the feral fox or cat. Not one species has become extinct as a result of forestry in Western Australia. In fact, a Resources Assessment Commission study found that no species has become extinct due to forestry throughout Australia.

A:

It has been suggested that "environmentally friendly" alternatives such as steel, cement and plastic can be used as building products rather than structural timber. The fact is that wood is made from solar energy and requires only this to produce a natural and renewable resource. The so-called alternatives require far more energy (use of fossil fuels) to produce a man-made, non renewable product. The production of these alternatives results in large emmissions of carbon dioxide thus contributing to climate change. A study by the American Academy of Science found that timber is the most energy efficient building material.

A:

WA forests can withstand the most extreme environmental conditions such as wildfire and drought because they have adapted to do so. There have been instances where severe disturbance has destroyed the original forest although new growth soon appears as a replacement. An example of this is the Gnangara Pine Plantation which experienced massive fires in 1994-1995. Pine has been grown in these areas for up to 43 years yet when cleared after the disturbance, the green shoots that appeared were native species. Native species had not been present for 43 years. This is just one example of the amazing resilience to disturbance that WA ecosystems show.

A:

A visit to Boranup Forest or Big Brook Forest will show how quickly and completely the forest regenerates, indistinguishable in every respect from old growth. Which is only natural, when you think about it. No tree or other plant lives forever, and the forest in its natural state is continually dying and regrowing. Claims by the greens that regrowth is a monoculture or a plantation are simply unture.

A:

A panel of experts, comprising of Dr Brian Turner (ANU), Professor Ian Ferguson (Melbourne University) and Mr Noel Fitzpatrick (nominated by the EPA) was appointed as part of the RFA to review timber harvesting yields. They verified that harvesting levels under the RFA are sustainable. The panel commended models used to determine allowable cut and reported that ‘Their scientific knowledge about the jarrah and karri forests was profound and this is reflected in the complexity of the models they have developed to simulate the state and changes of the forest over time’. Dr Turner, Professor Ferguson and Mr Fitzpatrick also concluded in their published report that ‘ There is no doubt in our minds that the scheduling has been carried out in an objective, professional (scientifically appropriate) and operationally realistic manner’.

An expert panel is currently reviewing the sustainable yield in the context of ecologically sustainable forest management. Stage one of the review will be completed April 2001.

http://www.calm.wa.gov.au/forest_facts/index.html

This website provides further information on the report by the Ministerial Advisory Group on Karri and Tingle Management. Also, find out more about the current review of sustained yield.

A:

Clearfelling is the preferred silvicultural method in the karri forest. Karri seedlings grow well in an open sun-lit seedbed which is best created by clearfelling. If selectively logged karri seedlings would have to compete for sunlight, which is not optimal for their growth. If this was the preferred method the seedlings will, in most cases, succumb to a more aggressive species which would then become dominant. To keep karri as the major species, and thus produce a regrowth forest indistinguishable for the original, clearfelling is used as the best management technique.

www.ifa.unimelb.edu.au/issues/wa/silvicsys.htm

This site, by the Institute of Foresters Australia, outlines the silvicultural systems used in Western Australian forestry.

A:

The major and most valuable product of the jarrah and karri forests is value-added sawlogs. The industry is built around sawlog production. Because trees are round and sawn timber is square, and because of various imperfections, less than 50% of any tree is recoverable as sawn timber. In the past, this wood was wasted and often burnt. These days karri residue is sold for use in the production of high quality silicon for use in computers, optic fibre cables, etc. This is a sensible use of a former waste product.

A:

The 1992 National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS) provided a strategy to reserve old growth forest and also provided a framework for developing nationally agreed criteria. The NFPS defines old growth as:
“Forest that is ecologically mature and has been subjected to negligible unnatural disturbance such as logging, roading and clearing. The definition focuses on forest in which the upper stratum or overstorey is in the late to over mature growth phases.”

The Joint Implementation sub-committee (JANIS 1997) developed this definition further to form one that is nationally operational. They defined old growth as:
“Old growth forest is ecologically mature forest where the effects of disturbance are now negligible.”

www.calm.wa.gov.au/forest_facts/old_growth.html

Visit the Department of Conservation and Land Management site for an information page on old growth forest. Also see the Institute of Foresters of Australia website for further explanation.

A:

Altogether, 70% of existing old growth jarrah and 86% of old growth karri is in reserves which covers almost a quarter of a million hectares. The government has ended logging in karri-tingle old growth and karri-tingle forest that has been logged in the past. They have also committed to the end of harvesting in karri old growth forest after 2003.

If all the protected old growth forest were put in a band 1 km wide, it would stretch all the way from Manjimup to Broome.

www.ifa.unimelb.edu.au/issues/wa/oldgrowth.htm

This site, by the Institute of Foresters of Australia, gives an explanation of old growth and its reservation in Western Australia.