BOX‐IRONBARK in Victoria’s State Forests Silviculture Reference Manual No. 4 Peter Fagg and Owen Bassett Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources Victoria, Australia ii Box‐Ironbark Silviculture Reference Manual Manual prepared by Forest Solutions Pty Ltd for the State of Victoria www.forestsolutions.com.au © The State of Victoria Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources 2015 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You are free to re‐use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo and the State of Victoria logo. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses ISBN 978‐1‐74146‐438‐2 (pdf) ISBN 978‐1‐74146‐571‐6 (Print) This publication may be referenced as: Fagg, P.C. and Bassett, O.D. (2014). Box‐Ironbark in Victoria’s State Forests, Silviculture Reference Manual No. 4, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Melbourne, Victoria. Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Box‐Ironbark Silviculture Reference Manual iii Foreword A task that is common to many areas of scientific endeavor is the challenge of maintaining and extending a wealth of scientific and technical knowledge. Applying that knowledge, combined with hard‐learned lessons, is testing but rewarding. It is a privilege to introduce the Box‐Ironbark in Victoria’s State Forests ‐ Silviculture Reference Manual No. 4, a book that consolidates silvicultural knowledge developed over several decades in this forest type. A rush of human settlement followed the discovery of gold in the 1850s. Large tracts of Box‐Ironbark forest overlaid the alluvial and underground mines. These forests provided the basic necessities of energy, shelter and structural timbers for the new arrivals. Relatively gentle topography made it practicable for timber harvesting and clearing to expand throughout the range of the central Victorian Box‐Ironbark forests, and resulted in a fundamental shift in forest structure. The magnitude of this change is difficult to quantify and is arguably speculative, as it is based on scant, historical accounts. However, in comparison with the pre‐European Box‐Ironbark forests, it is likely that today’s forests are characterised by much younger and denser stands of smaller trees. Over time, Box‐Ironbark State forest management has changed from unregulated resource use to conservation of growing stock. In relatively recent times, advances in silvicultural and ecological understanding have enabled the introduction of scientifically‐based control of stocking, age cohorts and management of multiple objectives, including timber production, wildlife and tourism. Over the last 150 years there have been changes in forest tenure and management activities as a result of research and community demands. However, it will take more time to address some historical negative impacts; for example, from mining, and the desired end‐points may shift again in the future with changing community expectations. The effort, knowledge and experience of the authors has resulted in a valuable resource for current and future managers of Box‐Ironbark in both State forest and conservation reserves, which will help them exercise options and choices with this knowledge as a foundation stone. Hopefully it will also provide inspiration for further research. Jon Cuddy November 2014 iv Box‐Ironbark Silviculture Reference Manual Jon Cuddy B.Sc. (For.) (ANU) Jon started his forestry career in plantation softwood harvesting in Scottsdale, Tasmania, in 1981. In 1990 he moved to Benalla in north east Victoria and commenced in a native forest management role with the Victorian Department of Conservation and Environment. Most of his career has since involved forest management planning for the River Red Gum forests of northern Victoria and the Box–Ironbark forests of central Victoria. He was a co‐author of the 1993 Statement of Resources, Uses and Values for the Mid‐Murray Forest Management Area. In the Box‐Ironbark region, Jon has undertaken key management and planning tasks aimed at continuous improvement of the forests in that area. He has been based in Bendigo, in many ways the center of Victorian Box‐Ironbark forests, for over 15 years. Jon’s current role is Project Leader, Emergency Management, based in Bendigo with the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources. Box‐Ironbark Silviculture Reference Manual v Dedication This manual is dedicated to the memory of Jim Allen, a Forest Overseer and later a Forest Planner who spent many years of his career in Victoria’s Box‐Ironbark forests. (28 July 1952 ‐ 7 July 2014) Born in Ararat in 1952, Jim’s first job was a used car salesman in Ballarat, but he gave that up for a job with the Ballarat Forests Commission summer crew. District Forester Jeff Brisbane, recognising Jim’s interests and talents, kept him on as a permanent employee from 1977. On Jeff’s recommendation, Jim was accepted into the Victorian School of Forestry in Creswick in 1980 to commence the Certificate of Applied Science in Conservation and Resource Management. He became a Forest Overseer after completing his studies in 1982, having been posted to the Castlemaine District in 1981. Whilst at Castlemaine, one of Jim’s main tasks was to manage the domestic firewood house block system, where residents were allocated a small block of Box‐Ironbark forest to thin out and produce their own firewood. Jim took great care and pride in how he marked the forest, ensuring it would remain sustainable well into the future. In 1994, Jim became a Forest Planner based in Bendigo, where one of his major roles was to produce the Wood Utilisation Plan for the Box‐Ironbark and Red Gum forests in that region. It was a job he did very well due to his solid understanding of forest management and utilisation. Jim was also a valued member of the Box‐Ironbark and Red Gum Research and Development Action Group, and the State‐wide Silviculture Working Party for some years. One of his greatest attributes was his ability to get along with and calm people, no matter how upset they were. No one ever had a bad word to say about Jim. He was a kind and gentle man who cared deeply for his family and the many people he befriended. Jim was much more than a work colleague, he was a friend and a mate to all who knew him. Jim moved to the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) when the responsibility of commercial timber harvesting transferred from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to DPI, and was appointed Forestry Operations Manager in July 2012. He retired from the DPI in 2013 after 36 years of dedicated service to both the forests and the public of Victoria. Jim’s premature death in July 2014, after a battle with brain cancer, was a huge loss to his family and friends. vi Box‐Ironbark Silviculture Reference Manual The Authors Peter Fagg Dip.For. (Cres.), B.Sc.(For). (Melb.), MIFA For most of his career with Victorian Government forestry agencies, Peter has specialised in silviculture. His role encompassed policy development, knowledge transfer and the documentation of operations such as regeneration reforestation, seed management, thinning and fire recovery within Victorian native State forests. Peter previously carried out applied silvicultural research, largely with the Forests Commission of Victoria, in the period 1971‐1989. In East Gippsland he investigated the impacts of the Cinnamon Fungus and the regeneration of mixed species forests. State‐wide projects included weed control research in plantations, the Young Eucalypt Program in association with CSIRO, and DSE’s Silvicultural Systems Project. Peter has authored or co‐authored over 50 publications and, having retired from the Department of Sustainability and Environment in late 2010, is currently a part‐time forestry consultant, associated with Forest Solutions Pty Ltd. Owen Bassett B.For.Sci. (Melb.), MIFA Owen is the founding Director of Forest Solutions Pty Ltd, a private consultancy that provides silviculture advice to organisations managing native eucalypt forests. Since 2008, Owen has completed a number of Victorian Government projects, including a review of commercial forestry in western Victoria, and the recovery of young Ash forests following numerous bushfires. His major clients include the former Department of Environment and Primary Industries, VicForests, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and HVP Plantations. Owen has specialised in native forest silviculture since graduating in 1987. He began his career in research, studying eucalypt seed development during the Silvicultural Systems Project (SSP). In the early 1990s he began what is today one of the world’s longest, continuous floral monitoring studies for a forest tree species (E. regnans forests of the Central Highlands). Owen also spent nearly two years with Forestry Tasmania (1996‐1998), undertaking silvicultural research at the Warra LTER site. He has authored or co‐authored over 30 publications.