Sustainable Yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions Sustainable Yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions Published by the NSW Department of Primary Industries Sustainable yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions First published November 2018 ISBN 978-1-76058-287-6 More information Department of Primary Industries, Sydney www.dpi.nsw.gov.au Acknowledgments Forestry Corporation of NSW PUB18/627 © State of New South Wales through the Department of Industry, 2018. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute the NSW Department of Primary Industries as the owner. Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (November 2018). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of the Department of Primary Industries or the user’s independent adviser. Sustainable Yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 2 Forests in NSW ................................................................................................................................................. 8 2.1 Regional Forest Agreements .................................................................................................................. 8 3 Sustainable yield ............................................................................................................................................ 10 3.1 Determining sustainable yield ............................................................................................................. 11 3.2 Allocating sustainable yield .................................................................................................................. 11 3.3 Defining sustainable supply .................................................................................................................. 11 3.4 Annual supply variations ........................................................................................................................ 12 3.5 Risks to maintaining wood supply ..................................................................................................... 12 3.6 Product definitions in wood supply models ................................................................................... 15 3.7 Log quality assumptions ........................................................................................................................ 15 4 Regional sustainable yield estimates ..................................................................................................... 17 4.1 Eden region ................................................................................................................................................. 17 4.1.1 Major forest types in production forests ................................................................................ 17 4.1.2 Industry description ........................................................................................................................ 19 4.1.3 Sustainable wood supply .............................................................................................................. 19 4.1.4 High quality log supply ................................................................................................................. 20 4.1.5 High quality log modelling assumptions ................................................................................ 23 4.1.6 Pulpwood and residue log supply ............................................................................................. 23 4.2 Southern Region - South Coast sub-region ................................................................................... 23 4.2.1 Major forest types in production forests ................................................................................ 24 4.2.2 Industry description ........................................................................................................................ 24 4.2.3 Sustainable wood supply .............................................................................................................. 25 4.2.3.1 High and low quality log supply ........................................................................................... 25 4.2.3.2 Pulpwood and residue log supply ........................................................................................ 25 4.3 Southern region - Tumut sub-region ................................................................................................ 27 4.3.1 Major forest types in production forests ................................................................................ 28 4.3.2 Yellow bellied glider management ........................................................................................... 28 4.3.3 Industry description ........................................................................................................................ 29 4.3.4 Sustainable wood supply .............................................................................................................. 29 4.3.5 Future log supply ............................................................................................................................. 31 2 | NSW Department of Primary Industries, November 2018 Sustainable Yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions 4.4 North East region ...................................................................................................................................... 32 4.4.1 Major forest types in production forests ................................................................................ 32 4.4.2 Hardwood plantation resource .................................................................................................. 35 4.4.2.1 Historic and current planting program ............................................................................... 35 4.4.3 Industry description ........................................................................................................................ 36 4.4.4 Sustainable Wood Supply ............................................................................................................ 36 4.4.5 Species groupings ........................................................................................................................... 36 4.4.6 High quality log supply ................................................................................................................. 39 4.4.7 Low quality log supply ................................................................................................................... 39 4.4.8 Pulpwood and residue log supply ............................................................................................. 40 5 Sustainable yield systems and processes ............................................................................................. 41 5.1 Strategic inventory plots ........................................................................................................................ 43 5.2 Permanent growth plots ........................................................................................................................ 43 5.3 Growth and yield simulator ................................................................................................................... 44 5.4 Area estimates ........................................................................................................................................... 44 5.5 Optimisation ............................................................................................................................................... 45 5.6 Allowance for unpredictable events and model error ................................................................ 45 5.7 Performance monitoring ........................................................................................................................ 45 3 | NSW Department of Primary Industries, November 2018 Sustainable Yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions Executive Summary The purpose of this document is to meet the commitment in the New South Wales Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) to publicly release estimates of sustainable yield for public forests in RFA regions where timber harvesting is permitted. Under the 2018 variations to the NSW RFAs, NSW renewed the commitment to supplying wood from public native forests in RFA regions at or below sustainable yield, and removed volume commitments. This approach is consistent with the NSW Government’s ongoing commitment to ecologically sustainable forest management and with wood supply volumes and arrangements in NSW. The original RFAs contained minimum wood supply volume commitments to industry. Although determined using the best available information at the time, the volumes became out-of-date and did not reflect refinements in modelled sustainable yields, reductions