FEM061 Forest Management Series June 2015 Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture F.J. Bradshaw Department of Parks and Wildlife Forest and Ecosystem Management Division Department of Parks and Wildlife ` 1 Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture v1.3 Department of Parks and Wildlife Locked Bag 104 Bentley Delivery Centre WA 6983 Phone: (08) 9219 9000 Fax: (08) 9334 0498 www.dpaw.wa.gov.au © Department of Parks and Wildlife on behalf of the State of Western Australia 2015 June 2015 This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 , all other rights are reserved. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Department of Parks and Wildlife. This report was prepared by F J (Jack) Bradshaw. Questions regarding the use of this material should be directed to: Senior Silviculturalist Ecosystem Health Branch Department of Parks and Wildlife Locked Bag 104 Bentley Delivery Centre WA 6983 Phone: (08) 97255972 Email: [email protected] The recommended reference for this publication is: Bradshaw, F.J., (2015) Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture, Forest Management Series FEM061, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Perth. This document is available in alternative formats on request. Please note: urls in this document which conclude a sentence are followed by a full point. If copying the url please do not include the full point. Cover image: Immature jarrah forest, courtesy F.J. Bradshaw ii Department of Parks and Wildlife Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture v1.3 Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture Version: 1.3 Approved by: Director, Forest Last Updated: 3 June 2015 and Ecosystem Management Division Custodian: Senior Silviculturalist Review date: January 2020 Version Date approved Approved by Brief Description number DD/MM/YYYY Minor amendments (minor – custodian. amendments Reviews - Director are .01, .02 etc. Reviews are 1.00, 2.00 etc.) 1.1 11 March 2015 Danielle Updated definitions of old-growth Wiseman forest and update of information relating to climate change and modelling. 1.2 9 April 2015 Danielle Figure 15 re-inserted, Figure 18 Wiseman updated, corrected section 4.1.5 to reference goal of FMP, Additional headings and captions added to figure 26, additional clarification of what was modelled with 3PG in section 4.2.5 para 6, Section 4.3.2 reviewed by Roger Armstrong and some changes made, Section 4.3.3 updated to reflect Vulnerability of Forests in the south west to timber harvesting report, Section 4.5 changed to reflect fact sheet Estimating native forest carbon stocks, glossary terms amended to ensure consistent with FMP and silvics guidelines, duplicate references removed. Department of Parks and Wildlife ` iii Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture v1.3 Minor edits to version 1.3 of the 1.3 2 June 2015 Danielle document are accepted, the document Wiseman underwent a final editorial check to update relevant dates and remove draft watermarks; the document number was inserted in the title page and header, checked that there are colons after Figure X: Table Y:, footers corrected to have the same font throughout, checked page numbering, all headings/sub- headings being kept with following text, check that passages of text/the glossary match (are a copy & paste of) the DFMP (eg, App 14 thereof)/FMP where the text/terms are common to both, Updated ToC iv Department of Parks and Wildlife Forest Management Series Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... viii Introduction ..................................................................................................................... ix 1 The jarrah forest .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Forest types and communities ........................................................................... 1 1.2 Climate ............................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Hydrology ........................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Geology and soils ............................................................................................... 6 1.5 Influence of fire ................................................................................................... 8 1.6 Flora and fauna .................................................................................................. 9 2 The silvics of jarrah ................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Taxonomy ........................................................................................................ 10 2.2 Flowering and seed production ........................................................................ 11 2.3 Plant development stages ................................................................................ 12 2.3.1 Germination ............................................................................................... 12 2.3.2 Seedling ..................................................................................................... 12 2.3.3 Lignotuberous seedling ............................................................................. 13 2.3.4 Seedling coppice ....................................................................................... 13 2.3.5 Ground coppice ......................................................................................... 13 2.3.6 Stump coppice ........................................................................................... 14 2.3.7 Saplings, poles and mature trees .............................................................. 15 2.4 Stand development .......................................................................................... 15 2.4.1 Regeneration dynamics ............................................................................. 15 2.4.2 Competition and site potential ................................................................... 17 2.5 Response to fire ............................................................................................... 18 2.6 Water relationships .......................................................................................... 20 3 Forest structure ......................................................................................................... 24 3.1 Range of stand structures ................................................................................ 24 3.2 Structural attributes of stand development stages ........................................... 27 3.2.1 Establishment stage .................................................................................. 27 3.2.2 Juvenile stage ............................................................................................ 27 3.2.3 Immature stage .......................................................................................... 27 3.2.4 Mature stage .............................................................................................. 27 Department of Parks and Wildlife ` v Reference material for jarrah forest silviculture v1.3 3.2.5 Senescent stage ........................................................................................ 28 3.2.6 Old-growth forest ....................................................................................... 28 4 Sustainable forest management ............................................................................... 31 4.1 Conservation of biodiversity ............................................................................. 33 4.1.1 Conservation strategies ............................................................................. 34 4.1.2 Biodiversity of the jarrah forest .................................................................. 36 4.1.3 Structural complexity ................................................................................. 39 4.1.4 Genetic conservation ................................................................................. 46 4.1.5 Fire and biodiversity .................................................................................. 46 4.1.6 Mining and biodiversity .............................................................................. 47 4.1.7 Climate Change ......................................................................................... 47 4.2 Maintenance of productive capacity ................................................................. 49 4.2.1 Factors influencing silvicultural practice .................................................... 49 4.2.2 Monitoring of regeneration ......................................................................... 62 4.2.3 Fire management ...................................................................................... 63 4.2.4 Summary of silvicultural methods in the jarrah forest ................................ 64 4.2.5 Climate change .......................................................................................... 71 4.3 Maintenance of ecosystem health and vitality .................................................. 73 4.3.1 Pests and disease ....................................................................................