Dear colleagues

In Tasmania's native wet eucalypt production forests, there are
currently proposals to increase the harvest volumes ('reduce the
wastage') by harvesting a proportion of what used to be called 'residue'
but which ecologists call coarse woody debris. The aim is to use this
in a wood-fired power station which would feed into the electricity
grid.

Our concerns about this practice will be obvious to members of this
discussion group, but justifying our concerns to those with a more
'utilitarian' vision of forests is proving difficult. What I would like
to know is, are you aware of any research that has looked at this issue
from an ecological perspective in other parts of the world? And if so,
how has it been resolved, or hasn't it?

Our forests have huge natural volumes of CWD, which is why harvesting
some of it is so appealing to the 'utilitarians'. But my feeling is
that the biodiversity associated with CWD here will have evolved
alongside these large volumes, so we can't say that it's OK to take most
of it because there will still be plenty left. Because of the naturally
high volumes of CWD, many of our species are likely to have very low
powers of dispersal, which is why we have proposed prescriptions that
retain CWD on every forestry coupe. The 'utilitarians' would rather
rely on the formal and informal reserve system to ensure the survival of
CWD dependent biodiversity across our forestry landscape: it would make
forestry (and fuelwood harvesting) much simpler.

If you have any views on this that can help us frame ideas for maximum
effect, please let me know.

Thanks

Simon Grove





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Dr Simon J Grove, Conservation Biologist,
Biology and Conservation Branch,
Division of Forest Research and Development
Forestry Tasmania, GPO Box 207, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
Tel. 61 3 6233 8141. Fax 61 3 6233 8292.
Email: simon.grove@....
Web addresses: http://www.forestrytas.com.au/
http://www.warra.com

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