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“A good productive forest can return the same dollars as grazing.”

That’s according to advocate Sean Ryan from Private Forestry Southern Queensland, who says while it’s a long term investment, adoption of good management of private forestry, can drought proof property, increase cash flow and improve green credentials.

This audio link  is a 15   minute  discussion with various interviewees; Sean’s discussion is approximately 5 minutes.

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Spotted Gum

On favourable sites, these species grow to 45 m in total height and 1.3 m in stem diameter, but attain only half these dimensions on poorer sites. They have straight slender trunks with smooth bark. This is shed in patches leaving slight depressions in the surface, which give a characteristic spotted appearance. Colour tones range from pink to grey-blue. Corymbia citriodora subsp variegata occurs mainly in the coastal areas of northern NSW andsouthern Queensland, but also in western areas of southern Queensland. C. citriodora subsp.citriodora – mid-north NSW coast to the Windsor Tableland, north Queensland. C. maculata – Bega (NSW) to mid-north NSW coast, and also a disjunct occurrence in eastern Victoria. C. henryi - northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

Sawn timber from these species has been readily available from native forests, and spotted gum is currently the highest volume native hardwood harvested in Queensland. Open the PDF to see a sequence of photos depicting the stages of harvest for a Spotted Gum forest in South East Qld     

 Spotted gum sequence - Standing Timber to Milled Timber

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Qualifications and experience: 35 years experience in State Government Forest Service including research, plantation establishment and native forest management.

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Menzies, Forestry Extension Officer – Employment commenced February 2007

Qualifications and Experience: Bachelor of Science,(Environmental Science) and Certificate 11 Horticulture.  David has spent some time within DPI&F and has extensive skills in Mapping, GIS and GPS interpretation.

Duties:  Support the Executive Officer in management plan deliveries, Field Day and Capability training.

           

Bronwyn Lloyd - Administration Officer Employment Commenced: 19/08/2006 (Full time) Qualifications and experience: Extensive experience in office administration, payroll, accounts, etc

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Paul Daly has been appointed by South East Queensland Catchments and Landcare, so property owners can find out just how much their land is worth as a carbon sink. He will estimate and register carbon sinks, which are plantings conducted on private land since 1990.

Mr Daly, a farm forestry extension officer, examines the size, age and condition of a forest and rates it according to a formula.
If sold to a carbon emitter, the landholder receives 60 per cent of returns; 10 per cent is put aside in an insurance pool in case fire or disease destroys the trees; and the remainder goes to management, assessment and trading costs.

Mr Daly said yesterday the southeast was a prime place for carbon trading because its eucalypt species had strong growth rates. Sub-tropical eucalypts grew far more quickly than southern species, making them of greater value in a carbon-trading scheme.
An average hectare of southeast eucalypt country could store between 10 tonnes and 20 tonnes of carbon. Currently this was trading at $20 a tonne. “But what grows at Kin Kin and Bellthorpe (Sunshine Coast hinterland) is different to what grows in the Lockyer (drier country southwestof Brisbane) and has different storage levels,” he said.

Mr Daly said the project would deliver an income stream to owners of land not being used for agriculture.“It also delivers the inherent benefits of revegetation, including stock and crop protection, improvement of erosion and soil salinity problems and invigorated biodiversity, all of which promotes greater productivity on the land,” he said.

Landcare’s role was the creation of a not-for-profit carbon pool called Carbonsmart which handled trading. It started in southern states last year. Carbon credits were sold from the carbon pool to people who wanted to offset their carbon-producing activities, such as an electricity producer. The scheme provided a financial incentive for landholders to maintain eligible carbon credit vegetation on their land for 100 years. Landholders receive annual payments and if the price of carbon rises, so do payments.

Carbonsmart managing director Matthew Reddy said his organisation had traded more than $1 million in contracts since starting in March last year.

It is estimated carbon trading worldwide will be worth more than $3 trillion by 2020.

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However within the private resource there are a scattering of exceptional forest managers who have developed their own systems, achieving much higher productivity within their forests than adjacent State owned forests. These managers have also positively influenced State forest management on specific issues such as fire management. This paper discusses the history of PNF management and compares the positive government policy initiatives for the future of the industry with the actual on ground constraints and impediments of legislation and lack of action on government initiatives. It isolates the champions and demonstrates their system’s sustainability and productivity outcomes and outlines their involvement in furthering research and education for the industry.Click here for the full presentation

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