Forestry in Australia

What is forestry?

Forestry is the practical application of scientific, economic and social principles to the establishment and management of ecosystems dominated by trees, or at least where trees are major components of an ecosystem. This means that forestry encompasses management of natural high forests, woodlands, plantations and the various combinations of trees and agricultural activities known as agroforestry, or farm forestry.

Forest management is concerned with the ecosystem as a whole, integrating all components of a particular ecosystem to achieve the objectives set by the forest or land owner. Forest management problems often require a multi-disciplinary approach, so a forester may work with other professionals such as, zoologists, hydrologists, economists, entomologists, or accountants.

A unique characteristic of forestry is its focus on the long term sustainability of forested ecosystems. This requires that foresters deal with day-to-day variables, such as weather, but also consider the long term view often more than 100 years. Planning is therefore a large part of forest management: short term planning for each season of a year and long term planning to enure that all other activities contribute to the long term objectives of management.

Why does Australia need foresters?

Australia has 155 million hectares of native forests, including 43.8 million hectares of closed forest and open forest. Some 22.3 million hectares of closed and open forest is either privately owned or leasehold while the balance is multiple use forest (11.0 million hectares), conservation reserves (8.4 million hectares) or other categories of public ownership (2.1 million hectares) (BRS 1998).

In addition, there are about 1 million hectares of plantations, mostly introduced softwoods. The bulk of the plantations in the past have been owned by State Governments, but there is an increasing trend towards private ownership of plantations and also toward share farming systems of plantation establishment on farmland. These forests and plantations require protection from and the management of the effect of wildfires and other damaging agents such as insects and diseases. They also require planning and management to provide a wide range of goods and services for the community, such as pure water, recreation, timber products, nature conservation, honey, wildflowers and so on. Planning and management increasingly involve community participation at various stages of these processes, so foresters need to be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people and groups in the community.

Australia imports about one-third of its forest products - $3.8 billion worth in 2000/01 (ABARE, 2001).Much of this could be grown in Australia so there is great scope for increased forestation of farms with commercial tree plantations.

All forests must be actively managed if they are to provide the services required by the owners and if they are to be sustainable in the long term. Foresters are employed by State national park agencies and forest services, government departments, as well as by private companies who own extensive plantations. Some foresters also work independently as consultants.

What do foresters do?

There is a wide variety of specialisations available in the forestry profession. Some foresters are concerned with planning of field operations to minimise soil erosion, to conserve water catchment values, to provide suitable habitats for native fauna, to ensure that rare and endangered plants or animals are protected and to maintain scenic landscape values, a whole of landscape approach to land management is being undertaken in Australia, which means that foresters interact with farmers, water supply, engineers and soil conservation officers to achieve better coordinated and more sustainable systems of land management.

Protection of forests from fire is major function of foresters in Australia. Foresters plan and implement strategies for fire prevention, detection and suppression. They devise and maintain the management techniques in the forest to meet objectives of fauna habitat management or regeneration of new forests. They provide equipment for fire fighting and radio communication, and train and direct staff.

Other foresters are involved in tending forests. This is called silviculture, which means the establishment or regeneration of forests and their subsequent thinning, pruning or wed control. Silviculture also includes production of seed for new forests, often using sophisticated genetic improvement techniques, the establishment and management of tree nurseries. Tending forests may require the application of fertiliser, sometimes from the air, and the manipulation of forest composition by the use of fire or carefully controlled tree harvesting. A vast amount of information on tree growth and growth rates under different cultural conditions is needed for making silvicultural decisions.

The business of forest management requires foresters to undertake inventories of growing stock in forests, to forecast future growth of a variety of forest products, to estimate community demand for forest products, and to identify optimum strategies for forest management. The latter requires the use of advanced modelling techniques and computer based decision tools. Foresters make use of computer based land information systems and geographic information systems for analysing the outcomes of various options for management.

Some foresters are engaged in organising and controlling the harvest of timber from forests for the production of sawn timber for house construction, furniture manufacture, plywood, particleboard, poles, posts, fuel wood and for paper pulp. Other forest products are tannin bark, gums, resins, essential oils, honey and forage for livestock.

For timber harvesting, areas to be felled or thinned are identified and carefully planned to meet the requirements for environmental protection, soil and water conservation, fire protection, regeneration of the forest if required, market requirements and the economics of harvesting equipment. Harvesting involves a considerable amount of forest engineering skill to locate and construct roads, bridges and other facilities.

Foresters may be involved in the processing, utilisation and marketing of forest products. They may provide technical expertise to ensure efficient use of timber, better timber seasoning, development of new wood adhesives and better methods of preservation of wood against rot and termites.

All forest operations are supported by scientific research, and there is a very wide variety of research undertaken by forest managing agencies or companies, by CSIRO, by cooperative research centres and by universities. Often, research activities are associated with extension work, taking the results of research to users, either in government agencies or in the agricultural community, in the case of agroforestry.

Who employs foresters?

The Federal Government's wood and paper industry strategy (Forest Taskforce 1995) includes an estimate that around 82,500 people work in forest, logging and forest products industries. The forest products industries as a group are Australia's second largest manufacturing industry and a major regional employer.

Almost all publicly owned native forests are owned by the States and territories, so many foresters are employed by State/territorial forest services or national park and wildlife agencies. In recent years an increasing number of foresters have been employed by private companies, especially in connection with plantation management. There are many independent consultant foresters who work with farmers on plantation establishment or management, or in landcare activities, with mining companies and water catchment agencies.

How to become a Forester

The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, the University of Melbourne, Vic., and the Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW and at Mt Gambier S.A. all offer four year undergraduate courses in forestry (course is currently being reviewed) with a variety of options for specialisation, as well as postgraduate courses. The University of Queensland offers an undergraduate course in Tropical Forestry. About 30 students graduate each year.

A person who wishes to study forestry can undertake the whole course at any the above mentioned Universities, should obtain a University Handbook which outlines pre-requisite high school subjects and details of courses or look up respective University websites.

For further information about Australian Forestry go to:  http://www.daff.gov.au/forest_veg