About the program
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Course descriptions
2009 Australian joint course
The 2009 Australian joint course provides an introduction to Australia's forests and forestry. The course is based at the University of Melbourne's Creswick campus from 9th - 20th February, and will include field trips visiting a wide range of southeast forests. In addition to providing an introduction to the national and international policy context for forest management, the subject will provide a sound theoretical and practical understanding of the major ecological processes in forest ecosystems, including a functional appreciation of forest soils.
The course is co-convened by Professor Peter Kanowski (ANU) and Dr Chris Weston (Melbourne). For more information, contact Chris Weston.
2009 Asia-Pacific joint course
This course comprises 14 days (including travel) in two components; in and around Bangkok, Thailand. The first component (organised by UM) will draw from regional forestry organisations and experts, to set the context for forestry and forest policy in the region. The second component (organised jointly by UQ and SCU) highlights how forest management is undertaken within a social, economic and environmental context and includes visits to smallholders, local communities and government agencies involved in forest management. The social and political context of forest management is highlighted, along with the development of national level policy and the implementation issues of this policy at a local level.
For more information contact Rod Keenan (UM), Jack Baynes or John Herbohn (UQ)
Partnership courses
This subject provides and overview of forest & plantation harvesting operations including mechanized harvesting methods, cable yarding, transportation systems, forest road management, and harvest planning. It involves application of harvesting and operations cost assessment techniques and planning software to help frame problems and provide information for contemporary forest & plantation management. Students will apply the information learned in the course to develop a harvesting plan and present the plan. At the end of the subject students should be able to:
- describe the capabilities and limitations of harvesting, transportation & operations equipment and systems that are used in different native forest and plantation applications;
- identify the appropriate variables that affect harvesting productivity, cost, and safe working conditions;
- obtain operations productivity rates, calculate machine rates, and harvesting cost;
- use current harvesting software to aide decision making, and forest or plantation planning;
- complete a forest/plantation harvesting plan that includes all aspects of roads and transportation planning, tree harvesting, and meeting environmental, regulatory, and social management objectives.
This partnership course will be taught at the University of Melbourne’s Creswick campus from June 22 – July 3 2009. The coordinators of this subject are Mr Mark Brown and Professor Loren Kellogg. For further information, contact Mark Brown or see www.forests.unimelb.edu.au
Forests and Water: Issues around the World
Water is the resource that most limits national development in many areas of the world. Droughts and floods are still major causes of human misery. Humans compete with vegetation for water, and the “balanced use of water resources” is a continuing debate. This subject takes the view that all water resource issues involve technical, social, political and economic aspects and attempts to untangle the issues and define "solutions." The subject involves considerable introductory hydrology including the hydrologic cycle, principles of stream flow, groundwater movement, and water quality. The subject will involve a mixture of lectures, “doing it” tasks including graphical and statistical analysis, excursions, and discussions. Particular stress will be placed on the problems of international rivers and a hydrologic system that does not recognise private property boundaries. Grading of the subject will be based on completion of a workbook of set tasks plus two major assignments, one of which will be an analysis of a long-term sequence of data and one will be an examination of a complex hydrologic issue. The subject will involve an overnight excursion to the River Murray examining issues associated with management of the river for diverse human and ecological needs.
his partnership course will be taught at the University of Melbourne’s Creswick campus from July 13 – July 24 2009. The coordinator of this subject is Associate Professor Leon Bren. For further information, contact Leon or see www.forests.unimelb.edu.au
Participatory Resource Management: Addressing Environmental Conflict
There is increasing recognition of the need to actively involve different stakeholders and communities in the process of making decisions about natural resource management (NRM). This course provides a critical review of participatory resource management (PRM) approaches, exploring when and why different PRM processes succeed or fail to resolve conflicts between stakeholders. Students learn the theories underpinning different PRM approaches, and practical skills such as group facilitation, stakeholder analysis and how to design and manage participatory processes. A series of guest speakers discuss recently implemented Australian and international participatory processes, and the class evaluates the factors that affected the success or otherwise of these processes. Recent research is reviewed to identify how theory and practice is shifting in the rapidly evolving field of PRM.
The course assessment is designed to ensure students apply the facilitation skills being taught, and that students can explore topics of particular interest to them in the field of PRM. For more information, contact Jacki Schirmer.
Silviculture and Forest Dynamics
This subject presents the science used in the management of native forest and plantations, covering forest establishment, composition, growth and quality to achieve specified objectives. It explores the ‘silvics’ of tree species and their influence on growth and management for the production of forest goods and environmental services. It covers the silvicultural principles and practices important to achieving the range of objectives for forested land such as water, wildlife habitat, or timber production. On completion of this subject, students should have an advanced understanding of: the dynamics and growth of forests and different stages of stand development, the effects of site climatic and edaphic factors and interactions among species on forest stand development and productivity and the design of silvicultural management practices for specific situations and products using modern modelling tools.
This partnership course will be taught at the University of Melbourne’s Creswick campus from August 17-28 2009. The co-convenors of this subject are Mr Mark Stewart and Dr Peter Ades. For further information, contact Mark Stewart or see www.forests.unimelb.edu.au
Quantifying Forest Ecosystems: Modern Techniques of Forest Inventory
Please note: this course is being offered at U Melbourne's Creswick campus.
This course promotes student understanding of the art and science of measuring and modelling forest resources. These resources include biomass and carbon pools, timber, and habitat potentially exploited by native fauna. Specifically, the aim is to:
- Review and further develop the principles of measurement;
- Present the state of the art and methodologies applicable for modern forest inventory;
- Present methods for formulation and planning an effective and efficient inventory; and,
- Enable participants to implement a modern inventory system and determine the advantages and disadvantages of available systems.
Topics include: introduction to sampling theory; issues involved in effective inventory design; equal and unequal probability sampling techniques; modern mensuration tools and techniques; designing and implementing an unequal probability-based inventory; and examining a modern national inventory system (e.g. National Carbon Accounting System). For more information, contact Cris Brack.
Sustainable forest management involves the integration of a wide range of economic, environmental and social values. This subject presents the basis for sustainable forest management, the policy framework governing forest management, the scientific basis of landscape ecology and tools and techniques for analysis, design of management practices in forest landscapes and processes for successful development and implementation of forest management plans. At the completion of this subject students will have a sound understanding of 1) principles of forest management planning, sustainable land use and environmental management systems, 2) the policy framework for forest management, including: international conventions, national and state forest management, biodiversity and sustainability policies and codes of forest practice, and 3) techniques in forest landscape design and planning, including; optimisation and zoning of forest land uses; reserve design; integration of multiple objectives such as biodiversity conservation, timber production and water supply; spatial analysis and presentation; public consultation; management plan preparation, implementation and review
This partnership course will be taught at the University of Melbourne’s Creswick campus from November 2 – 13 2009. The coordinator of this subject is Professor Rod Keenan. For further information, contact Rod Keenan or see www.forests.unimelb.edu.au
Plantations and the Environment
Explores the use of planted forests in several different contexts; industrial plantations, farm forestry and restoration ecology. Lectures and field activities will focus on silvicultural inputs to improve plantation productivity in a sustainable manner (e.g. site preparation, weed control, fertilisation, inter-rotational management, pruning, thinning, harvesting) and the impact that plantations have on the environment (e.g. carbon sequestration, water use and water yield, nutrient cycles, biodiversity).
For more information, contact: Neil Davidson
Genetic improvement programs play an important role in improving the profitability of Australia's softwood and hardwood plantations. This unit introduces the application of genetic, economic and biological principles to tree breeding and deployment programs. Specific topics addressed in the unit include Mendelian and quantitative genetics, forest tree breeding strategies and the breeding cycle, bio-economic modelling, breeding objectives, selection criteria and their assessment, experimental design, progeny testing, genetic evaluation and the estimation of genetic worth, reproductive biology, deployment strategies, seed orchard management, clonal production systems and the application of biotechnology.
For more information, contact: Brad Potts (Brad.Potts@utas.edu.au)
If forests are to appreciated, used and managed sustainably, we must be able to measure the amounts in them of those things which are of interest to us. Trees are difficult to measure. They are large, parts of them (their roots) are hidden from sight and parts of them (their leaves and branches) are held in the air, far out of reach. But rather surprisingly, techniques have been developed which allow us to measure various parts of trees using quite unsophisticated equipment. Often, we measure easy to reach parts and then able to use these measurements, with more or less sophisticated mathematical techniques, to estimate the size of the bits of the tree which are difficult to reach or see. This course establishes the principles of forest measurement. It follows measurement progressively at three scales, from individual trees, to groups of trees (stands) and up to measurement over large forest areas (forest inventory as it is called). It is based on the forest measurement textbook written by the lecturer for the course, Prof Phil West (Tree and Forest Measurement. Springer, Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-540-40390-6). Topics covered include measuring tree height, stem diameter and shape, stem wood volume and tree biomass, stand measurement and forest inventory. Consideration is given also to modern, sophisticated techniques of remote sensing at scales from individual trees on the ground to images from satellites.
The course is taught over first semester at Southern Cross University (22nd Feb-15th May 2009). Weekly videolink lectures between students at the Lismore campus and in Mt Gambier lectures are recorded and made available via the internet for subsequent viewing by anyone. Practical classes are conducted progressively during the semester; special arrangements will be needed for these for students outside Lismore or Mt Gambier.
For more information, dowload the flyer or contact: Lyndall Bull (lyndall.bull@anu.edu.au)
Plantation forests are grown to supply wood for building, paper or bioenergy and to provide environmental benefits such as sequestration of carbon, waste disposal, rehabilitation of degraded sites or enhancement of regional biodiversity. Plantation forestry is often like other agricultural enterprises, aiming to produce highly productive forests on relatively small areas of land. To do so requires that much attention be paid to their ‘silviculture’, that is, to the tending of trees to achieve the desired objectives. This course discusses the silvicultural techniques used in plantation forests today. It addresses the science of plantation silviculture and covers the biology of plantation growth, wood quality, species and site selection, cultivation and planting, nutrition, tree spacing, thinning, pruning, pests and diseases, tree breeding and mixed-species plantations.
The course is taught in ‘Socratic’ mode over second semester at Southern Cross University (1st July-16th Sep 2009). It is based about the textbook written by the lecturer for the course, Prof Phil West (Growing Plantation Forests. Springer, Berlin, 2006, ISBN 3-540-32478-X). A set of written questions are provided weekly to students, covering particular chapters of the book. It will be treated as an external unit for students outside Lismore or Mt Gambier.
The behaviour of plants in relation to their environment depends to a large part on their physiological adaptations to deal with those environmental circumstances. Universities often teach courses on plant ecology and on plant physiology, but rarely are the two disciplines brought together to emphasise their close relationship.
The course starts by discussing
- Photosynthesis - this is the basic process through which plants live. And the environment has major influences on it. We keep harking back to it throughout the course.
It then moves to the principal environmental factors which determine plant development
- Water - water availability is the principal environmental factor to which different types of plants have adapted and so determines where different plant communities grow.
- Light - light is essential for photosynthesis. Different types of plants within any one community have developed various adaptations to deal with the different light environments they encounter, depending whether they grow in full sun or in the shade cast by the taller plants within their community.
- Temperature - the temperature environment within which plants grow determines their rate of growth and is a principal factor which has driven the development of different species groups in different parts of the world.
- Nutrients - mineral nutrients from the soil are essential to the biochemical functioning of plants and different species have developed adaptations to deal with the availability to them of nutrients in their native environments.
Finally, things are brought together by discussing
- Evolution - that is how we come to have the different types of plants which occur in various parts of Australia and in the world.
The course is taught at the TAFE SA campus in Mt Gambier, through Southern Cross University. It will be conducted over seven days, in the University inter-semester break 9-12th and 15-17th June 2009. It includes both a lecture component as well as practical classes illustrating the issues discussed. It is taught by Prof Phil West.