Developing tree retention strategies for hollow-dependent arboreal marsupials in the wood production eucalypt forests of eastern Australia

Abstract

Summary Hollow-dependent fauna have been identified, as a group, to be vulnerable to the effects of timber harvesting in eucalypt forests. Australian forest management agencies apply prescriptions to mitigate these effects on sites harvested for timber. We review the efficacy of these prescriptions with respect to the conservation of eight species of hollow-dependent arboreal marsupial commonly found in forests managed for wood production in eastern Australia. For each species we summarise information on the dimensions of hollows occupied, the diameter of nest trees, whether the species utilises hollows in dead trees, the extent to which resources other than hollows in standing trees are utilised as nest sites, the number of nest trees occupied within the home range, the distance between nest trees utilised by the species and the extent to which the species will co-occupy the nest tree with other species. These data are then compared with a range of prescriptions employed in Australian forests. We draw the following conclusions regarding current management practice: (1) prescriptions should provide better guidelines with respect to the types of trees that should be chosen for retention, such as appropriate tree species, tree diameter and hollow sizes; (2) greater emphasis should be given to retaining dead trees on logged sites, but only in addition to living stems; (3) prescriptions should be modified according to the habitat requirements of the species that may occur on a given site, rather than applied generically across large areas of forest; (4) in many instances, the number of trees prescribed for retention does not appear to reflect the range of ecological issues that must be considered when making decisions of this nature, such as the need to conserve the diversity of hollow-dependent fauna present on a site and the fact that many of these species utilise more than one hollow within their home range; and (5) there is evidence to suggest that the spacing of retained trees following the application of some prescriptions does not meet the requirements of a number of the hollow-dependent arboreal marsupials examined.