Salvage harvesting fire-damaged wet eucalypt forests in south-eastern Australia: some ecological perspectives

Abstract

Summary Recent wildfires burned large areas of native forest in south-eastern Australia. Salvage harvesting will inevitably occur in some areas of burned forest to recover timber and pulpwood, but serious consideration should be given to the intensity of salvage harvesting. In order to provide for forest biodiversity, salvage logging operations must retain sufficient numbers of biological legacies such as living and dead trees that remain in fire-damaged stands and landscapes. Such retention is a critical part of sound forest stewardship which considers both ecological and economic issues, and is consistent with the overarching (and agreed) principles of Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management (ESFM). Retaining biological legacies like living trees, large dead hollow trees, large fallen logs and islands of unburned vegetation is critical for maintaining key ecological processes and creating suitable future habitat for a range of elements of forest biodiversity as stand recovery takes place. Planning where to salvage log, which and how many biological legacies to retain, and where and how to burn slash after salvage logging, will influence the structure of forests and the fate of many forest species for the next several centuries.