Hon. Steve Martin questions the Minister for Forestry regarding the completion, publication, and implementation of ecological thinning trials and timber yield estimates under the new forest management plan. The Minister outlines the government's shift to ecological thinning and its adaptive management approach.

AnsweredQoN 1084Legislative Council
Asked
19 September 2023
Portfolio
Forestry

QuestionView source ↗

NATIVE FOREST —
ECOLOGICAL THINNING
1084. Hon STEVE MARTIN to the Minister for Forestry:
I refer to the Forest Product
Commission's half-yearly report that indicates that the ecological
thinning trials were almost complete.
(1) Are those trials complete and
when will the results be published?
(2) If the trials are not complete,
why not?
(3) Has the FPC
and Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions determined when
ecological thinning will commence under the
new forest management plan; if so, when will that be; and, if not, why not?
(4) Has the FPC
prepared any estimates of likely timber yields from ecological thinning; if so,
will these be published; and, if not, why not?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1)–(4) The
Cook government's historic decision to end native forest logging under
the next forest management plan will move from practices that are based on
commercial timber production to ecological thinning based on forest health
outcomes. Ecological thinning will be implemented under an adaptive management
approach and silvicultural prescriptions will evolve over the first few years
of the new FMP; the trials will be ongoing. The Forest Products Commission is
preparing to start ecological thinning when the new FMP commences, and timber
yields from thinning activities will depend on a range of factors.

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