Our operations and sustainable forest management

We supply timber to sawmills throughout NSW and beyond, as well as facilitating a number of commercial recreation and ecotourism-based businesses, events and activities within NSW State forests.

Sustainable forest management is about finding a balance between all the different ways people use forests, while maintaining the unique forest features the community values:

• biodiversity
• clean air and water
• habitat
• cultural heritage.

It is the key to managing forests for the long term.

The NSW State forest estate

We manage around two million hectares of native forests for sustainable timber production, recreation and biodiversity.  Most of the native State forests we manage are regrowth forests, which means the trees we see today have grown to replace trees previously removed for timber.

Only a tiny percentage of State forest land is harvested each year to ensure a sustainable supply of timber into the future and many areas have been harvested and regrown several times over the generations.

We also manage around 200,000 hectares of softwood plantations; producing enough timber to construct a quarter of all the houses built in Australia each year, as well as 35,000 hectares of eucalypt plantations.

Plantation forests are generally established on former plantations or farmland. They are specifically planted and cultivated to be harvested for timber production. Growing a timber plantation is like growing any other agricultural crop, but one that takes many, many years to mature.

Current operations

Detailed information and planning documents relating to our native forest operations can be found in our Plan Portal.

When there is community interest in a particular operation, we also make additional information available on this page. Below are links to more information about some of our current operations.

• Barrington tops road closure update
• Bushfire recovery
• Sugar Pine Walk photo competition
• Harvesting plantations in Tarkeeth State Forest
• Harvesting timber from fire-affected native forests
• Harvesting and replanting the Kinross State Forest plantations
• Managing pests and weeds in State forests
• Timber harvesting in Newry State Forest
• Armidale State Forest rehabilitation project
• Ourimbah State Forest timber harvesting and regenerating
• Renewable timber harvesting in Cherry Tree State Forest
• Hardwood timber plantations
• Harvest and Replant Operations - Old Camp Arboretum, Sunny Corner State forest