Planning an operation
Operations are planned in line with strict conditions. Find out more.
Operations are planned in line with strict conditions. Find out more.
Wildlife habitat is protected in forestry operations. More.
Aboriginal sites and places are protected in consultation with local communities.
The areas available for renewable timber production were identified through the Regional Forest Agreements following a comprehensive regional assessment that set aside a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system. In NSW, the majority of public forests are set aside for conservation and about one per cent of State forests are harvested for timber and regrown each year.
Our Plan Portal shows where operations will be planned over the next 12 months.
In the areas that are managed to be periodically harvested for timber and regrown, there are strict conditions that were developed by expert scientific panels to regulate operations and ensure habitat is protected. Forestry Corporation employs a local team of professional ecologists, planners and forest technicians that undertakes surveys and prepares comprehensive plans in line with the robust regulations.
Operations are planned in line with the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA), which sets strict environmental conditions and is independently regulated by the Environment Protection Authority.
Areas including rainforest and old growth forests, wetlands and riparian zones, threatened ecological communities, ridge and headwater habitat and rocky outcrops are permanently protected
There are strict conditions to ensure plants and animals remain in the harvested areas and that their habitat is protected. Within the harvest area, broad area habitat searches are carried out to identify and retain hollow-bearing trees, giant-trees and various nest, den, roost trees and nectar or feed trees.
Protection of koalas and their habitat is a core priority and Forestry Corporation must comply with detailed regulations that require feed trees and habitat to be identified and protected. These regulations were developed by expert scientific panels on the basis of ongoing research. This research shows that koalas continue to occupy forests where timber harvesting takes place at the same rate as unharvested forests. Read about the Department of Primary Industries' ongoing koala research and read the Natural Resources Commission's research report on koala response to harvesting in north coast State forests.
Forestry Corporation is committed to protecting the habitat of Greater Gliders and other threatened species using NSW State forests.
The CIFOA conditions were designed by the EPA and groups of independent experts that recognised that the most important features to protect in areas with Greater Glider populations are hollow bearing trees. Under the CIFOA, a precautionary approach is taken to identify trees with hollows and mark these for protection whether or not Greater Gliders or other hollow using species are identified in the forest. Dens used by Greater Gliders are in older age class trees with large obvious hollows that have an entrance larger than 20 centimetres in diameter and a large cavity in which to shelter. Trees with these features are identified and marked for protection even if a Greater Glider or other hollow using species is not detected.
Forestry Corporation has been carrying out a broad cross-State Forest monitoring program for Greater Gliders for many years. Specific surveys were carried out following the 2019-20 fires and Forestry Corporation is also collaborating with the Department of the Environment and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to undertake koala, Spotted-tailed Quoll and large forest owl monitoring programs in the Tallaganda area.
In NSW, critical Swift Parrot habitat is the flowering resource rather than nesting habitat. The flowering resource is widespread and sporadic and the birds respond through their mobility, with Swift Parrots recorded in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour and through the Riverina. The identification and protection of habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the Swift Parrot, is a priority. Read more about swift parrot protection.
Identification and protection of Aboriginal sites and places is done in consultation with local communities in line with Forestry Corporation’s Cultural Heritage Guidelines. Forestry Corporation employs a dedicated team of Aboriginal Partnerships Liaisons who work closely with local communities to carry out cultural heritage surveys and ensure cultural heritage is protected in all operations.
Information about cultural sites belongs to Aboriginal communities and is kept confidential, so while details are included in the operational plans and maps that are provided to staff and contractors working in the forest to ensure the cultural heritage protections are correctly applied, cultural heritage information is never included in public versions of harvest plans.
Forestry Corporation has also been working closely with the Darkingjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, NSW Police, the Environment Protection Authority and local councils to address damage by vandals and significant illegal dumping in the vicinity of cultural heritage sites within Ourimbah State Forest. Forestry Corporation has removed substantial volumes of illegally dumped rubbish, installed protective gates to minimise further damage and restricted public access to walking only in this area.
You can find out more about our partnerships in the video below.
Protecting the health of waterways is a priority and there are a number of environmental protections in place to ensure this is properly managed in all forestry operations, with the measures put in place to protect waterways developed by expert scientific panels following extensive research. Research published by the University of New England has demonstrated that the best practice measures used by Forestry Corporation to protect water quality during our operations are effective. This reinforces more than four decades of monitoring data that has consistently demonstrated the water from State forests is among the best in the landscape.
Forestry Corporation maintains a network of around 60,000 kilometres of forest roads, that complement the public road network and are freely available to use for recreation and as alternative access routes. However, State forest roads do not form part of the primary road network and are primarily maintained to support forest management. Forest roads may routinely be obstructed or closed and during extreme fire danger periods it is not uncommon for entire forests to be closed for safety reasons. Accordingly, forest roads should not be relied upon as an alternative route.
Forestry Corporation is a statutory firefighting authority and manages hazard reduction and firefighting in collaboration with other land managers and the Rural Fire Service. In addition to hazard reduction, Forestry Corporation makes a substantial investment in training and retaining local firefighting staff, maintaining and upgrading equipment and improving key forest roads to aid rapid fire detection and quick response across the forest estate during the fire season. Forestry Corporation ensures strategic roads and fire trails are maintained and accessible to firefighting vehicles for firefighting purposes.
Read more about Forestry Corporation's fire management.
Forestry operations are active worksites and are high risk environments, with heavy machinery and hazards that can cause serious injury. For the community's safety, forest worksites are closed to the public. Closures are listed on our website as well as on signs in the forest. Please pay attention to these closures and do not put yourself or our staff or contractors at risk by entering an active worksite.
We continue to engage with community groups interested in our operations and areas of State forests where there are no active operations - which is approximately 99 per cent of the estate - remain open to local communities for recreation. Regulation and monitoring of forestry activities is the responsibility of the Environment Protection Authority, who carry out robust and independent audits within these active worksites to ensure compliance with the strict regulations governing forestry in NSW.
Timber is the most renewable building product available. It is the only major building product that stores carbon for the life of the products harvested and has a lower carbon footprint than alternatives such as concrete or steel. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognises that sustainably managed production forests that maintain carbon in growing trees while producing an annual yield of timber deliver a large, sustained climate change mitigation benefit. In Australia, carbon credits are not available for stopping sustainable timber harvesting because research has demonstrated that this is likely to lead to perverse environmental outcomes. This is because carbon calculations must take into account the impact of sourcing timber and wood products from elsewhere or of using alternative, more carbon intensive, products such as concrete and steel.
Find out more about carbon in State forests and visit the Department of Primary Industries website for details about carbon research.
Forestry Corporation has been appointed to manage tourism and recreation, roads, pests and weeds, conservation and fire across two million hectares of public land on behalf of the NSW Government, the cost of which is largely offset by revenue from timber production.
Forestry Corporation also receives an annual Community Services Obligation grant, which is a fee-for-service that covers some of the cost of providing community facilities such as free visitor areas, community roads, management of one million hectares that are permanently set aside for conservation and other services that a private commercial forest manager would not deliver. In recent years, this grant has been more than offset by the annual dividend paid back to the NSW Government. Following the 2019-20 fires, Forestry Corporation has invested many millions of dollars in recovery works such as rebuilding community roads and bridges and making forests safe and has reduced timber production in regions impacted by fires in response to environmental considerations. This has increased costs and decreased timber revenue in the recovery period.
As well as delivering income that offsets the cost of managing land on behalf of the community, forestry operations provide substantial economic benefit by supplying dozens of local mills and businesses that harvest and process forest products and employ local community members. In NSW, more than 40 per cent of the 22,000 forest industry jobs are in regional areas. NSW has the most hardwood sawmills in Australia, which largely rely on native forests.