Renewable timber harvesting in Cherry Tree State Forest
Cherry Tree State Forest is a regrowth forest that has been previously harvested and regrown and is managed for multiple uses, including environmental conservation, recreation and renewable timber production.
In NSW, the majority of public forests are set aside for conservation and a small proportion is available for renewable timber production. About one per cent of the State forest estate harvested for timber and regrown each year, which is around 0.1 per cent of the broader forested landscape, and each harvested area is completely regrown.
Forestry Corporation has carefully planned an operation to selectively harvest timber from parts of Cherry Tree State Forest and regenerate the entire area. These operations are tightly regulated by robust prescriptions developed by expert scientific panels to protect flora and fauna, soil and water and biodiversity and operations are independently audited to ensure compliance. Detailed plans for this operation are available on our Plan Portal. See the video below for more information about planning a native forest operation.
Sustainable timber harvesting and deforestation
Deforestation is neither permitted nor planned in NSW State forests. Deforestation is the permanent removal of trees to make room for something other than forest, such as farms or development. State forests on the other hand are managed sustainably for a range of values including environmental conservation, tourism and recreation and renewable timber production. State forests are selectively harvested for renewable timber and regrown in perpetuity, ensuring the same forests that have produced timber for the past 100 years continue to produce timber for the next 100 years and beyond, while also supporting rich biodiversity and thriving wildlife populations.
Forestry Corporation’s operations are managed responsibly, independently regulated, regularly audited and certified to the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management, Responsible Wood and make a positive contribution to climate change mitigation.
This is because timber is the most renewable building product available; it stores carbon for the life of the products harvested and it has a lower carbon footprint than alternatives such as concrete or steel, and it is a product that is in high demand from communities. 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.
Find out more about carbon and forests.
Protecting flora and fauna
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.
Areas including rainforest and old growth forests, wetlands and riparian zones, threatened ecological communities, ridge and headwater habitat and rocky outcrops are permanently protected and 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.
Soil and water
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.
Recovery from the 2019-20 wildfires
The recovery and health of forests and wildlife following the 2019-20 fires is paramount, which is why renewable timber production is so carefully managed, particularly in the post-fire landscape. During the past year, the majority of operations on the north coast have moved to timber plantations to reduce operations in native forests.
While the 2019-20 fires impacted large areas, the severity of impact was not uniform across the landscape. Fire severity is important to consider, as areas affected by low severity fire are expected to have less impact and quicker recovery than areas burnt at high severity. Forestry Corporation completed an environmental assessment that takes into account mapped fire severity across the landscape and identified additional environmental safeguards to augment the CIFOA. The CIFOA is also underpinned by monitoring and adaptive management approach, and to this end a detailed long-term monitoring program is currently being developed by the Natural Resources Commission that specifically monitors post-fire recovery. In line with adaptive management principles, data from these monitoring programs will be used to continually assess the effectiveness of conditions and inform future management.
Roads and access
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. As part of this operation, Forestry Corporation has upgraded key roads in Cherry Tree State Forest, which further enhances rapid response capabilities.
Read more about Forestry Corporation's fire management.
Safety
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.