Tallaganda State Forest
History of harvesting in Tallaganda State Forest
The Tallaganda area comprises around 22,000 hectares of National Park and 24,000 hectares of State Forest. Sections of Tallaganda State Forest have been harvested for timber and regrown every year since the 1970s.
Forestry Corporation has been appointed to manage State forests for a range of purposes and each part of each forest has been classified under the forest management zoning system based on the conservation value of the area. The Regional Forest Agreements established a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve network across the landscape and established the areas of State forest that are available to be harvested and regrown. Each part of each State forest has been classified under the forest management zoning system based on the conservation value of the area.
Under this framework, the area of Tallaganda State Forest that is available for selective harvesting is 13,184 hectares or 29 per cent of the total forested area, with the remaining 71 per cent of this forest managed for conservation and never harvested. Since 1977, less than one per cent of the total forested area has been harvested for timber each year, and every harvested area is regrown after each operation.
The southern tablelands forests including Tallaganda State Forest are the source of more than a third of the timber supplied from the south coast for floorboards, decking and other timber products.
Greater Gliders
Greater gliders are known to use Tallaganda State Forest and the ruleset that governs native forest harvesting ensure measures are put in place to support healthy populations of gliders.
Native forest operations are managed under the conditions of the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA). The CIFOA is designed to establish strong habitat protection across the landscape including in areas that are permanently managed for conservation and throughout areas that are periodically harvested and regrown.
The CIFOA, which came into place in 2018, requires more hollow-bearing trees to be set aside than under the previous regulations. Hollow bearing trees are identified and permanently retained throughout the harvesting areas whether or not individuals are spotted using the hollows, recognising that trees containing hollows of the appropriate size are used by gliders as den trees and are a critical habitat component for many arboreal species including the Greater Glider.
The CIFOA is supported by ongoing interagency monitoring to continually assess how the conditions are working and ensure they are providing protection to the species in the forest.
In Tallaganda State Forest, Forestry Corporation has been carrying out monitoring of burnt and unburnt forests following the 2019-20 fires. In this monitoring, over 40 kilometres of spotlight transects found almost 400 greater gliders in areas affected by the 2019-20 bushfires and unburnt forest, as well as areas of forest which are unharvested and areas which have previously been harvested for timber. These survey results contribute to the evidence that landscape level conservation measures in concert with site specific habitat conservation supports a thriving Greater Glider population.
Thermal drone trials to help identify Greater Glider dens
Our staff are trialing new ways of searching for Greater Glider dens in the wake of proposed introduction of survey requirements for this species tabled by the Environment Protection Authority.
Broad area habitat searches
The ruleset governing native forestry operations requires Forestry Corporation to carry out ecological surveys during the planning process as well as a specific type of survey known as a broad area habitat search immediately before harvesting. Broad area habitat searches are carried out by qualified and trained staff who search throughout the harvesting area to identify and protect environmental features such as drainage lines, threatened plants, trees to be retained, steep slopes, habitat features such as threatened ecological communities, raptor nests, bat roosts or caves, and evidence or records of threatened species.
These searches identify hollow-bearing trees as well as a range of other features and require a proportion of hollow-bearing trees to be protected during harvesting operations. The trees protected in the harvest area are additional to the many more hollow-bearing trees that would be found in every hectare that is permanently protected within the State forest as well as those hollow-bearing trees throughout the more than 20,000 hectares of adjoining national park.
During planning for the current Tallaganda operations, in addition to setting aside nearly 300 hectares for permanent protection within the operational area, Forestry Corporation identified and protected over 5400 hollow bearing trees. These trees are protected specifically to provide habitat for gliders and other species but are only defined as a den tree if a glider is seen entering or exiting a hollow during the survey.
The harvesting regime being used during the current operations is Single Tree Selection (STS), a silvicultural practice where high value products (like sawlogs) are selected individually for removal and habitat and hollow bearing trees along with smaller younger growers are retained.
Stop work order
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) issued a stop work order in August 2023 related to greater glider dens. The stop work order remains in place.
Since the initial stop work order was issued, Forestry Corporation has worked with the EPA to address the concerns raised around searching for Greater Glider den trees.
Forest ecology teams have conducted searches for Greater Gliders and den trees using thermal drones and this data has been shared with the EPA.
Forestry Corporation will continue working with the EPA to address their concerns as well as support the harvesting contractors, the small family business operators, who have been stood down from work during this time.