Justine Edwards
Principal Researcher
Great Southern
Limited
Albany, Western Australia
Biodiversity is an essential component of plantation forestry
from the micro (soil biodiversity) to the macro (catchment)
scales.
So why do plantation growers place a value on biodiversity?
To start, as land managers we have a fundamental responsibility to
ensure that the health and biodiversity of the soil, water and
general environment are maintained. That is our
responsibility as members of the community, but there are also the
tangible, practical benefits that maintaining biodiversity can
provide.
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Natural predators.
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Healthy soils with a high biodiversity can reduce the
requirement for fertilisers. The health and biodiversity of remnant
vegetation can also have significant management implications.
Degraded remnants, with a high incidence of weeds and pasture (and
therefore rabbit populations) increase the risk of pest and weed
introduction into plantations. Therefore by managing the
health of our remnant vegetation, we are reducing the risk of pest
and weed incursions. Healthy remnant vegetation also acts as
habitat for natural predators, from Wedge-tailed Eagles to natural
insect predators such as wasps, spiders and birds.
There are many benefits in actively managing the biodiversity
values of our environment, with some of the key issues
including:
- Soil biodiversity: maximising soil biodiversity to maintain a
productive environment, particularly as we move into multi-rotation
plantations with competing demands for harvest
residue;
- Water course buffers: re-establishment and management to
protect water courses;
- Water quality and quantity: preservation of both;
- Integrated pest management: encouraging natural predators and
balanced ecosystems;
- Remnant vegetation: Great Southern Limited owns or leases in
excess of 56,000 ha of native remnant vegetation which we have a
responsibility to manage.
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Mosaic Burn.
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Focusing on remnant vegetation as an example, we have a genuine
need to be able to accurately and rapidly classify the biodiversity
value of remnant vegetation. We can then assess how to best
restore and manage the vegetation based on its
classification. On areas not being planted to tree crops,
which will usually be harsher sites, simple and cost effective
procedures to establish biodiversity plantings will be of
value. The impacts plantations have on surrounding
native vegetation (weed incursion, fertiliser impacts etc) also
needs to be quantified so we know what to be aware of and where to
focus our management efforts. Moving away from the ‘on
the ground’ management, there is a need to be able to
determine a value for biodiversity so there is incentive to
preserve these values in an environment that is
business-driven.
The projects within the Biodiversity programme of the CRC will take
significant steps towards providing industry with some of these
answers and GSL is excited to be involved with them. Keep up the
good work!
