Australian Forestry: a valued regional forestry journal

Australian Forestry is a peer-reviewed publication published by the Institute of Foresters of Australia that is important to both the forest industry and the forestry research community in Australia. In recent years the journal has struggled to remain viable in the face of a number of structural changes in the Australian forest industry and forestry research community, and increased tension between pressure on academic researchers to publish in journals with a high impact factor and the desire to communicate research results to an industry readership at tolerable cost. In 2014 the management of the journal was changed, including the establishment of a new editorial board to oversee a strategic review of the journal and provide strategic management into the future. As part of this review an extensive survey was commissioned of members of the Institute of Foresters of Australia on their views of the journal. The survey was conducted to get a better profile of both the market within Australian foresters and the expectations of that market. Along with this survey the journal publishing report was reviewed for the previous 2 years. The review was intended to gain insight into the publication results but also see how the publication metrics aligned with the perceptions and expectations provided by the readership survey.

Foreword * Preface * New Challenges for Forest Management * Economics Issues in Ecosystem Approaches to Forest Management * Information Needs for Ecosystem Forestry * Global Standards and Locally Adapted Forestry: The Problems of Biodiversity Indicators * Changing Forest Values in Europe * Empowering the Forest-Dependent Poor in India * Balancing Conflicting Values: Ecosystem Solutions in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada * Wildlife, Loggers and Livelihoods in the Congo Basin * Poor Farmers and Fragmented Forests in Central America * Australian Forestry: 'Beyond One Tenure-One Use' * The Political Ecology of the Ecosystem Approach for Forests * Forests in Landscapes: Expanding Horizons for Ecosystem Forestry * Annexes, Bibliography, Index

The forest industry tends to plan, and model transportation costs based on the potential payload benefits of increased legal gross vehicle weight (GVW) by deploying different configurations, while payload benefits of a configuration can be significantly influenced by the vehicle design tare weight. Through this research the relative benefit of increased legal GVW of different configurations is compared across Australia over a 13-year period from 2006 to 2019, by examining data collected post operation across multiple operations. This approach is intended to offer realistic insight to real operations not influenced by observation and thus reflect long-term operating behaviour. The inclusion of the three most common configuration classes in Australian forestry over a 13-year period has also allowed the exploration of load management between configurations and potential trends over time. When considering the legal GVW and the tare weight impacts across the fleets, the semi-trailer has an 8 t payload disadvantage compared to B-Doubles and 19.6 t disadvantage compared to road trains.

Summary Since the mid-1960s, 28 insecticide sprays or dusts, five fumigants (aluminium phosphide, dazomet, methyl bromide, naphthalene and p-dichlorobenzene) and one microbial insecticide (Bacillus thuringiensis) have been used, mostly in small quantities, by Australian forest services for control of indigenous and accidentally introduced insect pests in native forests, eucalypt or pine plantations, forest nurseries, and wooden structures. All of the applied insecticides have been officially registered for agricultural purposes (which include forestry applications) in each State/Territory under the provisions of a specific Act of Parliament. Until July 1989, the registration of insecticides by State/Territory authorities was subject to stringent evaluation and clearance by the Technical Committee on Agricultural Chemicals, a central authority responsible to the Co-ordinating Committee on Agricultural Chemicals, and through it to the Australian Agricultural Council. Since then, evaluation and clearance for registration has been the function of the Australian Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Council with direct responsibility to the Federal Minister for Primary Industries and Energy. This Council, established under the Commonwealth Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Act (1988), aims to ensure uniformity of assessment and registration of insecticides throughout Australia. In each State, special permits may be issued to allow insecticides to be used for purposes not covered by the registered product label or unregistered insecticides to be used in research trials. Additional legislation in the form of Acts of State Parliament, and Associated Regulations, governs the distribution, application and safe handling of registered insecticides. Most forest authorities now record insecticide purchases and consumption, and all have issued detailed instructions to their staff on spray preparation, storage, disposal, safe transport, spillage, accidental poisoning, loss or theft. The most extensive use of insecticides has been against the indigenous Spur-legged Stick Insect, Didymuria violescens (Phasmatidae), in Victorian ash-type eucalypt forests by aerial spraying with malathion, and for eradication of the accidentally introduced West Indian Drywood Termite, Cryptotermes brevis (Kalotermitidae), in south-eastern Queensland and New South Wales, by fumigating entire buildings and furniture with methyl bromide. In Tasmania, extensive aerial applications of synthetic pyrethroids have been carried out by APPM Forest Products to safeguard young plantations of principally Eucalyptus nitens (Shining Gum) from defoliation by the Tasmanian Eucalyptus Leaf Beetle, Chrysophtharta bimaculata. Outbreaks of all these pests cause serious economic damage when left unchecked. A sustained media campaign critical of pesticide usage in Australia has induced a much greater public awareness of the likely health risks posed by insecticides. Forest services are now committed to limit the use of insecticides and to promote biological and silvicultural techniques as alternative controls. Using insect resistant genotypes in eucalypt plantation programs is also expected to relieve insect pest problems in the future. However, insecticide applications are likely to remain front-line options for eradicating exotic insect pests of high destructive potential and for controlling large outbreaks of indigenous pests in commercial eucalypt plantations or in forest nurseries.

(2009). Forestry and wood products research and promotion moves with the times. Australian Forestry: Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 147-148.

(1978). Instrument for Measuring Tree Lean. Australian Forestry: Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 180-181.

(1983). Experiences and impressions of the Melbourne I.F.A. Conference. Australian Forestry: Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 235-238.

(1956). A CONVENIENT METHOD OF RAISING EUCALYPTUS FROM SEED. Australian Forestry: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 102-103.

(1955). SAMPLING METHODS FOR TIMBER AND WOOD PRODUCTS. Australian Forestry: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 20-25.

SUMMARY The basic and derived units of the Metric System are identified and their application in the forest and timber industries briefly reviewed. A Senate Select Committee has recommended that the Australian Government issue as soon as possible a statement of intent to adopt the Metric System. A changeover period of ten years has been suggested. The main advantages stem from the opportunity to introduce a uniform system of wood measurement throughout the nation and to rationalize codes of timber usage. Immediate consideration of potential problems by the specialized sectional interests within these industries is advocated to minimize the discomforts of transition on M. Day.

Environmental Sustainability Disclosures by Australian Forestry Companies

A variety of debates that surrounded the opening of the Australian Forestry School at Canberra in 1927 illuminate the divergent beliefs about forestry education and conservation policy that many British imperial and Australian foresters and politicians held during the 1910s-1940s. A controversial English-born forester, Charles Edward Lane Poole, lobbied for the School's creation and headed it for many years. The Commonwealth Government supported the School throughout the 1920s-1940s amidst a variety of financial hardships and state criticisms. Many leading foresters throughout the British Empire who were born outside of Australia supported the School. But many professionally trained foresters and Australian politicians who had been born in Australia were more ambivalent or critical of the School. This article traces these contentious debates throughout the years leading up to and following the creation of the Australian Forestry School.

Academic campaigning is hurting Australian forestry

Australian Forestry 2015

‘Discrepancy or error in forest type classification’: Australian Forestry 61: 82–88