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Skyline vision restores failed pine plantation

ABC Rural
Skyline Tier to Tasmania's east coast

Marginal country for growing pine trees is being returned to native bush to enhance water quality and biodiversity on Tasmania's east coast

Rose Grant

"When you look at it you would never think there was a pine plantation here such a short time ago," Todd Dudley says.

"The area is called Skyline Tier and you're looking at what was a plantation about six years ago.

"Now it's a plantation of very diverse native forest."

The transformation is striking and it's happening on a landscape scale.

The North East Bioregion Network restoration crew is systematically pulling and lopping pine wildlings.

Since the first pine was removed in 2007 hundreds of hectares have been restored.

And the judicious use of fire, after the pines are harvested, is allowing a 50 year-old bush seed bank, to germinate and thrive.

Their latest botanical survey has found over 170 native species growing, including seven that are on Tasmania's endangered list.

As project leader, Todd Dudley says the Network's success has seen Skyline Tier's commercial forest manager also get involved.

"We've been working on about 350 hectares," he says. .

"Timberland, which is now the land manager on behalf of New Forests, has done quite a few hundred hectares as well.

"It's probably getting up to about 600 or 700 hectares now.

"Because we've fine-tuned the actual methodology for doing the restoration, the cost per hectare is significantly less than when we started.

"Basically we've found the best method is to harvest the pines and then, about three years later, do as hot a burn as possible.

"It stimulates the growth of the seed in the soil and it also kills pine wildlings that are coming up.

"It saves a lot of work and it speeds up the restoration process as well."

You only have to look here: native ecosystems can recover from fairly dire land management over time
Todd Dudley

In the 1960's and 1970's unemployed miners planted the 2,000 hectare Skyline Tier pine plantation, in a government a job-creation scheme.

Mr Dudley says the decision to put in the Pinus radiata plantations on the slopes of the east coast escarpment, was a poor environmental choice.

Now the Australian Government is helping to fund the restoration work with a Biodiversity Fund grant to do 350 hectares of the former pine plantation.

Skyline Tier is located above Beaumaris near Scamander, on Tasmania's north east holiday coast.

"Quite a lot of the plantation is pretty marginal," he said.

"The soils here are pretty nutrient deficient and it can get pretty dry.

"When you drive around, some of the plantations that are still remaining, look quite unhealthy; they've got quite yellow-looking leaves.

"So it's not a prime area for plantations.

"Basically, you are restoring a whole ecosystem rather than just doing a bit of landscaping.

"This project is huge, but on a broader level there is massive potential all around, to restore plantations that don't have a lot of value, back to native forests, for a combination of conservation and native wood production.

"Like with this project, we're restoring all of the coastal catchments between Diana's Basin near Beaumaris and Scamander.

"So significant values in terms of wildlife habitat and water quality and things like that.

"It's something that should be looked at all over Tasmania, because there are so many benefits.

"There are also social benefits in providing employment and training for people.

"And some of the areas that are restored can be future wood production areas as well.

"As a native forest resource, there is no reason why some areas that are restored, can't be used to produce native timber, as long as it's done in a sustainable way."

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