Native Forests our Future

Plantations are rather like farms. They usually don't even grow native tree species. When native forests are regenerated the seed is local to the site. Natural genetic composition is part of maintaining biodiversity.

Harvesting and regeneration burns might look ugly initially, but then so do wildfires. Our biodiversity research has shown that logged and regenerated forests are in many ways equivalent to forests naturally regenerating following wildfire.

To many people, leaving behind logs after harvest and then burning the coupe appears wasteful and destructive. But from a conservation point of view it is actually positive. The burn creates an ashbed on the forest floor, and helps regeneration of the forest to the natural species composition that would come back following wildfire. The logs - even burnt logs - are critical habitat for invertebrates and fungi. Messy forests are healthy forests.

When most people think about conservation in forests, they think about the trees, the birds and the mammals. But in terms of the numbers of forest-dwelling species, these are the tip of the iceberg. Our conservation research focuses on maintaining all biodiversity, including the cryptic little species such as beetles, fungi and mosses that are by far the greatest component in terms of numbers of species.

Native forests produce beautiful timber products that can't be produced from plantation timbers. With sustainable management, native forest can provide this timber at the same time as conserving biodiversity.

Sue Baker - Biodiversity Researcher