Keeping an Eagle Eye.

By: Vanessa Thompson - Senior Forest Planner (Derwent District)

A key priority for Forestry Tasmania’s planners is the location of wedge-tailed eagle nests prior to harvesting, so that they can be protected within reserves. To this end, an extensive program of aerial eagle nest searches has been operating around the State for almost 10 years.


Each year, highly trained Forestry Tasmania staff take to the air in helicopters to search thousands of hectares of State
forest for nests. The program takes place from March to July each year, thereby avoiding disturbing eagles during their breeding season between August and January.

Aerial searches are by far the most effective means of locating eagle nests. We do carry out some ground-based searches, but the success rate for finding eagle nests is much higher with aerial searches, especially in forests with dense understoreys. The aim of the searching program is to ensure that eagle nests are located prior to the commencement of forest harvesting, so that they can be protected within reserves.

When an eagle nest is located, we design a reserve around it of at least 10 hectares. Information about the nest location and the reserve is recorded on specialised databases and maps, in consultation with the Threatened Species Section of the Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW) and the Forest Practices Authority.

This practice ensures that eagle nest reserves are protected from forest harvesting. We also ensure that no forestry activity occurs within 500 metres or within a one-kilometre line of sight of active nests during the breeding season.

Forestry Tasmania makes a significant contribution to wedge–tailed eagle conservation, spending more than a quarter of a million dollars annually on nest searching. To date, staff have located most of the 536 known eagle nests on State forest. Reserves on State forest meet, and often exceed, the prescriptions for eagle nest management set by the Threatened Species Section of DPIW and the forest industry’s independent regulator, the Forest Practices Authority.

We frequently increase the minimum legislative requirement for buffer zones of 10 hectares between nest sites and forest harvesting.

We also collaborate with the Forest Practices Authority and the Threatened Species Section on issues such as eagle nest reserve design. Each nest reserve is endorsed by the Threatened Species Section.

Vanessa Thompson
Senior Forest Planner
Derwent District