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Lindenmayer et al. proposed that logging makes 'some kinds of forests more prone to increased probability of ignition and increased fire severity.' The proposition was developed most strongly in relation to the wet eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. A key argument was that logging in wet forests results in drier forests that tend to be more fire-prone, and this argument has gained prominence both in the literature and in policy debate. We find no support for that argument from considerations of eucalypt stand development, and from reanalysis of the only Australian study cited by Lindenmayer et al. In addition, there is no evidence from recent megafires in Victoria that younger regrowth (<10 years) burnt with greater severity than older forest (>70 years); furthermore, forests in reserves (with no logging) did not burn with less severity than multiple-use forests (with some logging). The flammability of stands of different ages can be explained in terms of stand structure and fuel accumulation, rather than as a dichotomy of regrowth stands being highly flammable but mature and old-growth stands not highly flammable. Lack of management of fire-adapted ecosystems carries long-term social, economic, and environmental consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old-growth forests in south eastern Australia are important for biodiversity conservation, recreation, carbon storage, social values and, to a declining extent, for timber production. Developing a comprehensive definition of old-growth forest that can apply across all Australian vegetation types has been challenging. Old growth can be viewed from ecological and social perspectives. For policy and management purposes old growth has been defined as a growth stage in forest development, incorporating ecological maturity and lack of evidence of past disturbance. Classification and assessment of old growth has largely been restricted to those areas covered by regional forest agreements (RFAs) between different states and the Federal Government. Old growth can be impacted by wildfire, timber harvesting, insect pests, diseases and other disturbances. Climate change will also present challenges for the future management of old-growth forests. There is increasing scientific understanding of the relationships between species, forest growth stage and old-growth forest attributes. To meet biodiversity conservation objectives, the management focus is shifting from assessing and protecting old-growth forests, to providing for forests across the landscape with old-growth attributes. This approach may be at odds with other conceptions of old growth based on notions of undisturbed systems free of human influence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines trends from around the world in ownership and tenure of forest resources and timber pricing. It discusses six broad categories of forest tenure changes due to market forces, including changes in the ownership of forestland. It explores several privatization related reforms in several countries, such as New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. The article also discusses the creation of a separate state enterprise (SE) within the state forestry agency as the dominant model of forest tenure reforms.

Development of multi-aged stands of mountain ash trees (Eucalyptus regnans) in south-eastern Australia was examined with a spatial model of disturbance by fire. Stands were represented as spatially-explicitaggregations of cells that were exposed to spatially-correlated disturbance. The model predicted that approximately 10% of 3-ha sites would have trees both older than 200 yr and younger than 100 yr. At the scale of areas cut during timber harvesting operations (40 ha), the model predicted that 22% of sites would be multi-aged. As the size of cells became smaller, the scale of the analysis became finer grained and the frequency of development of multi-aged forest tended to increase to an asymptote- Predictions of the model were compared to surveydata collected from 373 field sites each measuring 3 ha in area. Surveyed sites were considered to be multi-aged if at least 15% of the stems on a site belonged to a second (or sometimes third) age-class. Under this definition 9% of 1-ha sites were multi-aged. 28% of sites had large living trees with fire scars, indicating that these trees had survived at least one fire. While even-aged stands are common in mountain ash forests, multi-aged stands are an important ecological component. Multi-aged mountain ash forest provides important habitat fora suite of arboreal marsupials, some of which are recognised as endangered. The current silvicultural system in mountain ash forests is based on the paradigm that mountain ash trees rarely survive fires. Timber harvesting operations reflect this by using clearfelling techniques that remove most trees. Clearfelling operations are largely deterministic, of high intensity, and have prescribed rotations of 50--80 yr. Removing trees at such short intervals will preclude the devlopment of cavities, an important habitat component in mountain ash forests. Without appropriate prescriptions to retain a suitable number of trees, multi-aged stands in timber production areas will not develop and [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]