Content uploaded by Grant Wardell-Johnson
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Grant Wardell-Johnson on Jul 15, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
Introduction
With proper forest management and sound
sylvicultural [sic] treatment there is no reason why
there should not be built up on the wreckage of the
once splendid forests of Western Australia tended
forests which will yield for all time 100 cubic feet of
timber per acre per year. Lane Poole, WA Conservator
of Forests (1920a, p. 31)
If the growth rate in the forest can be improved by
good silviculture and good forest management, the
allowable yield or cut will be consequently increased.
Conversely any cutting beyond the capacity of the
forest because of unusual demands at any time can
only be made at the expense of the future output
from the forests. Rodger, Report of the 1952 Royal
Commission (1952, p.20)
It seems to the Inquiry that for much of its history
the native forest sawn timber industry has been in
disequilibrium with the supply of its raw material. In most
years there seem to have been too many mills for the
timber on offer. Milling capacity has almost always been
greater than the supply of logs to the mills. Individual
mills dependent on native forest, and the groups of such
mills that go to make up ‘timber towns’, can survive
only if the forest within their radius of extraction is
managed on a sustained-yield basis. So far as the Inquiry
is aware, this has never happened in Australia. Resource
Assessment Commission Draft Report (1991, p. l)
Australian forests are of global concern because of their
unique biota (Wardell-Johnson and Horwitz 1996, Gioia
and Piggott 2000), yet they are under substantial pressure
for timber production, recreation and ecological services
such as biodiversity conservation and protection of water
catchments (RAC 1991, 1992; Recher 1996). Despite
intense debates over forest management practices, many
authors concluded, albeit with important qualifications,
that eucalypt forests can be logged while sustaining
forest biota and fundamental ecological processes (e.g.,
McIlroy 1978; Davey and Norton 1990; Attiwill 1994;
Braithwaite 1996; Florence 1996; Eyre and Smith 1997;
Lindenmayer and Franklin 2000, 2002). However, there
is also concern that sustainability in forest management is
not yet achieved and that important components of forest
biota or critical ecosystem services could be compromised
(e.g., Wardell-Johnson and Nichols 1991; Norton and
Kirkpatrick 1995; Norton 1996; Calver et al. 1998;
Lindenmayer and Recher 1998).
Sustained unsustainability? An evaluation of
evidence for a history of overcutting in the jarrah
forests of Western Australia and its consequences
for fauna conservation
Michael Calver1 and Grant Wardell-Johnson2
1Biological Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150
2Natural and Rural Systems Management, The University Of Queensland, Gatton, Gatton 3434
Correspondence to M C Calver - Fax +61 9 360 6303. E-mail – m.calver@murdoch.edu.au
ABSTRACT
In 1996, Government directives began a transition to conform logging in Western Australia’s State
forests to principles of ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM). To place this in a historical
context, we reviewed the history of the logging of jarrah Eucalyptus marginata forests to determine
whether the volume of timber extracted and the main forest management practices employed was
consistent with components of ESFM. While quantitative assessment proved difficult, usually the
timber cut considerably exceeded the estimated annual increment of forested lands. Overcutting
often distressed professionals, who strove to regulate logging despite social, political and economic
pressures. Furthermore, despite recent major reductions in permissible timber cut, areas of productive
State forest have declined after conversion to alternative vestings. Thus it is important to prevent
overcutting continuing in the remaining production forests.
Too few data exist on the health or condition of forest ecosystems before logging to document
subtle impacts. However, overcutting has interacted with broad-scale threatening processes in their
impacts on forest fauna. These changes are all associated with reluctance to invoke effective adaptive
management in association with the precautionary principle. The historical survey suggests that ESFM
cannot be achieved without a socio-political will to assert long-term sustainable practice in the face
of short-term goals. This could be achieved in the current preparation of a new forest management
plan for Western Australia.
Key words: Adaptive management, ecologically sustainable forest management, ecosystem health, ecosystem
management, hardwood forests, jarrah, precautionary principle.
Western Australia is no exception:
For many years past Western Australia has been engaged
in destroying an asset which is clearly the property of
the nation, that is to say, the property of all future
generations. Instead of regulating the cutting timber so
as to confine it to a quantity such that the forests could
reproduce again, milling firms have been allowed to cut
practically without restraint; in fact, they have been
encouraged to cut as much as possible, and have been
penalised when they did not maintain their output, with
the result that the timber assets of the State have been
depleted to an alarming extent. Lane Poole (1918, p. 1)
Growing pressure against such waste led to Royal
Commissions in 1877 and 1903, and ultimately the
passing of a Forests Act in 1918. This established a Forests
Department and began the progressive designation of
large areas of the south-west of Western Australia as
State forest for the sustainable production of timber in
perpetuity. Assessing the success of Western Australian
management of jarrah Eucalyptus marginata, the main
timber species, is a valuable case study with Australia-
wide implications. It reveals conflicting issues that must be
reconciled, the evolution of concepts of sustainability and
the success or otherwise of various approaches attempted.
Furthermore, it clarifies the origins of current disputes
and suggests resolutions through an understanding of the
successes and failures of the past.
In this paper we overview briefly the biogeography of
the jarrah forests before developing an approach for
assessing timber yield, a fundamental base of ESFM,
over the historical period in question. We then outline
the history of forest management in Western Australia
and determine the extent to which forest management
matched contemporary understandings of responsible
practice at different points in the past. The political and
social pressures responsible for the management adopted
are then discussed, followed by an assessment of the
ecological consequences likely from the accompanying
structural and biophysical changes. Lastly, in the light
of the historical overview, we discuss the managerial,
political and institutional reforms necessary to achieve
ecologically sustainable management of the jarrah forests.
Biogeography of the jarrah forests
The forested ecosystems of south-western Australia
occur over an area of about 4.25 million hectares in
three biogeographic regions: Swan Coastal Plain, Jarrah
Forest and Warren (IBRA bioregions sensu Thackway
and Cresswell 1994) (see Figure 1a for the bioregions
and Figure 1b for the extent of State forest within them).
They include most of Western Australia’s commercially
important hardwood forests, including the major timber
species jarrah as well as karri E. diversicolor; the latter
occurs mainly in the Warren. Marri Corymbia calophylla,
a less important timber tree, often co-occurs with jarrah
or karri. In each of these bioregions, forests occur in a
matrix of vegetation types reflecting an extraordinarily
long and complex geological and climatic history. Jarrah
exhibits a variety of growth forms and occurs in a range
of community types throughout the region (Wardell-
Johnson et al. 1997). Detailed accounts of the distribution,
history, silviculture and ecology of the jarrah forests can
be found in Abbott and Loneragan (1986), Dell and
Malajczuk (1989), Shearer and Tippett (1989), Bradshaw
et al. (1991) and Wardell-Johnson et al. (1997). The
importance of the jarrah forests for timber production was
emphasised by Rodger (1952, p.18):
2
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
Figure 1. (a) The IBRA bioregions in south-western Western Australia (after Thackway and Cresswell 1994).
(b) Distribution of State forest within the IBRA bioregions (after Calver and Dell 1998a).
… the greater part of the volume available for cutting
from State forests and other Crown lands over the next
60 to 90 years is in the jarrah forest, which constitutes
the bulk of the forest area of the South-West. About
one half of the jarrah forest is still virgin.
Logging and associated activities (e.g., road building,
prescribed fire, and silvicultural operations) are the most
extensive disturbances in State forest in south-western
Australia. Moreover, extensive agricultural clearing
has fragmented remaining native vegetation within
and surrounding State forest. Other land uses include
clearance for roads and powerlines and extensive mining
for bauxite, coal, tin and mineral sands. Disturbances
caused by urban or rural growth and encroachment, or by
expanded recreational pursuits, may become as extensive
in the future as logging has been in the past.
Compared to eucalypt forests in eastern Australia, the
jarrah forest fauna has a lower species richness within
several taxonomic groups including mammals and birds
(Nichols and Muir 1989), freshwater fish and freshwater
insects (Bunn and Davies 1990). This belies the significance
of the jarrah forests for fauna conservation. The forested
regions of the south-west are amongst the most important
in Australia for the conservation of threatened mammals
and birds (see Figures 1 and 2 of Maxwell et al. 1996
for mammals and p. 624 of Garnett and Crowley 2000
for birds) and recent morphometric studies indicate the
biological uniqueness of some of these populations (e.g.,
Rhind et al. 2001). Reptile diversity in the jarrah forest
is low (Nichols and Muir 1989), although despite some
overlap the reptile community of the jarrah forest is distinct
from that of the adjacent wheatbelt (Chapman and Dell
1985). Moreover, the Pretty Worm-lizard Aprasia pulchella,
the Speckled Stone Gecko Diplodactylus polyophthalmus
and the South-western Slider Lerista m. microtis are
centred on the forest with some records on the adjacent
coastal plains and there is one endemic, the Darling Range
South-west Ctenotus Ctenotus delli (John Dell, Western
Australian Department of Environmental Protection, pers.
comm.). The amphibians include the endemic Geocrinia
rosea complex of four allopatric species (Roberts et al.
1990, Wardell-Johnson and Roberts 1991) and the newly
discovered (1994) genus Spicospina (Roberts et al. 1997).
Other species, such as the Western Marsh Frog Helioporus
barycragus and the Plains Frog H. inornatus, are largely
restricted to forest following destruction of suitable habitat
elsewhere (John Dell, Western Australian Department of
Environmental Protection, pers. comm.). The fish fauna
is species poor but highly endemic (Morgan et al. 1998).
Turning to the invertebrates, the freshwater insect fauna
of running waters is not rich in species (Bunn and Davies
1990), but freshwater invertebrates of lakes and wetlands
towards the coast have both high species richness and high
endemism (Horwitz 1997). The species composition and
distribution of the terrestrial invertebrate fauna is poorly
studied, but recent work confirms a high invertebrate
diversity on and under jarrah and marri trees (e.g., Abbott
et al. 2001, Majer et al. 2002). Overall, recognition of
these important fauna conservation values is essential in
sustainable management of the jarrah forests.
Measuring ecologically sustainable
forest management
Defining sustainable development
Sustainable development was originally defined as ‘…
development which meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on
Environment and Development 1987, quoted in Harris
and Goodwin 2001, p. xxix). It is an evolving concept
and variations on the theme include, but are not limited
to, sustainable development (SD) (Calow 1998a) with
its subsets of economic sustainability, environmental
sustainability and social sustainability (Goodland 1995;
Harris and Goodwin 2001). Ecologically sustainable
development (ESD) (Good 1995, Deville and Turpin
1996, Maser 1999) and ecologically sustainable forest
management (ESFM) (Ferguson 1996, Lindenmayer
and Recher 1998, Lindenmayer et al. 2000) are nested
within environmental sustainability. Diagrammatic
representations of the interrelationships of the different
subsets of sustainability are given in Charts 1 and 2 of
Serageldin (1993), Figure 2.4 of Salwasser et al. (1993)
and Figure 7.1 of van Dieren (1995).
The differing forms of sustainability share a concern for
natural capital, which is the …’stock of environmentally
provided assets (such as soil, atmosphere, forests, water,
wetlands) which provide a flow of useful goods or services.
The flow of useful goods and services from natural capital
can be renewable or nonrenewable, and marketed or
nonmarketed’ (van Dieren 1995, p. 100, see also the
concept of ‘critical natural capital’ in Elkins et al. 2003).
This is distinct from other kinds of capital reflecting
human creations or human societies. According to van
Dieren’s (1995) overview, sustaining natural capital can
take one of four forms:
- weak sustainability, which aims for the preservation
of the sum of all forms of capital and assumes
interchangeability amongst them. Thus exhaustion of
a non-renewable resource (natural capital), would be
acceptable if it was transformed into an equivalent
amount of human-made capital,
- sensible sustainability, which places limits on the
interchangeability of the different forms of capital, accepts
that they are often complementary and recognizes that
the total system will only function fully when all forms of
capital are present at minimum levels,
- strong sustainability, which denies the full
interchangeability of different types of capital and
requires separate accounting for each type,
- and absurdly strong sustainability, which aims never
to deplete anything. The ‘absurd’ arises because
non-renewable resources could not be used under
this approach, although the accompanying view that
the harvest of renewable resources should always be
within replacement is an ideal of ‘wise-use’ utilitarian
approaches to the environment (e.g., Salwasser 1997).
3
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
4
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
5
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Van Dieren (1995) sees three strengths of adopting one of
the strong sustainability approaches: explicit incorporation
of social, economic and environmental considerations, a
recognition of long time horizons in planning and decision
making, and provision of a framework that allows business
and development interests to discuss the environment.
ESFM includes all forest uses and ecological services
including timber production (Boyce 1995, Ferguson 1996,
van Bueren and Blom 1997, Turner and Lambert 1997,
Calow 1998b) and thus sits comfortably within a sustainable
development framework. Thus van Dieren (1995, p. 104)
observed: ‘A sawmill (human-made capital) is worthless
without the complementary natural capital of a forest.’
Furthermore, forestry as a profession has a strong tradition
of managing forests for a sustainable yield of timber over
long time horizons, including in Western Australia (e.g.,
Lane-Poole 1920, Kessell 1928, 1935). However, assessing
whether or not ESFM is achieved is not simple. It involves
consideration of the area and time over which sustainability
applies, the properties or processes being sustained,
identification of who will benefit and identification of who
will meet any associated costs (Johnson 1993, Noss 1993,
Calver et al. 1998). Here we limit discussion to area, time
and properties to be assessed, excluding sociological and
economic questions of costs and benefits (see Chindarsi
1997 for coverage of these issues).
Choice of time and area scales
The founding of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia,
was marked by the felling of a jarrah tree (Mills 1989) so forest
management issues could be considered as commencing with
the initial establishment of the colony. However, significant
regulation of forest management was not implemented until
the Forests Act of 1918. Therefore our main focus is on the
period 1920 – 2000, embracing management under the
Forests Department from 1918 – 1985 and the Department
of Conservation and Land Management (created by merging
the Forests Department with the National Parks Authority
and parts of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife) after
1985. The appropriate main area to consider would be State
forest, but many sources give figures or ascribe comments to
the broader category of Crown Land, which includes both
State forest and other land tenures for which sustainable
management is not necessarily a goal. In some cases,
comments apply to the south-west of Western Australia as
a while. Accordingly, we indicate when comments or figures
apply to State forest specifically or to the broader category
of Crown Land.
Choice of properties and processes to assess
Quantitative measurement of the achievement of ESFM
is a recent management concern, growing in importance
in jarrah forest management after 1965 (Carron 1985,
Burrows et al. 1995, Dargavel 1995). For example, explicit
consideration of biodiversity conservation, forest reserves,
mining, recreation and water catchment protection were
first reflected in a Forestry Department Working Plan in
1972 (Forests Department 1977). Therefore full quantitative
assessment of ESFM is unsuitable for assessing the history of
jarrah forest management because the necessary data are
available for only a limited period and all ESFM values
applied over only a short period of forest management in
Western Australia. The sustainability of the timber cut is an
alternative because this was a goal over much of the period.
It also has the advantage of limiting the range of data
required and it is an important component of ESFM.
Sustained yield is a possible measure of the sustainability of
the timber cut. Helms (1998, p. 181) offers two definitions:
1. The yield that a forest can produce continuously at a
given intensity of management – note sustained yield
management implies continuous production planned
as to achieve at the earliest practical time a balance
between increment and cutting.
2. The achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of
a high-level annual or regular periodic output of the
various renewable resources without impairment of the
productivity of the land.
Ferguson et al. (1997), Turner (1998) and Ferguson et al.
(2001a) documented the steps in calculating sustained yield
of jarrah. They include defining the net areas available for
logging, estimating the standing volume for these areas,
projecting future growth or volume and then modelling
the potential woodflows to determine sustained yield. The
solution also depends on the quality of the product sought.
For example, quantities of different grades of sawlogs and
other products fluctuate over time depending on the type
of forest being logged, the silvicultural practices and market
conditions. If sustained yield is achieved, then the forest
should be nearer ESFM than if it is exceeded.
Early Western Australian foresters accepted the concept
of sustained yield (e.g., Lane Poole 1920a,b; Kessell 1935)
and by the early 1980s it was integrated into multiple use
management (Beggs 1982; Bradshaw et al. 1991). It is
implicit in the Commonwealth’s acceptance of the Montreal
criteria (van Bueren and Blom 1997). However, the detailed
background data for sustained yield calculations do not exist
over the period 1920 - 2000. For example:
It is quite impossible to estimate the duration of
supplies, owing to the lack of full information
regarding the present stocking and the rate of growth.
Lane Poole (1920, p. 31)
This assessment dealt with mature and semi-mature
timber only and no estimate of the volume of the
immature growing stock is possible at present. There
is a serious deficiency in the older age classes from
the small pole stage onwards. A start has been made
to carry out more intensive assessments as part of
regional survey work on modern lines and before the
next statement is prepared much more complete data
should be available. Kessell (1938, p.6)
Every effort be made in time for the next revision of
the working plans in 1954 to determine as accurately
as practicable in the time the maximum sustained
yield possible from the forests of the South-West.
Rodger (1952, p.18)
Furthermore, it has been claimed that the conditions
necessary for calculation of a sustained yield were not
present over much of the period, as noted by Forests
Department (1977, p.4):
4
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
5
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
There can be no simple equation between gross forest
increment and annual cut as envisaged in the classical
concept of sustained yield, until the forest contains a
complete range of age classes in units of equal area
of productivity. Desirably markets for the full range
of produce coming forward annually should also be
available. These conditions do not apply in Western
Australia because of the intensity and distribution of
previous cutting as well as other factors affecting the
growth rates in the hardwood forest and because the
plantation estate is still being developed.
Although Vanclay (1996) provides an approach for
calculating sustained yields in uneven aged stands, it
seems likely that the data to attempt such calculations
in Western Australia were lacking until recent times
when sustainable yield calculations became integral in
determining the level of logging (e.g., Meagher et al. 1993,
Ferguson et al. 1997, 2001a,b).
An alternative could be to use either the allowable cut,
which represents the total sawlog volume allowed from
State forest and Crown lands under Forestry Department
Working Plans, or the permissible cut, which referred to
the total sawlog volume permitted for individual mills
under Forestry Department Working Plans (Rodger
1952). While these figures are more readily available, a
significant problem is that for many years they were based
on criteria other than a sustainable yield of timber.
The allowable cut is determined on management
rather than on silvicultural criteria. The main factors
which must be taken into account are existing levels
of demand, types of produce required, and the period
required to accumulate future forest capital in the most
desirable range of size classes. Forests Department of
Western Australia (1977, p.5).
Consequences of this included that the ‘… permissible cut
at any time was never likely to be achieved’ (Rodger 1952,
p. 17) but that nevertheless the permissible cut for many
mills exceeded that which could be sustained for a long
time (Rodger 1952, p. 19). Thus there is no demonstrable
relationship between either allowable or permissible cut
and a sustainable timber yield from either forests at a
landscape scale or at the level of individual mills. This
makes allowable and permissible cuts unsatisfactory
statistics for estimating sustainability.
A further possibility is to apply the concepts of ‘forest
capital’ (the total marketable timber) and ‘forest interest’
(the growth increment on that capital), which persisted
in literature of the Forests Department for decades (e.g.,
Lane Poole 1921, Forests Department 1971). Under
this approach, responsible management should keep
the volume of timber cut within the growth increment,
thereby conserving the forest capital. The analogy of
forest capital antedates the concept of natural capital as
used in sustainable development (e.g., van Dieren 1995,
Elkins et al. 2003) by several decades. For example:
The total increment for the whole of the jarrah forests
in their present uncared for condition may be estimated
at 270,000 loads a year. This is the amount we should be
cutting, instead of which we are cutting 806,000 loads;
or, in other words, we are going to leeward by over half a
million loads a year. Lane Poole (1920c, p. 1)
Furthermore, careful choice of areas to cut and silvicultural
approaches to felling would also enhance the rate and quality
of regrowth, leading to an improvement in increment and an
increase in the annual volume cut (Lane Poole 1920a,c). This
approach has the great advantage of simplifying assessments
of the sustainability of forest management in any year, by
invoking a comparison of increment and harvest without
consideration of the many variables involved in calculating
sustained yield. Furthermore, the analogy of capital and
interest anticipates the use of natural capital in sustainable
development discussions. Its disadvantages are that figures
for increment may be unavailable or questionable estimates
(e.g., Rodger 1952) and they do not consider the valid
possibility that increments may be exceeded for some years
in the interests of altering the structure of forest stands for
longer-term productivity gains (see extensive discussions in
Meagher et al. 1993).
On balance, a full assessment of ESFM over the history
of Western Australian forest management is inappropriate
because of lack of available data and because many of its
goals were not integrated into management until the 1970s.
While sustainable yield was accepted as an important goal
following the establishment of the Forests Department in
1918, the problems inherent in calculating it until recent
years preclude its use in assessing the sustainability of past
jarrah forest management. Data on allowable cuts are more
readily available, but they were never intended as specific
indicators of the sustainability of logging. Although we
present some of these data, we base our primary assessment
of the sustainability of jarrah forest logging on comparisons
of timber volumes cut compared to contemporary
estimates of the increment of the forests (which we use as
a sustainability surrogate). While the increment values are
often only estimates, they do represent a yardstick against
which contemporary managers could and did compare
their practice. To allow for the possibility that logging may
exceed increment as a deliberate policy to modify stand
structure for a time, we also consider extensive qualitative
commentary by forestry professionals on the appropriateness
of contemporary management decisions.
Has Western Australian forest
management sustained timber
production?
History of Western Australian forest
management
Logging of open-forest communities dominated by jarrah
began soon after European settlement in 1829 and most
areas of jarrah forest have at some stage been logged (Havel
1989a,b; Mills 1989). Important events in the development
of a timber industry can be grouped into three periods:
almost unimpeded exploitation, intensifying between
1880 and the promulgation of the Forests Act in 1918;
expansion of State forest, silvicultural reconstruction, fire
exclusion and emphasis on timber production and water
catchment protection from then until the mid 1960s; and a
6
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
7
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
contemporary phase of multiple-use values in management,
replacement of fire exclusion with prescribed burning
and intensive utilization of forest products (Carron 1985;
Burrows et al. 1995; Dargavel 1995). While Robertson
(1956) and Nunn (1957) recognize three eras in the period
before 1918, the substantial lack of regulation throughout
that time means that considering them as one period is
appropriate for this discussion.
In the period to 1918, the dominant forces were the desire
to clear land for agriculture and to cut timber for both
domestic consumption and the export trade (Lane Poole
1920b; Mills 1989). Cutting by private individuals and
larger concerns was not regulated strongly and citizens
desiring a long-term, sustainable industry were concerned
at the waste (e.g., Lane Poole 1920a). Furthermore, the
forest overstorey was opened, and piles of logging slash
abandoned on the forest floor increased fuel loads.
These actions, coupled with the use of steam-driven
equipment and a general carelessness with fire, led to fires
of unprecedented intensity and wide geographic spread
(Wallace 1965; Forests Department 1971; McCaw and
Burrows 1989; Burrows et al. 1995). Early photographic
records contrast the structure of the unexploited forest,
characterised by uneven stands containing many large,
old trees over open understoreys, with some of the worst
devastation arising from both unrestricted logging and
associated wildfire (Figures 2-3).
Conflict also arose over nature conservation. As early as
1894 the Australian Association for the Advancement
of Science lobbied successfully for the creation of the
64 000 ha South Dandalup reserve in prime jarrah forest
near where Pinjarra stands today. However, it was not
properly vested and in 1911 was reclassified for timber and
agricultural purposes following opposition from timber
interests (Rundle 1996). Thus by the early twentieth
century persistent strands of land-use conflict involving
agriculture, forest management and nature conservation
were established in the south-west.
The Forests Act of 1918 sought a resolution of these
issues and began the second broad era of Western
Australian forest management. Amongst other reforms
the Forests Act foreshadowed the vesting of large areas of
the south-west as State forest dedicated to the sustainable
production of timber in perpetuity and established the
Forests Department to manage this estate. The new
department sought a sustainable timber industry in State
forest as rapidly as possible, using the concept that the
cut should remain within the increment as an index of
responsible management (e.g., Lane Poole 1921, Forests
Department 1971).
Central to policy was increasing the area of State
forest, reducing the rate of logging to within the growth
increment of the forest, extensive reforestation on cut-
over areas, removal of over-mature, senescent trees and
Figure 2. Jarrah forest near Jarrahdale, c. 1895. The riders
in the foreground give a sense of scale (reproduced from
Lane Poole 1920b, with permission of the Department of
Conservation and Land Management).
Figure 3. Photographic evidence of ‘The remains of a jarrah
forest devastated by fire from the massive accumulation of
debris following early logging’ (reproduced from Forests
Department 1971, with permission of the Department of
Conservation and Land Management).
6
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
7
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
trees of non-commercial species, extensive fire protection
for regrowth stands and conversion of large areas of forest
to even-aged stands to facilitate the management of
logging rotations (Lane Poole 1920a; Kessell 1928, 1935).
However, regulating the cut proved difficult in the face of
such crises as the Great Depression (Kessell 1932, 1935),
the Second World War and post-war reconstruction
(Stoate 1947, 1953).
Furthermore, the rapid spread and intensification of
dieback disease caused by the introduced pathogen
Phytophthora cinnamomi followed a major road-building
program after the great depression and again after the
Second World War. In part, spread was hastened by the
use of gravel from dieback ‘graveyard’ areas of jarrah
forest for road building programs to establish a network
throughout publicly managed land (G.E. St.J. Hardy,
Murdoch University, pers. comm.). Limited data collected
during the 1960s suggested that substantial losses in
timber production might follow dieback infestation, but
more detailed measurements are lacking (Davison and
Shearer 1989).
There was also a gradual realization that the most
productive forest areas were not as extensive as believed,
nor was regrowth as rapid in jarrah as had been hoped
(Kessell 1922; Pickering 1922; Rodger 1952). Establishing
sound silviculture in the face of the damage that the
Forests Department inherited also proved difficult
(Kessell, in the foreword to Stoate 1926). The solution,
expounded in the Royal Commission of 1952 and the
Jarrah, Karri and Wandoo Working Plan of 1956, involved:
extending logging into the virgin southern forests where
large volumes of timber existed in the uncut stands, (ii)
encouraging private landholders to supply as much of the
required timber as possible to ease production pressures on
State forest, (iii) increasing areas of softwood plantations,
(iv) improving the health and hence the productivity of
jarrah forest, and (v) increasing the area of State forest.
Logging methods, forest management procedures and
silvicultural systems evolved throughout this period,
especially in forests including jarrah (Bradshaw and Lush
1981; Abbott and Loneragan 1986; Stoneman 1986;
Stoneman et al. 1989; Havel 1989a; Bradshaw 1991;
Breidahl and Hewett 1995).
Problems with fire prevention culminating in massive
and destructive fires in the south-west in the 1960s
began a third management era, characterized by an
intensification of broad-scale prescribed burning, mainly
in spring, to reduce the fire risk (see Harris and Wallace
1959 and Wallace 1965 for development of the prescribed
burning policy). Policy sought to achieve regular burning
of about 70 % of the most productive jarrah forest at
around five to seven year intervals (Wardell-Johnson and
Nichols 1991). Gill et al. (1997) estimated that the fire
cycle decreased from 16 years in 1951/52 to five years in
1968/69. It then increased to about 14 years in 1995/96.
The area of prescribed burning has continued to decrease
since 1995/96 (Burrows and Wardell-Johnson 2003). Fire
management is an integral part of silvicultural practice
associated with logging in jarrah forests (CALM 1989).
Logged areas and those immediately surrounding them are
burned before and after logging. This allows ease of access,
protects regrowth from subsequent regeneration or ‘tops
disposal’ burns and encourages regeneration (Underwood
and Christensen 1981). Areas of regeneration are then
protected from fire until they are old enough to remain
economically undamaged (see Wardell-Johnson 2000)
following a mild prescribed burn (i.e., at a height of 5-6 m
for jarrah; Peet and McCormick 1971).
Once the fungus responsible for dieback-disease was
identified in the 1960s (Podger 1972), considerable
attention was directed towards associated forest policy and
management activities (e.g., chapters 6 and 7 of Shearer
and Tippett 1989). This included the ‘quarantining’ of
some areas of State forest until the presence (or absence)
of Phytophthora could be confirmed; the clearance of
some areas of State forest of reduced productivity in
the northern part of the Blackwood Plateau for the
establishment of pine plantations; and the management
of mosaics of infected and apparently dieback-free areas
of State forest.
This period also saw a growing realization of the value of
the forests for many purposes other than timber production,
leading to multiple-use management policies recognizing
a wide-range of forest uses and values. For example, the
1987 working plan listed 21 important management goals
for State forest, of which only five related to wood products
(Forests Department 1987). Various interventions by
government in the interests of environmental protection
also occurred, such as the establishment of a national
park in the Shannon River Basin (Rundle 1996) and the
end of the conversion of areas of the Blackwood plateau
to pine plantation. However, many critics of forest policy
were unappeased by multiple-use management, especially
after the establishment of a wood-chipping industry in
the southern forests in the 1970s (e.g., Conacher 1983
and included references, Chapter 17 of Mills 1986)
and commencement of large-scale mining of the jarrah
forests for bauxite at the same time. In the late 1990s,
the State Government of Western Australia and the
Commonwealth Government of Australia attempted to
provide security for both forest reserves and resource
availability through a Regional Forests Agreement (RFA),
to balance competing interests for the next 20 years.
There has been further controversy over this approach,
with some authors providing a positive assessment of its
overall effectiveness, e.g. Davey et al. (1997), and others,
a more negative assessment (e.g. Dargavel 1998). This
controversy is also reflected for Western Australia in
particular (see Davey et al. 2002 cf Horwitz and Calver
1998, Buchy and Hoverman 2000). In the 2001 state
elections, the ALP secured government with a policy of
ending logging in old-growth forest in Western Australia.
Assessing adherence to sustainability
Given the emphasis on protecting and developing forest
resources for timber production from early in the history of
Western Australian forest management, it is appropriate to
assess the success of past management in achieving these
goals. We chose to do so through a comparison of increments
versus the timber cut (both sawlog volume and the volume
8
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
9
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
hewn or sawn for railway sleepers), regarding this as an
index of sustainability. Of course, techniques for estimating
the growth increments of forests are refined continually,
so the estimate at any time may be wrong when judged
with hindsight (compare, for example the fluctuations in
estimates of the increment rates for the jarrah forests before
1945 shown in Table 1). Similarly, comparisons between
years are inappropriate because of differences in inventory
and logging techniques and standards. Different areas of
forest were involved, the tenure and purpose of forested
areas altered, product specifications changed and the age
composition of forests at different times varied. However,
paired comparisons of increment against logging volumes in
a given year are robust against these differences over time
and valid in revealing whether or not a sustainable policy
was likely to be achieved by the standards of that time.
Examination of Forestry Department bulletins and annual
reports and Hansard records of debate in the Western
Australian parliament gives such paired figures for the years
1920, 1922, 1927, 1934, 1939, 1961, 1966, 1971 and 1974.
We also include a figure for a sustained yield calculation in
1993. There are also qualitative indications of trends in
other years and explanations for the policies pursued. Oral
histories based on interviews with early Western Australian
foresters offer further insights.
After the Forests Act of 1918 the area of dedicated State
forest grew rapidly and by 1930 already approximated
60 % of its extent in the year 2000 (Figure 4). From the
beginning, the Forests Department strove to achieve a
sustained timber yield on State forest and other Crown
lands, often describing this as confining logging within the
annual increment of the forests (e.g., Lane Poole 1920a;
Stoate 1926; Kessell 1928). Early figures, based on the
situation across all land tenures in the south-west and
all native hardwood felled, were daunting (Table 1). For
example, in 1927, native hardwood logging for domestic
consumption alone exceeded the estimated increment of
the forests by 862 881 m3 and the figures worsened to 2 050
481 m3 when the large export trade was included. Closing
mills immediately was logical but politically unacceptable
(Lane Poole 1920a). Instead, the 1929 Working Plan for
jarrah aimed at a gradual reduction to reach a sustained
yield within 10 years (Kessell 1935). Logging did decline
in the late 1920s, following the collapse of domestic and
export demand in the Great Depression of 1929 (Figure
5, see also Stoate 1947, p. 4). It recovered by the mid-
1930s when it was still above contemporary estimates
of the growth increment of the forests (Table 1), but
optimism was high as Kessell (1935, p.13) stated that
‘The forestry position in Western Australia has improved
Year Tree species Cut (m3) Increment (m3) Disparity (m3) Reference
1919 All native species 569 549 a 188 065 a -381 484 a Lane Poole (1920a)
1919 All native species 185 377 b188 065 b +2 688 b Lane Poole (1920a)
1922 Jarrah 564 972a176 554 a-388 418 aPickering (1922)
1927 All native species 2 215 870 a 165 389 a -2 050 481a Kessell (1928)
1927 All native species 1 028 270 b 165 389 b -862 881 b Kessell (1928)
1927 All native species - - -329 096 c Kessell (1928)
1934 All native species 781 433 a 180 370 a -601 064 a Kessell (1935)
1934 All native species 388 635 b 180 370 b -208 265 b Kessell (1935)
1939 All native species 830 484 d 836 856 d +6 372 d Stoate (1947)
1961 Jarrah 725 457 c 990 000 c +264 543 c Hansard (1974a)
1966 Jarrah 821 679 c 800 000 c -21 679 c Hansard (1974a)
1971 Jarrah 779 597 c 644 000v -135 597 c Hansard (1974a)
1974 Jarrah 657 400 c 355 000 c -302 400 c Hansard (1974a)
1993 Jarrah 379 550 c,e250 000 c ,f
300 000
-129 550 c
-79 550 Meagher et al. (1993)
Notes
a. These figures include both domestic consumption and the export trade and include timber cut on both private land
and Crown Land.
b. These figures relate to domestic consumption only and include timber cut on both private land and Crown Land.
c. These figures are for State forest only.
d. This figure is for Crown Land only
e. Figures for the cut are taken from CALM 1993
f. These figures are estimates of sustained yield, not increments. In differing places the Meagher report uses either
250 000 m3 or 300 000 m3 as a conservative estimate of the sustainable yield of jarrah sawlogs.
Table 1. Comparisons of volumes of both sawlogs and hewn and milled sleepers in the round (the ‘cut’) and
contemporary estimates of either the annual increment or sustained yield for Western Australian hardwood forests
1920 – 2000. See notes to indicate the land tenure covered by the figures. Volumes given in m3 are either taken directly
from the source, or converted from Imperial measurements using the conversion factors:
1 load = 1.416 m3 1 ft3 = 0.02832 m3
8
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
9
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
materially since the 1928 Conference’, a view endorsed
by Mills (1986, 2002). Indeed, Stoate’s (1947) figures for
1939 indicated that logging and increment had reached a
balance on Crown Lands at that time (Table 1), although
he foreshadowed a possible need to reduce logging
volumes in the 1950s. Logging fell again during Word War
II, but rose rapidly during post-war reconstruction (Figure
5, see also Stoate 1947, p. 4).
Although we were unable to locate figures for the
growth increment of the forest between 1939 and 1961,
qualitative comments suggest that the post-war boom
may have disrupted the balance between cutting and
increment achieved just before the Second World War.
Controversy over the sustainability of cutting appeared in
annual reports of the Forests Department and the report
of the Royal Commission of 1952:
The position must be faced that mills without log
supplies must eventually close down, and the earlier the
permissible cut is reduced to one which can be sustained
over a long period, the less will be the dislocation in the
timber industry. Rodger (1952, p. 19)
Figure 4. The total area of State forest, 1920 – 2000. However, component data are unavailable for all years and the
system for classifying forest types is inconsistent over time, so the species data are only generalizations. Data are taken
from annual repor ts of the Forests Department and the Department of Conservation and Land Management.
Figure 5. The volume of jarrah sawlogs and jarrah cut for sleeper hewing cut from Crown Lands, 1920 – 2000. Data are
taken from annual repor ts of the Forests Department and the Department of Conservation and Land Management.
10
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
11
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Demands for increased timber supplies by builders and
sawmillers, if acceded to, can do much in a short period
to nullify a state of equilibrium and balance between
the forest, the timber industry and timber users which
may have taken years to achieve. These are matters
which it is believed deserve the serious consideration
of the Government. (Rodger 1952, p. 39)
This year’s production represents a far greater output
than the forests of the State can maintain, and
moreover, the rate of cut is still increasing. Stoate
(1953, p. 1)
The record total production of 18,345,428 cubic feet
[519,542 cubic metres] of sawn and hewn timber
involving the cutting of over one million loads [1.416
million cubic metres] of logs in the round this year
1953-54 is thought to be nearing the limit of State
Forest sustained output. At present about 26 per cent.
of this comes from Private Property which has only
a limited life, and about 21 per cent. of the total is
exported. Harris (1954, p. 1)
Moreover, the Royal Commission of 1952 recommended
steps to improve the health of the jarrah forest, meaning
an increase in productivity to meet large timber demands
(Rodger 1952). A more optimistic view was taken by 1955,
based on increased planting of exotic softwoods and plans
for increased productivity (Harris 1955, Forests Department
1956) and a belief that current cutting was below the
‘sustained yield potential’ of the State forests (Forests
Department 1956, p. 22). Indeed, Mills (1986, p. 185) noted
that during the 1950s ‘… the Western Australian forest was
still accepted by most as more or less inexhaustible.’
The optimism was short-lived. Questioning in the
Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1974 revealed
on-going overcutting of jarrah during the 1960s and 1970s
(Table 1), which the Minister for Forests claimed was
needed for commercial reasons (Hansard 1974a,b). Later
questioning showed clearly that the overcutting in both
the jarrah forests and the adjoining karri forests was not
otherwise on the public record:
Mr A.R. TONKIN, to the Minister for Forests:
(1) Further to question 19 asked on 17th October, has
the level of overcutting in the State’s hardwood
forests ever been reported in the annual reports
made by the Conservator of Forests since 1960?
(2) If so, in which years and on which pages of these
annual reports?
(3) Did the environmental impact statement prepared
by the Forests Department concerning the
Manjimup woodchip project state the degree of
overcutting of the State’s karri forest?
(4) If so, on what page?
Mr O’CONNOR (for MR RIDGE) replied:
(1) No.
(2) Answered by (1).
(3) No.
(4) Answered by (3). Hansard (1974c)
Furthermore, the declines in the estimates of the annual
increment in the jarrah forests between 1961 and 1974
(Table 1) were not matched by substantial declines in
the permissible cut of hardwood over the same period
(Table 2). These trends were not restricted to Western
Australia:
A major cause of the movement to softwood
production has been a general pattern of overcutting
of the native forests, particularly in the 1960s and
1970s, in most states. The inevitable consequence is
an impending trough in the future supply of hardwood
sawlogs because most of the unreserved old growth will
be cut out well before significant numbers of regrowth
sawlogs are old enough to be harvested. Resource
Assessment Commission (1991, P xlviii).
Awareness of the consequences of overcutting was apparent
in the 1970s and 1980s. Mills (1986, p.239) noted:
Now the hardwood men had to accept that the forests
were overcut and that cutting restrictions would
increase. For some time the Forests Department had
indicated the need to reduce the total volume of jarrah
and karri sawlogs removed from the forest, with the
intention of gradually reducing the cut to a level that
the forest could sustain, while regeneration programmes
were developed. The reductions were to coincide with
an increase in softwood milling so that by the year 2000
a much reduced volume of hardwood would be cut. The
planned reduction was from 990 000 cubic metres in
1977 to 315 000 cubic metres in 2010.
This view was also pushed politically, as revealed in
the concerns of Conservator of Forests McNamara in a
discussion paper presented to the WA Premier and the
Minister for Forests:
It can take 100 years for karri and 250 years for jarrah
to grow to mature stands. These growth rates would
be acceptable if the area of forest was large enough.
Unfortunately, past land use policies in Western
Australia did not always consider forest conservation
Year Permissible cut for
hardwood m3
Then estimated jarrah
increment m3
1965 1 226 510
1966 1 238 915 800 000
1967 1 241 237
1968 1 178 593
1969 1 204 733
1970 1 083 186
1971 1 068 621 644 000
1972 1 116 751
1973 1 106 995
1974 1 091 290
Table 2. Comparisons of the permissible hardwood cut
and contemporary estimates of the annual increment
for Western Australian hardwood forests 1965 – 1974.
Data from Hansard (1974a,b). Note that the permissible
hardwood cut includes small volumes of tuart, wandoo,
mallet Eucalyptus astringens and blackbutt E. patens.
10
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
11
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
and the remaining forest area is inadequate. Current
rates of cutting in the original forest cannot be
sustained until a sufficient proportion of regrowth
stands reach millable size. Cutting must, therefore,
be progressively reduced for a period of 60 – 70 years.
McNamara (1984, p. 10).
In the 1970s Labor politician David Evans, the member
for the electorate of Warren in the heart of timber country,
echoed this view:
The forests were being overcut. They were being
logged faster than the rate of regrowth. The industry
has to consider whether the rate of cut should be
reduced significantly now – which will mean more
years of cutting at reduced level – or continuing at
present rates with a drastic reduction in the future.
Evans, cited in Mills (1986, p. 233).
However, the heightened awareness did not lead to a
marked change in policy. After considering a range of
scenarios, the Meagher report of 1993 recommended a
further period of overcutting of jarrah:
… somewhere close to 250 000 cubic metres/year of
[jarrah] sawlogs would be sustainable in perpetuity.
Meagher et al. (1993, p. 24)
However a harvest close to 450 000m3/year for 10
years will not irrevocably damage the long-term
yield even if the conservative 300 000m3/year is
subsequently proven to be more appropriate. Meagher
et al. (1993, p. 27)
The report justified the overcutting on the basis of
commercial and social reasons, presenting modelling
analyses showing that the overcutting would lead to only
a slight reduction in long-term timber yields.
Overall, there is no simple, quantitative answer to the
question of whether or not this history of logging in the
jarrah forests has been sustainable in terms of timber
output because of the severe limitations to the available
data. On one hand, Underwood (1983) provided a
concise overview of arguments in favour of concluding
that management of the south-west forests of Western
Australia since the Forests Act of 1918 is consistent
with sustainable outcomes. He highlighted the initial
struggle to establish State forest in the face of pressure
for agricultural clearing and the inevitable, protracted
period of overcutting needed to convert virgin forest
into a series of even-aged stands suited to sustained
yield management. He also pointed out that vagaries
of supply, demand and trade may warrant temporary
deviation from sustained yield practices, or that natural
disaster, social upheaval or urgent need for revenue may
dictate short term overcutting. Under this view, forest
management has striven for the ideal of sustainability
within an unpredictable social and political context,
sometimes directing cutting to land tenures other than
State forest to shield State forest from overcutting (e.g.,
Forests Department 1956). Meagher et al. (1993) made
similar arguments before recommending a level of jarrah
cut reinforced by sustainable yield calculations that were
audited independently. It is also true that periods of
grave concern regarding the volume of timber cut have
been followed by returned optimism after management
adjustments (e.g., contrast Kessell 1928 and Kessell
1935, Stoate 1953 and Harris 1955) and that some forest
historians have taken a generally positive view of the long-
term sustainability of policy (e.g., Robertson 1956, Nunn
1957, Mills 1986). Furthermore, independent assessments
over the last decade have endorsed the procedures now
used to calculate sustainable yields in the jarrah forests
(Meagher et al. 1993, Ferguson et al. 1997, 2001a,b, Turner
1998, Turner et al. 1999) and praised both the Forests
Act of 1918 and its implementation (Rodger 1952).
Abbott and Christensen (1994, 1996) and Abbott and
Whitford (2002) extend these views, arguing that forest
management has contributed not only to an on-going
supply of timber but to wildlife conservation as well.
We disagree. While we accept that a period of overcutting
may be balanced by a period of undercutting, our use
of paired comparisons of increment against timber cut
indicate that the jarrah forests were overcut substantially
for much of the history of State forest management in
Western Australia and that this followed over half a
century of virtually unrestricted and wasteful logging.
Admittedly, overcutting might be justified in terms of
modification of virgin forest to even-aged stands most
suitable for sustained yield management. It is also irrelevant
if the aim is never to manage the timber sustainably, as
in the case of Crown Land that is to be cleared before
release for agricultural development (see particularly
Nunn 1957, p. 7). However, this argument is inconsistent
with the numerous cases up to the 1950s of professional
disquiet with the volume of the cut. Political questioning
followed in the 1960s and 1970s and a judgement of
overcutting during these decades was supported by a
range of sources including the independent Resource
Assessment Commission inquiry (RAC 1991, 1992),
Forests Department submissions to the WA Government
(McNamara 1984) and the historical assessment of Mills
(1986, especially pp. 227, 233 and 239). Over much of
the period, sustainability remained a goal to be met up to
a decade into the future (e.g., Kessell 1935, Meagher et al.
1993). It is this sustained overexploitation that concerns
us. Furthermore, recent independent endorsements of
the methods used to calculate sustainable yield figures
for the jarrah forests apply to the methods themselves,
not necessarily to the management choices made in the
light of them. On balance, we believe that there was a
prolonged history of overcutting in the jarrah forests and
that this degree of exploitation substantially changed their
structure, reduced the level of potentially sustainable
logging and altered fauna conservation values.
We do not believe that this state of affairs can be
blamed on the forest management profession in Western
Australia. There is abundant evidence of professionals’
warning against overcutting and the political pressures
that overrode them. Disputes with government over forest
management led Lane Poole to resign as Conservator
of Forests in 1921, while Stoate was not renewed as
Conservator in 1953 despite protest (Mills 1986), the
same year in which he expressed concern regarding
overcutting in an annual report (Stoate 1953). ‘Dick’
Perry, a Western Australian forester whose career began
12
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
13
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
in 1917, expressed the position clearly:
We made determined efforts over a great many
years to get the karri and jarrah on a sustained yield
basis and as far as I am aware, I don’t think we ever
succeeded. It was political. They wouldn’t shut down
sawmills and little towns which became very necessary
if you were going to work on a sustained yield basis. It
certainly wasn’t the foresters (sic) fault. They wouldn’t
make the tough decisions.
… As foresters, we were all aware of it, or I think
most of us were aware of it anyway. But I don’t think
it really upset us emotionally or anything like that.
We tried our best to tell governments what to do,
and how to do it, but that’s all we could do, by law.
No, it was a fact of life and there was nothing we
could do about it.’ Douglas ‘Dick’ Perry, quoted in
Borschmann (1999, p. 188)
Furthermore, we find it significant that there are echoes of
the modern understanding of ESFM in some earlier writings
on Western Australian forests that reach beyond timber
yield alone. For example, the wastage of early, virtually
unrestricted cutting was often bewailed with phrases
such as ‘ … a crime against coming generations…’ (Royal
Commission 1903, quoted in Lane Poole 1917, p. 1) and ‘
… destroying an asset which is clearly the property of the
nation, that is to say, the property of all future generations
… ‘ (Lane Poole 1917, p. 1). Additionally, the Royal
Commission of 1952 recommended steps to improve the
health of the jarrah forest (Rodger 1952). These comments
foreshadow current concepts of intergenerational equity
and ecosystem health. Furthermore, the foresight of the
Australian Association for the Advancement of Science
in establishing the short-lived South Dandalup reserve
has clear sympathy with contemporary concerns for
biodiversity conservation. That these efforts to achieve
sustainability found little support in the political arena
suggests that sustainability at any level in Western
Australian forests is unlikely without marked changes in
social values and political viewpoint.
Why have we not achieved
sustainability despite 80 years of
scientific-based forest management?
The history of ‘sustainable’ exploitation of natural
resources is discouraging at both local and global
scales (Ludwig et al. 1993). Furthermore, Hilborn et al.
(1995) demonstrated that biological overexploitation is
almost universal at some point in the development of a
potentially renewable resource and, even when biological
overexploitation is avoided, economic overexploitation
is the norm. They also demonstrate that to avoid
overexploitation, there must be a deliberate willingness
to forego attempts at maximising yield. Society has the
knowledge to design management systems that will
provide long-term sustained harvest even when tracking
unpredictable environmental changes (Berkes et al. 2003).
However, exploitation has not been controlled well
enough to make the changes necessary to track changing
biological productivity and biological understanding.
Hilborn et al. (1995) argued that successful management
in the future will rest not so much on better science as on
the implementation of better institutional arrangements
for controlling exploitation and creating incentives for
wiser behaviour.
We believe that Western Australia developed the necessary
scientific expertise for effective forest management, but
lacked the social awareness and institutional arrangements
to apply it properly. Examples of such limitations abound:
The radical step of closing down a sufficient
number of mills to reduce the annual turn-out to
the increment of the forest is the obvious one, and
would effect the whole of the object in view; but the
democracy of Western Australia is not likely to take
such a course, not even to the extent of closing down
its own State sawmills, for the very easily understood
reason that trees have at present no votes. Lane
Poole (1920a, p. 33)
All sawmillers, practically without exception, appear
to believe that they deserve “special consideration”
when approaching the exhaustion of the permissible
cut on their permit areas. Rodger (1952, p. 23)
This level of overcutting is necessary to support the
established industry. Hansard (1974a)
The justification for over-harvest is dependent upon
the social and commercial benefits that can occur as a
consequence. Meagher et al. (1993, p. 27)
Overcutting was sometimes represented as a short-term
aberration, to be corrected a decade into the future (e.g.,
Kessell 1935, Meagher et al. 1993), or priority was given
to timber industry needs until the data necessary for
sustained yield management became available (Forests
Department 1956). Similar attitudes of development as
the highest priority are reported for agricultural clearing
in Western Australia as well (Beresford et al. 2001). Figure
6 is a pertinent example, where two early politicians are
proud to be photographed felling a large jarrah tree. We
can think of few contemporary politicians who would be
photographed in such a situation today, reflecting a shift in
social and political attitudes. It appears that sustainability
has been low on the list of social and political priorities for
immediate forest management and, as a consequence, it
was seldom achieved.
What are the consequences for fauna
of sustained overcutting?
The impacts of over a century of logging in the jarrah
forest include marked alterations in age structure, species
composition and canopy cover. The changes wrought
by the unrestricted logging of the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries were noted by Wallace (1965, p.35):
‘In the period prior to 1920 nearly one million acres of the
jarrah forest were cut over for the removal of 750 million
cubic feet of logs, causing a reduction of almost 50% in the
forest canopy.’ The focus of later management on timber
production involved a selective removal of large, old trees
and the logging of regrowth at maturity, further altering
the age composition of stands. For example:
12
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
13
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
When what remains of the present over-mature crop
of jarrah and karri has been cut down, it is unlikely
that specimens equal in bulk to what the forests have
already yielded or still possess will be seen by future
generations. When the State’s forests have become
“cultivated”, trees will be cut when they reach maturity.
Sentiment may dictate the preservation of a few for a
period far beyond that of maturity, as reminders of the
giants of former days, but whole forests of giant trees
will no longer be seen. Lane Poole (1920, p. 130)
More recently, Abbott and Loneragan (1986, p.78)
corroborated these actions:
Originally the jarrah [Eucalyptus marginata] forest
produced trees of 150 cm d.o.b. [diameter over
bark, measured 1.3 metres above ground level] over
an estimated physiological rotation of 800 to 1000
years. Under management, the forests have been
changed with the object of providing trees of d.o.b.
c. 70cm within 90 to 120 years. ... The great boles of
long length which gave the virgin forest such a large
volume of wood are unlikely to be grown again, other
than in areas of the northern jarrah forest set aside
from future timber production.
Further practices including the ringbarking of ‘larger
trees of useless species or overmature and containing no
merchantable timber’ (Kessell 1928, p. 16) would have
altered both age structure and the relative abundance
of tree species. Although the estimated physiological
rotation of jarrah is now accepted to be closer to 300 than
to 800 years and the value of large, old trees is recognized
explicitly in forest management (Stoneman et al. 1997),
the cumulative impacts of decades of logging on the age
structure and species composition of the jarrah forest
cannot be overturned quickly.
Structural change is also documented in a shift of the
biomass of the forest trees towards smaller age classes.
Thus the 1952 Royal Commission observed:
It will be noted that despite the quantities which have
been removed in trade operations, and losses due
to fire, the estimates of the total quantity of timber
standing in the forests have progressively increased. A
certain number of trees in classes below 90in. G.B.H.
have passed into the highest class since 1928, but
the increase in the later estimates is mainly due to a
gradual lowering of log standards with the increasing
scarcity of log timber. As a result, many trees previously
considered of doubtful merchantability can at present
be considered merchantable. Rodger (1952, p.8)
More recently, Cribb (1985, p.22) claimed: ‘By 2020 AD
timber from mature jarrah and karri will be unobtainable
for most uses. … Unless alternatives to mature jarrah
and karri are found, mills will close, jobs will be lost, and
millions of dollars in Government revenue will disappear
as the import bill for timber soars.’ His solution was to use
the large quantities of wood ‘… in overcrowded stands
of young jarrah, marri and karri that have regrown on
the areas of forest originally felled around the turn of
the century’ (Cribb 1985, p. 23). Overall, the changes
described suggest that fauna dependent on large, old trees
or a continuous canopy are most likely to have suffered
as a result of past forest management, consistent with
the observation that differences in forest structure are an
excellent indicator of changes in biodiversity within forest
types (e.g., Kanowski et al. 2003).
Assessments of these changes in age structure and species
composition on biodiversity conservation are controversial,
in part because of the lack of early baseline studies (RAC
1993, McKenzie et al. 1996) and in part because few impact
studies were published before the late 1990s (Calver and
Dell 1998a). Abbott and Christensen (1994, 1996)
claimed that impacts were negligible and not cumulative,
while Nichols and Muir (1989) admitted that data were
lacking but doubted that there were serious impacts. By
contrast, Calver et al. (1996, 1998) and Calver and Dell
(1998a, b) thought the question open for lack of evidence,
while Mawson and Long (1994) believed that deleterious
impacts were already occurring. Recent population studies
(Rhind 1996, 1998) and impact experiments (Craig 1999;
Morris et al. 2000) confirmed mortality of some vertebrates
during logging operations or changes in distribution and
abundance in the short and medium term. The Western
Ringtail Possum Pseudocheirus occidentalis may be the
species most seriously impacted (Burrows et al. 2001),
while ground-dwelling mammals, some birds and terrestrial
invertebrates appear either robust in the face of logging
disturbances or adequately protected under current
prescriptions (Craig 1999, Morris et al. 2000, Strehlow et
al. 2002, Wardell-Johnson et al. 2004).
Figure 6. Sir John Forrest, once Premier of Western
Australia (left) and Sir William Lyne (a Commonwealth
politician) felling a jarrah tree c. 1907. (courtesy of the
Battye Library, Western Australia).
14
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
15
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Fauna using tree hollows have been of particular
concern, with several authors speculating that the
selective removal of large, old trees would alter the
abundance and distribution of hollows (e.g., Saunders et
al. 1985, Inions et al. 1989, Mawson and Long 1994 and
Saunders and Ingram 1995). A recent risk assessment
of hollow-using fauna in the south-west identified no
species currently at high or immediate risk of decline,
but called for further modelling of stand structure and
detailed ecological studies of selected hollow-using
species to substantiate the predictions (Abbott and
Whitford 2002). Furthermore, McKenzie et al. (1996)
noted that some faunal groups of the forested south-
west of Western Australia have declined less markedly
than those of other areas of the state, but cautioned that
intensification of land-use was a concern.
The inappropriateness of seeking to attribute changes to
single causes is illustrated most clearly by the complex of
interacting factors involved in the multifarious impacts
of the plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi, regarded
by Wardell-Johnson and Nichols (1991) as second only
to agricultural clearing as a conservation problem in the
south-west. Davison and Shearer (1989) suggested that,
following Phytophthora infection in the forests of south-
western Australia, the forest may become more open,
with increased exposure of fauna to exotic predators
and colonization of the forest by predators from
adjacent more open woodlands. Additionally, habitat
and food plants may decline as susceptible plants in the
understorey die and it has been speculated that some
fire regimes may destroy soil microflora antagonistic to
P. cinnamomi (Shearer and Tippett 1989). In addition,
Banksia grandis is a significant reservoir for the pathogen
in jarrah forest (Shea et al. 1978, Dell and Malajczuk
1989) and the incidence of B. grandis is positively
related to opening the forest by logging and repeated low
intensity fires (Shearer and Tippett 1989). Thus changes
in fire regimes may be interactive with P. cinnamomi
impacts. The impacts of logging must also be seen in
the context of the extensive clearing for agriculture and
fragmentation of remaining native vegetation occurring
within and surrounding the State managed lands. Many
of the complex interactions can only be assessed with the
benefit of hindsight.
On balance, logging and its associated activities, past and
present, appears neither the sole nor the most significant
factor in fauna conservation in the jarrah forests. Several
commentators have concluded that agricultural clearing,
introduced predators and plant pathogens such as P.
cinnamomi are more significant causes (e.g., Wardell-
Johnson and Nichols 1991, McKenzie et al. 1996, Calver
and Dell 1998b). However, timber production has left
a legacy of a younger, more open forest with different
habitat values for fauna and interacted with other
threatening processes such as changed fire regimes and
plant disease. The on-going consequences of that legacy
deserve thorough assessment, including interactions
with other established threats to conservation.
How do we ensure more accountable
progress towards sustainability?
Managerial reforms
Internationally, there is growing recognition of the
diverse values of forests, including timber production.
Moreover, there is evidence that production forests can
aid biodiversity conservation if timber-cutting practices
closely resemble natural forest dynamics (e.g., Ehrlich
1996; Lindenmayer and Franklin 2000; Seydack 2000).
Thus, there is a need for a shift from a policy of focussing
on timber production by transforming forest structure and
function to more naturalistic systems, which attempt to
imitate natural forest dynamics. For example, Seydack
(2000) has provided a model for the harvest of only the
wood increment since the last cut in subtropical forests.
In Western Australia, a more ecological focus may provide
only modest yields in comparison with that to which society
is accustomed. However, it would account for the highly
heterogeneous vegetation types in the subdued landscapes
of the jarrah forests (Wardell-Johnson and Horwitz 1996,
2000), allow avoidance of sensitive landscape features or
units, and limit major structural change. Communities
immediate to the forests could decide if this approach
would provide them with greater certainty than those
presently applying.
Rivlin (1993, p. 256) argued that appropriate managerial
reform is likely to require two essential steps:
The evolution toward sustainable forestry requires, at
a minimum, recognition of the limitations of current
knowledge and of the risk that human intervention
will do irreversible harm before enough knowledge
accumulates to identify the priorities of sustainable
forestry. This recognition leads to a double strategy:
(1) intensify research on how forest ecosystems work
and (2) preserve options for the future.
We concur and believe that Rivlin’s two strategies
are exemplified in adaptive management and the
precautionary principle. Both emphasize that uncertainty
dominates much environmental management, particularly
concerning the sustainable management of potentially
renewable resources. Adaptive management reduces
that uncertainty by gathering sound information through
management practice, while the precautionary principle
dictates that in areas of uncertainty the benefit of the
doubt should be given to environmental protection. We
discuss the potential application of each approach to
Western Australian forest management, followed by an
assessment of their role in recent political initiatives to
draft a new forest management plan.
Adaptive management treats different management
actions in space and time as experimental treatments
to increase understanding of the system being managed
(Walters and Holling 1990; Boyce 1997; Lee 1999).
Numerous authors concur that such a hypothesis-testing
framework, incorporating quantifiable standards that
can be falsified, is essential for comparing the long-term
effectiveness of different management practices (e.g.,
Murphy and Noon 1991; Everett et al 1994; Norton and
14
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
15
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
May 1994). The alternative of ‘superstitious learning’
(erroneous connections between cause and effect) is
enhanced when the focus is on the process and not
on the outcomes (Levitt and March 1988, p. 326).
While the focus is on process, it is possible to have
an Environmental Management System (e.g., ISO
14001 guidelines) that faithfully captures unsustainable
environmental management (Geno 2001). For example,
counting tree hollows may give the misleading impression
that hollow-using fauna are secure, whereas monitoring
of population trends in indicator taxa could reveal
serious declines (McCarthy et al. 1994, Wardell-Johnson
et al. 2004, see also the recommendations for monitoring
in Abbott and Whitford 2002).
Boyce (1997, pp. 231-232) documented numerous
examples of successful problem-solving using
adaptive management and Noss (1993) claimed that
chances of success were greatest when broadly-based
scientific panels advised managers. We also endorse
using integrated, mediation-based approaches and
commissioning empirical studies, where called for, as part
of these procedures (e.g., Yaffee 1994; Cocks et al. 1996).
However, the effective use of adaptive management
implies an information-rich environment whereby
yield forecasts allow a publicly scrutinised process of
allocation of timber volumes from publicly managed land
and actual adherence to standards of logging practices
are appraised (Lindenmayer and Recher 1998).
Suggested alternative silvicultural approaches can be seen
as a basis for dialogue within such a framework to develop
adaptive management approaches for the south-west
forests that are testable within an adaptive management
framework. Important issues for consideration include
logging rotations, habitat retention within logging areas,
boundaries of reserves and corridors, the desirable tree
species mix in regrowth areas and the forest structure to
be attained before further cutting.
The precautionary principle is the second major
component. It is defined as:
‘Where there are threats of serious or irreversible
damage, lack of full scientific certainty should
not be used as a reason for postponing measures
to prevent environmental degradation. In the
application of the precautionary principle, public
and private decisions should be guided by: careful
evaluation to avoid, wherever practicable, serious
or irreversible damage to the environment; and, (ii)
an assessment of the risk-weighted consequences of
various options’ The Intergovernmental Agreement
on the Environment, May 1992, quoted in Deville
and Harding (1997, p. 13)
One of its great strengths is an explicit focus on scientific
uncertainty, placing the burden of proof on industry
rather than on environmental advocates and prioritizing
preventive management to avert possible, but not
certain, damage (Garcia 1994). Precaution should
increase if either the threat or the uncertainty is great
(Deville and Harding 1997). Given the concentration
of rare and endangered biota in Western Australian
hardwood forests (e.g., Young 1994; Main 1996; Maxwell
et al. 1996), warnings against complacency (McKenzie
et al. 1996) and calls for on-going monitoring (Abbott
and Whitford 2002), we believe that a high level of
precaution is indicated.
Recent attempts to quantify applications of the
precautionary principle using statistical power analysis
(Buhl-Mortensen and Welin 1998, risk analysis Rogers
et al. 1997) or Bayesian statistics (Varis and Kuikka
1997) provide rigorous standards for monitoring to
ensure that critical indicators remain within acceptable
boundaries. The focus on assessing the response of
indicators to management activities allows ready
integration of the precautionary principle with adaptive
management. Thus, activities may be allowed to proceed
in an experimental framework providing their impacts
lie within specified limits and remedial actions are
prescribed if they are exceeded (Deville and Harding
1997). The setting of those limits and the remedial
actions required should involve all stakeholders (Calver
et al. 1999).
Political and institutional reforms
The social, political and institutional pressures that
have resulted in overcutting in the jarrah forests share
much in common with other examples of resource use,
including: short-term planning, with a greater emphasis on
immediate gains rather than long-term ones (Rivlin 1993,
Lackey 1996); (ii) resisting change, with those standing to
lose by change often having greater political power than
those seeking it, and the change often portrayed in a
‘winners and losers’ context (Rivlin 1993, Maser 1994,
Lackey 1996); (iii) complex decisions, characterized by
diverse options and values-based rather than science-
based judgements (Rivlin 1993, Lackey 1996); and
(iv) financial valuing, in which the benefits expressed
readily in monetary terms receive priority in decision-
making (Rivlin 1993). In the face of these complexities,
Rivlin (1993) and Lackey (1996) argue for better public
information about available options and their likely
consequences to aid in a decision-making process that is
ultimately social process, not scientific.
Western Australia now has an opportunity to move in
this direction. Following a change of State Government
in 2001, the newly constituted Conservation Commission
of Western Australia released a discussion paper on
proposals for a new Forest Management Plan for
Western Australia (Conservation Commission 2002a)
and an extensive draft plan (Conservation Commission
2002c), which has now developed into a full proposal
(http://www.conservation.wa.gov.au/news.htm?artID=
8&NewsName=Proposed+Forest+Management+Pl
an). This sets clear objectives, including the adaptive
management protocols for assessing their success
and the precautionary measures accompanying their
implementation. We are cautiously optimistic that these
steps may move Western Australia closer to sustainable
forest management. In particular, the proposed plan is
characterized by full disclosure of yield information and
an independent assessment of procedures.
16
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
17
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Conclusion
Our overview indicates that the history of jarrah
forest logging in Western Australia is one of sustained
unsustainability, in which pressures for a high, immediate
level of timber production clashed with concerns
over long-term sustained yield. Even during recent
decades when multiple-use management philosophies
underpinned prescriptions, broad-scale rather that fine-
scale management was used in a way that appears to
have been detrimental to biodiversity conservation and
counter to the best practice of adaptive management
(Wardell-Johnson and Horwitz 1996, 2000). Maintaining
the level of the cut above sustainable limits restricted the
flexibility to vary prescriptions according to vegetation
complex or community type, avoid sensitive areas and
limit biophysical damage and possible compromises to
ecosystem health. Systemic overcutting also restricted
a shift from transformative to naturalistic management
regimes at a local scale and, in the long-term, probably
led to a decline in general public support for logging in
State managed lands. This decline in support is likely to
persist without a demonstrable commitment to reverse
species and ecosystem declines, prevent intensification
of introduced taxa, and increase efforts towards the
rehabilitation of degraded areas.
However, there is real opportunity for change.
Approximately 80 years ago, an optimistic Conservator
of Forests wrote:
Some foresters who have visited this State have been
so disheartened by the condition of affairs they have
found that they have said that there will be no forestry
in Western Australia until the last tree has been cut
down. I do not hold this pessimistic view, but consider
that, by a publicity campaign, the democracy will
realise the wealth that the forests represent. It is true
that trees to-day have no votes, but when the people
develop a forest conscienceness (sic) the position will
be entirely altered, and they themselves will see to it
that the forest policy is maintained and the forests are
used for the benefit of the community as a whole for
ever, and not for the benefit of the few sawmillers,
timber hewers, and timber merchants of to-day. Lane
Poole (1920, p. 34)
Recent developments in Western Australia indicate that
the State is entering a fourth era in the management of its
forests, which may yet see this vision fulfilled. At a scientific
level, the move to sustainability is characterised by a growing
recognition of the environmental heterogeneity of the
south-west forests, the need to manage at a finer scale than
ever before and the acceptance that ecologically sustainable
logging is possible, but not yet achieved. The proposed
forest management plan shows a striking social and political
change by making the explicit commitment to sustainability
shown to be so necessary by historical experience if ESFM
is to be attained. This shift in the political climate is the
most significant hopeful sign for the forming of a political
will to implement ESFM in the jarrah forests. Political will
and scientific recognition of the need to manage to sustain
environmental heterogeneity may together protect the
diversity of habitats in the jarrah forests necessary for the
long-term conservation of their fauna.
Acknowledgements
We thank Vi Saffer for substantial assistance in literature
searches and Angela Wardell-Johnson for sociological
insight. We also thank, without implication, Ron
Wooller and three anonymous reviewers for constructive
comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and Dan
Lunney for perceptive editorial guidance.
References
Abbott, I. and Christensen, P., 1994. Application of ecological
and evolutionary principles to forest management in Western
Australia. Australian Forestry 57: 109-122.
Abbott, I. and Christensen, P., 1996. Objective knowledge,
ideology and the forests of Western Australia. Australian Forestry
59: 206-212.
Abbott, I. and Loneragan, O., 1986. Ecology of jarrah
(Eucalyptus marginata) in the northern jarrah forest of Western
Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management,
Perth, Western Australia.
Abbott, I. and Whitford, K. R., 2002. Conservation of
vertebrate fauna using hollows in forests of south-west Western
Australia: strategic risk assessment in relation to ecology, policy,
planning, and operations management. Pacific Conservation
Biology 7: 240-255.
Abbott, I., Wills, A., Burbidge, T. and van Huerck, P., 2001.
Arthropod faunas of crowns of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) and
marri (Corymbia calophylla) in a Mediterranean-climate forest: A
preliminary regional-scale comparison. Australian Forestry 63: 21-26.
Attiwill, P. M., 1994. Ecological disturbance and the
management of eucalypt forests in Australia. Forest Ecology and
Management 73: 301-346.
Beggs, B. J., 1982. General working plan for State Forests in
Western Australia. Working Plan No. 87 Part I. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Beresford, Q., Bekle, H., Philips, H. and Mulcock, J., 2001.
The salinity crisis: landscape, communities and politics. University of
Western Australia Press, Perth, Western Australia.
Borschmann, G., 1999. The people’s forest: a living history of the
Australian bush. The People’s Forest Press, Blackheath, NSW.
Boyce, S. G., 1995. Landscape forestry. John Wiley and Sons,
New York.
Boyce, M. S., 1997. Population viability analysis: adaptive
management for threatened and endangered species. Pp. 226-
238 in Ecosystem management: applications for sustainable forest
and wildlife resources, edited by M. S. Boyce and A. Haney, Yale
University Press,
Bradshaw, F. J., 1991. Treemarking and silvicultural treatment
in the jarrah forest. Department of Conservation and Land
Management, Perth, Western Australia.
Bradshaw, F. J. and Lush, A. R., 1981. Conservation of the karri
forest. Forests Department of Western Australia, Perth.
16
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
17
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Bradshaw, F. J., Adams, R., Sneeuwjagt, R., Low, K., Havel, J.
J., Bartle, J. R. and Stoneman, G. L., 1991. The jarrah forest:
A case study in multiple use. Pp. 1-21 in Forest management in
Australia, edited by F. H. McKinnell, E. R. Hopkins and J. E. D.
Fox, Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW.
Braithwaite, L. W., 1996. Conservation of arboreal herbivores:
The Australian scene. Australian Journal of Ecology 21: 21-30.
Breidahl, R. and Hewett, P. J., 1995. A review of silvicultural
research in the karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) forest. CALMScience
2: 51-100.
Buchy, M. and Hoverman, S., 1999. Understanding public
participation in forest planning in Australia: How can we learn from
each other? Australian National University Forestry Occasional
Paper 99.2, Canberra, Australia.
Buhl-Mortensen, L. and Welin, S., 1998. The ethics of doing
policy relevant science: the precautionary principle and the
significance of non-significant results. Science and Engineering
Ethics 4: 401-412.
Bunn, S. E. and Davies, P. M., 1990. Why is the stream fauna
of south-western Australia so impoverished? Hydrobiologia 194:
169-176.
Burrows, N. D., Ward, B. and Robinson, A. D., 1995.
Jarrah forest fire history from stem analysis and anthropological
evidence Australian Forestry 58: 7-16.
Burrows, N., Christensen, P., Hopper, S., Ruprecht, J.
and Young, J., 2001. Ministerial condition 11: Panel report
Part 1. Department of Conservation and Land Management,
unpublished report.
Burrows, N. and Wardell-Johnson, G., 2003. Fire and plant
interactions in forested ecosystems of south-west Western
Australia. Pp. 225-268 in Fire in ecosystems of south-west Western
Australia: Impacts and management, edited by I. Abbott and N.
Burrows, Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands.
CALM, 1989. Manual of hardwood logging specifications for
management for hardwood logging specifications operations in the
southwest of Western Australia. Department of Conservation and
Land Management, Perth, Western Australia.
CALM, 1992. Management strategies for the south-west forests of
Western Australia - a review. Draft for public comment. Department
of Conservation and Land Management, Perth, Western
Australia.
CALM, 1994. Land and Forests Commission. Forest Management
Plan 1994-2003. Department of Conservation and Land
Management, Perth, Western Australia.
Calow, P., 1998a. Sustainable development. Pp. 733-734 in The
encyclopedia of ecology and environmental management, edited by
P. Calow, Blackwell Science, Oxford.
Calow, P., 1998b. Sustainable yield. Pp. 734 in The encyclopedia
of ecology and environmental management, edited by P. Calow,
Blackwell Science, Oxford.
Calver, M. C. and Dell, J., 1998a. Conservation status of
mammals and birds in south-western Australian forests. I. Is
there evidence of direct links between forestry practices and
species decline and extinction? Pacific Conservation Biology 4:
296-314.
Calver, M. C. and Dell, J., 1998b. Conservation status of
mammals and birds in south-western Australian forests. II. Are
there unstudied, indirect or long-term links between forestry
practices and species decline and extinction? Pacific Conservation
Biology 4: 315-325.
Calver, M. C., Bradley, J. S. and Wright, I. W., 1999. Towards
scientific contributions in applying the precautionary principle:
an example from Western Australia Pacific Conservation Biology
5: 63-72.
Calver, M. C., Dickman, C. R., Feller, M. C., Hobbs, R. J.,
Horwitz, P., Recher, H. F. and Wardell-Johnson, G., 1998.
Towards resolving conflict between forestry and conservation in
Western Australia Australian Forestry 61: 258-266.
Calver, M. C., Hobbs, R. J., Horwitz, P. and Main, A. R.,
1996. Science, principles and forest management: a response to
Abbott and Christensen Australian Forestry 59: 1-6.
Carron, L. T., 1985. A history of forestry in Australia. Australian
National University Press, Canberra, Australia.
Chapman, A. and Dell, J., 1985. Biology and zoogeography of
the amphibians and reptiles of the Western Australian wheatbelt.
Records of the Western Australian Museum 12: 1-46.
Chindarsi, K. A., 1997. The logging of Australian native
forests. The Australian Quarterly 69: 86-104.
Cocks, R. D., Ive, J. R. and Clark, J. I., 1996. Forest issues:
processes and tools for inventory, evaluation, mediation and
allocation. CSIRO Australia, Canberra.
Conacher, A., 1983. Environmental management implications
of intensive forestry practices in an indigenous forest ecosystem: a
case study from south-western Australia. Pp. 117-151 in Progress
in resource management and environmental planning, edited by T.
O’Riordan and K. V. Turner, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Conservation Commission of Western Australia, 2002a. A
new forest management plan for Western Australia. Discussion
paper January 2002. Conservation Commission of Western
Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Conservation Commission of Western Australia, 2002c. Draft
forest management plan July 2002. Conservation Commission of
Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Craig, M. D., 1999. The short-tem impacts of timber harvesting
on the jarrah forest avifauna. Unpublished Ph D thesis,
University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Cribb, A., 1985. New timber from a new forest. Landscope 1:
22-25.
Davey, S. M., Hoare, J. R. L., Binning, C. and Bright, C.,
1997. Assessment of ecologically sustainable forest management
for Regional Forest Agreements. Pp. 235-246 in Preparing for the
21st century, edited by E. Bachelard and A. G. Brown, Institute
of Foresters of Australia, Canberra, Australia.
Davey, S. M., Hoare, J. R. L. and Rumba, K. E., 2002.
Science and its role in Australian Regional Forest Agreements.
International Forestry Review 4: 39-55.
Dargavel, J., 1995. Fashioning Australia’s forests. Oxford
University Press, Melbourne.
Dargavel, J., 1998. Politics, policy and process in the forests.
Australian Journal of Environmental Management 5: 25-30.
Davey, S. M. and Norton, T. W., 1990. State forests in
Australia and their role in wildlife conservation. Proceedings of
the Ecological Society of Australia 16: 323-345.
Davison, E. M. and Shearer, B. L., 1989. Phytophthora
species in indigenous forests in Australia. New Zealand Journal
of Forestry Science 19: 277-289.
Davey, S. M. and Norton, T. W., 1990. State forests in
Australia and their role in wildlife conservation. Proceedings of
the Ecological Society of Australia 16: 323-345.
18
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
19
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Dell, B., Havel, J. J. and Malajczuk, N., editors,1989. The
jarrah forest: a complex Mediterranean ecosystem. Dordrecht,
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Deville, A. and Harding, R., 1997. Applying the precautionary
principle. The Federation Press, Sydney.
Deville, A. and Turpin, T., 1996. Indicators of research
relevance to ecologically sustainable development and their
integration with other R- and - D indicators in the Asia-Pacific
region. Chemosphere 33: 1777-1800.
Ehrlich, P. R., 1996. Conservation in temperate forests: what
do we need to know and do? Forest Ecology and Management 85:
9-19.
Elkins, P., Simon, S., Deutsch, L., Folke, C. and de Groot, R.,
2003. A framework for the practical application of the concepts
of critical natural capital and strong sustainability. Ecological
Economics 44: 165-185.
Everett, R., Oliver, C., Saveland, J., Hessburg, P., Diaz, N.
and Irwin, L., 1994. Adaptive ecosystem management. Pp.
in Volume II: Ecosystem management: principles and applications,
edited by M. E. Jensen and P. S. Bourgeron, USDA Forestry
Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-318.
Eyre, T. J. and Smith, A. P., 1997. Floristic and structural
habitat preferences of yellow-bellied gliders (Petaurus australis)
and selective logging impacts in southeast Queensland,
Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 98: 281-295.
Ferguson, I. S., 1996. Sustainable forest management. Oxford
University Press, Oxford.
Ferguson, I. F., Adams, M., Bradshaw, J., Davies, S.,
McCormack, R. and Young, J., 2001a. Calculating sustained
yield for the Forest Management Plan (2004-2013): A preliminary
review. Report to the Conservation Commission of WA by the
Independent Panel. Conservation Commission of Western
Australia, Perth.
Ferguson, I. F., Adams, M., Bradshaw, J., Davies, S.,
McCormack, R. and Young, J., 2001b. Stage 2 Progress
Report. Calculating sustained yield for the Forest Management Plan
(2004-2013): A preliminary review. Report to the Conservation
Commission of WA by the Independent Panel. Conservation
Commission of Western Australia, Perth.
Ferguson, I. F., Adams, M., Brown, M., Cork, S., Egloff, B.
and Wilkinson, G., 1997. Assessment of ecologically sustainable
forest management in the south-west forest region of Western
Australia. Report of the Independent Expert Advisory Group,
Commonwealth and Western Australian Regional Forest
Agreement Steering Committe, Perth.
Florence, R. G., 1996. Ecology and silviculture of eucalypt forests.
CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria.
Forests Department of Western Australia, 1956. Working plan
no. 79. General working plan 1956, Western Australia. Working
plan area jarrah, karri, wandoo. Forests Department of Western
Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Forests Department of Western Australia, 1971. Forestry in
Western Australia. Forests Department of Western Australia,
Perth, Western Australia.
Forests Department of Western Australia, 1977. Working plan
no. 86.of 1977. Part I. Forests Department of Western Australia,
Perth, Western Australia.
Forests Department of Western Australia, 1987. Working plan
no. 79. General working plan 1956, Western Australia. Working
plan area jarrah, karri, wandoo. Forests Department of Western
Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Garcia, S., 1994. The precautionary principle: its implications
in capture fisheries management. Ocean and Coastal Management
22: 99-125.
Garnett, S. T. and Crowley, G. M., 2000. The action plan
for Australian birds. Environment Australia/Birds Australia,
Canberra.
Geno, B. J., 2001. Competing forestry management paradigms
in Australian state forests. Pp. 198-211 in Environment, society
and natural resource management: theoretical perspectives from
Australasia and the Americas, edited by G. Lawrence, V. Higgins
and S. Lockie, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Gill, A.M., Moore, P.H.R., McCarthy, M.A. and Lang, S.,
1997. Contemporary fire regimes in the forests of southwestern
Australia. Commonwealth of Australia/State of Western
Australia.
Gioia, P. and Pigott, J. P., 2000. Biodiversity assessment: a case
study in predicting richness from the potential distributions of
plant species in the forests of south-western Australia. Journal of
Biogeography 27: 1065-1078.
Good, R., 1995. Ecologically sustainable development in the
Australian Alps. Mountain Research and Development 15: 251-
258.
Goodland, R., 1995. The concept of environmental sustainability.
Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 26: 1-24.
Hansard, 1974a. WA Parliament, Legislative Assembly
questions on notice, No. 19, 17/10/1974.
Hansard, 1974b. WA Parliament, Legislative Assembly
questions on notice, Nos. 18-19, 27/11/1974.
Hansard, 1974c. WA Parliament, Legislative Assembly
questions on notice, No. 67, 28/11/1974.
Harris, A. C., 1954. Report on the operations of the Forests
Department for the year ended 30th June, 1954. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Harris, A. C., 1955. Report on the operations of the Forests
Department for the year ended 30th June, 1955. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Harris, J. M. and Goodwin, N. R., 2001. Volume introduction.
Pp. in A survey of sustainable development: social and economic
dimensions, edited by J. M. Harris, T. A. Wise, K. P. Gallagher
and N. R. Goodwin, Island Press, Washington.
Harris, A. C. and Wallace, W. R., 1959. Controlled burning in
Western Australian forest practice. Forests Department of Western
Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Havel, J. J., 1989a. Land use conflicts and the emergence
of multiple use. Pp. 281- in The jarrah forest: a complex
Mediterranean ecosystem, edited by B. Dell, J. J. Havel and N.
Malajczuk, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Havel, J. J., 1989b. Conservation in the northern jarrah
forest. Pp. 379-398 in The jarrah forest: a complex Mediterranean
ecosystem., edited by B. Dell, J. J. Havel and N. Malajczuk,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Helms, J. A., Ed., 1998. The dictionary of forestry. Bethseda,
MD, Society of American Foresters and CABI Publishers.
Hilborn, R., Walters, C. J. and Ludwig, D., 1995. Sustainable
exploitation of renewable resources. Annual Review of Ecology
and Systematics 26: 45-68.
Horwitz, P., 1997. Comparative endemism and richness of the
aquatic invertebrate fauna in peatlands and shrublands of far
south-western Australia. Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 56:
313-321.
18
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
19
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Horwitz, P. and Calver, M. C., 1998. Credible science?
Evaluating the Regional Forest Agreement process in Western
Australia. Australian Journal of Environmental Management 5:
213-225.
Inions, G. B., Tanton, M. T. and Davey, S. M., 1989. Effects
of fire on the availability of hollows in trees used by the Common
Brushtail Possum, Trichosurus vulpecula Kerr, 1792, and the
Ringtail Possum, Pseudocheirus peregrinus Boddaerts, 1785.
Australian Wildlife Research 16: 449-458.
Johnson, N., 1993. Introduction. Pp. 11-16 in Defining
sustainable forestry, edited by G. H. Aplet, N. Johnson, J. T. Olson
and V. A. Sample, Island Press, Washington DC.
Kanowski, J., Catterall, C. P., Wardell-Johnson, G.W.,
Proctor, H., Reis, T. and Tucker, N.I.J., 2003. Development
of forest structure on cleared rainforest land in north-eastern
Australia under different styles of reforestation. Forest Ecology &
Management 183: 265-280.
Kessell, S. L., 1922. Report of the Forests Department for the year
ended 30th June, 1922. Forests Department of Western Australia,
Perth, Western Australia.
Kessell, S. L., 1928. Forestry and forest resources, Western
Australia. A statement prepared for the British Empire Forestry
Conference (Australia and New Zealand) 1928. Government
Printer, Perth, Perth, Western Australia.
Kessell, S. L., 1932. Report on the operations of the Forests
Department for the year ended 30th June, 1932. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Kessell, S. L., 1935. Forestry and forest resources, Western
Australia. Progress statement prepared for the British Empire Forestry
Conference (South Africa) 1935. Government Printer, Perth,
Perth, Western Australia.
Kessell, S. L., 1938. Report on the operations of the Forests
Department for the year ended 30th June, 1938. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Lackey, R. T., 1996. Pacific salmon, ecological health and
public policy. Ecosystem Health 2: 61-68.
Lane Poole, C. E., 1917. Annual report of the Woods and Forests
Department for the year ended 31st December, 1916. Woods
and Forests Department, Western Australia, Perth, Western
Australia.
Lane Poole, C. E., 1918. Annual report of the Woods and Forests
Department for the year ended 31st December, 1917. Woods and
Forests Department, Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Lane Poole, C. E., 1920a. Statement prepared for the British
Empire Forestry Conference, London, 1920. Government Printer,
Perth, Perth, Western Australia.
Lane Poole, C. E., 1920b. Notes on the forests and forest products
and industries of Western Australia. Forests Department of
Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Lane-Poole, C.E., 1920c. Report on the operations of the Forests
Department for the year ended 30th June, 1920. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Lane Poole, C. E., 1921. A primer of forestry: with illustrations
of the principal forest trees of Western Australia. Department of
Education, Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Lee, K. N., 1999. Appraising adaptive management. Conservation
Ecology 3(2): 3. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol3/
iss2/art3 Levin 1993
Levitt, B., and March, J. G., 1988. Organizational learning.
Annual Review of Sociology 14: 319-340.
Lindenmayer, D. B. and Franklin, J. F., 2000. Managing
unreserved land for biodiversity conservation: the importance of
the matrix. Pp. 13-25 in Conservation in production environments:
managing the matrix, edited by J. Craig, N. Mitchell and D. A.
Saunders, Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW.
Lindenmayer, D. B. and Franklin, J. F., 2002. Conserving forest
biodiversity: a comprehensive multiscaled approach. Island Press,
Washington, DC.
Lindenmayer, D., Margules, C. R. and Botkin, D. B., 2000.
Indicators of ecologically sustainable forest management.
Conservation Biology 14: 941-950.
Lindenmayer, D. B. and Recher, H. F., 1998. Aspects of
ecologically sustainable forestry in temperate eucalypt forests -
beyond an expanded reserve system. Pacific Conservation Biology
4: 4-10.
Ludwig, D. Hilborn, R. and Walters, C.,1993. Uncertainty,
resource exploitation and conservation: lessons from history.
Science 260: 17-36.
Main, B. Y., 1996. Terrestrial invertebrates in south-west Australian
forests: the role of relict species and habitats in reserve design. Journal
of the Royal Society of Western Australia 79: 277-280.
Majer, J. D., Recher, H. F., Heterick, B. E. and Postle, A. C.,
2002. The canopy, bark, soil and litter invertebrate fauna of the
Darling Plateau and adjacent woodland near Perth, Western
Australia, with reference to the diversity of forest and woodland
invertebrates. Pacific Conservation Biology 7: 229-239.
Maser, C., 1994. Sustainable forestry: philosophies, science and
economics. St. Lucie Press, Florida.
Maser, C., 1999. Ecological diversity in sustainable development.
Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida.
Mawson, P. R. and Long, J. L., 1994. Size and age parameters
of nest trees used by four species of parrot and one species of
cockatoo in South-west Australia. Emu 94: 149-155.
Maxwell, S., Burbidge, A. A. and Morris, K., 1996. The 1996
action plan for Australian marsupials and monotremes. Wildlife
Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
McCarthy, M. A., Pearce, J. L. and Burgman, M. A., 1994.
Use and abuse of wildlife models for determining habitat
requirements of forest fauna. Australian Forestry 57: 82-85.
McCaw, W. L. and Burrows, N. D., 1989. Fire management.
Pp. 317-334 in The jarrah forest: a complex Mediterranean
ecosystem., edited by B. Dell, J. J. Havel and N. Malajczuk,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
McIlroy, J. C., 1978. The effects of forestry practices on wildlife
in Australia: a review. Australian Forestry 39: 78-94.
McKenzie, N. L., Hopper, S. D., Wardell-Johnson, G. and
Gibson, N., 1996. Assessing the conservation reserve system
in the jarrah forest region. Journal of the Royal Society of Western
Australia 79: 241-248.
Meagher, T., Campbell, F., Shepherd, K. and Kitchener, D.,
1993. Report of the scientific and administrative committee inquiry into
aspects of conditions set pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act
1986 for the proposed amendments to the 1987 forest management plans
and timber strategy and proposals to meet environmental conditions on
the regional plans and the WACAP ERMP proposal. Report to the
Hon. Kevin J. Minson, MLA, Western Australian Minister for the
Environment, Perth, Western Australia.
Mills, J., 1989. The impact of man on the northern jarrah forest
from settlement in 1829 to the Forests Act 1918. Pp. 229-279 in The
jarrah forest: a complex Mediterranean ecosystem., edited by B. Dell, J. J.
Havel and N. Malajczuk, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
20
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
21
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Mills, J., 1986. The timber people: a history of Bunnings Limited.
Bunnings Limited, Perth, Western Australia.
Mills, J., 2002. Kim Kessell: a first class sensible bloke. Pp.
357-365 in Australia’s ever-changing forests V, edited by J.
Dargavel, D. Gaughwin and B. Libbis, Centre for Resource and
Environmental Studies at the Australian National University
and the Australian Forest History Society Inc., Canberra, ACT.
Morgan, D. L., Gill, H. S. and Potter, I. C., 1998. Distribution,
identification and biology of freshwater fishes in south-western
Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement
No. 56.
Morris, K., Johnson, B., Rooney, J. and Ward, C., 2000.
The short-term impacts of timber harvesting and associated
activities on the abundance of medium-sized mammals in the
Jarrah forest of Western Australia. Pp. 60-70 in Conservation
in production environments: managing the matrix, edited by J. L.
Craig, N. Mitchell and D. A. Saunders, Surrey Beatty and Sons,
Chipping Norton, NSW.
Murphy, D. D. and Noon, B. D., 1991. Coping with uncertainty
in wildlife biology. Journal of Wildlife Management 55: 773-782.
Nichols, O. G. and Muir, B., 1989. Vertebrates of the jarrah
forest. Pp. 133-153 in The jarrah forest: a complex Mediterranean
ecosystem., edited by B. Dell, J. J. Havel and N. Malajczuk,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Norton, T. W., 1996. Conserving biological diversity in
Australia’s temperate eucalypt forests. Forest Ecology and
Management21-33.
Norton, T. W. and Kirkpatrick, J. B., 1995. Sustainable
forestry - the urgency to make the myth a reality. Pp. 240-
248 in Conserving biodiversity: threats and solutions, edited by
R. Bradstock, T. Auld, D. Keith, R. Kingsford, D. Lunney and
D. Sivertsen, Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, New
South Wales.
Norton, T. W. and May, S. A., 1994. Towards sustainable
forestry in Australian temperate eucalypt forests: Ecological
impacts and priorities for conservation, research and
management. Pp. 10-30 in Ecology and sustainability of southern
temperate ecosystems, edited by T. W. Norton and S. R. Dovers,
CSIRO Publications, Melbourne.
Noss, R. F., 1993. Sustainable forestry or sustainable forests?
Pp. 17-43 in Defining sustainable forestry, edited by G. H.
Aplet, N. Johnson, J. T. Olson and V. A. Sample, Island Press,
Washington, D.C.
Nunn, G. W. M., 1957. Forest management in the eucalypt forests
of the south-west of Western Australia. Statement prepared for the
Seventh British Commonwealth Forestry Conference, 1957. Forests
Department of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Peet, G. B. and McCormick, J., 1971. Short term responses
from controlled burning and intense fires in the forests of
Western Australia. Forestry Department of Western Australia
Bulletin.
Pickering, G.W., 1922. Report of Royal Commission on forestry
1922. Government of Western Australia, Perth, Western
Australia.
Podger, F. D., 1972. Phythophthora cinnamomi, a cause of lethal
disease in indigenous plant communities in Western Australia.
Phytopathology 62: 972-981.
RAC, 1991. Forest and timber inquiry draft report Volume 1.
Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
RAC, 1992. Forest and timber inquiry final report Volume 1.
Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
RAC, 1993. Ecological impacts of forest use: a survey of completed
research. Research paper no. 9. Resource Assessment Commission,
Canberra.
Recher, H. F., 1996. Conservation and management of eucalypt
forest vertebrates. Pp. 339-388 in Conservation of faunal diversity
in forested landscapes, edited by R. M. DeGraaf and R. I. Miller,
Chapman and Hall, London.
Rhind, S. G., 1996. Habitat tree requirements and the effects of
removal during logging on the marsupial brush-tailed phascogale
(Phascogale tapoatafa tapoatafa) in Western Australia. The Western
Australian Naturalist 21: 1-21.
Rhind, S. G., 1998. Ecology of the brush-tailed phascogale
in jarrah forest of southwestern Australia. Unpublished Ph D
thesis, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia.
Rhind, S. G., Bradley, J. S. and Cooper, N. K., 2001.
Morphometric variation and taxonomic status of brush-tailed
phascogales, Phascogale tapoatafa (Meyer, 1793) (Marsupialia:
Dasyuridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 49: 345-368.
Rivlin, A.M., 1993. Values, institutions and sustainable
forestry. Pp. 255-259 in Defining sustainable forestry, edited by G.
H. Aplet, N. Johnson, J. T. Olson and V. A. Sample, Island Press,
Washington, D.C.
Roberts, J. D., Wardell-Johnson, G. and Barendse, W., 1990.
Extended descriptions of two new species of Geocrinia (Anura:
Myobatrachidae) from south-western Australia, with comments
on the status of G. lutea. Records of the Western Australian
Museum 14: 427-437.
Roberts, J. D., Horwitz, P., Wardell-Johnson, G., Maxson,
L. R. and Mahony, M. J., 1997. Taxonomy, relationships and
conservation of a new genus and species of Myobatrachid frog
from the high rainfall region of southwestern Australia. Copeia
(2): 373-381.
Robertson, J., 1956. A history of the timber industry of Western
Australia. Unpublished Honours thesis, the University of
Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Rodger, G.J., 1952. Report of the Royal Commission appointed to
inquire into and report upon Forestry and Timber matters in Western
Australia. Government of Western Australia, Perth, Western
Australia.
Rogers, M. F., Sinden, J. A. and De Lacy, T., 1997. The
precautionary principle for environmental management: a
defensive-expenditure application. Journal of Environmental
Management 51: 343-360.
Rundle, G. E., 1996. History of conservation reserves in the
south-west of Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of
Western Australia 79: 225-240.
Salwasser, H., 1997. Conservation biology and the management
of natural resources. Pp. in Principles of conservation biology,
edited by G. K. Meffe and C. R. Carroll, Sinauer Associates,
Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Salwasser, H., MacCleery, D. W. and Snellgrove, T. A.,
1993. An ecosystem perspective on sustainable forestry and
new directions for the U.S. National Forest system. Pp. 44-89 in
Defining sustainable forestry, edited by G. H. Aplet, N. Johnson, J.
T. Olson and V. A. Sample, Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Saunders, D. A., Rowley, I. and Smith, G. T., 1985. The
effects of clearing for agriculture on the distribution of cockatoos
in the southwest of Western Australia. Pp. 309-321 in Birds of
eucalypt forests and woodlands: ecology, conservation, management,
edited by A. Keast, H. F. Recher, H. Ford and D. A. Saunders,
Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW.
20
Calver and Wardell-Johnson
Running foot
21
Logging in Western Australian jarrah
Running foot
Saunders, D. A. and Ingram, J. A., 1995. Birds of southwestern
Australia; an atlas of changes in the distribution and abundance of the
wheatbelt avifauna. Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW.
Serageldin, I., 1993. Making development sustainable. Finance
and Development 30: 6-10.
Seydack, A. H. W., 2000. Theory and practice of yield
regulation systems for sustainable management of tropical and
subtropical moist natural forests. Pp. 257-317 in Sustainable forest
management, edited by K. von Gadow, T. Pukkala and M. Tome,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Shea, S. R., Gillen, K. J. and Kitt, R. J., 1978. Variation
in sporangial production of Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands on
jarrah (E. marginata Sm) forest sites with different understorey
compositions. Australian Forest Research 8: 219-226.
Shearer, B. L. and Tippett, J. T., 1989. Jarrah dieback: The
dynamics and management of Phytophthora cinnamomi in the
jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest of south-western Australia.
Research Bulletin No. 3, Department of Conservation and Land
Management, Perth, Western Australia.
Stoate, T. N., 1926. Working Plan No. 1. Mundaring working
circle. Forests Department of Western Australia, Perth, Western
Australia.
Stoate, T. N., 1947. Forestry and forest resources Western
Australia. Statement prepared for the fifth British Empire Forestry
Conference (London). Forests Department of Western Australia,
Perth, Western Australia.
Stoate, T. N., 1953. Report on the operations of the Forests
Department for the year ended 30th June, 1953. Forests Department
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
Stoneman, G.L., 1986. Wood generated by thinning in the
northern jarrah forest. Australian Forestry 49: 115-121.
Stoneman, G. L., Rayner, M. E. and Bradshaw, F. J., 1997.
Size and age parameters of nest trees used by four species of
parrot and one species of cockatoo in south-western Australia:
Critique. Emu 97: 94-96.
Stoneman, G. L., Bradshaw, F. J. and Christensen, P.,
1989. Silviculture. Pp. 335-355 in The jarrah forest: a complex
Mediterranean ecosystem., edited by B. Dell, J. J. Havel and N.
Malajczuk, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Strehlow, K., Bradley, J. S., Davis, J. and Friend, G. R., 2002.
Short term impacts of logging on invertebrate communities in
jarrah forests in south-west Western Australia. Forest Ecology and
Management 162: 165-184.
Thackway, R. and Cresswell, I. D., 1994. Toward an interim
biogeographic regionalisation for Australia: a framework for
setting priorities in the national reserves system cooperative
program. Reserve Systems Unit, ANCA, Canberra.
Turner, B. J., 1998. An appraisal of methods and data used by
CALM to estimate wood resource yields for the south-west forest region
of Western Australia. Commonwealth and Western Australian
Regional Forest Agreement Steering Committee, Canberra.
Turner, J. and Lambert, M., 1997. Development of indicators
of sustainable development in Australia’s forests. Pp. 471-475
in Conservation outside nature reserves, edited by P. Hale and
D. Lamb, Centre for Conservation Biology, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane.
Turner, B., Ferguson, I. and Fitzpatrick, N. 1999. Report by
the expert panel on the calculation of a sustainable sawlog yield for
the jarrah and karri forests of W.A. Commonwealth and Western
Australian Regional Forest Agreement Steering Committee,
Canberra.
Underwood, R. J., 1983. Sustaining the yield. Forest Focus
30: 3-14.
Underwood, R.J. and Christensen, P., 1981. Forest fire
management in Western Australia. Special Focus No 1, Forests
Department of Western Australia.
van Bueren, E. and Blom, E., 1997. Hierarchical Framework
for the Formulation of Sustainable Forest Management Standards:
Principles, Criteria and Indicators, Leiden, The Netherlands,
Tropenbos Foundation.
van Dieren, W. (Ed.), 1995. Taking nature into account.
Copernicus, Springer Verlag, New York.
Vanclay, J., 1996. Assessing the Sustainability of Timber Harvests
from Natural Forests: Limitations of indices Based on Successive
Harvests. Journal of Sustainable Forestry 3: 47-58.
Varis, O. and Kuikka, S., 1997. Joint use of multiple
environmental assessment models by a Bayesian meta-model
- the Baltic salmon case. Ecological Modelling 102: 341-351.
Wallace, W. R., 1965. Fire in the jarrah forest environment.
Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 49: 33-44.
Walters, C. J. and Holling, C. S., 1990. Large-scale
management experiments and learning by doing. Ecology 71:
2060-2068.
Wardell-Johnson, G., 2000. Responses of forest eucalypts to
moderate and high intensity fire in the Tingle Mosaic, south-
western Australia: comparisons between locally endemic and
regionally distributed species. Austral Ecology 25: 409-421.
Wardell-Johnson, G. and Horwitz, P., 1996. Conserving
biodiversity and the recognition of heterogeneity in ancient
landscapes: a case study from south-western Australia. Forest
Ecology and Management 85: 219-238.
Wardell-Johnson, G., Calver, M., Saunders, D., Conroy, S., and
Jones, B. 2004. Why the integration of demographic and site-
based studies of disturbance is essential for the conservation of
jarrah forest fauna, Pp …-.. in Conservation of Australia’s Forest
Fauna (Second edition), edited by D. Lunney, Royal Zoological
Society of New South Wales, Mosman, New South Wales.
Wardell-Johnson, G. and Horwitz, P., 2000. The recognition
of heterogeneity and restricted endemism in the management
of forested ecosystems in south-western Australia. Australian
Forestry 63: 218-225.
Wardell-Johnson, G. and Nichols, O., 1991. Forest wildlife
and habitat management in southwestern Australia: knowledge,
research and direction. Pp. 161-192 in Conservation of Australia’s
forest fauna, edited by D. Lunney, Royal Zoological Society of
New South Wales, Mosman, New South Wales.
Wardell-Johnson, G. and Roberts, J. D., 1991. The survival
status of the Geocrinia rosea (Anura: Myobatrachidae) complex
in riparian corridors: biogeographical implications. Pp. in Nature
Conservation 2: The role of corridors, edited by D. A. Saunders
and R. J. Hobbs, Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, New
South Wales.
Wardell-Johnson, G., Williams, J., Hill, K. and Cummings,
R., 1997. Evolutionary biogeography and contemporary
distribution of eucalypts. Pp. 92-128 in Evolutionary biogeography
and contemporary distribution of eucalypts, edited by J. Williams
and J. Woinarski, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Yaffee, S. L., 1994. The wisdom of the Spotted Owl: policy lessons
for a new century. Island Press, Washington, DC.
Young, J. T., 1994. The future - effects of plant disease
on society. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia
77: 185-186.