Our operations
We use three levels of planning for our forestry work:
- strategic planning
- tactical planning
- operational planning
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning involves planning forest production over a long-term time period.
Sustainable Timber Tasmania generally uses a 90-year horizon for strategic
planning.
Sustainable Timber Tasmania manages Permanant Timber Production Zone (PTPZ) land under the Forest Management Act to make available at least 137,000 cubic metres of high-quality eucalypt sawlogs
annually to the veneer and sawmilling industries.
The sustainable yield of a forest is the level of commercial timber (or product mix)
that can be maintained under a given management regime, without reducing the
long-term productive capacity of the forest.
We have two strategic plans, our:
- Forest Management Plan
- High Conservation Values Assessment and Management Plan
Our Forest Management Plan includes:
- our Sustainable Forest Management Policy
- our strategic objectives
- a summary of our detailed forest management system
The High Conservation Values Assessment and Management Plan supports our Forest Management Plan.
The High Conservation Values Assessment and Management Plan has assessments of our areas with high conservation value. It also explains how we maintain and improve the value of these areas.
Tactical Planning
Sustainable Timber Tasmania releases an annual update to the Three Year Wood Production Plan each July. The Three Year Wood Production Plan identifies forest coupes in Tasmania’s public production forests that are available across a three-year period from which a schedule of harvesting, roading and regeneration operations will be developed.
Operational Planning
We do operational planning for each area of forest. This detailed planning produces a Forest Practices Plan. Under forestry law we need Forest Practices Officers to develop a Forest Practices Plan before we can harvesting any trees.
Forest Practices Plans must follow the Forest Practices Code. The Forest Practices Authority trains and appoints Forest Practices Officers. They need to be experienced foresters and understand the Forest Practices System.
The code lists how Forest Practices Officers need to manage things like:
- biodiversity
- soil
- water
- cultural heritage
- the look of the landscape and surroundings.
The Forest Practices System gives Forest Practices Officers training and tools to help them develop Forest Practices Plans.