Tree change: LLS to take on $465m private native forestry sector in NSW

From April 30 landholders will not need to go to multiple state government agencies to get advice on land management.

In turn, sustainable logging of native trees on private land – a sector currently worth $465m per year – is in line to be supercharged. 

LLS Sustainable Land Management director Kristian Holz said the change would bring farmers’ vegetation management options under one roof, and would work with the new land management code to make timber a better money spinner for producers, and provide a more reliable supply for harvesters and contractors.  

“(Private native forestry) is seen by some as a form of land clearing, but that is not accurate,” Mr Holz said. 

“We’re talking about a selective, smaller-scale, rotational farming practice that happens once every 20, 30 years.

“It’s a unique form of agri-forestry, not wholesale felling of large plantations.” 

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About 40 per cent of the state’s 22 million hectares of native forest is on private land.

Most of this 8.4m hectare cache is on the North Coast, where government has just finished a mapping project for landholders, but it is tipped for growth in areas like the Northern Tablelands and Hunter.

In a survey of northern NSW landholders last year it was found that 66 per cent of total private native forest area was used for stock grazing, while 60pc was used for firewood collection, 53pc for biodiversity habitat, 45pc for hunting to control pests, and 30 per cent for timber harvesting. 

Almost 1 in 5 landholders with private native forests engaged in timber harvesting. 

Mr Holz said previously, private native forestry was an opportunistic, sporadic industry that was difficult for producers to interact with, and an ineffective source of timber for harvesters and contractors.

“Under the previous native veg act there was no real commercial value from timber that has been removed on private land on this scale,” Mr Holz said. 

“It was pretty much push it over and burn it, which is a great shame on a number of levels.”

He also said the changes underway can be traced back to the independent Biodiversity Reform Panel recommendations in 2014.

“They said there should be a tenure-neutral approach to land management and also that private native forestry shouldn’t be seen as a land use change. It’s traditionally been part of running an ag enterprise.

“The easiest example is think of a grazier, when trees get really big and canopy gets dense, and their grass is impacted. They’ll come and take out a big tree and leave the rest. 

Mr Holz said government was in a process of supplementing LLS with Environment Protection Authority staff and new additional resources to help with shouldering the new private native forestry load. 

“Transferring management of native forests on private land to LLS is a step towards providing a secure roadmap for these unique areas, ensuring landholders can manage them sustainably, long into the future,” said Minister for Lands and Forestry, Paul Toole.

Forestry as a whole has proved a point of political contention recently with NSW Labor demanding a full scientific assessment of the state’s three Regional Forest Agreements, which are due to expire next year.

Both state and federal governments said they see a role for the NSW agreements after 2019 but NSW Labor says the science underpinning them is out of date and incomplete.