EARTH SCIENCES

Annual Review 2012

Highlights and IssuesP.D. McIntosh

Staff

Geoscientist Adrian Slee resigned during the year. Adrian began a PhD at the

University of Queensland. He continues to participate in the research he initiated in

the Florentine (with Norske Skog) and near Mt Nicholas.

Advice

Earth sciences notifications from State

and private forest, 2012–13

Advice provided, office assessment

Advice provided, field assessment

Total notifications

State forest 73 (119) 24 (57) 97 (176)

Private forest 62 (73) 31 (44) 93 (117)

Total 135 (192) 55 (101) 190 (293)

Strahan harvest - windthrow

Pine harvest is

‘on hold’

Windthrow into a

Class 1 stream is

a problem.

Options:

• leave ‘as is’

• burn

• cable harvest

• hand-release

and excavator

removal

Option 4 selected – heavy excavator with a long reach floated to site by FT

Chainsaw

operator

Stream

Excavator

Same stream bend after salvage harvest – riparian areas will be replanted with native species

Photo: Clive Woolridge

Debris has been stacked 10 m away from streams

FPA will continue to monitor patches of windthrow occurring

in remaining standing forest

Plantations of northeast Tasmaniagood progress in revegetation 2007-2012

Problems still occurring during high rainfall events

Scamander February 2011

Fingal Management Strategy has been revised

Advantages:•Timelines so that FPA can see what is happeningin whole catchments

•Revegetation progress can be easily monitored

Long-term aim:A multi-age plantation with a patchwork of native forest and stable streams and riparian areas.

Guidelines were endorsed by FPAC and the Board in the past year and have been generally applied

Guideline development

Research and Monitoring

Three major projects (FPA lead researcher):

• Effect of pine harvest on karst development (sinkholes) in the Florentine Valley

• Erosion history in the forest estate

• Mass movement episodes and landslide risk in dolerite terrain in northeast Tasmania

One minor project (FPA assisting):

• Age of grasslands on Gunn’s Surrey Hills estate

Effect of pine harvest on karst development

(sinkholes) in the Florentine ValleyAim

Do wetter ground conditions after pine

harvest cause sinkholes to collapse?

Project partners

Norske Skog

Kevin Williamsof

Norske Skog mapping the

perimeter of a large sinkhole

Monitor every year

Erosion history in the forest estateAims(1) To find out when landscape instability occurred, as a guide to present risk(2) To record important Quaternary geoconservation sites that may be important for assessing past climates and palaeoecology

Dune on Southwood Road dated 19000 years old

Paper has been accepted by

the international journal

Geomorphology

Project partners: Universities of Wollongong, Queensland, Tasmania

Risks – Strahan

•Active Henty Dunes - winds from the west

•The E-W dunes formed by winds from the north –10,000 years ago

•There is little chance of sustained winds from this direction at present

•Pine plantation may be re-established – taking care to preserve landforms

Site will be proposed for listing in the Tasmanian GeoconservationDatabase for its geological and palaeoclimate importance

Landslides on Mt Nicholas

Mt Nicholas

55 000 years

Supervisors course, Tyenna• soil identification• high erodibility soils• collapsing road batters• cultivation policy in wet areas • Class 4 stream guidelines

Training

Applying Road

Batter Guidelines

(FT Murchison)

Class 4 stream course (FT Murchison)

Commercial

work

Assessing soil erodibility on a

subdivision on Flinders Island

Characterisation of soils at the

Warra carbon Flux Tower site

Future

• Review of progress on catchment approach in

plantations

• Reassess sites in Florentine karst project

• Two scientific papers to complete

• Seek further commercial work and inter-agency

links (Universities, NRM groups)

• Giving advice to foresters

on best practice