Is clearfelling a good management technique for WA’s native forests?
Clearfelling is the preferred silvicultural method in the karri forest. Karri seedlings grow well in an open sun-lit seedbed which is best created by clearfelling. If selectively logged karri seedlings would have to compete for sunlight, which is not optimal for their growth. If this was the preferred method the seedlings will, in most cases, succumb to a more aggressive species which would then become dominant. To keep karri as the major species, and thus produce a regrowth forest indistinguishable for the original, clearfelling is used as the best management technique. www.ifa.unimelb.edu.au/issues/wa/silvicsys.htm This site, by the Institute of Foresters Australia, outlines the silvicultural systems used in Western Australian forestry.
