HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Forests of Australia
OR:
Forests of Australia on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
has many forests of importance due to significant features, despite being one of the driest continents. , Australia has approximately 147 million
hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...
s of native forest, which represents about 19% of Australia's land area. The majority of Australia's trees are hardwoods, typically eucalypts, rather than softwoods like pine. While softwoods dominate some native forests, their total area is judged insufficient to constitute a major forest type i
Australia's National Forest Inventory
Th
Forests Australia
website provides up-to-date information on Australia's forests. Detailed information on Australia's forests is available fro
Australia's State of the Forests Reports
that are published every five years.


Forest types

There are 458 forest communities distributed across Australia. These have been grouped into the following seven native forest types, which are characterised by dominant species and the structure of the forest: *
Rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
s *
Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of ''Leptospermum''). They range in size f ...
forests *
Eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...
forests *
Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in th ...
forests *
Callitris ''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. p ...
forests *
Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus nam ...
forests *
Mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...
forests ''Plantation forests'' (softwood and hardwood) have been defined as an eighth group that covers trees planted for commercial use.


Government


Policies

In Australia the states and territories are responsible for managing forests. Guidance is primarily provided by the 1992 National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS). The NFPS allows for the inclusion of
Regional Forest Agreement The Regional Forest Agreements (RFA) are 20 year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia's native forests, and are intended to provide certainty to commercial forestry operations while protecting environmental values. The ...
s, which are 20-year plans for the management of native forests.


Departments

* Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries in the Northern Territory * Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry * Department of Primary Industries and its child agency Forests NSW * South Australian Forestry Corporation (trading as Forestry SA) *
Forestry Tasmania Sustainable Timber Tasmania (formerly Forestry Tasmania) is a government business enterprise wholly owned by the Government of Tasmania, Australia. It is responsible for the management of public production forest in Tasmania, which is about 80 ...
* Department of Environment and Primary Industries * Department of Environment and Conservation


List of significant forests


Bushfires

Main article
Bushfires in Australia Bushfires in Australia are a widespread and regular occurrence that have contributed significantly to shaping the nature of the continent over millions of years. Eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions of the world, and its p ...
Over the years, Bushfires have destroyed a lot of trees and this in turn destroyed the habitat of many animals.


Gallery


See also

*
Deforestation in Australia Land clearing in Australia describes the removal of native vegetation and deforestation in Australia. Land clearing involves the removal of native vegetation and habitats, including the bulldozing of native bushlands, forests, savannah, woodland ...
*
Fauna of Australia The fauna of Australia consists of a huge variety of animals; some 46% of birds, 69% of mammals, 94% of amphibians, and 93% of reptiles that inhabit Australia (continent), the continent are Endemism, endemic to it. This high level of endemism c ...
*
Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...
* List of old-growth forests in Australia *
National Reserve System Australia's National Reserve System (NRS) is a network of more than 10,000 Commonwealth plus state and territory protected areas which, in combination, on a national scale, protect more than , greater than 17% of the continent, of unique biodi ...
*
Protected areas of Australia Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although t ...
*
Forestry in Tasmania Forestry in Tasmania Australia has been conducted since early European settlement. Early history Forest conservation and reservation in the nineteenth century Tasmania was controlled under the title of the Waste Lands Act. * Imperial Government ...
*
Woodchipping in Australia Woodchipping is the act and industry of chipping wood for pulp. Timber is converted to woodchips and sold, primarily, for paper manufacture. In Australia, woodchips are produced by clearcutting or thinning of native forests or plantations. In ...


References

{{Authority control