Jamax Forest Solutions

15/10/2025

Today, Apple announced a new investment in the restoration and sustainable management of a working redwood forest in California, in collaboration with The Conservation Fund. The forest project is part of the company’s expanded Restore Fund initiative, which is now invested in two dozen conservation and regenerative agriculture projects that span six continents.

Apple announces a new investment in a working redwood forest in California, in collaboration with The Conservation Fund.

15/10/2025

Whist the focus of this research is deforestation, the researchers have used fire-induced canopy loss as a replica of deforestation. As a result, their research can also be used to highlight the importance of broadscale hazard reduction burning across the landscape to mitigate severe bushfire risk, particularly in flood-prone catchments.

New research, based on forest fires in Australia, proves there is a significantly higher risk of large-scale flooding when major deforestation has occurred in catchment areas.

13/10/2025

This story highlights that the biggest threats to koalas are habitat loss and fragmentation, bushfires, vehicle strike, dogs and disease - NOT sustainably managed native timber harvesting. Penny Sharpe MLC knew that before she convinced the Minns Government to accept a deal with the independents to trade off the north coast timber industry and regional communities for their workers compensation reforms!!

Chris Minns Prue Car MP Daniel Mookhey MLC Kate Washington MP Mark Buttigieg MLC Yasmin Catley MP Sophie Cotsis Paul Scully MP Courtney Houssos Jenny Aitchison MP Jihad Dib MP Ron Hoenig MP Tara Moriarty MLC Emily Suvaal Greg Warren MP Lynda Voltz MP Edmond Atalla MP Stephen Bali MP Anoulack Chanthivong Julia Finn MP Nathan Hagarty MP David Harris MP Dr Michael Holland MP - Member for Bega Charishma Kaliyanda Steve Kamper Dr Joe McGirr MP David Mehan MP Liesl Tesch MP Anthony D'Adam Taylor Martin MLC Tania Mihailuk MP Mark Banasiak Peter Primrose MLC Wes Fang MLC Michael Kemp MP Gurmesh Singh MP Forest & Wood Communities Australia

Koala deaths on Appin Road are not unusual this time of year, but the fatality of rescued koala Gage is cause for more than the usual frustration and despair.

13/10/2025

Study finds mixed tree species enhance forest productivity

A new international study has found that mixed-tree species forestry enhances productivity, increases carbon sequestration and helps mitigate climate change. Source: Timberbiz

Long-term field studies, which began in 2009 at The University of Western Australia Farm Ridgefield in Pingelly in Western Australia’s wheat belt, were part of a global analysis of 21 tree diversity experiments.

Published in Global Change Biology, the study was led by Dr Joel Jensen, from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre in the US, and co-authored by Dr Michael Perring from The UWA Institute of Agriculture and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Dr Rachel Standish, Adjunct at UWA and Professor at Murdoch University, and researchers from the Americas and Asia.

The research analysed growth data from more than 83,000 trees and found productivity and the consistency of growth increased with tree species diversity in young forest stands, with mixtures of four to five species showing the highest productivity.

Productivity gains were driven mainly by fast-growing acquisitive species, which thrived when grown alongside slower-growing conservative species that tolerated competition.

“By combining contrasting resource-use strategies, forests with more species were not only more productive but also more stable,” Dr Perring said.

“Fast-growing species drove productivity, while slower-growing species coexisted without major losses.”

The study highlighted the importance of functional diversity – the different ways species capture and use light, water and nutrients as a key driver of productivity. In contrast, structural differences between trees such as height or crown size, had a smaller and more context-dependent effect.

“These results show that combining contrasting resource-use strategies enhances forest productivity,” Dr Jensen said.

“It shows that mixed-species forestry can be a sustainable management approach with real climate benefits.”

The research provides a framework for designing resilient, productive and climate-smart forests.

“Incorporating species mixtures can boost carbon storage, improve resilience to environmental stressors such as drought and herbivory and support sustainable forestry goals,” Dr Perring said.

10/10/2025

New mapping study found trees up to 81m tall

New research led by Griffith University has measured individual tree heights across 3.1 million hectares in the New South Wales Northern Rivers region, revealing old growth forests and a tree as tall as a 27- storey building at 81m.

In the study published in Australian Journal of Botany, advanced mapping techniques using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and computational power revealed a detailed assessment of forest structure at the single-tree level over large geographic extents of the Northern Rivers region.

LiDAR uses laser light to measure distances to create detailed three-dimensional (3D) models of the landscape, including trees.

Lead author on the National Environmental Science Program Resilient Landscapes Hub project, Dr Patrick Norman from Griffith University, said the advanced mapping techniques allowed them to use publicly available Airborne Laser Scanning data to model forest canopy height and individual trees across 3.1 million hectares, at a level of detail that had not been achievable until now.

“This has allowed us to map the forest canopy in incredible detail, capturing more than 180 million individual trees across this huge area,” Dr Norman said.

The analysis of tree heights across different vegetation types and land uses showed the tallest trees were found in wet sclerophyll forests, in areas of native forest designated for nature conservation or timber production.

“This information provides valuable insights into the influence of environmental and human impacts on tree heights, which could be used to inform management strategies and conservation efforts within the region and can also be applied to other forested landscapes,” Dr Norman said.

This research was part of a project to develop climate change adaptation plans for the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales and the Wet Tropics of Queensland.

Both regions were home to many threatened species and ecological communities and contained a diverse range of land uses and protected areas, including significant wetlands, national parks, World Heritage Areas, Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous Land Use Agreements.

They were also places of rapid change: in a three-year period in the Northern Rivers region, unprecedented drought had been followed by bushfires and floods in rapid succession.

The study ‘Landscape-wide modelling of canopy tree crowns and heights using LiDAR: a case study in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia’ has been published in Australian Journal of Botany.

Source: Griffith University

Individual tree heights measured across 3.1 million hectares using new advanced mapping techniques.

10/10/2025

New research shows selective harvesting had no significant effect on male koala density

Researchers from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development have resurveyed three state forest sites and three paired national park control sites to track koala density following selective harvesting on state forests. Three years after harvesting, there remained no significant effect on male koala density in the state forest sites—consistent with our immediate post-harvest assessment in 2020. However, researchers observed a significant decline in male koala density at the national park control sites, likely linked to drought and canopy dieback.

These insights reinforce the importance of ongoing monitoring to understand long-term koala response to harvesting.

This work is part of the NSW Koala Strategy, and funded by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Research is overseen by an expert panel, including independent scientists.

Read the full report for more details, insights, and limitations: https://www.nrc.nsw.gov.au/Final%20report%20-%20Re-surveying%20koala%20density%202023%20acoustic%20array%20findings%20-%20DPIRD%20-%20September%202025.pdf?downloadable=1

Chris Minns Prue Car MP Daniel Mookhey MLC Kate Washington MP Mark Buttigieg MLC Yasmin Catley MP Sophie Cotsis Paul Scully MP Courtney Houssos Jenny Aitchison MP Jihad Dib MP Ron Hoenig MP Tara Moriarty MLC Emily Suvaal Greg Warren MP Lynda Voltz MP Edmond Atalla MP Stephen Bali MP Anoulack Chanthivong Julia Finn MP Nathan Hagarty MP David Harris MP Dr Michael Holland MP - Member for Bega Charishma Kaliyanda Steve Kamper Dr Joe McGirr MP David Mehan MP Liesl Tesch MP Anthony D'Adam Taylor Martin MLC Tania Mihailuk MP Mark Banasiak Peter Primrose MLC Carpentry Australia Q&A Wes Fang MLC Michael Kemp MP Gurmesh Singh MP Forest & Wood Communities Australia

02/10/2025

Do you own a private native forest? Are you interested in finding out who you're sharing it with?

The Forest Science unit of the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), in partnership with Local Land Services, is helping landowners discover the animals that share their property. Now in its 7th year, Countryside Critters is an ongoing project that is monitoring the changing status of wildlife in privately owned forests.

Mini-acoustic recorders, 'Audiomoths', are mailed to participating landholders. These recorders can be set-up to record sounds produced by wildlife that can be heard by humans or sounds that are produced by bats which otherwise are mostly outside the hearing range of humans. The recorders are set on trees in forest habitat on the property, retrieved after 7-10 days by the landholder and posted back to our ecology team for analysis.

The aim is to record distinctive wildlife calls (e.g. koala bellows, forest owls, gliders, etc) that are produced during spring and the echolocation calls of bats that are also active at this time. Wildlife cameras are also set on tracks in forest habitat to detect wildlife that may be moving along these, including introduced predators (e.g., foxes).

The survey relies heavily on landholder participation. At present more than 100 properties from south of Newcastle to near the Queensland border are part of the project.

01/10/2025

Give me a box of Redheads any day

01/10/2025

Support Plantation Establishment Program

Dates: The next closing date for applications is on 5 November 2025.

This program aims to support the establishment of new long-rotation softwood and hardwood plantation forests and assist the sector to respond to the projected growth in demand for domestically sourced timber resources.

AU: National$73.8M Available

Open - Close Nov 5, 2025

https://grantguru.com/au/pmhc/g/5br5ns3u

29/09/2025

Out for my morning walk around Lake Curalo at Eden today and walked through an area of Bell Miner Associated Dieback (BMAD). A good example of an unhealthy forest that could benefit from the reintroduction of low intensity fire to reduce the mid strata shrub layer that harbors the bellbirds.

29/09/2025

USA's new tallest timber tower halted mid-build, future uncertain

The USA – and world's – new tallest timber skyscraper has been under construction for a few months. However, despite speedy progress, it has run into some issues and the future of the ambitious project is looking uncertain.

An ambitious new timber skyscraper that's set to become the tallest of its kind in the United States – and indeed the world – has hit a snag. The building has been under construction in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a few months now. However, despite speedy progress, it has run into some issues and ...

27/09/2025

Cartoonist Jed Dunstan in the ACM newspapers this last week on topic of the Federal government's new emission targets needing to plant farmland to trees.