"The past is never fully gone. It is absorbed into the present and the future. It stays to shape what we are and what we do."
Sir William Deane, Governor-General of Australia, Inaugural Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture, August 1996.

Native Forest Silviculture in Victoria

Silvics is the term used for the characteristics that define the life history, growth, behavior and ecology of a tree species. It is often linked with silviculture, which is the application of silvics to the management of trees in order to enhance the reproduction, survival or growth of a specific tree species." (Reference)

or

Silvics is the term used to describe (silvical) characteristics of a particular tree species within a forest; defines their life history: reproduction, growth habits, behaviour and ecological place in the natural forest environment.
Silviculture is the term used to describe the practice of forest management that ensures the conservation of the forest throughout its natural life cycle, then regeneration. (BDD)

This article is being developed

There are six broad forest types in Victoria, and each of them have distinct silvics which in turn mean that their silviculture is different. Mountain Ash, Alpine Ash and Red Gum generally occur in pure stands. Low Elevation Mixed Species (LEMS) is the most diverse type in terms of numbers of species and distribution. It combines both foothill and coastal mixed species types. High Elevation Mixed Species (HEMS) occurs generally above elevations of 700m, meaning the climate and species mix is different to LEMS, although of course there is an overlapping area where one type grades into the other. Box-Ironbark forests are those which include a number of distinctive eucalypt species in varying proportions, with the common names of "Box" and "Ironbark" predominating.

Note: Eucalypt mixed species forests in Victoria are widespread from the western border to the eastern tip, and from Bass Strait in the south to the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. With such widely distributed forests there is significant variation in the range of species involved and climatic conditions under which they grow. These forests have been sub-divided into four main groupings for inventory and commercial purposes based on location and elevation.
  • Coastal Mixed Species (CMS);
  • Foothill Mixed Species (FMS);
  • Mountain Mixed Species (MMS); and
  • Alpine Mixed Species (AMS)
However, from a silvical viewpoint, CMS and FMS are combined into LEMS, and AMS and MMS are combined into High Elevation Mixed Species (HEMS).

All these types have been the subject of significant research over the last approximately 60 years, and each contributes significantly to economic, social and ecological values, including:

  • the provision of timber and other forest products on a sustainable basis
  • the protection of landscape, archaeological and historic values
  • the protection of water catchments and water quality, and
  • the provision of recreational and educational opportunities.

Between 2007 and 2015, Manuals which summarise the silvicultural knowledge base for four of these forest types have been prepared. They are available via the links below, and in the gallery beneath the Manuals you will find maps of the distribution of each type extracted from each Manual.

Open the gallery above to see Forest Type Distributions

Simple table of areas of each type

Perhaps gallery of photos of forest types in here.

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