Mapping and evaluating the suitability of the private native forest estate in northern and southern NSW, Australia, for commercial timber production

With the use of public native forest for timber production often contested, commercial timber production on private land (private native forestry) has an important role to play in meeting the State’s future hardwood needs. While the overall area of these forests is known, there has been little assessment of them from a timber resource perspective. Mapping and assessment of the suitability of private native forests in northern NSW and southern NSW for commercial timber production required development of a comprehensive multi-criteria methodology. Private native forest areas available and commercially suitable for timber harvesting were identified and mapped through interrogation of more than forty spatial datasets. The method also identified private forest areas unavailable for timber production under the relevant regulatory Private Native Forestry Code of Practice and areas not suitable from a commercial perspective. Spatial analysis of six forest modelling parameters – net harvestable area (NHA) within a private property, the property’s distance by road from wood processing facilities, native forest areas with slope between 20–30 degrees, terrain roughness, forest Yield Association Group mix, and site canopy height – was used to evaluate and rank the suitability of more than 11 000 private properties managing 3.6 million hectares of private native forest. Properties with areas more than 25 ha and an estimated net harvestable area of more than 15 ha were assessed and ranked. Analysis was undertaken separately for northern NSW and southern NSW as well as combining the two regions. Distinctive features were found for both regions when comparing the results of the Northern and Southern PNF regions.