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Private Native Forests in Australia
Of Australia's 165 million hectares of forest, 42 million hectares are under freehold tenure and approximately 66 million hectares under leasehold tenure (see chapter one of Australia's State of the Forest Report). Forests are defined as areas dominated by woody vegetation with a potential canopy cover of more than 20% and a potential height greater than 2 m (for more information see the National Forest Inventory page, What is a forest?).
There are a wide variety of forest types under private ownership or management. They are used for a variety of commercial purposes and provide a range of ecological, environmental and aesthetic values. In most parts of Australia there is relatively little information available on commercial timber or other values of private forests.
To address this deficiency, the Bureau of Rural Sciences managed a project that developed inventory methods for private native forests and tested those methods in a region of south east Queensland. The report "South East Queensland Private Native Forest Inventory" is a report of that work.
South East Queensland Private Native Forest Inventory