DALGARUP JARRAH FOREST
655. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the Minister for Environment:
I ask this question on behalf of Hon
Dr Steve Thomas, who is on urgent parliamentary business.
I refer to question without notice
614, asked on 17 June 2020, on the ministerially initiated reassessment of
Dalgarup forest block.
(1) What area of the state forest
has undergone silviculture thinning at any time in the past?
(2) What percentage of the state
forest has undergone silviculture thinning at any time in the past?
(3) How many areas of state forest
have been designated as silviculture reference sites to date?
(4) What total area of state forest
has been designated as silviculture reference sites to date?
(5) Will the minister release the
report of the reassessment of Dalgarup forest block; and, if not, why not?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank Hon Dr
Steve Thomas for some notice of the question.
(1)–(2) At
31 March 2020, there was approximately 1.3 million hectares of state forest in Western
Australia. Since the introduction of the Forests Act 1918, the majority of this
area is likely to have undergone some form of commercial harvest, including
thinning, or non-commercial silvicultural treatment. A wide variety of
practices have been applied, with records of the type, intensity and extent of
thinning varying in completeness over time, especially for earlier non-commercial
treatments.
(3)–(4)
This information is currently unavailable. However, the Department of
Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions is undertaking a project to
spatially define and map all silvicultural reference sites.
(5) I table the
report, which is publicly available on DBCA's website.
[See paper 3990.]