Adaptive silviculture in regrowth eucalypt forests in Victoria and the implications for water, wood, wildlife and wildfire

Summary Two decades ago, the Young Eucalypt Report explored management options for young regrowth forests. South-eastern Australia has considerable areas of regrowth forest due to large-scale wildfire and previous timber harvesting. In the past decade alone, mega fires, in 2003, 2006–2007 and 2009, have burnt around 2.8 million ha of forest and converted hundreds of thousands of hectares to young regrowth. This is having, and will have, considerable biodiversity, water, timber production and possibly fire management implications for future forest managers. It is timely to explore some of the consequences of active forest management, in particular, adaptive thinning, within regrowth forest.