A cohort of twenty-four students has visited Tasmania for a five day study tour, part of a new industry-funded partnership between the forest sector and five universities across Australia.
The program, which will eventually lead to a Graduate Certificate in Forestry, was launched last year and offers four modules over a two-year timespan to individuals working full-time in the sector. With no undergraduate degree in Forestry available at any Australian university, this addresses the need to build and consolidate the knowledge base of those working in the industry, who often have qualification in applied science or agriculture.
Professor of Forestry with Australian National University Peter Kanowski, who is co-convenor of the course, expects the initiative to have multiple positive outcomes. “This is an investment in early to mid-career professionals benefitting the sector as a whole over the longer term. It equips us for the new challenges we’re facing, and ensures universities are meeting the sector’s needs.”
The initiative is a collaboration between five universities, federal funding bodies and the forest sector in the form of individual companies and industry associations. The universities involved are Australian National University (ANU), the Universities of Tasmania (UTAS), Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Adelaide, and Melbourne University. Forestry Australia will provide a scholarship for one of the participants in the program each year, with this year's recipient from Western Australia working on carbon farming initiatives.
While the initiative is majority industry funded, the sector's national training organisation Forest Works provided funding from the federal government's $10million Forest Workforce Training Program.
The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) was instrumental in bringing the multiple parties together.
TASMANIAN STUDY TOUR
Students take one subject per semester which includes a five day residential component to study the particular forestry context of each location, with April's study tour in Tasmania part of the Introduction to Forestry module.
The Tasmanian field visit was facilitated by Professor Kanowski and UTAS Professor of Forestry Science, Mark Hunt. “Students do a residential school in Tasmania, country Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, focusing not just on topics specific to that unit but exposed to the breadth of what happens in the industry in that geographic area,” said Professor Hunt.
On Wednesday 2nd April, the party visited Forico's headquarters in Kings Meadows for a presentation by the company's Sustainability team on the emerging challenges and opportunities in national capital reporting, carbon forestry and biodiversity certificates.
There followed a visit to Henry Somerset Orchid Reserve in the state's north, where Forico maintains a 38 hectare patch of native forest reserve which supports fifty-plus species of endemic orchid, including six threatened species.
Final stop for the day was on the company's plantation estate in northwest Tasmania to witness a plantation coupe which has been thinned to promote tree growth suitable for building timber and engineered wood products, in a coupe registered with the Emissions Reduction Fund for carbon credits.
The presentations by Forico were an opportunity for students to gain an understanding of the company’s business model, in which productive plantation forest is grown alongside areas managed for conservation and ecology.
During the tour, students visited forest operations managed by a range of Tasmanian forestry managers.
“This mid-career professional development opportunity is vital for the future of our sector, a sector which is leading from the front in our climate conscious world,” said Forico’s General Manager of Enterprise Performance, Jim Wilson. “For this reason, Forico is an enthusiastic supporter of the program and its participants. The leadership offered by Professor Kanowski and Professor Hunt is to be applauded, in finally answering a need the sector has faced for many years.”
Images, above: the study group at Henry Somerset Orchid Reserve, Tasmania
Below (L to R): Professor Peter Kanowski, ANU; Professor Mark Hunt, UTAS; Henry Somerset Orchid Reserve sign; Forico Resource Information Officer James Dick; members of the study group walk in the reserve.
