Scientists hope an endangered listing may help preserve alpine ash forests, but the forestry industry is raising concerns that it could result in further decline.

It was great to speak with Annie Brown from ABC Rural about the listing of Alpine Ash. We had a great chat, but one thing this article didn't get to mention is the importance of seed collection as one of the many strategies to steward the forest type. www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2...

Scientists predict fire-sensitive Alpine Ash forests could be halved in the next 60 years as too-frequent fires prevent forest regeneration. Read: theconversation.com/australias-a... Via @theconversation.com by @itsnotfairman.bsky.social & @trentpenman.bsky.social

The Alpine Ash ecosystem of mainland Australia has been listed as endangered. This is pretty serious for such a widespread forest type. In this article we go into the reasons for the listing, and how active approaches to management can help with stewardship. theconversation.com/australias-a...

The Vic Auditor General has completed an assessment of the transition out of native forestry, & it feels like the message has been "data deficient". But what is known is that it appears that there has been an overall decline in job security for affected workers. www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/suppo...

This article feels pretty close to a type of truth-telling about how fire management in south-eastern Australia has been discussed and debated the last few years. For fire scientists and ecologists alike, there is much to pause, digest and reflect on here. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Humbled to bea part of this paper on principles for developing evidence briefs for landscape fire management. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On this day that supports inclusive futures for women and girls in science, let's not forget all the women that were sidelined, ignored, or forced out of science because they: - had children - prioritised family/caring - did science differently - questioned boundaries & norms - fought the patriarchy

'Minding the forest gaps: uptake and use of single rope bridges over forest roads by arboreal fauna' Interesting to see this work on the use of rope bridges as a tool in production forests (rather than across large and major roads). www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Was glad to speak with The Guardian about the impacts of frequent fires on ecosystems, and bang my usual drum about the need for a state level strategy on how we manage the inevitable change that is going to occur to many forest ecosystems. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“The debate doesn’t need to be ‘do we burn or not burn’. That is an old, simplistic debate. What we need to understand is how much we burn, where we burn and for what reason.” www.theage.com.au/politics/vic...

"The concept of lighting a fire to maintain the health of a forest didn't enter into the legislation." www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

How many hollow bearing trees are in the forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria? Turns out about 1.5 million, with no difference between state forests and parks. This new paper is an amazing whole of landscape inventory of this crucial habitat resource. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Buried in yesterday's major announcements is that the State's land use assessment council, VEAC, is being wound up. The end of a long journey that began with the outstanding Land Conservation Council. www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victori...

great editorial on risk aversion in forest management particularly on proactive fire management vs reactive fire suppression. Equally relevant to southern Australia. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Interesting to see this report reporting that closing the native timber industry in Victoria has cost $1.5 billion (so far). It's good to contrast this to earlier estimates (and it's a gold thing I have a long memory!) www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victori...

Nice to see this expert elicitation on strategic fuel breaks being published. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Finally someone is looking into the obsession with the word "Great" when it comes to natural assets. Same story for national parks - does my head in that we have a Great Otway, Great Koala, and Great Forest National Park (well that last one doesn't actually exist) www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Kirsha Kaechele spoke at the Forestry Australia conference last year and it was a real treat. She brings an insightful outsiders perspective to the otherwise mind numbing forest war debates. www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion...

Good to see coverage of tree fern sales. I tend to agree with Prof Baker in this - Tasmania's tree fern sale system seems pretty good, particularly in how it raises fees for tags which then goes to fund monitoring and research. Victoria is another story, though. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Great to see the range of perspectives on how we manage ash forests for resilience in the future. Though I don't reckon opinions are divided in that we need new thinking and approaches. www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast...

"Mr Dimopoulos said Parks Victoria had the funding required to maintain the new national parks. "Parks Victoria are well funded and have all the resources they need," he said." The same old story: more National Parks, and no new funding to actually manage them. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

The Victorian Government is establishing a suite of long promised national parks but quite interesting to see the last paragraph sends a pretty clear message about the prospect for any future parks. www.premier.vic.gov.au/best-bush-op...

Great to see the Guardian picking up this great new research on forest density and based off decades of silvicultural measurements in Victoria. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"Third, we need national environmental standards to provide a basis for the commonwealth to accredit state decision-making processes, permitting the streamlining of project approvals." Call me crazy, but that sounds like the (in)famous Regional Forest Agreements. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Alpine Ash in Victoria’s Native Forests Silviculture Reference Manual will support DEECA’s Forest Fire and Operations Division’s forest health initiatives for these vulnerable communities." www.forestsandreserves.vic.gov.au/initiatives/...

Some interesting work from the Arthur Rylah Institute of the Vic Govt - longitudinal records of understorey change following severe windstorm in the Dandenong ranges. General increase in wiregrass and understorey owing to increase in light availability. www.ari.vic.gov.au/__data/asset...

Super interesting paper - small scale community sawmills in Mexico ended up having positive effects on reducing deforestation and increasing reforestation. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New paper out! This is a big, interdisciplinary reflection on the types of challenges that are likely to come our way in the context of wildfires in the next 50 years. Was fun to write this one. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our silviculture manual for Alpine Ash is now freely available in PDF form. This reference manual covers the past, present and future of stewarding and restoring alpine ash in Victoria. www.vgls.vic.gov.au/client/en_AU...

Thunderstorms are a major — and growing — threat to tropical trees, reports a new analysis in Ecology Letters led by Cary’s @evangora.bsky.social. Insights are critical to guiding decisions about forest restoration and conservation www.caryinstitute.org/news-insight...

New work from USA showing how thinning and fire treatments can accelerate restoration of mature/old-growth characteristics in fire dependent ecosystems academic.oup.com/forestry/adv...

Someone - ideally not affiliated with the pro/anti sides - needs to write a history of the rise and fall (TBC?) of the decade+ long Great Forest NP concept. My take: a very strong brand that ultimately lost steam when the key threat (logging) ended in the region www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

Interesting to see this media release from Forestry Corp NSW on their alpine ash seed collection program. FWIW the recommendation in Victoria is to have 17t of seed collected and stored; FC NSW is aiming for 800kg. www.forestrycorporation.com.au/about/releas...

Teaching a field-based class is a great way to discuss current challenges of forest management with students! Also a wonderful opportunity to connect with and learn from practitioners!

I've been banging on about this issue - immature alpine ash, fire and seed - for years so it was great to get a chance to contribute to this ABC Landline story about it. "A 'time bomb' in the state's ash forests" www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Great to see coverage of this super important issue for Victoria's forests, particularly alpine ash. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

"The solution to the current environmental crises is not misanthropy or a Cartesian division between humans and nature. It requires us to recognize and take up our obligations to our lands, something Indigenous people are acutely aware of." This is good.

This is a great point. There are a heap of forestry trials here in Victoria, set up decades ago, that are also great opportunities to assess long term outcomes of management approaches. All they need is someone to measure them!

New paper from CSIRO improving good ol' FullCAM's ability to estimate carbon in native vegetation, from shrublands to rainforests. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Restoration thinning in red gum forests doesnt increase fuel hazard, according to this study. Something of a reassurance given the general benefits (for carbon, habitat, etc) of thinning in dense post logging regrowth. www.publish.csiro.au/pc/PC24081

The softwood-ification of Australia's plantation sector continues. I suspect the conversion of blue gum plantations to pine will also lead to a longer term decline in koala populations across that part of SW Vic. Quite a wicked problem. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

It's not a very politically sexy outcome - but it's encouraging that the Great Outdoors Taskforce is recommending "a long term vision and strategy to manage State Forests", as well as new more locally led governance models. Both sorely needed in Victoria. www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/great-o...

Interesting to see this letter make such an explicit point that the reduction in harvesting under the US Northwest Forest Plan - which was largely about preserving threatened species - led to increased harvesting and impacts on biodiversity/old growth outside the US. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I remember the first time i visited MIT, i heard George Church talk about how our big problem with climate change is "we need to engineer mammoths to knock over trees in the arctic." And i felt like I was the asshole for feeling like, hmm, not sure if that makes sense 🤔

Really excited to have been a part of this one! Hopefully sparks some conversation about what exactly we want our protected areas to *do*.

When people walk into my office and see this, they know they're in the company of a scientist operating at his peak

'"We've proven that we can't eliminate fire. The only choices we really have are when to have it and what kind to have." That will require a change in perspective — looking at fire as an ally, not an enemy.' www.cbsnews.com/news/los-ang...