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Sustainable Plants
Most garden plants are propagated in nurseries, but some can be harvested from the bush:
Grass trees Xanthorrhoea spp.
Tree ferns Dicksonia spp.
Native orchids Dendrobium, Pterostylis etc.
Stag & Elk ferns Platycerium spp.
The most common source of these plants is clear-felled logging coups. Native trees are harvested along with grass trees, ferns and orchids. The devastation caused by this process is obvious from the pictures below. What was once a healthy forest, supporting an entire plant and animal ecosystem is reduced to burnt wasteland.
The cultivation of tree-ferns is encouraged as an alternative to wild harvesting, so when you visit a nursery please ask for seed-grown or spore-grown plants and avoid adding to the destruction.
Tree Fern Harvesting Background
There are currently three main wholesale sources of tree ferns:
Spore grown
where the provenance of the spore is important for bushland surrounding the wholesale nursery, and less so for the gardens that they are destined to be grown in
Wild harvested in Victoria (legally with the tagging system)
out of pine plantations
from private land
from public land that is to be permanently cleared eg. for roadways (that are associated with logging)
does not allow integrated timber/tree fern harvesting
Wild harvested in Tasmania (majority of the market) (legally with tag system, but there is some concern about the prevalence of illegal harvest)
"salvage" from areas that will be cleared for roads, but also for clearfell, burning and then plantation. Given the high mortality rate (Fern Society of Vic estimates about half) of tree ferns in domestic gardens, the concept of salvage is largely redundant.
SGA information & certification requirements
Currently SGA certification of retail nurseries allows both wild harvested plants that are tagged and nursery grown plants. However, SGA is pursuing the status of tagged plants with Department of Sustainability and Environment, with consideration to the following:
Most Dicksonia antarctica ferns harvested in Tasmania are transported to Victoria. Victoria has a regulation system for tree fern harvesting in Victoria but the large volume of unregulated tree ferns from Tasmania has placed stress on their system.
For the next 5 years or more, tree fern harvesting should only occur as salvage harvesting from wet forests, which are to be clearfelled, burnt and converted to agriculture, plantations or to be cleared for road construction.
Further research should be undertaken to establish the sustainability of any tree fern harvesting beyond salvage harvesting.
A fee for tree fern tags. This fee will fund:
Administration of the tree fern system
Database and record keeping
Monitoring
Enforcement
Research into options for sustainable tree fern harvesting.
This management program, which is expected to have a 5 year life, will permit only the salvage harvesting of Dicksonia antarctica for commercial purposes and trade.
Salvage harvesting means the harvesting or taking of Dicksonia antarctica ferns if:
The land on which the ferns are growing is to be lawfully cleared or substantially disturbed for conversion to plantation, road construction, agriculture, dam construction, road safety, construction sites or the maintenance of electricity, water, gas, telecommunications or other services facility.
The Dicksonia antarctica ferns are likely to be destroyed as a result of the change of use.
The taking of Dicksonia antarctica ferns is not the reason for the change of use.
The clearing for the changed landuse is imminent i.e. clearing is scheduled within 1 year of tree fern harvesting.
Tree ferns will not be harvested from streamside reserves, machinery exclusion zones, swamps, drainage lines, habitat clumps or habitat strips and these areas will be marked with tape by the person stated in the FPP before any harvesting commences.
Benefits of Tree Fern Harvesting Regulations
The tree fern regulation outlined in this plan has a number of benefits:
Regulation is kept as simple as possible and fits into existing legislation.
It enables an export industry to be established using a forest product, which will be salvage harvested.
Utilises a product that is currently being wasted/destroyed in the current high level of plantation establishment.
Landowners are likely to be paid (royalty) for the actual numbers of tree ferns harvested as each tree fern will require a tag.
Illegal tree fern harvesting should be significantly reduced.
Tag fees should fund the regulation and monitoring as well as a research fund which can be used to investigate sustainable tree fern harvesting to enable a long term export industry.
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You may not use the information for any other purpose without the express written permission of SGA.
