Feature Article - The Cooperative Research Centre for Temperate Hardwood Forestry
The Centre - one of the first of the national series of Cooperative Research Centres or CRCs - was established in 1991 and is based at the Hobart campus of the University of Tasmania.
Its four objectives are:
- developing improved forest management systems to increase and sustain wood production in hardwood forests in an environmentally sensitive way;
- improving the quality and the quantity of wood from hardwood forests to ensure its market suitability for efficient value-adding processing by Australian industry;
- bringing together separate but complementary expertise of the parties of the Cooperative Research Centre to focus their research and development activities in a coordinated fashion; and
- developing a national centre of excellence for training in temperate hardwood forestry with emphasis on postgraduate research training in tree genetic improvement and resource protection.
In 1993-94, the CRC’s income was approximately $1.7 million. There was also approximately $3.3 million of ‘in-kind’ research assistance from Tasmania’s private forestry companies, Forestry Tasmania, the CSIRO Division of Forestry, and the University of Tasmania. About 40% ($1.3 million) of this $3.3 million was spent on salaries.
The main areas of research in 1993-94 were:
- analysing the performance of the 450 families of the Tasmanian Blue Gum, Eucalyptus globulus, across a range of sites in Australia;
- determining seasonal variation in leaf photosynthetic response to temperature and its effect on the prediction of wood yield;
- determining the usefulness of blanket fertilisation at the time of tree planting; and
- monitoring the beetle Chrysophtharta bimaculata and other natural predators of various tree species to provide detailed information on insect dynamics, distribution, and oviposition patterns.
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