VPRS 16637 Enquiry and Study into Old Growth Forests, Survey Results and Information Collected

The issue of what constitutes old growth forest and where, or whether, any remained in Victorian State Forests became a management and political issue from the 1980s generated by the conservation movement. Victoria needed to determine strategies for the management of old-growth forests after consultation with the Commonwealth, based on the National Forest Policy Statement and analysis of then current conservation protection measures. The Agency therefore undertook an Enquiry and Study from 1990 to 1998 . Evidence was extracted from various Agencies' files dealing with land and forestry from the late 1830s and to the 1990s in order to analyse, interpret and make recommendations leading to definitive findings. Information was collected about landforms, logging history, fire history, forest type, vegetation, land systems, land tenure and land use. The methods used included intensive field surveys, interpretation of aerial photographs and satellite images, tree-ageing, research into the history of disturbances such as land settlement, logging and wildfires, and the use of conventional maps.