AM - Forests have bigger than expected carbon storage

5 Aug 2008 ...

SARAH CLARKE: Its taken 10 years and endless field trips visiting 240 sites scattered across Australia's vast remaining natural forests. But a group of scientists from the Australian National University has for the first time come up with an accurate figure of the role these gigantic trees can play in the climate change solution.

Brendan Mackey is a professor of environmental science, and is part of the research team.

BRENDAN MACKEY: We looked at half of Australia's remaining forests and our estimate is that they can store around 33 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. These are very big numbers I know.

SARAH CLARKE: Very big numbers, particularly if you compare them to what scientists had previously thought. At last count they estimated temperate forests could store around 200 tonnes of carbon per hectare. This study reveals they can store on average three times more than that.

BRENDAN MACKEY: If all those forests were to be cleared and all of the carbon in the biomass in the soil were to be released into the atmosphere - that would be the equivalent of about 80 per cent of Australia's annual greenhouse gas emissions every year for 100 years. So we really have to protect our natural forests.

SARAH CLARKE: The largest stocks of carbon were found in the mountain ash forests of the central highlands of Victoria and Tasmania. The eucalypt trees in these undisturbed areas are up to 80 metres tall with trunks around four and a half metres in diameter.

BRENDAN MACKEY: We've got a big brown barrel here Eucalyptus fastigata.

SARAH CLARKE: These gigantic trees tower above a dense layer of rainforest. Heather Keith is part of the team from the Australian National University.

HEATHER KEITH: It's the big old trees that have a very high amount of carbon and also the coarse woody debris so the dead standing trees, and the dead logs on the ground that are there in the natural undisturbed forests.

SARAH CLARKE: About half of Australia's forests have been cleared in the last two centuries in three quarters of these carbon stocks have been degraded by human activities such as logging. These scientists say it's crucial, what's left remains intact. If trees and forests are to help soak up the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and do their bit for global warming.

Virginia Young from the Wilderness Society agrees.

VIRGINIA YOUNG: It's the forests that enable us to act early and make deep cuts and that applies whether its Australia or globally.

15 December 2003

Biggest Tree in Victoria found

A massive tree has been discovered in a remote area of East Gippsland,
near Bendoc on the Errinundra Plateau.  The tree, a rare Errinundra
Shining Gum found only in parts of the Errinundra Plateau, has a girth
of 18.5 metres.  It is believed to be the largest girth of any tree on
record in Victoria.  The tree is situated in the Bonang River catchment
and is surrounded by rainforest.

Discovered by volunteer conservationists conducting endangered species
research, the tree has been brought to the attention of the National
Heritage Trust, who say that they have no record of a tree that large.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment have also been informed
of the existence of the tree, however, they stated that legislation does
not provide for the protection of the tree, as it does not fall into a
category for protection.  The tree is adjacent to a number of proposed
logging coupes.

One of the discoverers of the tree, Rena Gabarov, is concerned that the
tree will suffer the same fate as El Grande, Tasmania’s largest tree,
which was declared dead last week following a regeneration burn in an
adjacent logging coupe which fatally burnt the tree.

“It would be a tragedy if such an ancient tree remained unprotected. Who
knows how many more trees of this size are out there waiting to be
discovered?  It is time for the government to protect all old growth
forest and ensure that trees such as these can remain as part of
Australia’s natural heritage,” said Rena Gabarov.