Much is understood about the relationship between retention of harvest residues and plantation site productivity. However, operational challenges of effective site preparation and increased fire risk from the presence of high residue volumes highlight some of the challenges of retaining residues onsite. Increasing interest from potential biomass markets has raised the profile of harvest residues as having monetary value offsite – and there is increasing interest in engineering and supply chain solutions for biomass extraction.
FWPA has engaged Damien O’Reilly to develop a forestry research investment plan that identifies priority collaborative research across the sector that aims for operational and supply chain efficiencies, one part of which may be biomass management.
This webinar is offered as part of the consultation phase of the investment plan development, to present the current state of knowledge of the role of biomass in nutrient cycling and long-term site productivity and to inform the discussion.
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The presenters are three of Australia’s leading forest management scientists:
Dr Sadanandan Nambiar
Dr Sadanandan Nambiar is a Hon. Fellow in CSIRO after retiring as the Chief Research Scientist and Science Director of the former CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products . During his early years, he led CSIRO’s research from Mount Gambier on the “ second rotation yield decline” in pines. Subsequently, he led CSIRO’s Plantation and Farm Forestry Program which included teams based in Canberra, Mount Gambier, Perth, Brisbane and Hobart(CRC). He led a CIFOR sponsored international network project for 10 years on the impacts of inter-rotation, post-harvest site management on sustained productivity of plantations in the tropics and sub-tropics, with experiments at 17 sites in 11 countries. In this webinar, he will provide a summary of the key findings from that program.
Dr Philip Smethurst
Dr Philip Smethurst graduated from the University of Melbourne and University of Florida with expertise in soil, hydrology, agriculture, forestry, and plant nutrition. His experimentation and modelling research spans almost four decades, and currently leads or works on projects in Brazil, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Australia. His current research links system-understanding, modelling, real-time data, plot scale food and wood production, catchment scale hydrology, and codes of practice.
Dr Daniel Mendham
Dr Daniel Mendham is a principal research scientist and leader of the Landscape and Forest Function team with CSIRO Environment. He started his career in CSIRO understanding carbon and nutrient cycling of eucalyptus plantations under different slash management treatments in Western Australia and India, and his work has evolved to understand more deeply the carbon, water and nutrient cycling in forestry and agricultural systems, as well as the social and economic benefits that trees can bring to lives and livelihoods. Most recently he has been exploring natural capital and natural capital accounting as a mechanism to bring all of the benefits of trees into a single, easily understood, balance sheet.
