A comparison of four-year-old regeneration following six silvicultural treatments in a wet eucalypt forest in southern Tasmania.

The Arve 031 Community Demonstration Forest was established as part of the Southern Forests Community Research Project during the period 1991–93. Its establishment was a response to community concerns regarding the effects of clearfelling and high intensity slash-burning on rainforest tree regeneration, and thus special species timber production, in southern wet forests. Six silvicultural treatments were trialled along two continuums: (1) increasing overwood retention, from clearfell to oldgrowth retention to shelterwood to single-tree selection; and (2) decreasing gap size, from clearfell to large gap (0.7 ha) to small gap (0.25 ha) to single-tree selection. Measurements were undertaken for this study during the period 1995–97. Regeneration of Eucalyptus regnans and various rainforest tree species were compared between treatments. All treatments were stocked with eucalypt regeneration at age four years. However, seedling density and height decreased along the two treatment continuums and was largely attributed to the suppressive effects of increased retained overwood and edge effects. This is expected to impact on later timber volume yields. In contrast, the density of rainforest tree regeneration increased along the two treatment