Harvest Levels in Victoria's forests

There are 7.9 million hectares of Crown land in Victoria (publicly owned forest), of which about 7.1 million hectares are either National Parks and reserves or multiple-use State forest. Of the 7.1 million hectares, approximately 450,000 hectares) in eastern Victoria is considered available and commercially suitable for timber production (6% of the total publicly-owned forest in the State.

VicForests harvests approximately 3 000 hectares per year (0.04% of the total publicly-owned forest in the State). 

There has been a significant decline in the amount of harvesting in Victoria's forests in recent years and VicForests is currently harvesting less than at any other time in our history.

Figure 1 below shows the level of commercial timber harvesting in eastern Victoria by year since we commenced in 2004.

VicForests reduced harvest levels in Ash forests following the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and native timber harvesting is currently at its lowest point in Victoria in 20 years.

We continue to review our harvest levels to ensure the future of the sustainable timber industry in Victoria and provide long-term certainty to the businesses, families and regional communities who rely on our industry.

Vicforests also does some small-scale community forestry operations which you can read more about here.

Figure 1 (data updated annually)