The State Forests of New South Wales include over 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of public land managed by the Forestry Corporation of NSW as state forests on behalf of the NSW Government.[1] As of March 2014, there were over 530 state forests in NSW.[2]
Forestry Corporation manages environmental conservation, community access, tourism, fire, land management and timber production within the state forests of NSW.[1] Approximately 225,000 hectares (560,000 acres) of NSW State Forests are softwood timber plantations, and just under 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) are hardwood timber plantations.[1] Around 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forests are permanently set aside for conservation.[1]
History
In 1871, as settlement advanced through the Colony of New South Wales, with land cleared for cultivation, trees ringbarked for grazing and timber used for the development, the first forest reserves were proclaimed with the aim of preserving the timber resource of the colony.[3] By 1905, more than three million hectares of land was in timber reserves.[3]
In 1916 the Forestry Act 1916 was enacted and the Forestry Commission of NSW, a government department reporting to the Minister for Forests, was established to manage the state's forests.[1] This legislation was replaced by the Forestry Act 2012 and the Forestry Commission was corporatised.[1]
State forests
As of March 2014, NSW state forests are managed under two different divisions, the Hardwood Forests division and Softwood Plantations division.[2] Each division is further divided into regions, with the Hardwood Forests division split into 4 regions, and the Softwood Plantations division split into two regions.[2]
Cumberland State Forest, Australia's only metropolitan state forest,[4] is considered unique in comparison to the other state forests of NSW,[4] and thus is managed by Forestry Corporation independently of the Hardwood Forests division or Softwood Plantations division.[2]
