Ecosystem health
Maintenance of ecosystem health and vitality has been identified as one of the key criteria for sustainable forest management in Australia. Maintaining forest ecosystems ensures that they can continue to provide a range of essential ecological services to both humans and other species.
Some of the natural and human made changes that can impact forest health include fire, animal and plant pests, pathogens, salinisation and soil acidification, as well as broader issues such as air pollution and increasing ultraviolet radiation.
These impacts may cause immediate and extensive damage or they may result in more subtle long term damage. For this reason forests managers must carefully monitor forest areas over time and create detailed management plans to ensure that ecosystem health is not negatively impacted.
Waterfall in forest
Photo: SAForestry
To read more information about forests and ecosystem health see an article titled “Salt of the earth” taken from In the living forest: an exploration of Australia’s forest community.
Salt of the earth - (PDF - 218KB)
