In short:
Pine plantations are expanding in Gippsland as the Victorian government starts to deliver its program to plant 16 million trees over 10 years.
The state government has banned native forestry, but demand for timber is strong.
What's next?
As demand for plantation timber grows, wildlife advocates would like to see biodiversity corridors between plantations.
In the Strzelecki Ranges east of Melbourne, a small national park has a unique population of koalas with "robust" genetics.
"It hasn't been compromised by the translocation program of the last 100 years," Susie Zent, a local koala carer from Budgeree, said.
Hunting for fur contributed to a steep decline in koala numbers in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In Victoria, they were moved onto islands to save the species from extinction.
Today, many koalas in Victoria are descendants of a small group of individuals.
"They don't have the genetic diversity and the robustness of this endemic wild population [in Gippsland]," Ms Zent said.
"It's an incredibly important population to maintain."
But now as pine plantations are expanding, Ms Zent is urging land managers to do more to protect koala habitat.
Preparing for more pine near koala habitat
Anthony Amis is a land use researcher from Friends of the Earth Melbourne and would also like to see extra protections in place for rainforests in the Strzelecki Ranges in Gippsland.
He is advocating for native vegetation buffer zones around national parks and rainforests like Morwell National Park.
Mr Amis would also like to see the establishment of biodiversity corridors to link national parks.
"We really need to get more planning into the landscape to give the wildlife a chance," he said.
"At the moment, Morwell National Park is essentially cut off to the south by pine plantations."
Mr Amis said koalas travelled through pine plantations, but needed access to specific feed trees to survive, which included the mountain grey gum, blue gum and Strzelecki gum.
"If you don't have those key trees in the landscape, the koala population will be greatly diminished," he said.
Why are plantations on the rise?
Victoria is the largest producer of plantation-grown timber in Australia and demand for timber is strong.
This year, the state government set a draft target of 2 million new homes by 2051, while in January its ban on harvesting native timber came into effect.
As part of this transition away from native forestry, Victoria has invested in a Gippsland program to help grow the state's pine plantation industry.
The $120 million agreement with private company Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP) will see an extra 14,000 hectares of softwood plantations grown.
As part of this program, HVP planted 1 million radiata pine seedlings in central Gippsland in July.
Up to 16 million trees will be planted in Gippsland soil over the next decade.
A Victorian government spokesperson said the program would boost local timber supplies to build Victoria's future homes, create regional jobs and produce sustainable paper and packaging products.
Sourcing timber a 'complicated' picture
Despite this investment, Victoria is "definitely not" on track to producing enough timber to meet demand, according to Rod Keenan, an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne.
"While we have the capacity to provide a lot of our supply domestically, with the decision to close off access to the native forests, and because we haven't been establishing new plantations to keep up with that domestic demand, we are importing more wood products," Professor Keenan said.
"In effect, Victoria has exported some of its challenges in terms of supply to other states and jurisdictions."
This included Tasmania, New South Wales, and from overseas sources in the United States and South America, Professor Keenan said.
Part of the complex picture is this investment in softwood plantations in Victoria, which has "been on the cards for a while now".
"Going back, five or six years, the industry indicated that with the growing demand for timber right across Australia," Professor Keenan said.
"We'd need to establish around 400,000 hectares of pine plantations across Australia, just to keep up with our demand for timber for new housing."
Pine is the plantation of choice
Even though Victorian plantation companies are still allowed to grow native species, Professor Keenan said pine was preferred over eucalyptus species.
He said that was due to "uncertainty in the future market" for native plantations such as shining gum or blue gum.
Radiata pine, or Monterey pine, has been grown in Australia for more than a century, according to Professor Keenan, and is native to California.
"It proved to be the most rapid-growing and most resilient to a wide range of different conditions," Professor Keenan said.
Pine from plantations now supplied most of the timber for our housing, framing and roof trusses, he said.
HVP said radiata pine was the most commonly planted softwood tree in Australia as it provided great value due to its fast growth and versatility.
Calls for wider perspective
Professor Keenan believed growing radiata pine could benefit landscapes, but land managers needed to take a "whole of country" approach.
This would mean managing plantations in a matrix with native vegetation in riparian areas and biodiversity corridors.
HVP said timber typically grew well on land that had less productive farm value.
The company said "that's where our focus will be" to source suitable land for the Gippsland investment program.
The company said it cared deeply about koalas and understood the importance of collaborating on biodiversity corridors.
"As part of long-standing HVP policy, 15,000 hectares of native forest in Gippsland is managed for conservation and we work hard to maintain a network of diverse habitat connectivity for a range of native plants and animals," HVP said.
"Maintaining and protecting Victoria's large koala population is a core part of the way we manage our estate."
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