Water quality

The Code of practice for native forest timber production on Queensland's state forest estate (2020) (PDF, 4.3MB) includes provisions to protect watercourses and maintain their integrity and water quality.

Watercourse-protection buffers are established around all watercourses, wetlands and water features with harvesting restrictions to enhance the natural filtration of water, trapping sediment and stopping it from entering waterways.

We conduct harvesting operations in a way that aims to minimise soil disturbance that can lead to erosion.

Measures include:

• ensuring all snig tracks and haul routes used for timber removal are drained and stabilised
• machines use walk-over techniques to minimise removal of surface vegetation, leaf litter or topsoil disturbance
• restricting harvesting on steeper slopes
• postponing operations when ground conditions are saturated.