OK Individual , I apologies .
Did you avail yourself with the Photos from jmcribbes@bigpond.com ?
To manage the dead forest adequately all those dead trees will have to be cut down or burnt out in cooler times if they are just left there the next fire that comes thru will kill any regrowth .
I don't know much about JMC's locality and the fungal situation down there , fungus can be encouraged using water infused with chook manure or just plain milk and applied with a knapsack sprayer , fungus works well if temperature and moisture is available obviously this will work better if the trees are cut down.

The fungus (Dry Rot) in ideal conditions grows 23 ft in 24 hrs and (my memory is not good)the temp needs to be 75 deg F , ONCE IT GETS STARTED the rotted bit is like blotting paper soaking up water and storing it until the Temp triggers the fungus and off it goes again
I am not a fungus expert I mentioned the Dry Rot Fungus because I know about it , I am sure there are many Fungi that eat wood .

We need to do a check back on forestation our views need readjusting to relate to our times , the desire to lock up forests to "Save" them for future Generations is very short sighted .
Much better to make them Commercial , plant , care and service them , random plant them have other species interspersed to exit the Gulag look .
Plant to the contour and where possible ditch the inside of the contour where possible , equalize the water supply .

License Shepherds to run Goats in the forests they can supplement their income by shooting the Inbred Alsatians that kill nearly all the Fauna .

ShazBaz001,
Thank you. I always wonder why people see natural destruction as not natural. Nature has it's ups & downs & just because impatient humans can't wait around for a few hundred or thousand years doesn't mean natural destruction is wrong. Earthquakes, tidal waves, rain & wind & fire as destructive as they may be ARE in fact natural. All humans should worry about managing is how much less rubbish & pollution we can live with. The environment manages itself, just hang around a millennia.

We are a strange lot when it come to forests. They represent an enormously valuable renewable resource that we are happy to let self destruct but not to maintain. All forests and parks need managing and the French evolved simple management protocols, over the last 140 years,that have seen their forests double in area. They now supply 70 per cent of the timber requirement for 60 million people.

Dear Individual,
You have got to be kidding havn't you. Four years ago I had a massive stroke that limited what I can do. Wouldn't it be wonderful if my household managed itself. I am sorry but things don't happen that way. Three weeks after the stroke cyclone Larry devistated our area and turned it into a wilderness. As I am now handicaped it has taken me four years to clean up the mess and now I have to turn to routine maintaince to keep this place habitable. Common sense should tell you that with the passing of time all things deteroriate. Only someone with a twisted mindset would think that without planing and effort the garden blooms. I have an an indiginous friend who tells me that he is a woolworths murray as his prefered hunting tool is money not a spear and that he doesn't want to go back to the good old days of his ancestors. So Individual splash some cold water on your face and wake up.

Individual

It is very important to understand the past when managing for the future. When it comes to eucalypt forests, particularly those in Roger's article, it is important to realise that they are disclimax communities. That is, they rely on disturbance to survive. In our case, that disturbance has been fire.

We know that aborigines used fire to manipulate the environment to provide hunting grounds, easier access etc. In NW Tasmania (in support of Cinders), which for the last 10,000 years has supported a cold wet stable environment, eminently suitable for a climax rainforest community, a complex mosaic of disclimax and sclerophyll communities occurred on 53% of the land mass at European settlement. This was because of Aboriginal fire. They created the disclimax communities of grasslands, moorlands, shrublands and woodlands interspered with the rainforest so that they could survive in the area. So, we are far beyond leaving the vegetation to nature - it demands our attention. To ignore this is to invite the Black Saturdays to our backyards.

The only thing saving NW Tasmania (as we watch the fuel levels raise each year) is that we are not blessed with severe fire weather during the sumnmer months. But just as there are two certainties in life, we can add a third when it comes to the Australian bush - it will eventually burn. What we need to endsure is that it is a fire we want; not what nature wants.