A private timber reserve is an area of privately owned land, used or intended to be used, for growing timber within the Australian state of Tasmania.
Landowners can have their land declared as a Private Timber Reserve and protect their right to use private land to grow timber. Private land or freehold land refers to land registered under Torrens title. A landowner is the person(s) and/or legal entity registered on the Torrens Title.
Private Timber Reserves are unique, with no other State in Australia, or internationally, providing the land owner with protection of their rights to use their planted land, land they intend to plant or native forests areas, to grow timber.
Growing timber is long term investment with trees often taking decades to grow to maturity. Forest and tree owners need certainty that they will be able to harvest in the future. Securing the right to use land to grow timber provides some certainty that the owner will be able to harvest in the future.
In the Australian State of New South Wales, landowners can apply to have timber plantations authorised as 'complying plantations' and have a guaranteed right to harvest. This guarantee is only extended to plantation, not native forests or land intended to be planted.
Extent
There are 1,094,000 hectares of private land in Tasmania covered by forest or plantation (841,000 hectares of native forests and 253,000 hectares of plantation) As June 2023, 429,094 hectares were declared as Private Timber Reserve.
The estimates for the area of private land covered by native forests or plantation, and areas declared as Private Timber Reserve may include areas not covered by trees. Such areas include; rocky areas, glades, firebreaks, roads, and swamps, and are found within boundaries of the forest or plantation owned by individual land owners. All estimates of forests area, and area of land declared as Private Timber Reserve, use a number of methodologies to calculate area.
The State of Tasmania has 3.706 million hectares of forests (3.362 million hectares of native forests, 0.331 million hectares of plantation and 0.33 million hectares of other forest) covering 54% of the State.
There are 27.1 million hectares of private forest in Australia (16% of forest area privately owned). Only 13.9% of the World's forest is privately owned.
Recent trends The number of applications to declare land as a private timber reserve has declined considerably since 2012-2013. In 2011-2012, the progressive total for the area declared was 475,321 hectares. There is a continuing decline in the area of Private Timber Reserve 2011-2012 to 2022-2023 as the area revoked exceeds the area declared.
The reason for land owners to revoke the private timber reserve is reported as being;
Change to pasture-agriculture 67% Harvest and no intent to replant 10% Sale of property 9% Forestry use discontinued 5% Other land-use 4.5% Conservation Covenant 4% Other reasons 0.5%
The failure of forestry management investment schemes resulted in collapse of trust in investments in plantation on private land. Coupled with the impacts of the 2008 financial crisis there a major decline in the forest products markets.
The continuing decline post the 2008 financial crisis has not been studied.
Legal definition
Private Timber Reserve is land that has been declared as a Private Timber Reserve under Section 11 of the Forests Practices Act 1985. The Act was passed by both Houses of the Tasmanian Government in 1985, and received Royal Assent 25 May 1985, with a commencement date of 2 November 1987 for Part II – Private Timber Reserves.
Land declared as a Private Timber Reserve is "used only for establishing forests, or growing or harvesting timber in accordance with the Forest Practices Code and such other activities which the Authority considers to be compatible with establishing forests, or growing or harvesting timber". The activities considered to be compatible are; apiary sites, education and scientific purposes, grazing under well established trees, hunting, nature based recreation.
The declaration of the Private Timber Reserve is registered on the land title as per Section 15 of the Forests Practices Act 1985 The declaration of the Private Timber Reserve remains with the title(s), despite changes in ownership, or until an application to revoke is submitted by the landowner and approved. A landowner can make an application to revoke all or part of the area declared as a Private Timber Reserve, at any time.
A Private Timber Reserve is an area of land, used or intended to be used, for growing timber. It could be an area of native forest, plantation (exotic and native species) or land intended to be used to grow timber. The land has to be capable of growing timber. The minimum area that can be declared a Private Timber Reserve is five hectares.
Timber means trunks and branches of trees, whether standing or not, and all wood. This definition includes the full range of wood products; all categories of saw logs, veneer logs, pulpwood and firewood.
Local planning schemes and private timber reserve declaration
Local planning schemes created under the Land Use Planning and Approval Act 1993 can not be used to zone an area, declared as a Private Timber Reserve, to make timber growing a prohibited activity or place conditions on the activity. On land declared a Private Timber Reserve, local government authority development applications for operations, subject to an approved Forest Practices Plan, are not required.
Consultation is still required under the Forest Practices Code with the local government authority when Forest Practices Plan are being prepared.
Applications The process to declare an area a Private Timber Reserve is set out in the Part II of the Forest Practices Act 1985.
The landowner completes an application form, and informs anyone who has an interest in the land or the trees as per Section 5 of the application. Landowners can declare any part or all their land a Private Timber Reserves.
The application is in two parts, Part A to be completed by the Applicant (landowner) and Part B, completed by a person authorised by the Forests Practices Authority Board. Part B of the Application requires details on vegetation cover, and on any natural or cultural values on the area. A Private Timber Reserve can only be declared over an area where forestry activity can be undertaken in accordance with the Forest Practices Code.
Private Forests Tasmania assesses the application and makes a recommendation to the Board of the Forest Practices Authority that the Private Timber Reserve be granted, or not. Private Forest Tasmania has a delegation under the Forest Practices Act 1985 – Part II PRIVATE TIMBER RESERVES, from the Board of the Forest Practices Authority to accept, assess and make recommendations on applications to declare and revoke land as private timber reserve
The declaration of the land as a Private Timber Reserve is registered on the land title, and can be declared over a whole title or over part of a title.
Application fees apply. Section 5 (2)(d) Forests Practices Act 1985 requires that, "an application to declare land as a private timber reserve must be accompanied by a fee". Originally the cost per application was AUD$100 (prior to 1999) with a fee of AUD$350 introduced in 1999–2000. The fee increase followed an instruction from the Government that the fee should cover the costs of processing the application.
The application fee is subject to annual increase under the Fee Units Act 1997. An application to declare land as a Private Timber Reserve attracts 350 fee units. Currently the fee unit is AUD$1.78 for the period 2023-2024 plus the cost of registering the declaration on the land title.
The Crown Solicitor charges a fee to register the Private Timber Reserve on the land title, AUD$104.50 (including GST) if a Private Timber Reserve covers only full titles, and an additional AUD$104.50 (including GST) if a Private Timber Reserve covers part of the land title listed in the application as well.
Forest practices plans Section 18(2)b of the Forest Practices Act 1985 states that a forests practices plan is to " contain, in the case of a private timber reserve, or where the owner of the land referred to in the plan wishes to restock the land with trees, specifications in connection with the restocking of the land with tree".
A forest practices plan can not be certified for an area declared as a Private Timber Reserve, unless the reforestation section of the plan contains restocking requirements.
Land tax Under the Land Tax Act 2000 landowners in Tasmania are subject to annual land tax, based on land value.
If the land meets the definition of Primary Production Land or PPL classification applies to land as at 1 July in any year, then the owner of that land is not required to pay land tax for that land in that financial year. Land declared as a Private Timber Reserve under section 11 of the Forest Practices Act 1985 and advertised in the Tasmanian Government Gazette is eligible for PPL classification and no land tax is payable.
Rationale The 'Report of the Board of Inquiry into Private Forestry Development in Tasmania 1977' recommended that; "That statutory provisions be made for a 'dedication' scheme in relation to private land based broadly on the British scheme which has operated since 1947 and that direct financial assistance be provided by the Government within the framework of the scheme."
The Report authors recognised the need, and potential return to the industry and State, if assistance was provided to private forest owners. Such assistance was proposed to be provided to owner who had dedicated their land for forestry. Like the British scheme the aim was to encourage the proper management of native forests.
The Board also discussed the illogical distinctions drawn by finance companies between moneys available for clearing of forests and agriculture and for forestry. Investment funds for forestry were difficult to obtain. In summary, the need to secure investment in private forestry was recognised and the dedication of a private timber reserve was a key element to securing that investment, either from the government or the private sector.
Forest Practices Act (1985)
When the Bill for the Forest Practices Act was introduced into the Tasmanian Parliament in April 1985, the Minister for Forests, Robin Gray, referenced the Private Forestry Council recommendation to create the "concept of private timber reserve".
On the introduction of the Forest Practices Act 1985 amendments were made to sections 756 and 759 of the now repealed.
In the Local Government Act 1962 Section 756, provided local government with the power to terminate certain non-conforming uses under a planning scheme. If a use was terminated a landowner had to seek approval to use their land, even if the use of the land use had not changed. The Forest Practices Act 1985 amendment meant land declared as Private Timber Reserve was one land use where the power to terminate non-conforming uses did not apply. The other uses, where the power to terminate non-conforming uses does not apply, were; the site of a dwelling house or land used for agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, pasture, or similar purpose.
The 1985 amendment of Section 758 of the Local Government Act 1962, provided for the land declared as Private Timber Reserve to be treated as a lawful use of land. This meant that land used for forestry had same status as land used for agriculture.
These amendments were deemed necessary because the use of the land for forestry purposes is not obvious. It is relatively simple to recognise land used for housing and agriculture, and hence continuing use, because the land contains buildings or crops or livestock. The use of an area of forest, used for forestry purposes, is infrequent and the period between any activity may span decades.