Management of exotic pine plantations in northeast Queensland for goshawks

Summary

As a compromise between forestry and wildlife needs, it has been recommended that a mix of native forest and plantation in various stages of succession be integrated to form a mosaic of different forest types. However, lack of detailed biological data on species dependent upon native forest has hampered the development of such an approach. Between 1987 and 1990, we monitored breeding and foraging activity of the Grey Goshawk Accipiter novaehollandiae and Brown Goshawk A. fasciatus in a North Queensland State Forest converted to exotic softwood Pinus caribaea production. Fifty per cent of the area was planted with pine aged between 1 and 9 years old, intermixed with native forest and woodland. The area supported several pairs of goshawks that bred only in large mature trees within native forest or woodland, but often used plantations for hunting where these formed ecotones with other habitats. Based on the results of this study we make the following preliminary recommendations for the conservation of goshawks in areas of managed plantation: (1) forest maintenance should be avoided, particularly around active goshawk nests, during the breeding season, from August to December; (2) an area of 20 ha of native forest should be retained as a buffer zone around any active goshawk nest; (3) woodland and forest along watercourses is particularly important goshawk habitat and a minimum width for riparian buffer zones is considered to be 200 m from the watercourse to the edge of P. caribaea plantations; (4) the ecotone between tall open forest and tall woodland that occurs adjacent to riparian closed forest is an important habitat for breeding goshawks and should be conserved wherever possible; and (5) the 50–50 mix of native woodland/forest and plantation, as at Abergowrie, appears able to sustain viable populations of goshawks, at least in the short-term.