Forestry Tasmania has discovered another 17 hardwood eucalyptus trees in the state’s southern forests, with some of the giants believed to be up to 500 years old. Source: ABC News
The manager of Forestry Tasmania’s Giant Tree Program, Daniel Hodge said the trees, which are more than 85 metres tall, were discovered using LiDAR technology.
“It’s an aeroplane flying over the forest shooting a laser down at the trees and that laser gives us an accurate height on every tree in the forest,” he said.
“The trees we’re finding at the moment, many of them are up over 90 metres tall and to put that into perspective, the Wrest Point Casino in Hobart is 72 metres tall. These trees are a good 20 metres over that.”
There are now 142 giants on Forestry Tasmania’s big tree register. The tallest is the Centurion, located near Geeveston in southern Tasmania. It is 99.6 metres high and is the tallest hardwood tree in the world.
Hodge said he is yet to find a tree to top the Centurion, but is confident of finding more giants in the coming months.
“There’s only certain areas of Tasmania that have the potential for the trees to grow to these heights, but we’re currently flying those areas with LiDAR,” he said.
“Where we are right now in the Styx Valley, we expect to add 30 to 40 new trees in the next few months.”
Once the giant trees are discovered they are put into reserves with a 100-metre radius.
Hodge said Forestry Tasmania wants tourists to visit the ancient trees.
“State forests are a public resource and we encourage people to come out,” he said. “The more people who come out here, the better for us because they can see the wonderful work we do and the wonderful forests we have in Tasmania.”
He said that they are already proving popular with tree climbing enthusiasts.
“There’s people mostly from other states who like to climb them. I think it’s a bit like climbing the tallest mountain – they like to climb the tallest tree,” he said.
The trees generally live to about 500 years and Hodge said many are approaching the end of their life. But he says there are plenty of giants that are still growing.
“That younger cohort is coming through, the 200-year-old trees, and they’ll continue to grow, providing giant trees for future generations,” he said.
