This information is relevant across Victoria where there are dense stands of regenerating trees. It is particularly relevant in box gum and red gum habitats. If you have a conservation covenant, check with your Trust for Nature regional staff member to confirm if ecological thinning is suitable for habitat on your property. 

• Following disturbances such as timber harvesting, land clearing, and events like fires and floods, young trees can regrow in dense thickets 

• These thickets crowd out other plants like grasses and shrubs and limit growth of trees, preventing development of big trees and hollows 

• Thinning can allow remaining trees to grow bigger and faster 

• It can improve diversity and number of flora and fauna species using the area as well as structure and habitat niches 

• Thinning will reduce competition for water, nutrients and sunlight, this can encourage growth of weeds, which will need to be managed 

• Most ecological thinning of habitat requires a permit from the government. Check with state and local government before proceeding 

• Ensure you are following any regulations around chainsaw and chemical use 

Assessment 

• Before undertaking ecological thinning, assess area intended for management 

• Figure out the habitat growing on your property by identifying plants and using tools such as the Victorian Government’s NatureKit and vegetation benchmarks (see links) 

• Work out if trees are denser than habitat benchmarks by counting trunks 

• In general, habitat with more than 1,000 small trees per hectare is a good candidate for ecological thinning 

• Take photos before undertaking thinning 

Thinning 

• Thinning is best conducted in a patchy manner, leaving some areas denser and others thinner. This encourages diversity of habitat structure 

• The largest trees should be retained 

• Care must be taken to ensure all canopy species are represented in retained treed 

• Trees can be removed using several methods including: 

• • Cut and paint: stems are cut close to base and immediately painted with herbicide such as undiluted glyphosate 

• • Ring-barking: cut two rings about 15cm near base of trunk just deep enough to enough to reach below bark. Remove bark to expose underlying living wood 

• Leave some dead timber from thinning as woody habitat for wildlife 

• Monitor changes to habitat using photos 

• Monitor changes to number and diversity of plants and wildlife in the thinned areas using surveys 

• Control weeds which may establish after thinning 

• Bioregions and EVC benchmarks (Victorian government)
• NatureKit Victoria (Victorian government)
• Factsheet: ecological thinning (Trust for Nature)
• Parks Victoria’s Box Ironbark forest ecological thinning trials – VIDEO
• Empirically-validating-a-dense-woody-regrowth-‘problem’-and-thinning.pdf