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For Tasmanian farmers, native forestry is similar to any other crop, but with a longer rotation period and greater utility, it’s a land type which also includes multiple enterprises such as grazing, cropping, wood production, carbon production and animal husbandry. We see the majority of forestry today as contributing to ecosystem services and enhancing biodiversity through contemporary forest management practices such as selective harvesting, thinning as well as being a profit centre in long-term financial planning. But what is native forest? The term is used almost as a weapon in some circles where calls for an end to native forest logging are made almost on an hourly basis. But native forest logging is not clear fell logging – far from it. For farmers, logging native forest is all about the manner in which farmers manage their native forest estate to further develop the health of the overall forest. We’re talking about fuel reduction burns that protect the broader environment and community and with it the production of high-quality timber and value-added timber products. This process stimulates new tree growth that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, generating high-value wood products that can sequester carbon for up to 200 years and serve as sustainable building materials, as demonstrated in the recent construction of the new St Luke’s building in Launceston It’s time to shift the conversation about forestry on farms and look at it through a lens of credible science – the mainstream narrative should be all about responsible land stewardship, delivering economic, social, and environmental benefits, improving biodiversity, reducing fire risks and generating income for farming families. Ultimately, stopping native logging in state forests is a government decision. But there’s no rational science-based argument to stop private landowners and custodians of large private forests in Tasmania from managing native forest resources proactively and sustainably. Private forests are there for the use and benefit of everyone – it’s hypocritical for some to say stop all logging. We all know that if we stop well-managed practices here, there’s still timber being logged out of rainforests throughout Southeast Asia. The bulk of Tasmania is dry sclerophyll forest, and for it to regenerate it needs active management, weed control and fuel reduction. This is a way to biodiversity in our forests without clear felling as the only form of harvest. The work of farmers on private forests is increasing the biodiversity, and sequestering more carbon as a consequence, providing both public and private benefits. Private native forest management must be driven by contemporary science that will unlock a whole range of economic and social benefits. In a bigger sense, it all about food security and ensuring the amount of farmland isn’t decreasing in Australia, where urban encroachment driven by an increasing population creates more demand for more food. The community trusts farmers to produce the food, fibre and pharmaceuticals needed by all of us – why wouldn’t we do the same with our native forest estate? Ian Sauer is the president of TasFarmers. He has been actively involved in agriculture, natural resource management, policy formulation, project development, management and community development over the past 30 years.