CRC for Forestry is an Australian national research consortium with its headquarters in Hobart, Tasmania. It has a strong Forest Engineering component through one of its research programmes.
CRC stands for Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry. The CRC is a joint venture and links leading Australian forest research organisations, companies, government agencies and universities in forest science, management research and education partnership. Its mission is to support a sustainable and vibrant Australian forestry industry through research, education, communication and collaboration.
The CRC for Forestry has four programmes:
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Harvesting and operations (see below)
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Managing and monitoring for growth and health (reduce wood productions costs, reduce off-site effects of plantation management and decreasing investment risks)
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High value wood resources (genetics, silviculture and wood quality)
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Trees in the landscape (environmental certification and community engagement)
The harvesting and operations programme has the primary objective of improving the safety and efficiency of their industry partners harvesting and log transport operations. The research programme studies these operations in a range of locations across Southern Australia in native forests and plantations. Mark Brown is the programme manager, with seven staff carrying out research based in various locations (University of Melbourne, University of Tasmania and Murdoch University in Western Australia), as well as up to six postgraduate students. The programme is supported by at least 12 industry partners. The research is conducted under five sub-projects:
- Safety, productivity and cost effectiveness of harvesting systems across sites and operations.
- Safety, productivity, cost effectiveness and design of wood transport infrastructure.
- Forest resource utilisation and waste reduction.
- Bucking and scheduling optimisation.
- Stand parameter information from harvest data.
Source: www.crcforestry.com.au