The Mole Creek Karst Forest Program
Email: rpearse@tasland.org.au
Abstract
The Mole Creek Karst Forest Program was funded by the Commonwealth Government as a component of the Tasmanian Forest Conservation Fund. The object of the program was to provide landowners in the Mole Creek area with native forest overlying karst the opportunity to either sell the land to the Tasmanian Government so that it could be added to the public land reserve system or to receive a financial consideration for placing a conservation covenant on the land. The Tasmanian Land Conservancy was contracted by the Department of Environment Water Heritage and the Arts, now Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, to implement the program. A technical panel identified and allocated a priority to karst areas, a guidance group assisted with implementing the program. The program was successful in adding 376 ha of karst to the reserve system on public land and protecting a further 201 ha with conservation covenants on private land.