Measures and operating standards for assessing Montreal process soil sustainability indicators with reference to Victorian Central Highlands forest, southeastern Australia

The State Government had adopted the principles of Montreal Process Criteri a and Indicators for sustainable management of forests in Victoria. The per formance measures and operating standards for quantifying the Montreal Proc ess soil indicators 4a, 4d, and 4e were reviewed and developed with particu lar reference to the Victorian Central Highlands forest. A simple framework for estimating the extent of total soil disturbance on harvesting coupes i s presented. The performance measures and operating standards for each indi cator and the framework were applied and evaluated over 20 coupes in this f orest. Following harvesting and site preparation, the proportion of the cou pe area affected was 22-45% associated with the indicator 4a, 12-45% associ ated with the indicator 4d, and 38-51% associated with the indicator 4e. Th e total area affected varied depending on type of forest operations, type o f measure and levels of operating standard used. Using a 20% operating stan dard for bulk density and 30% operating standard for organic matter content , it was found that the total area affected varied from 38 to 52% of the co upe area. The major source of detrimental soil disturbance and methods for minimising soil impact were identified. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.