The Forest Science Centre has a total staff of 32 people. This includes 17 professional research staff (includes 1 Senior Principal Research Scientist, 4 Principal Research Scientists, 1 Senior Research Scientist and, 3 Research Scientists) and 15 technical support staff.

Laboratory

The Forest Science Centre laboratory

The Forest Science Centre maintains a shared basic chemical laboratory for inorganic analysis by scientists within Forestry Corporation and Forest Resources research.

Forestry Commission of NSW Insect collection (FCNI)

Forestry Corporation, through NSW Department of Primary Industries Science and Research, maintains a significant collection of Australian forest and forest product insects in the Forestry Commission of NSW Insect collection (FCNI).  The collection comprises aapproximately 50,000 pinned specimens housed in 500 steel drawers in 54 steel cabinets plus an alcohol collection of 8,000 glass vials housed in 90 steel drawers.  The FCNI is comprehensive across several orders and families e.g., termites, cerambycid and curculionid families both Australian and overseas species are well represented.

Insect collection drawer

It provides the basis for an important identification service to Forestry Corporation staff, other government agencies (including Australian Quarantine Inspection Service), the pest control industry and the general public.  The FCNI has been improved for future maintenance and management with the adoption of Biolink, a database specifically designed for collections. The collection is gazetted under the Agricultural Scientific Collections Trust Act NSW (1983). This recognises the collection as a valuable forestry resource and supports the long-term maintenance, improvement and management of the collection.

Forestry Corporation Forestry Disease Herbarium

The Forestry Disease Herbarium contains fungal disease specimens of trees and timber, fungal fruiting bodies and fungal cultures. It is comprised of approximately 1500 dried leaf specimens, 2000 fungal fruiting bodies and 1500 fungal cultures. The fungal disease specimens are largely of Pinus and Eucalyptus and a small number of other woody species. Generally the fungi represented are specific to these hosts and include Ascomycetes and their anamorphs. Fungal fruiting bodies include a range of Basidiomycetes.

The collection is used by Forest Health Management staff to provide an important identification and reference service for Forest NSW staff (including Research, Foresters, other government agencies (e.g. AQIS) and the general public.

Forestry Disease Herbarium is gazetted under the Agricultural Scientific Collections Trust Act NSW (1983). This recognises the collection as a valuable forestry resource and supports the long-term maintenance, improvement and management of the collection.

Wood collection

The Forestry Corporation Wood Collection comprises hand-samples of wood collected throughout Australia as well as overseas. There is also a vouchered herbarium collection and a comprehensive microscopic slide collection.

The wood specimens are estimated at 30,000 plus and are currently housed in 46 x 4-drawered filing cabinets. The hebarium samples are in cardboard herbarium boxes. The collection is accessed on occasion by external users.

The Wood Collection is gazetted under the Agricultural Scientific Collections Trust Act NSW (1983). This recognises the collection as a valuable forestry resource and supports the long-term maintenance, improvement and management of the collection.

Biomass weighing-trailer

As part of a project with the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting, a biomass-weighing trailer (pictured below) was built to enable weighing of biomass in forests and wood processing facilities. The trailer, which is capable of weighing up to five tonnes of material at a time, is an essential component of  the carbon research carried out by the New Forests research group and has been used in numerous field campaigns.

Weighing a Eucalyptus obliqua (messmate) log in Tasmania.