Selection of areas for audit

The methodology for the selection of timber harvesting areas or coupes for audit was developed by the auditor as part of the 2003 Environmental Audit of Timber Production on Public Land. This process was used in the subsequent years.

Selection of areas for audit is a two-step process:

Step 1: Selection of the forest management area (FMA) or operational area (OA)
Step 2: Selection of the actual area of harvested forest (or coupe).

Selection of forest management areas

Audits are conducted in timber supply areas (called FMA/OA; see map below).

Each year around four or five FMA/OAs are selected for audit using the following criteria:

• recency of audit – length of time since the last audit occurred
• production level – based on timber product volume
• community interest based on input from a range of stakeholders.

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Selection of coupes

Since 2005, two types of coupes have been subject to audit, active coupes and completed coupes. Active coupes are those currently being harvested or which have only been partially completed. Completed coupes, however, are those that have been harvested and site preparation works such as a rough heaping or slash burning completed. The selection of active coupes follows a different process than that used for completed coupes.

In both instances, within each selected FMA/OA, only coupes where harvesting was completed or active during the financial year are subject to audit.

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Selection of active coupes

The 2004 audit report recommended that a "greater proportion of active coupes be included in future audits to enable assessment of operations with code compliance during different stages of the coupe harvesting process."

In response EPA included a requirement for the auditor to select a minimum of eight active coupes during the field assessment, in consultation with VicForests. Coupes were selected having regard to:

• access and safety
• coupe features, for example, presence of streams, filters, excluded vegetation
• the existing audit program
• diversity of operations within the region and
• the size and current working status of the operation.

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Selection of completed coupes

Completed coupes are selected from each FMA/OA to reflect and represent the range of variables operating within an FMA/OA ,such as geophysical, biological and administrative factors. The coupe selection process ranks coupes in terms of the potential risk to the environment presented by each aspect of coupe operations.

A risk value is assigned to coupe attributes, outlined below, and risk rating calculated to provide a risk-based approach to the selection of coupes for audit.

The risk rating is calculated based on the following factors:

• slope class
• soil erosion hazard
• silvicultural system
• season
• special land protection requirements
• special biological requirements.

Based on their risk rating, coupes within an FMA/OA are separated into relative risk groups of high, medium and low. In general coupes to be audited in each FMA/OA are comprised of:

• 50 per cent from the high risk group
• 30 per cent from the moderate, and
• 20 per cent of coupes from the low.

In this respect, the coupe selection system is weighted towards those coupes with a greater risk to the environment and more complex management variables.

In addition, the following information is used to refine the selection of coupes in each FMA/OA to ensure the assessment includes a range of:

• supervising work centres
• forest officer or supervisors
• contractors, and
• forest types.

This helps to ensure that systematic issues in management are identified during the audit rather than focusing on any one contractor, forest officer, forest type or office.

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