In this unit, you will experience the major natural vegetation communities in Tasmania and explore the key processes shaping them. You will be introduced to the diversity of plants found in environments from near sea level moorlands to exposed alpine heaths, from rich  basalt soil to ancient, weathered quartzite, and from sites ravaged by clear felling and burning to pristine cool, temperate rainforest. The first five days of the course are based in the spectacular Mt Field and Southwest National Parks, including a quite strenuous walk along the Tarn Shelf, over Newdegate Pass and back along the Rodway Range. The second part of the course introduces demographic techniques, conservation strategies and practice, and examines applied ecological practice in forestry harvesting methods in wet  sclerophyll forest in the long-term ecological monitoring site at Warra, in day excursions from the Sandy Bay campus.

This unit starts from an advanced undergraduate level base, but includes personalized, additional learning tasks to facilitate learning outcomes at a postgraduate level.