Treeferns

Treeferns are regulated through Tasmania’s forest practices system. The new tree fern management plan has come into place with the instrument officially registered on Friday 14 October 2022. The instrument can be found by visiting the following link on the Federal Register of Legislation (FRL) website here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2022N00232.

You can harvest the treefern species Dicksonia antarctica (manfern or soft treefern) without a forest practices plan if:

• the landowner has consented
• no more than six Dicksonia are harvested on each property during one year
• the land is not defined as vulnerable
• the Dicksonia are not for commercial purposes.

Salvage or commercial harvesting of Dicksonia is permitted in areas that are scheduled for intensive harvesting and reforestation operations (such as clearfall operations). We sell Tasmanian treefern tags to attach to the trunk of all harvested ferns, at the point of harvest.

Treefern species Cyathea cunninghamii and Cyathea x marcescens are protected under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 and cannot be harvested.

More information

You can access more information in the following PDFs:

• Regulation of treefern harvesting in Tasmania - information sheet (PDF 238.6 KB)
• FPA Flora Technical Note 5 - Treefern identification and management (PDF 574.3 KB)
• Tasmanian treefern management plan (PDF 898.0 KB)
• Tree Fern Tag Request Form (PDF 227.9 KB)