Pennsylvania State Forest - A tour of the forest less travelled - SLASH PINE New South Wales, Australia
By HansJJ on 18-Jan-20. Waypoint GA14336

A continuation of the TRLT series as a GCA cache but these tracks are less travelled – a soft roader vehicle is a minimum requirement.

Pennsylvania State Forest - 27 Sep 2018

After a 30-year wait, Forestry Corporation of NSW is set to begin harvesting pine plantations in Pennsylvania State Forest this summer. The pine plantations were first established in the late 1980s and the pine products harvested are destined to help build homes across the state. The five-year harvest operation will see increased activity along the Colo and Hobbys Yards roads to Blayney, said Forestry Corporation Haulage.

Visitors are still able to access Pennsylvania State forest, although should be conscious of the harvest activity.

“We welcome visitors to Pennsylvania State Forest, however we urge particular care when driving along Colo road and to follow the operational signage in forest, as some areas will be closed or have restricted access,”

Following harvest, Forestry Corporation will re-establish these plantations to continue to supply the local timber industry. “Growing timber is a long-term proposition and plantation pine takes around 30 years to grow to maturity.”

According to Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) the timber industry in the Central West directly employs over 1000 people in timber harvesting, wood product manufacturing and forest services.

Information found on web about hunting in this state forest.

Pennsylvania is a Category 2 State Forest that's open to online bookings 7 days per week with a possible peak hunting period where the public is excluded from the forest. Pennsylvania State forest is approximately 6500 hectares and written permission to hunt can be issued to up to 14 hunters at any time. You may hunt using firearms, bows and dogs for pigs.

The closest major centre, Blayney, is 35 km north of Pennsylvania State forest, with Sydney 277 km east and Orange 75 km away.

Many hunters book Roseberg State Forest in conjunction with Pennsylvania State Forest to provide access to a further 3,000 hectares of forest.

The terrain consists of open grassy areas, rocky and steep sections and gully systems. The steeper country is in the native hardwood areas. There are a number of creeks, clearings and dams with areas suitable for camping.

Pennsylvania State Forest is a great deer hunting forest with fallow deer interspersed throughout both the pine and hardwood sections. Pigs, foxes and rabbits are also present.

More info about state forests is at - https://www.forestrycorporation.com.au/visit

Now to the cache series – I will not give you the tracks to use from Carrollina Road as they may change as logging continues in the greater area. The caches are placed along trails / bush areas that are not logging areas, just native bushland – some are on the edge of the forest area. That is why a soft roader vehicle is a minimum requirement as the track you may pick may be 1 less travelled. A car can do this series but you need to do it in dry weather & now which track to pick & now where your tyres are at while traveling.

That’s why I have given these caches a terrain rating of 2 ½ as some will drive up to it & their 80 something grandparent with walking stick / 5 year with no fear will get out of vehicle & walk / run to cache location using the hint only & no GPS while others with the not right car will park & walk 1km + to cache & others will have their Murphy's law moment in life & get super bogged that it needed 2 + hours of winching to get out of the bog - Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law so at an average that’s why a terrain rating of 2 ½ is for these caches in this series – evens out the peaks & troths of the terrain of the area.

SLASH PINE (E) (S)             https://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/good_wood/oz_pln.htm

Also known as 'Southern Pine', Slash Pine (Pinus elliotti, P. caribea, etc) is a native of south-eastern U.S. In Australia, it is grown in plantations mainly in south-east Queensland and to a lesser extent, northern NSW and New Zealand.

It is available as a high-quality, smooth-surface, face veneer. It is cheaper than imported rainforest veneers and their equal in strength, hardness and appearance. The heartwood is durable enough only for sheltered exposure. Used for general construction, flooring, panelling, plywood.

The Victorian Good Wood Centre suggests using native Hoop Pine as a quality substitute for the non-native Slash Pine.

These caches were placed for the 20th anniversary of Geocaching in Australia game series.

Game Period: 01-Jan-2020 00:00:00 to 31-Jan-2020 23:59:59 AEST

Lane Cove was hidden on the 18th May 2000 which made it the first geocache on Australian soil. Geocaching Australia had a small celebration in 2010 called the 10th Anniversary of Geocaching in Australia. 20 years after the first Australia geocache was placed, we are now marking the 20th anniversary of Geocaching in Australia. To help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Geocaching in Australia, the 2020 team at Geocaching Australia have worked together to create the 2020 Game of Games rewards which are 12 monthly games based on finding and hiding geocaches at Geocaching Australia.

I’m adding this You Tube video to my caches as I strongly agree with this – - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r70bdZjfGc&feature=youtu.be

Hints