Scientists Stumbled Back Onto a Forest Experiment Abandoned for 30 Years, and the Results Stunned Them

Researchers who revisited the long-forgotten Silvicultural Systems Project plots at Tanjil Bren in Victoria, Australia, found that heavily thinned mountain ash stands grew trees about 20% larger in diameter than unharvested controls and, within 30 years, recovered all carbon removed in the 1987 harvest. The findings, published July 1, 2026 in Forest Science, also reported camera-trap detections of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum in every treated plot surveyed but in none of the unharvested control areas. Deep in Victoria’s Central Highlands, a set of mountain ash plots at Tanjil Bren sat in plain sight after active monitoring tapered off in the early 2000s.

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