Predicting the abundance of hollow‐bearing trees in montane forests of southeastern Australia

Poisson regression analyses were used to relate the number of hollow‐bearing trees on 523 sites in the montane ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria to a range of environmental variables. Region, logging history, the dominant species of eucalypt, slope angle, topographic position and the age of the stand influenced significantly the number of hollow‐bearing trees. A simple predictive model containing these factors has possible application in geographic information systems and may assist in the assessment of wildlife habitat. The number of multi‐aged stands and living trees with fire scars indicates that some individuals of ‘fire‐sensitive’ montane ash eucalypts appear to survive intense wildfire.