He argues that it's as much for aesthetics as for silvicultural reasons. If we want the site to be 'park-like' (refer Gammage) and escape the mongrel scrub afflicting many Landcare plantings, we will need to prune and thin, he says.
Forester Gary Featherston agrees that we should start pruning the forestry trees to 4m. He was tactfully silent on the question of widescale pruning.
Thinning he thinks can wait a couple of years. He would leave the thickets of silver wattle (bottom right) to sort themselves out. They're good for biodiversity, he points out, providing protection for small birds.