What's Happening to your Forests?

In the Central Highlands this coming summer, thousands of hectares of native forest are scheduled to be clear-felled for wood-chipping, and the residue will be burnt. The creation of new access roads for enormous logging trucks will compound the problems caused by widespread clear-felling of our forests.

There are many detrimental effects of this type of wood harvesting. Some of these will last for centuries! In general, these effects fall into four main categories:

• ecological disturbance;
• reductions in quality and yield of water from catchments;
• destruction of opportunity to realise better economic outcomes; and
• loss of amenity for recreational use of our forests.

Ecological Disturbance

Logging operations destroy habitat for many native animals (fauna) while at the same time wreaking havoc upon the smaller shrubs and grasses (flora) that cover the forest floor. In many locations that are ear-marked for logging by DSE, designated logging coupes lie side by side with Special Protection Zones (SPZ) that have been declared to protect 'at-risk' colonies of threatened species and other at-risk areas such as the margins of streams and rivers. If we could be sure that DSE directs its logging contractors with accuracy and utmost responsibility, these special zones might have some chance of survival. But past practice has shown that this is highly unlikely. The acknowledged over-logging of our forests demonstrates that DSE has failed in recent years to properly direct and manage its logging contractors on behalf of the people of Victoria (and the nation!) to ensure that there is no encroachment of neighbouring areas.

By opening up and laying waste to vast tracts of land, clear-felling punches significant gaps in the natural wild-life corridors that provide for migration of species and maintenance of healthy bio-diversity in the ecology of our native forests. (The older practice of 'strategic felling' - where individual trees were selected - does not interfere as severely with forest ecology, but this practice is hardly used any more by DSE in Victorian forests.)

In the case of the 350 Forestry Block, this problem is at its most acute! There have been numerous sightings in this locality of Leadbeaters Possum, Powerful Owl, Sooty Owl, and Tree Goanna, and these are recorded as threatened species in the Atlas of Victorian Wildlife that is maintained by DSE! There are significant numbers of old-growth trees in the coupes in this block, and it is well documented that the removal of these trees results in a loss of nesting places for hollow-dependent possums and gliders. Hollows only begin to form in trees that are around 150-200 years of age. Logging is presently taking place on a 60-year rotation, and this means that species such as Leadbeaters Possum are extremely unlikely to survive in areas where felling removes the trees that would otherwise grow on to become the hollow-bearing trees for future generations of hollow-dependent fauna.

The UBAG considers that it is ecological madness to log in the 350 Block, given the high number of SPZs and Rainforest Sites of Significance (RSOS) that have already been declared in recognition of the at-risk natural values in this highly sensitive area!

JOIN THE UPPER BUNYIP ACTION GROUP, and begin writing letters NOW to your local papers and MPs to protect the 350 Upper Bunyip Forestry Block from any further devastation.

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