As ‘salvage logging’ gets under way in the Wombat State Forest, local residents have raised the alarm over the nature and intent of the works.
About 100 residents gathered in the forest at Babbingtons Road, Lyonville, last Friday to inspect the first clearing of what VicForests claims is recovery work to clean up wind-thrown trees from last June’s storms.
But what they discovered looked to them more like a regular logging coupe than any sensitive work to protect the critically important habitat of some of the forest’s most threatened species.
A VicForests spokesperson said no trees were being removed unless they presented a hazard or for operational necessity.
“Machinery will be used to remove hazardous trees in line with standard forest management practices,” the spokesperson said.
“This work is part of a partnership between Traditional Land Owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and VicForests to assist in restoring Country in the Wombat State Forest and surrounding areas.”
But local residents and environmentalists are not convinced.
Matt Ruchel, executive director of the Victorian National Parks Association, said adding dozens of coupes to the forest was a clear breach of last year’s commitments by the Andrews Government to log only a small area of the soon-to-be national park.
“This is not a clean up operation, this is smash up operation,” Mr Ruchel said.
Wombat Forestcare convenor, Gayle Osborne, said the destruction of an area of intact forest to create a log landing and machinery area of about two acres was horrifying.
“The surrounding forest has been networked with wide tracks and there are large heaps of branches and bark,” she said.
“This is an area of high conservation value and is part of the promised Wombat-Lerderderg National Park.
“It is a disgrace that it should be to wantonly trampled.”
Bullarto resident Jeremy Neal said VicForests was not just taking logs, but also removing the understorey.
“They’re churning over the wet soils, compacting the soils, causing huge disturbance all in the name of profits for VicForests,” he said.
“They’re leaving fine fuels that cause fires, promoting vegetation to grow back in a way that creates more fuel, and removing the logs that are important habitat.”
Dr Jodie Valpied, vice-president of the Moorabool Environment Group, said it was clear that what VicForests was doing went well beyond clearing storm-damaged trees.
“We can see that the methods that they’re using aren’t the usual methods for sensitively removing dangerous trees in storm-affected areas,” Dr Valpied said.
“There certainly are a lot of trees down in this area but it’s clear that they’ve harvested additional trees, you can see where they’ve been cut, you can see that the timber is new, and they have basically clear felled large areas.
“One of the reasons this area was set aside as a national park is that there are fungi and orchids and other species that aren’t found anywhere else in the world so it requires a sensitive approach to dealing with the fallen trees.”
Groups are now calling on the Andrews Government to cancel the Forest Recovery Timber Utilisation Plan, and implement the promised new parks immediately.
Macedon MP Mary-Anne Thomas told the Midland Express that the logging was being done to reduce risk to community safety.
“Many members of my community have contacted me about the amount of fallen and hazardous trees and debris,” she said.
