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Activities such as timber production provide both funding and a motive for roads and tracks to be kept open and maintained. This ensures firefighters have good access and a ready network of fire control lines, and that men and equipment that can assist if required are present in the forest.
In contrast, a forest locked up in a national park has reduced access requirements, leading to the closure of many tracks. Road maintenance costs are required to be borne entirely by governments already burdened by other budget priorities, and there are no economically important assets, such as timber regrowth, driving the need for fuel-reduction burning.
We should question what is gained by creating national parks in areas such as the Otways, where almost 80 per cent of the forest - including all of the important tourism and recreation sites - were already protected in parks and reserves.
The removal of timber production from the remaining areas, which were
scattered and interspersed with existing protected areas, will probably
have little impact on visitor numbers to the forest - but I suppose it
makes urban greenies feel good.
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