East Gippsland's native forests are being systematically clear-felled under a management plan that will remove all old-growth forests outside national parks and state conservation reserves. The clear-felling is taking place across 400,000 hectares of Crown land despite an admission by the State Government that it has little idea whether regrowth forests meet the needs of threatened species such as the spotted quoll and the longfooted potoroo.
The plan, which conservationists say amounts to plantation-style management, also limits the habitat of animals that rely on tree hollows to breed. Hollows form when trees are between 80 and 120 years old about the time when the regrowth forests will fall due to be clear-felled again under the department's intended rotation schedule.
Carried out by staff at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment office in Orbost, the plan includes clearing areas that the logging industry recognises have limited commercial value so that they call generate more valuable sawlog timber. The areas are burnt after clearfelling to "sterilise" the soil to boost the regeneration of trees.
The ratio of residual logs to sawlogs in East Gippsland is as high as 10 to one, in part because much of the forest has been picked over in the past for the best timber. With a glut in the world woodchip market, most residual logs are burnt along with non-commercial species.
The department's forest management planner for East Gippsland, Mrs Anne Geary, disputed that the plan amounted to plantation-style management. She said staff took an inventory of trees before an area was logged with the aim of replacing the mix of species. But she said plantation-style rotations might not be a bad outcome for the long-term preservation of old-growth forests. By 2020, all areas outside the parks and reserves will be regrowth forest with a greater concentration and volume of quality timber. "Theoretically, less old growth will be cut down because of the higher yield from these (regrowth) coupes," Mrs Geary said.
Environment Victoria's forest campaign coordinator, Dr Rod Anderson, said the plan reflected plantation-management principles. Old-growth forests would never develop, while understory plants were decimated by regular clearfelling, burning and replanting. The result was regrowth forests of everdiminishing biodiversity.
The department flora and fauna coordinator at Orbost, Dr Stephen Henry, said areas were being temporarily set aside from logging as potoroos were found so they could be studied to better understand how they interacted with regrowth forest. He said a review of whether enough forest had been set aside for wildlife conservation was likely to be set up this year, with possible implications for the areas available for logging. About 40 per cent of the one million hectares of native forest in East Gippsland is in national parks. Another 200,000 hectares is in the lesser protected state conservation reserves.
The plan appears to break the spirit of forest management as spelt out
in the 1992 national forest policy statement, signed by the states and
Federal Government. The statement, which was the blueprint for the contentious
regional forests agreement process, says market forces should be constrained
by conservation and social objectives.