Baw Baw Report
Introduction
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MyEnvironment Inc is calling for the immediate heritage listing through the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity and Conservation Act (EPBC) of the Baw Baw plateau and escarpments to protect it from further logging. This listing will be based on the case put almost a decade ago in the now-discovered chapters of the ‘Ecological Survey Report No. 46 - Flora and Fauna of the Eastern and Western Tyers Forest Blocks and Adjacent South-Eastern Slopes of Baw Baw National Park, Central Gippsland, Victoria’ that details the high conservation values of the region and whose expert authors supported the protection of this extraordinary part of Victoria’s natural heritage.
The cost has been the ongoing destruction of one of the world’s most unique temperate forest ecosystems and the exposure of another example of how the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process failed to end the most heavily fought and divisive environmental debate in the state’s history – the conflict over the future of Victoria’s native forests.
This story outlines how members of the Victorian government bureaucracy removed crucial chapters of a state government commissioned report which recommended the protection of the Baw Baw plateau and escarpments. The removal of these chapters ensured that one of the world’s most significant ecosystems remained available for clearfell logging, a practice that continues to this day.
Of the 5 RFA’s signed in Victoria, the Central Highlands Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) received little campaigning from the environment movement. This may have been because they were in the wake of a devastating RFA decision federally, which had devastating outcomes for the Tasmanian and East Gippsland RFAs despite some small gains. Environment Victoria was the “peak” group for the region at the time.
There is little doubt that, as with Tasmania and East Gippsland, where some small gains were made, engagement in the Central Highlands RFA would have also achieved some small wins. It is generally thought that, had environment groups engaged at the time, this small win would have been the Baw Baw Plateau and its escarpments and the State's water supply (such as the Yarra tributaries).
Any legitimate conservation assessment would see the Baw Baw plateau and its environs protected. Along with the Errinundra Plateau farther east, the Baw Baw is one of the two great plateaus of South Eastern Australia, and is a recognised international site of significance for its animal life and national significance for its stands of old growth forests, rock formations and intricate water tributaries.
State government departments and bureaucracies with an interest in maintaining the maximum possible public land estate available for logging would have been desperate to ensure that the values of the Baw Baw region were understated or ignored. Nearly a decade later the length that individuals in these agencies went to has now been exposed. To further their cause they removed key chapters in the ‘Ecological Survey Report No.46 - Flora and Fauna of the Eastern and Western Tyers Forest Blocks and Adjacent South-Eastern Slopes of Baw Baw National Park, Central Gippsland, Victoria’.
The RFA process was supposed to, once and for all, resolve the land use debate over areas of public land native forest, by taking due consideration of conservation values and wood supply needs of the logging industry. The joint Commonwealth/State RFA process relied overwhelmingly on state bureaucracies for detailed data and other information on forest conservation values of the areas they were investigating.
The delivery of the conservation case for the forests of the Central Highlands RFA region and the Baw Baw plateau and escarpments in particular, relied heavily on a state report authored by seven departmental scientists. However, when it came time to present, the scientists involved were ordered not to take papers into the federal meeting, but rather rely on their basic knowledge and present verbally. This is the only information they were permitted to deliver into the RFA process.
The ‘censored’ report contained several chapters outlining the high conservation values of the Baw Baw plateau and escarpments and recommends that they are protected from logging. These chapters of the report were ordered to be ‘burned’ by senior foresters and were unreachable (even by previous attempts at FOI until May this year).
In 1999 Alan McMahon in a parliamentary inquiry into the RFA made the following statement:
“... the RFA is failing to protect national estate values. In the draft project report, National Estate Values in the Central Highlands, the Australian Heritage Commission and CNR recommended a 30,040 hectare proposed national estate place in the Baw Baw region. That is compared with the present 13,000 hectares national park. This included most of the south face. It also found the Baw Baw area to have a greater range of national estate values than anywhere else in the Central Highlands”.
“While the Central Highlands RFA process was under way, the Victorian government passed the Wood Pulp Agreement Bill without reference to the outcome of the process. They ignored it blatantly, and I think they compromised it, placing the validity of the process itself in question.”
In his submission to the Commonwealth Senate Inquiry into the RFA’s, Senator Bob Brown pointed to the omission of the missing chapters:
“that the environmental studies which should have allowed for a proper assessment of forests before they were signed over to logging have not been done as far as the south face of Baw Baw is concerned”.
The Inquiry Chair stated this to be a fairly serious charge and made a commitment to find the report…this never eventuated until now (2006).
The existence of the report’s missing chapters was brought to the attention of the TCHA President over several years of discussion with various people. After requesting the report from the DSE, TCHA was told they could not have it. A separate request was then made by another party, only to receive the document ‘doctored’ and bereft of the missing chapters. On legal advice, the other party questioned where the chapters were and the relevant chapters were finally delivered in May 2006.
The missing chapters detail the intrinsic conservation values of the Baw Baw environs.
Senior bureaucrats, many of whom are still in the current Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), should come under intense scrutiny for the role they played or knowledge they have about the removal of critical aspects of the report and the devastating effect that has had on Mount Baw Baw.
Current forest based, ecological science suggests that the present Victorian government forest policy will lead to the extinction of many forest dependent species. Primary indicator species include: Spot Tailed Quoll, Sooty Owl, Baw Baw Frog and Leadbeater's possum are under immediate threat.
An urgent review of highly significant areas such as Baw Baw and East Gippsland is required.
Chapter 10 Water
Logging our drinking water supply
Chapter 10.pdf download here
Summary
The Thomson Reservoir is situated along the eastern escarpments of Mount Baw Baw and carries approximately 60 percent of Melbourne’s water storage capacity (Howe et al 2005). It is surrounded by 48,700 hectares of forested catchment that includes the northern and eastern slopes of Mount Baw Baw, the southern slopes of Mount Matlock on the Great Dividing Range and the western slopes of the Aberfeldy Range. The Thomson is the largest of four major water supply catchments for Melbourne, with the others being Maroondah, Upper Yarra and O’Shannassy. All are located within the Central Highlands of Victoria (Howe et al 2005). The Thomson is a major water supply catchment upon which logging is permitted. The forest industry considers the Mountain Ash, Alpine Ash and Shining Gum forests within the catchment as highly valuable for timber and pulp and targets these for logging. These forests cover 33.5 percent of the Thomson Catchment (Alaouze 2004) and occur within the high rainfall areas, mostly along the escarpments of Mount Baw Baw. When regenerating after logging, these species have been observed to double their use of water through having a higher Leaf Area Index (LAI) (Peel et al 2000, Vertessy et al 1998). The Strategy Directions Report stated that if logging were to be phased out of the Thomson Catchment by 2020, it is estimated that it will provide an additional volume of water in the order of 20,000ML (Water Resources Strategy Committee 2002). This chapter provides an overview of the issues concerning logging in the Thomson Catchment and implications for future management. These are covered in the following sections:
• Annual Rainfall within the Thomson Catchment (Section 10.2)
• Forests and Water Use (Section 10.3)
• Predicting Impacts on Water Yield within the Thomson Catchment (Section 10.4)
• Logging within the Thomson Catchment (Section 10.5)
• Global Warming and the Thomson (Section 10.6)
• Implications for Future Management (Section 10.7)
This chapter reveals significant problems with past and continued logging within the Thomson Catchment. It reveals that logging Ash Forests results in the greatest water yield loss for any forest type in the catchment. 67 percent of the Ash forest area within the Thomson Catchment has been or will be logged. This exceeds the minimum of 20 percent for changes in the water yield to be detected.
Chapter 11 Unlawful Logging
Unlawful logging in the Thomson catchment
Summary
In the winter of 2006, coupe 353-501-0001 was logged. Part of this coupe falls within Thomson Water Catchment. The catchment is closed to logging operations between May 1st and November 30th as stipulated in Appendix R of the Central Highlands Forest Management Plan. In addition, the location of the coupe was not revealed in the Timber Release Plan issued by VicForests. The Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 requires that the details of the location of logging to be included in the Timber Release Plans. This did not occur. As a result, the community was not adequately informed about VicForests’ and DSE’s intent to log an area of what scientists and the community regard as a significant site for water catchment and biodiversity. Therefore, in reference to the above, the logging of coupe 353-501-0001 was ‘unlawful’. This is covered in the following sections:
• Details of the Logging Operation (Section 11.2)
• Non-compliance with Forest Management Plans and Legislation (Section 11.3)
Chapter 12 The Resserve Proposal
The Reserve Proposal
Chapter 12.pdf download here
Summary
The outcome of this investigation reveals that the current reserve system around Mount Baw Baw is inadequate and that current forest management practices are degrading sites of significance. This chapter details the recommended expansion of the current Baw Baw National Park to be inclusive of:
• The entire site of Global Zoological Significance,
• Sites of National and State Botanical Significance,
• Site of National Geological and Geomorphological Significance
• The global distribution of the Baw Baw Frog,
• Rainforest Sites of Significance
• Sites of National Estate Value
• Areas of important for water catchment
As large areas of forest surrounding Mount Baw Baw have been degraded through extensive logging operations, the reserve agenda proposes a ‘restorative management zone’ upon where proactive conservation measures are implemented to rehabilitate these areas. The agenda is supportive of Associate Professor Jean marc Hero’s recommendation for the recovery action of the Baw Baw Frog, which include:
• Complete protection of all known and predicted habitat for the Baw Baw Frog
• Proactive actions to mitigate the known threats
• Monitoring to determine if mitigating actions are effective
• Research to determine new or unknown threats to the species
• Proactive actions to mitigate new threats
(Hero 2004 – Pers Comm)
This proposal provides a continuous reserve system that joins the Baw Baw National Park with the Yarra Ranges National Park and the Moondarra State Park. It will incorporate the diverse Ecological Vegetation Communities found within the region that fall outside the current reserve system.
roadmap
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