Proposed TRP Amendment - Healesville Environment Watch

04/12/2010 10:39 pm

Attn: Senior Forester Tactical Planning

VicForests

213 Maroondah Highway

Healesville 3777

8th April 2010

Re: Proposed Harvesting Plan (TRP) Amendments

This submission is made on behalf of Healesville Environment Watch, PO Box 444, Healesville, Vic 3777. HEWI is a non-government environment group representing the Ryrie Ward in the Shire of Yarra Ranges and surrounding areas on the edge of the forested Central Highlands.

According to the Sustainability Charter for Victoria’s State Forests, the Victorian Government has recognised that the use of forests must be at a level that can be sustained without impairing the ability of the forest to regenerate and to continue to provide employment, products and services for future generations. This submission will show that the current level of extractive use exceeds such a level and threatens the continued provision of employment and ecosystem services in the future. The amendment must therefore be refused.

Excessive logging hindering community recovery

HEWI is gravely concerned that the current level of extractive use of our forests in key areas far exceeds such a sustainable limit. In particular, areas that were so devastated by the Black Saturday and subsequent fires last year and have since been intensively “salvage logged” are now being considered as locations for further coupes. Examination of maps provided by VicForests which combine the proposed new amendments with existing coupes and coupes logged in the past decade shows much greater local concentrations of activity that the “less than 1%” frequently claimed by proponents of the industry. For instance, around Toolangi it is apparent the current and proposed coupes cover 20 - 30% of the available unburned forest area and close to Marysville this appears to be as high as 40 – 50%!

These are communities that will depend on the natural beauty of nearby forests, easily accessed by Melbourne visitors, to support economic recovery from the fires through nature-based tourism. Yet the activities of VicForests are discouraging visitors. Large swathes of public forest are closed to visitors as Public Safety Zones. The visual amenity of the area is being diminished as coupes are visible from main roads, tourist routes and from great distances. It is already being reported that people are reluctant to drive through the Black Spur between Healesville and Narbethong because they feel unsettled and even endangered by the constant stream of log trucks. Some visitors to Healesville have declared they will not return because the pleasure of their visit has been spoiled by the constant parade of log trucks through the town.

Current logging practice is ecologically unsustainable

Of even greater importance, however, is the fact that the industry, as currently conducted by VicForests, is ecologically unsustainable, in contravention of its own guiding principles. Industry supporters often support their claims for sustainability by arguing that after logging, coupes are regenerated and returned to DSE as regrowth forest. VicForests’ 2009 Sustainability Report confirms that the company is required to successfully regenerate all coupes. But the data show this is not happening. The report shows the areas of coupes handed back to DSE in 2006-07 and 2007-08 was less than half of the area harvested in the same years. The result is that VicForests is steadily falling further behind and is now at least eight years in arrears on its Regeneration Commitment. A cumulative 87% backlog in coupe regeneration was reported in the DSE’s most recent Monitoring Annual Harvesting Performance report which noted, “There is no current funding available to assist with completing regeneration activities associated with backlog regeneration.”

During regeneration is when a forest is most susceptible to climatic variability and change. In a rapidly changing climate with projected warmer, drier conditions, post-logging regeneration is likely to become more difficult. Unless successful regeneration is conducted at the same or greater rate as the forest is being logged, claims that forestry is sustainable have no validity. Until VicForests demonstrates the capacity to regenerate and hand-back previously logged coupes, no further coupes should be considered.

Current logging practice is economically unsustainable

A stated purpose of VicForests is to generate the best community value from the commercial management of the state forests. Yet, according to VicForests’ figures, the vast bulk (around 70%) of product from our forests under VicForests management is low-value pulp-log. When further waste and low-value product resulting from processing saw-log is accounted for it is reported that the proportion of high value timber is around 12%. This does not represent “best community value” compared to the excessive price paid, enormous tracts of clear-felled forest.

Further evidence that VicForests is failing to provide ‘best community value’ in exchange for the loss of our forests is the fact that the organization is economically unviable. It’s cumulative financial result to 2009 is a loss of $2.4m, in spite of not being required to pay dividends to the Victorian government in recent years.

Further information required

Although Victoria’s Regional Forest Agreements have now been in place for more than ten years the first (and second) Five Yearly Reviews are currently under way. Following the 2009 fires a review of the reserve system should also be carried out to ensure that it remains Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR), given extensive losses in the fires. In addition the revised Leadbeater’s Possum Permanent Reserve system and Action Statement are currently being finalized. Until the results and implications of these reviews are published, no amendment to the TRPs should be considered.

Logging in catchments

Early in the history of Melbourne the value of the Central Highlands forests as water catchments was recognized. To protect Melbourne’s water supplies several catchments in the Upper Yarra Valley were closed and protected and only limited logging is now permitted within them. However other parts of the Central Highlands are equally important as catchments for rivers that flow north and west to the Goulburn, such as the Steavenson, Murrindindi and Yea and many of these lack similar protection. Major disturbances of forested catchments, such as fires and logging, reduce both quality and quantity of water production. These effects can last many decades. Until the effects of the 2009 fires have been fully assessed, together with the projected reduction in inflows due to climate change, no new coupes should be considered.

Forests as carbon sinks and stores

Forests play an important role in regulating the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Temperate forests with low rates of decay sequester large quantities of carbon and research has shown that the Mountain Ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands are amongst the most carbon dense in the world. When these forests are logged and converted mostly to low-value products most of the carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Carbon continues to be released as the exposed forest floor dries out and is exposed. Commercially managed forests contain 40 – 60% less carbon than natural, undisturbed forests. Extractive forestry is not carbon positive. Research has also shown that logging in wet forests has the potential to increase their susceptibility to fires, which put communities at risk and release more carbon. As state, federal and international governments accept the urgent need for effective action to mitigate climate change, it is likely a price will be placed on carbon. This will mean that living, standing forests will be much more valuable to the community than those converted to woodchips for the short-term profit of a few. Any VicForests request for new coupes should only be considered in the context of the potential value of the same trees as future carbon sinks and stores. Which use will generate the best community value, both in dollar terms and in protecting communities from climate change?

Securing Our Natural Future

In the white paper for land and biodiversity at a time of climate change, the Victorian government recognises that healthy ecosystems are vital. The Central Highlands are designated a flagship area. The primary objective for the management of flagship areas is the protection and enhancement of the natural assets within them, focusing on the ecosystem services they provide. This is clearly incompatible with the proposed amendment seeking to create new logging coupes in which natural assets will be ‘harvested’ or destroyed and ecosystem services undermined.

Openness

A stated value of VicForests is to manage commercial harvesting and sale of timber in a framework of openness and transparency. Yet the application for these amendments has not been widely publicised. Very few people have been aware of the advertisement placed in a local paper. The maps available on the VicForests website contain selected information. In particular the maps which show the coupe additions do not show the existing or recent coupes, giving a misleading impression of untouched forests. Nor do the maps show all the proposed new coupes as indicated in the schedule of coupes updated 5^th March 2010. Without effective community consultation and real openness and transparency, this application fails to satisfy VicForests’ own standards and must be rejected.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Meacher Maureen Bond

Chair, HEWI Secretary, HEWI

cc. Mr Greg Wilson, Secretary, DSE

Greg.Wilson@dse.vic.gov.au

Mr Kevin Love, DSE Deputy Secretary, Public Land Stewardship and Biodiversity

Kevin.Love@dse.vic.gov.au

Mr Lee Miezis, Director, Forests, DSE Forests & Parks Division

Lee.Miezis@dse.vic.gov.au

The Hon. Gavin Jennings MP, Minister for Environment and Climate Change

Email: gavin.jennings@parliament.vic.gov.au

Mr Michael Crutchfield MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Water & Environment