Brown Mountain Press Conference: "Call for halt to logging - Endangered species discovered"

Level 7, 473 Bourke Street Melbourne Vic 3000 GPO Box 191 Melbourne 3001 Telephone: (03) 9608 9500 Facsimile: (03) 9608 9566 www.vicforests.com.au Timber Harvesting at Brown Mountain I am responding to your email to the Premier of Victoria John Brumby on 28 Jan 2009. In your email, you allege several serious breaches of the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2007 (the Code) which occurred during recent timber harvesting undertaken by VicForests in a Brown Mountain coupe. This letter will address these alleged breaches and other matters which you have raised. • “You are allowing and supporting the Clearfelling of old growth forest as ‘business as usual’ despite these forest’s critical role in storing carbon (over 1000 tonnes per hectare) and providing water for the depleted Snowy River catchment.” 90 per cent of Victoria’s forests are not available for timber production and are already in formal and informal reserves. VicForests only harvests and regenerates a very small proportion of the available forest every year. All areas harvested by VicForests are regrown with seed from local sources. According to Government mapping there is 117,909 ha of forest modelled as old growth in East Gippsland. Only 25% of this old growth is classified as available for harvesting with the remaining forest being in National Park or reserves. Old growth forest is one of the most highly represented forest types in the reserve system and is in no immediate danger of disappearing. Forests and wood products can effectively reduce the process of climate change in several ways. Although regeneration burns release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, growing trees absorb the carbon dioxide back. Forestry overall is a carbon positive industry because there is no net increase in the release of carbon dioxide over the life of a forest (carbon is released and then absorbed again). Trees store carbon so efficiently that about half the dry weight of a tree is carbon. This carbon remains locked up in the wood even when we use it for building products or furniture. Also, the production of wood products uses less energy (usually from finite fossil fuels) compared with some other building materials. It is true that clearfall harvesting in water catchments reduces water yield but by a much smaller amount than often reported in the media. The Victorian Government has conducted research into this amount and the science can be found on the Internet here: http://www.ourwater.vic.gov.au/environment/harvesting-in-catchments/rese... Major wildfires are by far the biggest risk to reduced water quality and reduced water yields. Forestry activity ensures there is adequate road networks and machinery available to fight wildfires when they occur. 2 • “These forests also provide habitat for threatened species.” VicForests considers the presence of threatened species during the planning process and ensures any special values are managed appropriately. Prior to the initial field inventory, VicForests’ staff conduct a desktop assessment of the coupe to review existing spatial information related to the potential coupe area. This process is known as the ‘overlay’ analysis. The purpose of this overlay is to flag potential forest management issues with a proposed coupe to ensure all critical values (such as biodiversity values) are identified and managed appropriately. DSE provides VicForests with GIS information showing the geographic areas where threatened and endangered species are known to occur. VicForests then produce a ‘Coupe Data Summary Report’ which lists possible values for the region with a yes / no result. All issues are checked ‘within the coupe boundary’ and ‘within a 500 m radius’ of the coupe boundary. To ensure that all biodiversity values are picked up prior to any harvesting commencing, VicForests conducts a field reconnaissance in each coupe by transecting the forest and recording stand type, watercourses, changes in slope, rainforest and other natural values. It is also important to ground truth the results of the overlay analysis as data sets may not be accurate on the ground. This means confirming the presence or absence of each value to then manage the coupe accordingly. • “Locals had recently constructed East Gippsland’s first old growth forest walk in these forests, which the Department of Sustainability and Environment knows about. Recent logging has now destroyed much of this walk. It will soon be obliterated.” The forest area where the proposed walk was planned by environmental groups had no approval by the land management agency responsible ie the Department of Sustainability and Environment. While the 2006 ALP election policy did include a proposal for new walking trails in East Gippsland, the location of this particular walking trail was outside the new reserve areas proposed. • “Mixed rainforest along Brown Mountain Creek has been bulldozed in readiness to start Clearfelling the adjoining stand of ancient forest.” Rainforest is a protected community under the Code of Practices for Timber Production 2007 and has not been harvested by VicForests. VicForests hires professional foresters which have studied from between 3 and 5 years. Staff are trained to identify rainforest species and to apply buffers to protect rainforest and other protected communities. VicForests is currently engaged in a research project to determine if the current buffer prescription is adequate in protecting rainforest. EPA Forests Audits have been regularly conducted in Victoria since 2002/03. The methodology has changed very little in that time and consistently found improvements in both DSE and VicForests’ compliance with harvesting regulatory documents. These audits are independently undertaken by EPA approved environmental auditors, and not managed by Government. Audit reports are publicly available on the EPA website. • “A logging contractor is being investigated for theft of burls.” VicForests has thoroughly investigated this claim using our Corrective Action and Incident Reporting system. The issue was investigated in January 2009 and found it to be unwarranted (closed on the 23 January). • “A huge old tree has been felled outside the coupe boundary. This is illegal logging and must be prosecuted.” VicForests’ staff have investigated this claim and found it to be untrue. A visual buffer of old trees is present along Errinundra Road and one tree has been felled from this buffer into the coupe. However, the buffer is within the coupe boundary and was available to be selectively harvested at the contractor’s discretion. No boundary incursions have occurred at the Brown Mountain coupe in question (840-502-0020). 3 • “Used oil filters from bulldozers have been discarded on the ground which will contaminate soil and eventually water courses.” VicForests’ staff complete regular formal coupe monitoring forms on all active harvesting coupes. At the conclusion of a harvesting operation, this form is completed and a contractor only allowed to leave once all items have been assessed satisfactorily. This form includes a specific question about the presence of rubbish across the coupe that must be answered. To the best of the supervisor’s knowledge in question, all oil filters had been picked up by the contractor by the conclusion of the harvesting operation. • “VicForests has prohibited access to the nearby Errinundra National Park via the tourist road for the past 3 months of summer holidays – with no alternative route offered.” Errinundra National Park has many points of entry (being a large National Park). In the vicinity of coupe 840-502-0020, there was an alternative entry point via a short detour on Gap Road / Gunmark Road. This is clearly evident on maps of Errinundra National Park. Yours faithfully Cameron MacDonald Director - Strategy and Corporate Affairs [email protected] CC: Janine Haddow Executive Director Natural Resources Division Department of Sustainability and Environment 8 Nicholson Street East Melbourne Victoria 3002

"90 per cent of Victoria’s forests are not available for timber production"! Considering that only 16% of Victoria is protected by State of National parks, and that not all of this area is forests, there are not many native or old-growth forests anyway! 90% of what is left is protected? That's 10% too much of it logged! Victoria is the most cleared and damaged State, and the most compromised environmentally. Logging Brown Mountain was eco-terrorism and a betrayal of a promise to protect what we had left! There was no need to destroy any trees, but greed for money and votes from the logging industry. So much greenwashing happens today by our Brumby government.