Defend Our Central West Forests
I was very disappointed to read the article: ‘Timber industry uncertain’ in the The Courier last Saturday, which more or less reads as an advertorial for the timber industry, reinforcing propaganda packaged by vested interests in the government and timber industry and presented to the media as fact. Contrary to the sanitised narrative of timber industry spruikers, intensive clear fell logging is already occurring on our doorstep in Mount Cole. This is part of a policy published by the (then) Department of Environment and Primary Industry in their September 2013 Bulletin: ‘Clear felling (with retained seed trees) followed by hot regeneration burn will be used at Mt Cole.’
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We witnessed first-hand the consequences of the Government’s actions on a recent overnight hike at Mt Cole, when we stumbled across a minimum of 4 hectares of clear-felled forest immediately adjacent to the renowned Beerimpo hiking trail. Far from representing best practice forest husbandry, the clear fell logging has left a wasteland devoid of life. Gone are all understorey plants, including ferns and native plants, immature trees, seedlings and animal life. Great windrows of discarded logs litter the site. Far from there being habitat trees remaining, there was only one solitary tree painted with the letter ‘H.’ The cynicism of this gesture is breathtaking. During this visit, we noted very strong patronage of all of the campsites, and encountered hundreds of people enjoying the beauty of the temperate forest, and native birds and animals. Given the sheer number of visitors to Mt Cole, many of whom are international travellers, it is hard to imagine how the destruction of the forest could possibly bring more value to local communities than tourism.
In my complacency, I believed that discredited practices such as clear felling had been consigned to history, and that our state Labor government was managing forests in a responsible way for the enjoyment of future generations. As we have discovered, Vic forests with the endorsement of the former DEPI and DELWP has been nurturing the kind of environmental bastardry that we are currently seeing at Mt Cole.
The recent Central West Investigation undertaken by VEAC fails to recommend suitable protections for Mt Cole, leaving the majority of the forest open to logging, including sections of the Beerimpo trail and adjacent picnic areas. If you love the area and wish to preserve the small fragments that remain of the once vast forests of Western Victoria, now is the time to seek out the facts and speak up.
Brandt Clifford, Ballarat