Logging

Friends of the Earth opposes logging in River Red Gum Country

The trees targetted by forestry in this bioregion in the 19th century are River Red Gums. Half of the red gum harvested in this area is firewood that is sold in Melbourne.

In the Barmah forest area, the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), is charged with both running logging operations, as well as conservation management.

HISTORY

By the 1870s, the commercial exploitation of Barmah-Millewa for timber was well underway, and a huge area of the forest had already been wholly or partly worked. The then Victorian Secretary for Agriculture estimated that at then current rates, the whole forest would be gone within four to six years (Fahey, 1987). Forestry was subsequently limited in the forest, but the legacy of those days remains.

Habitat Loss

Current logging practices in Barmah-Millewa seek to maximise timber production, so most mature trees are cut down, ring-barked or poisoned to allow faster growth of young trees. Same-age younger stands of red gum do not provide for the differing habitat requirements of native fauna, and in particular leave an absence of the nesting hollows only found in red gum in excess of 140 years old. Forest managers are required to leave some trees standing for animal habitat purposes, but only a very minimal number (Lacey, 2001). Logging removes habitat for several threatened hollow-nesting bird, mammal and reptile species, including the superb parrot, squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis), brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa), long-footed myotis bat (Myotis macropus) and carpet python (Morelia spilota variegata) all of which are threatened nationally or in Victoria or New South Wales.

Victoria’s red gum forests have the highest number of hollow-dwelling bird species of all vegetation types in the State, and the various species’ different habitat and nesting requirements rely on the presence of a natural level of diversity in tree age classes. Many hollow nesting species have extremely specific requirements for the cavities they use for nesting. Therefore the more trees that remain standing, the more choices that are available, the more likely these species are to thrive rather than reduce in numbers. Mature trees also provide food sources that young trees do not; the nationally endangered regent honeyeater (Xanthomyza phrygia) is one species that
utilises such foods (Robinson & Traill, 1996).

Mechanical Logging

The recent advent of mechanical logging (using large logging machinery instead of people with chainsaws) is accelerating weed invasion and localised extinction of endemic species. Logging operations have always had a concentrated impact on soils at landing sites, where logs are collected for loading onto transport. Mechanical logging is turning small, localised disturbances into vast areas of ripped up soil, devoid of all plant-life and ripe for colonisation by weeds. Invasive species of great concern include pasture grasses such as Vasey and Toowoomba Canary Grasses, and weeds like Patterson’s Curse, Bathurst Burr and Horehound. In addition, the landing sites are so large and often remove all neighbouring colonies of endemic understorey, decreasing even further the chance of native regeneration. At least five regionally significant herbaceous species are threatened with localised extinction by mechanical logging in Barmah.

Scar Trees

Many of these older trees also bear ‘scars’ where Yorta Yorta people removed bark for canoes, shields, mia mias (bark shelters) and coolamons (vessels for carrying food) without destroying the living tree.

Barmah-Millewa is too important ecologically and as Yorta Yorta cultural heritage to be managed for logging or other forms of resource extraction.

Friends of the Earth recommends the following:

· That timber harvesting of all kinds as it currently exists in the Barmah-Millewa is to cease, except for limited harvesting of live trees in areas where red gum trees have encroached on Moira Grass plains, and in areas where there is no diversity in the age classes of the red gum trees. This limited forestry is also ultimately to cease, after a phase-out period of a maximum of twenty years.

Further information, and details on the more specific recommendations made by Friends of the Earth, go to our Submission to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council’s River Red Gum Investigation, December 2006.

References:
Fahey, C. 1987. Barmah Forest: one of the grandest public estates in the colony. Melbourne: DCFL.

Lacey, G. 2001. Logging and grazing in the Barmah Forest. VNPA Barmah Briefing Paper No. 1.

Robinson, D & Traill, BJ. 1996. Conserving woodland birds in the wheat and sheep belts of southern Australia. RAOU Conservation Statement No 10. Supplement to Wingspan 6.