Saturday, October 23, 2010

logging our central highlands - it has to stop joe

Earlier this week I joined with community members outside the offices of Joe Helper, Minister for Agriculture and in charge of VicForests, to protest about the ongoing logging in the Central Highlands, I was there representing the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

The Shire of Yarra Ranges council is opposed to the logging of Melbourne's water catchments and is also opposed to logging where it has significant effects on the local economy, tourism features and the environment. Thanks to Brent Lukey for this image.












The protest was to highlight the ongoing destruction caused by logging burnt and green forests in the Central Highlands, an already fragile environment due to the Black Saturday fires.

Much wood has been logged after the fires, causing untold damage to the forest. Local residents angry about the constant stream of logging trucks on roads, angry about logging on prominent ridgelines in tourist towns and angry that the forests haven't been given a chance to regenerate naturally.

Thanks to Brent Lukey for this image.


Logging has also occurred in the Armstrong Catchment, one of Melbourne's closed water catchments, contrary to the advice given in the BAER report (a report commissioned by government after the Black Saturday fires, from experts about how to best to deal with environmental impacts post fire).

The BAER report urged conservation action for a number of endangered species at risk, warned against salvage logging and also stated that no more than 236 hectares of burnt forest should be salvage logged. Contrary to this advice the government allowed more than 10 times this amount of forest to be logged setting our endangered species on a short path to extinction.

Key habitat, vital for endangered species like Leadbeater's Possum, Powerful & Sooty Owls and Barred Galaxias has been logged, contrary to BAER recommendations, putting these species at great risk of disappearing before our very eyes. Yarra Ranges Council shares our communities concern about logging our forests and the impact this has on fire affected communities, local economies, tourism and the environment.

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5 Comments:

At 3:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You hypocrite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Yarra Ranges Shire is Supporting the native Timber industry, using native timber in its redevelopment of the healesville public toilets. Great to see that the shire has seen the error in its ways and now supports native forest logging!! Good on you Samantha

 
At 9:02 PM, Blogger Samantha Dunn said...

The Shire of Yarra Ranges is using plantation timber for the redevelopment of the toilets in Healesville.

 
At 7:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

ignoramus, there is fantastic native timber being used - great job supporting the industry you vilify.

 
At 9:31 AM, Blogger Samantha Dunn said...

Dear anonymous, it seems you know more about the Shire's supply chain than the Shire. However I assure readers that the timber used in the development is sourced from plantation timber. The wood products industry is ahead of the game and currently source 85% of their wood from plantation timber.

 
At 12:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

the council is clearly as bad at managing its own supply chain, as it is in most things. Except for wasting rate payers money and frustrating peoples lives. the lack of transparency and huge timewasting used in any decisionmaking is shameful. shame, shame, shame.

 

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