Express MIDLAND
www.midlandexpress.com.au
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
About 100 residents gathered in the Wombat State Forest last Friday to inspect the first clearing of what VicForests claims is storm-recovery work. Photo: Sandy Scheltema
Forest clearing angers A VicForests spokesperson said no trees were being removed unless they presented a hazard or for operational necessity. "Machinery will be used to remove hazardous trees in line with standard forest management practices," the spokesperson said. "This work is part of a partnership between Traditional Land Owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and VicForests to assist in restoring Country in the Wombat State Forest and surrounding areas." But local residents and environmentalists are not convinced. Matt Ruchel, executive director of the Victorian National Parks Association, said
Angela Crawford
Lerderderg National Park. "It is a disgrace that it should be to wantonly trampled." Bullarto resident Jeremy Neal said VicForests was not just taking logs, but also removing the understorey. "They're churning over the wet soils, compacting the soils, causing huge disturbance all in the name of profits for VicForests," he said. "They're removing logs, leaving fine fuels that cause fires, promoting vegetation to grow back in a way that creates more fuel, and removing the logs that are important habitat." Continued page 7.
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As 'salvage logging' gets under way in the Wombat State Forest, local residents have raised the alarm over the nature and intent of the works. About 100 residents gathered in the forest at Babbingtons Road last Friday to inspect the first clearing of what VicForests claims is recovery work to clean up windthrown trees from last June's storms. But what they discovered looked to them more like a regular logging coupe than any sensitive work to protect the critically important habitat of some of the forest's most threatened species.
adding dozens of coupes to the forest was a clear breach of last year’s commitments by the Andrews Government to log only a small area of the soon-to-be national park. “This is not a clean up operation, this is smash up operation," Mr Ruchel said. Wombat Forestcare convenor, Gayle Osborne, said the destruction of an area of intact forest to create a log landing and machinery area of about two acres was horrifying. "The surrounding forest has been networked with wide tracks and there are large heaps of branches and bark," she said. "This is an area of high conservation value and is part of the promised Wombat-