OREN NEWS

Birthday party for 150 year old Otway forest in Colac’s Water Supply Catchment

150 year old forest makes a fool of Environment Minister Garbutt

Friday 9^th February 2001

The Otway Ranges Environment Network will hold a small birthday party this Sunday to celebrate the 150th birthday of the forest in the Olangolah water supply catchment. The Mountain Ash forest at Olangolah supplies water for Colac and was last burnt in a bush-fire on the 6th February 1851. Olangolah is a closed water supply catchment where logging is prohibited.

The small gathering will celebrate the age of the forest and the fact that regulations exist to ban logging in the catchment. The regulations are specifically in place to protect both water quality and quantity.

"The fact that this catchment is 150 years old flies in the face of comments made by Environment Minister Garbutt that the Otway water supply catchments are fire prone.", said spokesperson for the Otway Ranges Environment Network, Simon Birrell.

"The Minster made these comments to avoid confronting the fact that recent hydrology research has demonstrated that an end to logging in Otway catchments would result in an increase in water runoff to Geelong by at least 10%, and a 28% increase from Warrnambool water supply catchments. A 10% increase in the West Barwon catchment is equivalent to the water consumption of a city the size of Colac with 10,000 people."

In a press release released by the Minister for Environment and Conservation, Ms Sherryl Garbutt on the 19th January 2001, she said:

"Early claims that there would be significant increases in water yield if logging was stopped were a distortion of the study’s findings,"

"The study found that such increases could only occur in water catchments totally undisturbed by any activity, including bushfires, and that’s just not going to happen."

"It’s a sure bet that these catchments will be disturbed by many activities – people, insect attack and certainly bushfires, which alone seriously reduce water yields."

"Catchments are highly unlikely to remain undisturbed and therefore the theoretical increases in water yield are a furphy," she said.

"If the Minister stands by her comments, then how does she explain the absence of fire in the Olangolah water supply catchment for the past 150 years. Many other Otway catchments have similar long periods without fire, proving that the Otway forests can exist as old growth for hundreds of years and provide the community with increased levels of high quality water."

"The Minister is trying to protect her politically foolish decision to sign the West Victorian Regional Forest Agreement in March 2000 that committed the State Government to continued logging in catchments. The Minister failed to undertake hydrology research before the RFA was signed off. Now she is in denial of the Hydrology research findings."

For map of Olangolah and event details go here