Infomation

Infosheets

Resourses for school work, improving your understanding of the issues, and putting yourself in a good position to argue the point.

Since European arrival, two-thirds of our native forest has gone.

In2 the Otways, the native forest has been clearfell logged since the 1970's. Clearfell logging is a process that removes all vegetation from an allocated area (a logging coupe). This opens up the forest, drying it out and making it more susceptible to weed invasion and wildfire. Then NAPALM is dropped from helicopters to burn the logged area and poisonous baits are spread to kill off native animals who may feed from any new growth.

Victoria's publicly owned state forest is managed by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE).

CLEARFELL LOGGING IN THE OTWAYS

¨ REDUCES WATER QUANTITY

¨ DECREASES WATER QUALITY

¨ TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES LOST

¨ DESTROYS HABITAT

¨ THREATENS COOL TEMPERATE RAINFOREST

¨ INCREASES FIRE RISK

¨ CLEARFELL LOGGING IS PRIMARILY FOR WOODCHIPS

Woodchipping in the Otways

The Facts

  70% of trees clearfelled in the Otways go directly to woodchips. When sawmill sawlog offcuts are included, nearly 90% of all Hardwood Volume ends up as woodchips . Under the DNRE's own admission, the majority of forest coupes (areas of forest set aside for logging) are not `sawlog economic' to log.

Woodchips provide the majority (60%) of Forestry Victoria's revenue from logging operations in the Otways. (Forestry Victoria is the forest section of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment)

The sawmills sourcing timber from the Otways State Forest made a $0.6 million loss in the 1997/98 financial year. Woodchipping earns $2.1 million each year.

Logging in the Otways is driven by woodchips not sawlogs (as shown by a recent report based on the Government's own data and written by OREN). This is a breach of the State Government policy that maintains which the logging industry must be sawlog driven.

For the last few years, the amount of woodchips coming out of the Otways forest has exceeded by 60%, the current limit (60,000m³) imposed by the DNRE's own management prescriptions outlined in the Otway Forest Management Plan

Ref: Are Sawlogs a By-Product of the Wood chip Industry in the Otway State Forest, OREN, Nov.2000

Evaluation of the Western Victoria RFA

OREN info sheets

The Forest Fact File

Native Forest Network forest campaign guides