It's
amazing how vested interests can jump in and take advantage of even the worst
catastrophes. Right now timber industry lobby groups are claiming to have the
solution to bushfire hazard reduction - allow them to log national parks!
Of
course they are careful to avoid the term logging, preferring instead to use
the word “thinning”. Thinning is something that should always occur after
logging takes place, but something that has been sadly neglected over the past two
decades to cut costs.
The
problem is that over 20 years, logging frequency in state forests has
increased, as has the intensity, anything up to 80% of basal area in some
places.
This
heavy logging opens up canopies, lets in sunlight, heats the ground surface,
and promotes a massive regrowth, particularly Wattle species, weeds, and highly
flammable Blady Grass and Bracken, which results in the entire forest becoming
more flammable.
There
is a good example on the Summerland Way, 13 km north of Whiporie, showing the
higher resilience older forests have against fire. Anyone knowing that road
will recall a healthy patch of relatively large Tallowwoods and other tall
Eucalypt species, growing right to the road's edge. Those passing since the
recent devastating blazes will be relieved to see that forest, while burned,
has retained a relatively unscathed canopy, while all around heavily logged
forests have been obliterated.
Tall
forests with unbroken canopies retain moisture at ground level and in the leaf
litter, and they also encourage an understorey which includes fire resistant
species, while the deeper shade inhibits the growth of those flammable pioneer
species like Wattles and Blady Grass.
All
this is in stark contrast to those heavily logged forests, including many of
the national parks that were logged to within an inch of their being before
they were handed over to the parks estate.
There
are areas of forest that could benefit from thinning, including some of the
more recently established national parks, but that work has to be carefully
undertaken to minimise collateral damage, and definitely not by huge industrial
logging machines.
- John Edwards
This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on January 27, 2020.
