Landcare groups are concerned over “unprecedented” plans to remove debris in two earmarked zones of the Dandenong Ranges National Park impacted by the June 2021 storm event.
Contracted by Victorian Government agency the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), VicForests is preparing to remove fallen debris from one larger spot near the Silvan Dam, and the other south near Fern Gully Track to use for commercial and community use.
Forest Fire Management Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman said VicForests will “only be removing fallen debris from these two sites within the Bushfire Moderation Zone, with the combined size of these sites totalling an area roughly 50 hectares in size”.
“The vast majority of the areas impacted by the June 2021 storms will be left to decompose naturally,” Mr Hardman said.
“The high volume of debris within the two sites will increase the bushfire risk to unacceptable levels.
“The two identified sites provide protection to the Melbourne Water Silvan Treatment Plant, which provides 82 per cent of Melbourne’s drinking water, and provide critical protection to communities around the Kalorama and Silvan areas.”
Mr Hardman said as the two sites are within Bushfire Moderation Zones, they are subjected to regular fuel management operations including planned burning and mechanical treatment.
“Removing some of the large debris will minimise the need for planned burning in the area and provides an opportunity for community and commercial use that would otherwise be burnt,” he said.
But ecology professor at the Australian National University (ANU), David Lindenmayer, said it is “totally inappropriate” to undertake what he calls a salvage logging operation in a national park.
“I think it’s a mistake for people to think of them as waste trees or fire risks…that’s just not the case,” Mr Lindenmayer said.
“We have done quite a lot of work over a long time to indicate when you start to do this…you make it more flammable, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen in this case as has happened in many parts of Victoria over the last 30 or 40 years.
“We know from the Black Summer fire that we went through in 2019-20 that logged forests always burnt at significantly higher severity than intact forest.”
Mr Lindenmayer is calling on the Victorian Government to “change the way it’s doing things”.
“We should not be logging national parks full stop. We should not be removing timber from national parks full stop.”
Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group President Robert Pergl said removing the debris has the has the potential to do more damage in a forest that is recovering and at a point of vulnerability.
“I think the commercial use of logs coming out of a national park for commercial incentive is completely inappropriate and it’s not something the local community expects, and they really want our park estate to be protected,” Mr Pergl said.
Parks Protection Advocate at the Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA), Jordan Crook, said national parks are meant to be protected through the National Parks Act.
“Even though the logs are on the ground, they still provide significant habitat to threatened species in the area, like the broad-toothed rat and the antechinus,” Mr Crook said.
“National parks are our highest level of protection of natural areas in Victoria, and they’re not areas to be logged, they’re areas to be looked after and protected for conservation and recreation.
“The logs should be left as habitat. Even if they are burnt, they still provide habitat to the threatened species and wildlife that call the national park home.”
Mr Hardman said DEECA’s Dandenong Ranges National Park operation is “not salvage logging”.
“DEECA has a legal obligation to manage bushfire risk in State Forests, National Parks and on protected public land. VicForests has been engaged by DEECA as its contractor to help manage the bushfire risk in the Dandenong Ranges National Park by removing excess fallen timber,” he said.
