Clearfelling fight

By Dion Teasdale
A GROUP of Upper Yarra residents are calling on the wider community to help them fight the proposal to log 100 hectares of forest in a rural conservation zone in Beenak.
Community action group Friends of Hoddles Creek (FOHC) is appealing for help to raise funds to pay for lawyers and expert witnesses scheduled to appear at a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) hearing early next month.
The VCAT hearing into Warburton based Moran Logging Company’s proposal to log 100 hectares of forest in Thoneman’s Road, Beenak, is scheduled to commence on Monday, 5 June and is expected to last for up to five days.
Moran Logging applied to the Shire of Yarra Ranges to log the area last year and when a decision on the application was not received within 60 days, the company referred its application to VCAT in December last year.
In January this year Shire of Yarra Ranges councillors unanimously voted to reject the logging application and described it as one of the worst proposals its had reviewed.
Gladysdale residents and FOHC members Tim and Elissa White and their two children, Elijah, 3, and Imogen, 8 months, live on a 60 acre property adjacent to the proposed logging coupe.
They say the boundary of the proposed logging site is just 80 metres from the back door of their family home and that logging the area will not only devastate the environment but also their way of life.
“We deliberately chose to move here from Ringwood four year ago for a country lifestyle so we could raise our children in the country and the prospect of this logging proposal being approved is incredibly devastating,” Mrs White said.
“There is no buffer zone between our back door and the area they are proposing to log, so not only will the logging impact on the wildlife and vegetation, we’ll be facing intense smoke, dust and noise pollution.”
The Whites say they have never been ‘die-hard conservationists but were forced to take a stand by the scale and potential impact of the logging proposal.
“We wonder how many people in the Yarra Valley would be happy to have a logging project of this scale happening just 80 metres from their back door?” Mrs White said.
“We are appealing to the wider community to take an interest in this issue and help us to save this bushland.”
Mr White said the 100-hectare site contains valuable remnant bushland and that surveys have shown it to possess a rich suite of flora and fauna.
“While we are concerned about the effect this logging proposal could have on our lives and on the quality of life for our children, we are also very concerned about the impact of the clearfelling being proposed,” he said. This bushland, which is the size of 50 MGCs, is the habitat of several species listed as being rare or potentially threatened.”
Mr White said the logging would have long term effects on the land beyond the proposed three to five year logging period.
“Once it’s been cleared it will be opened up for use by 4WD and trail bikes for many years to come,” he said.
“We are trusting that VCAT will follow the Shire of Yarra Ranges decision on this important matter and not allow it.”
Anyone interested in supporting the Friends of Hoddles Creek can contact Ray Turner on 5967 4594 or write to the groups at PO Box 298 Yarra Junction 3797.
The Mail contacted Garry Moran from Moran Logging Company.
He declined to comment on the upcoming VCAT hearing.