Rain report backed

By Kath Gannaway
TIMBER Communities Australia’s (TCA) Scott Gentle has claimed vindication of the timber industry’s claims timber harvesting in Melbourne’s water catchments is sustainable.
“The environment movement’s arguments have been blown out of the water,” he said.
Mr Gentle, TCA’s Victorian state manager based in Healesville, claimed a Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) report had found that stopping timber harvesting would not provide the water savings claimed by the environment movement.
“The report, which is part of the State Government’s Wood and Water Project – Harvesting in State Forests Supplying Water to Melbourne backs up what timber communities have been saying since this debate began,” Mr Gentle said.
“People who understand this industry know that timber harvesting in Victoria is sustainable and it is fantastic that there is independent data to back this up.”
He said the project was being undertaken because of the long history of debate about the relative costs and benefits of wood production and water supply from the state forests supplying water to Melbourne.
“The report states ‘water yield is increasing due to the natural ageing of the forest within the catchments as much of the catchment forests regrew after the 1939 bushfires.
“This means that water yield will increase naturally even if there are no changes to the harvesting regimes,” he said.
“It also states that under current harvesting regimes there will be between a 27 to 40 gigalitre increase in water yield as opposed to a maximum 16 GL increase if harvesting was stopped.”
Mr Gentle said the recent Government inquiry into bushfires added support to harvesting in the catchments.
“That report found that the reduction of timber harvesting on public land has lead to a loss of local knowledge and expertise, heavy machinery and accessibility for vehicles and has had a negative impact on the ability of fire agencies to combat bushfires,” he said.
“When you add this to the water report there is no logical reason to stop harvesting in catchments.”
In answer to calls last week by Shire of Yarra Ranges councillor Samantha Dunn for a federal review of logging in the Central Highlands, Mr Gentle said the TCA would welcome a review.
Cr Dunn claimed reviews set down as part of the Regional Forests Agreement had not been done and that the agreement had been compromised.
Mr Gentle said the review mechanism was aimed not at re-writing the agreement but to ensure requirements of the agreement were being adhered to.
“This hasn’t been done in any formal way, but the TCA would be quite happy to see a review based on the existing guidelines,” he said.
“If a review is required then let’s do it,” he said.