Looking for the truth – the panel at the Warburton forests meeting was, from left, Steve Meacher, Sarah Rees, Christian Nielsen, Cr Samantha Dunn, Adam Menery, Lindsay Hesketh, Nathan Trushell, Keith Sarah and Chris Taylor.
By Kath Gannaway
‘TRUTH’ was the main concern for the broader public attending a Central Highlands logging forum in Warburton according to Warburton Environment president Keith Sarah.
Warburton Environment hosted the Our Disappearing Forests forum which he estimated was attended by 80 people on 24 July.
“It was not just speaking to the converted,” Mr Sarah said.
“I had a lot of people saying afterwards, and in emails, that they didn’t know about the issues and were impressed with the presentation of all the speakers.”
He said there was concern about the way VicForests was managing the forests.
He said while there were issues raised about the proposed clear-fell coupes proposed in and around Toolangi, there was also concern in the Upper Yarra about proposed coupes in Cement Creek out of Warburton.
He said there were no guarantees that Cement Creek won’t be logged in the future.
“I think there is a great deal of cynicism.
“What gives me the most hope is that there can be some genuine dialogue between all the parties involved, but we need action as well, not just talk,” he said.
Nathan Trushell, VicForests director of strategy and corporate affairs, also spoke and was on the panel fielding questions after the presentation.
He said the meeting was a good opportunity to present the timber industry’s point of view on how timber is sustainably harvested in native forests.
“One of the things we presented was that there is about 7.6 million hectares of native forest in Victoria and we would access only about 10 per cent of that over a long rotation periods of 80 to 120 years,” he said. He said clear-fell harvesting was developed because it was the most effective way of regenerating ash timber and that it was more cost effective.
“What is important is that we provide timber products from areas including Warburton for domestic consumption and we employ, as a result of our activities, 2500 people in harvesting and hauling and processing,” Mr Trushell said.
“It is important people think of the social and environmental consequences of a reduction in native timber harvesting,” he said.
He said that included loss of jobs and the risk of an increase in imported wood products from countries which he said do not have the same regulations around timber harvesting.
Yarra Junction resident Stan Bartlett, 79, said he was neither in the ‘green’ nor ‘logger’ camp. “I don’t have a predisposed view,” he said, but I didn’t realise it (logging native forests) was such a problem really, and I believe it is,” he said.
Like Mr Trushell, he saw the issue as being complex in terms of the economic effect on people in the industry if logging stopped.
However he said he saw the sense developing plantations and was convinced that clear fell logging had to stop.
Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato also spoke, reiterating her stand against logging in the water catchments. “For the last several years I have actively lobbied my government to ban the logging of Melbourne’s water catchments,” she said.
Other speakers represented My Environment, Yarra Ranges Council, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of Mt St Leonard and included Greens candidates Steve Meacher and Samantha Dunn.
