LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
WITH the possible closure of Australian Sustainable Hardwoods looming for Heyfield, we are well aware of the enormous job losses and the crippling impact the flow-on effects will have on the town ship and the community not only for Heyfield, but for the surrounding townships in the Gippsland region and Victoria in general.
Apart from the resulting economic impact, we know that Victoria is one of the most fire prone areas on the planet.
Ninety-four per cent of Victorian forests are National Parks.
The remaining six per cent are currently made available for sustainable harvesting of saw logs, which is based on an 80-year rotation, equating to 0.075 per cent of Victoria’s forests harvested each year.
The small patches of cleared areas in the forests that harvesting creates, otherwise known as log coupes, provide firebreaks in the dense bush and base areas.
From these, fire-fighters can get a foothold to fight bushfires and carry out back burning, giving them an increased opportunity to contain and control fires.
The logging industry finances the building and maintenance of the roads to access the log coupes which, in the event of fire threat, become access roads for fire tankers and other fire-fighting equipment and personnel.
If logging and associated road maintenance was to be halted in Victorian forests, the access roads will become overgrown and fall into disrepair.
We would then stand to lose the bushfire defence opportunities currently available through use of log coupes and access roads, setting ourselves up in the future for potentially larger, inaccessible bushfires that will be more difficult to contain and control.
History from 1939 Black Friday, 1983 Ash Wednesday and 2009 Black Saturday, tells us that our forests do and will burn.
Most Heyfield residents already know how it feels to have to flee from properties with just the clothes on their backs and as many photos, possessions and pets as they can carry in their vehicles.
Sustainable logging will not stop bushfires, but it will give us a much greater opportunity to reduce their severity and impact on our Victorian forests, our wildlife and the towns and communities that surround them.
