When the Victorian government announced it would stop logging its own native timber for commercial purposes, environment groups celebrated.
Under an expanded “strategic fuel break” program quietly unveiled earlier this year, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action Unlike logging on Crown land, logging on private properties usually requires only a planning permit from rural and regional councils, which are often underresourced and ill-equipped to assess the ecological impacts of native forest logging.
Victorian National Parks Association Matt Ruchel says logging on private land needs to be better regulated. “There are no alternative timber supply sources available domestically or internationally which can offset the current disruptions to supply to Victorian mills.” Mt Horsfall is one of seven properties managed as a group by Forest Strategy, which has Forest Stewardship Council certification for the bundle of sites.
Gill and Lindenmayer have also lodged complaints about the logging, which is taking place less than one kilometre from a parcel of mountain ash that has been the subject of long-term monitoring by teams of ANU academics.Featherston said the mapping relied upon by the complainants was incorrect and that the Office of the Conservation Regulator had made no findings against his operations.
Cr Mendy Urie told the meeting: “I think, unfortunately, it seems there’s a bit of a policy void around native forest logging on private property, so we’re without the normal guidance and structures that we could rely on to get a good result.”