Claims on the ABC that Melbourne’s drinking water is at risk from “illegal logging” near water catchments have been labelled “disgraceful and grossly exaggerated” by the State Opposition and denied by VicForests and the State Government. Source: Philip Hopkins for Timberbiz
The ABC report alleged that about a third of coupes harvested in the Thomson catchment included slopes steeper than 30 degrees, with 231 hectares clear-felled.
The Opposition spokesman on forestry, Gary Blackwood, said the ABC report was a disgraceful attempt to smear the reputation of forest contractors, their workers and VicForests.
“The gross exaggerations must be reported to authorities and action taken,” he said.
Mr Blackwood said the report was deliberately misleading.
“The areas alleged to have been harvested on slopes steeper than 30 degrees were grossly exaggerated by measuring the area against the net area harvested rather than the gross area of the coupe,” he said.
“The 10% tolerance for slopes above 30 degrees has been in the forestry code since 2013, not just introduced in the recent changes to the Code of Forest Practice. Melbourne Water have never found evidence of logging in open catchments having an impact on water quality.”
Mr Blackwood said the areas permitted to be logged in catchments were limited on an annual basis and only harvested between December and April depending on the weather conditions. To suggest that there were hundreds of sites containing breaches of the Code was totally incorrect.
“The OCR (Office of the Conservation Regulator) found no evidence of systemic breaches of the Code,” he said.
VicForests said it was disappointed to see yet another repeat of claims and allegations that had been previously made. These claims had resulted in an apology from the ABC and were currently being investigated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
“VicForests will refer this latest conduct to ACMA and seek to have this behaviour added to our existing complaint,” the state agency said in a statement.
“As we have already stated, the regulations provide that up to 10% of a planned harvest can exceed 30% as long as any potential environmental impacts, such as soil movement and erosion are carefully managed. This has been a longstanding rule.
“VicForests puts in place a range of protections (such as stream buffers) in its harvesting operations for the protection of water quality in accordance with the rigorous regulatory requirements.”
Harvesting on steep slopes was limited, but when done, VicForests was guided by desktop analysis that uses the most up-to-date data such as that generated by LiDAR.
“These slope models are field verified prior to any harvesting to ensure we take the care required to protect our waterways,” VicForests said.
The Minister for the Environment, Lily D’Ambrosio, said an independent panel found that the OCR operated within the regulatory framework and policy settings in place at the time of the investigation.
The OCR’s regulatory powers had been strengthened and an updated Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting gazetted to ensure it was clear and enforceable. “Further reform will be undertaken in coming months,” she said.
Mr Blackwood queried when this assault on the legal activity of forest workers was going to stop.
“Is the Premier condoning this action or is Minister D’Ambrosio defying the Premier’s Forestry Plan that guaranteed harvesting volumes would not reduce until mid 2024?” he said.
“The Andrews Government must step in urgently and stop this third-party litigation in its tracks. EPA have this protection, why not the Department of Agriculture. NSW has legislation that stops this type of Green lawfare. Why not Victoria?”
Mr Blackwood said VicForests had already spent millions of dollars defending itself against third party litigation that has never been upheld.
“At the end of the day, it is the Victorian taxpayer who foots the bill. Activist green groups have even defaulted on paying costs awarded against them by the courts and effectively still owe the Victorian taxpayer $1.25 million,” he said.
