The Victorian native timber industry has been dealt a further blow after the Supreme Court ordered a halt to logging due to the impact of this summer’s bushfires. VicForests has been forced to immediately stop logging in parts of Victoria’s central highlands after the supreme court granted an injunction to a citizen science group pushing for a stop to logging of unburnt areas in the wake of bushfires. Source: Timberbiz
A VicForests spokesman said that: “VicForests are unable to comment on matters currently before the court”.
The environmental group WOTCH – Wildlife of the Central Highlands, successfully argued in court that the devastation of the East Gippsland fires had placed further strain on threatened species in the state, and that areas untouched by fire in the Central Highlands, near Healesville, must not be logged.
WOTCH brought the case because the areas targeted for logging are habitat for the greater glider, the smoky mouse, the sooty owl and the powerful owl.
The Supreme Court granted an interim injunction last week preventing logging in three coupes ahead of a full hearing on 18 February.
Justice Kate McMillan said there was “a real threat of a serious or irreversible damage to threatened species and their habitat should harvesting operations continue in the coupes”.
“The recent bushfires have caused extensive environmental damage, the severity of which is only beginning to be understood,” Justice McMillan said.
She rejected VicForests’ submission that it was a question of government policy, not a justiciable matter for the court.
Premier Daniel Andrews has said the fires destroyed 40% of the area in East Gippsland that had been earmarked for logging.
Mr Andrews said he could not comment on the case because it was still before the court, but said it was too early to understand the full impact of the fires on flora and fauna or the logging industry.
“I don’t think we yet know exactly what the impact is on the current timber release plan or our timber transition plan in terms of whether the volumes we thought would be available will be,” Mr Andrews said.
“There has been impact from these fires, and we will have to assess what that impact is.”
