Forests

CLEARFELLING

"I've warned you ten times - if you don't leave now you'll be arrested," says this DNRE officer.

The scene is Goolengook. The occasion was a visit to the logging operation in which we had hoped to film the felling of old-growth trees and to survey the un-logged forest. This was typical of the DNRE's attitude. As an organisation they are responsible for managing the logging operations. Their decisions are economically - rather than ecologically based.
The process of clearfelling involves first bulldozing the forest floor, which destroys all shrubs, Tree-Ferns and other understory species. This allows the easy removal of logs, which are "snigged" to the back of the bulldozer and dragged to a "log landing", wher they will be loaded onto a truck. Logging begins at the bottom of a slope, as trees are felled so that they fall downhill into the clearing. Virtually all the trees are felled. Some are left to provide seed-stock or habitat, but the open exposure to wind sometimes causes them to snap in half. Solitary trees left standing in a clearing do not provide habitat for species accustomed to a complete forests ecosystem.
From each felled tree, only the solid, straight sections of the trunk are taken. The rest is left on the forest floor and bulldozed into a windrow. The biggest, oldest trees in the forest are hollow, and are simply felled and left lying on the ground. Of the logs taken away to the mills, many are marked with an "R" which denotes them a residual log to be woodchipped. When the logs are milled, the curved sides of each log and any section with knots or splits is cut off and also woodchipped. In volume, 80% of the timber carted out of the forest ends up as woodchips.
When a timber mill produces sawlogs, it must kiln dry them and rack them, then wait for a customer to place anorder and buy the timber before they get paid. When the mill produces woodchips, they can immediately truck it to pulp mill and be paid. Woodchips from East Gippsland are taken to either: - the Daishowa mill in Eden where they are exported to Japan to create paper and packaging - the Midways mill in Geelong wher they are also exported - the Amcor mill in the Central Highlands where they produce Reflex photocopy paper. In Victoria, there is only a very small hardwood market. Most of East Gippsland's timber becomes furniture such as hardwood beds. Monier have a mill in Orbost which uses timber in their houses. There is however, a huge demand for paper and packaging. In recognition of this, the DNRE view the forests they are managing as a "timber resource" to be sold to any bidder. They hope to increase the volume of woodchips taken out of the forest and call the compressing of woodchips into particle board "value adding".
The justification for clearfelling is that it allows full sunlight to reach the ground, and therefore provide optimum growing conditions for the young regrowth. It also means that the subsequent crop is even aged - all the same age and size. After the forest is clearfelled, it is burnt. This is done to propogate the eucalypt seeds and is successful for some species, particularly SIlvertop Ash, which is very fire resistant. Other species, especially any rainforest species, are often completely wiped out by the blaze which roasts their fire sensitive seeds.
Before logging, an old-growth forest is a complete ecosystem, with a comples interaction of species. In the forest shown above, there were Giant East Gippsland Earthworms in the soil, Potoroos foraging on the ground, a rich variety of small birds in the understory, gliders, possums and owls lived in and above the tree-tops. There were also species such as the Spot-tail Quoll occasionally prowling through the area. The creeks and rivers also provided habitat for frogs, crayfish and several types of fish. An old-growth forest is also a carbon store. Much of this carbon is released to the atmosphere when the coupe is burnt, contributing to the greenhouse effect. The DNRE claim that a young regrowth forest absorbs carbon and helps the greenhouse effect - but not until that forest is grown to old-growth size will the amount of carbon absorbed equal that which was realeased in the fire.
After logging, rain washes the topsoil into the streams, taking withit the bacteria that normally is active in breaking down the mulch. This makes the water undrinkable to humans and also kills some of the aquatic life. Crayfish rarely survive in this water. The lack of habitat prevents the possums, gliders, owls, Potoroo or Quoll from living in the area. Wallabies thrive on the emerging saplings, so the DNRE lay 1080 poison baits to kill them.
Regrowth forest in Goolengook contains almost exclusively Silvertop Ash. The silence is noticable. Lack of diversity of flora species also means lack of diverstiy of fauna, as there is not the diversity of food sources or habitat. Clearfelling kills forests.