By John Fraser
Imagine a forest scene of such beauty it could be the cover of a fantasy novel. Picture trees so wide that a group of five people standing with their arms stretched and their hands linked could not form a complete circle around the trunks. Add large clumps of tree ferns six metres or more high. Now complete the picture by adding an understorey of so many varied species of plants that it would take days to name them all even if you had the training.
The scene could be in any number of places in Australia or overseas which are vanishing. One such area is East Gippsland in Victoria.
The same forest that grew when Earth's land surface consisted of one big continent called Gondwana still lives today in parts of East Gippsland, and some of the prehistoric creatures still exist in the remote mountain streams and hidden places.
Unfortunately, many parts of East Gippsland are under threat from the woodchipping industry. Last year 5478 hectares of forest were felled. This year the figure is 8177 hectares. This is the equivalent of around 17 football fields of forest being cleared every day, or the land area of an average-sized Melbourne suburb every six days.
Not only is the ecological cost of this destruction devastating, but the economic and employment benefits that are supposed to justify it have failed to materialise.
In the last few years, 179,000 cubic metres of saw logs have been cut — above the 174,000 cubic metre sustainable limit — while 700,000 cubic metres of woodchips have been taken out. Next year the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment is allowing a further 800,000 cubic metres to be taken, and allowing 96% of the logs to go as woodchips. In spite of this increase, the number of people employed by the industry continues to fall.
Contrary to what we are often told, the native forest logging industry is not sawlog driven. Most East Gippsland timber goes straight to the woodchip mill and straight on to the boat, sustaining very few jobs in Australia. In some East Gippsland coupes, the ratio of chip logs to sawlogs is as high as 50 to one by volume.
Time is running out, and these forests urgently need your help. To help save them contact Friends of the Earth on (03) 9419 8700, or the Wilderness Society on (03) 9670 5229. Forests have only been saved in the past because people who dared to dream of change also dared to work together to make that change happen. The energy of committed people working together can be an unstoppable force. Together, we can save the forests of East Gippsland.