Victoria’s forest collapse 'inevitable', study finds

Victoria's vast mountain ash forest in the central highlands is on the brink of collapse due to logging, fire and government inaction, a new paper argues.

Professor David Lindenmayer and Dr Chloe Sato say
 the forest has lost the ability to sustain itself.

And a future collapse could threaten Melbourne's water supply, the paper claims.

But experts and the government have slammed the paper's claims as sensationalist, saying the forest is fine and Melbourne's water supply is not under threat.

This forecast comes from a study published on Tuesday in top international journal PNAS and written by two scientists based at the Australian National University.

Read the story by Liam  Mannix from The Age - “Victoria’s forest collapse 'inevitable', study finds.”