Loggers return to native forests burnt in summer bushfires

Government logging has resumed in fire-damaged forests in Victoria and New South Wales despite warnings that devastated bushland and endangered wildlife are too fragile to withstand "business as usual".

Salvage logging south of the Alpine National Park
 in the Boulun-Deera State Forest, north of Dargo.

The Victorian government's logging agency, VicForests, has revealed plans to log 3500 hectares of forests burnt during the catastrophic summer fires in the next few years, saying salvage logging will occur in areas where "most of the standing trees have been killed”.

The agency's chief executive officer, Monique Dawson, has also levelled extraordinary criticism at internationally-regarded Australian ecologist Professor David Lindenmayer, saying the agency "does not accept his published opinions".

Conservationists, including Professor Lindenmayer, say salvage logging has a lasting effect on wildlife, which relies on burnt and unburnt forest for refuge. They also say logging forests after bushfires increases future fire risk, damages soil with trucks and equipment and causes run-off to waterways.

Read the story from The Age by Miki Perkins and Mike Foley - “Loggers return to native forests burnt in summer bushfires.”