BRIDGETOWN-Greenbushes Friends of the Forest (BGFF) are intensifying their campaign to preserve Warrup Forest.
BGFF president Richard Wittenoom said Warrup was one of the major “icon blocks” identified by the WA Forest Alliance (WAFA), from intensive logging by the government.
The group is running an advertising campaign in metropolitan areas and has a petition in progress.
"There has been over-cutting during six of the past seven years throughout parts of the South West,” WAFA spokeswoman Jess Beckerling said.
“While these logs are of low value to industry, they are of very high value as a part of the forest ecosystem.
“They are worth far more as carbon stores and refuges for threatened animal and plant species than they are as a dwindling timber resource.”
BGFF president Richard Wittenoom said the public, who owned the forests, needed to be alerted to what is being done to their forests in the name of propping up a non-viable industry.
“Their taxes have paid for the huge losses incurred by the Forest Products Commission (FPC) during the term of the current Forest Management Plan, which have been camouflaged by revaluing the forests from zero to more than $100 million over the same period," he said.
“This ignores completely the fact that the value of the forests has been seriously diminished by over-cutting to the extent that it is increasingly difficult to get logs of the size required by the mills, so FPC is now hell bent on logging the last few high conservation value forests such as Coonan, Meribup and Warrup before the end of the current Forest Management Plan and the next state election.”
Mr Wittenoom said the BGFF and the WAFA believed in starting to log Warrup in the face of recently revealed climate change threats to the Tone Perup Nature Reserve and the Greater Kingston National Park to the east, FPC would destroy the ability of Warrup to act as the strategic wildlife corridor for threatened species migrating westwards.
“This clearly contravenes the precautionary principle, which is a requirement of the Conservation and Land Management Act as a key part of ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM),” he said.
Manjimup-based FPC spokesperson and forestry scientist Peter Beatty said the FPC had regulatory approval to log Warrup.
However, it was awaiting a final response from state government in lieu of a petition to prevent the logging, which was before a government standing committee.
"We can't proceed until we know what the (Upper House) standing committee's feedback is," Mr Beatty said.
FPC's director of technical services Gavin Butcher said the FPC was aware of the BGFF campaign on Warrup.
"It is not appropriate for FPC to comment on the media strategies of interest groups," Mr Butcher said.
Mr Butcher said the petition was lodged with the Legislative Council.
“The petitioners were concerned about logging in the Warrup forest block, the heritage values of the forest, vulnerability of threatened species and their habitat and the impact of climate change,” he said.
“The committee concluded that, based on advice provided by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and the Conservation Commission the species change in status was not due to forest management practices."
Mr Butcher said photographs used by the BGFF were not relevant, as the harvesting techniques used in those would not be used in the Warrup block.
"FPC has strict regulations governing its harvesting procedures," Mr Butcher said.
In terms of BGFF's citation of the Greater Kingston rainfall drop Mr Butcher said it was important to indicate DEC's report (2010), which examined the vulnerability of the forest to climate change, did not identify the Warrup coupes as likely to drop below 600mm.
“The BGFF statement indicates there is a grave risk to the conservation values of the nature reserves of the Greater Kingston, even though they will not be subject to harvesting,” he said.
“In nature reserves no specific action is being undertaken to mitigate the climate change risk.
“It is considered by some that management of the forest can reduce the impact of climate change.
“Reduction of the forest density by thinning on state forest will provide an alternative strategy to that of just allowing nature to take its course, as will occur on the 65 per cent of forests in reserves."
Mr Butcher refuted BGFF claims any further logging in Warrup would breach FPC and DEC regulatory guidelines in terms of the 'precautionary principle' within the Conservation and Land Management Act.
"FPC complies with the forest practices and environmental standards prescribed through the Forest Management Plan and is in fact audited by the DEC and the Conservation Commission," he said.
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