BALINGUP locals have gone to the Forest Products Commission (FPC) to protest the logging of a 585ha forest area bordered by Grimwade and Jackson Roads.
Local Katrin Menard said Jarrah was being clearfelled in the area.
“Jarrah of sometimes only 20cm radius is being harvested like plantation timber, while all the understory, such as small Jarrah trees, Banksias, Snottygobbles, Grass Trees etc are being squashed, and the ground is covered in 70cm high residue – which will be burned,” Ms Menard said.
“The FPC told me that we had decent rainfall and the forest should grow back. Well it won’t in the next 100 years.”
However, FPC’s General Manager Vince Erasmus said the jarrah forests were not clearfelled, but thinned according to silvicultural treatments outlined in the Department of Parks and Wildlife Silviculture Guideline for Jarrah Forest.
“Clearfell is a silvicultural method in which all, or nearly all, trees in a defined area are removed at one time to allow regeneration to establish and develop,” he said.
“Legacy elements are marked for retention, and some non-commercial trees may still remain on site.”
Mr Erasmus said thinning is a felling made to reduce the density of trees within a stand, usually undertaken to improve the growth of trees that remain by reducing competition, without either permanently breaking the canopy or encouraging regeneration.
It may also be undertaken to enhance forest health, water production or achieve another objective.
“To put it simply thinning is the harvesting of some of the trees in an immature patch to encourage regeneration and the growth of the remaining trees, whilst retaining habitat values,” Mr Erasmus said.
He said the FPC estimated this operation would produce about 3,000m3 of first and second grade jarrah sawlogs, which would form an important part of the sustainable supply for regional sawmills. In addition to this a range of residue products would be produced.
Ms Menard said the scars of logging in 1962, when Jarrah trees of more than one metre in diameter were harvested, and logging in 1993, had already left gravel landings with no regrowth.
“I am sad for the habitat lost and oxygen generating forest destroyed,” she said.
“I am scared of the impending fire danger for surrounding areas – the conservation park, the private properties, the surrounding forests, the pine plantations, but most of all Balingup and Grimwade, with its camping tourists.”
Ms Menard said she was angry with the FPC for setting logging quotas which could not be fulfilled with leftover Jarrahs.
“I am disappointed in the attitude expressed by the FPC’s Community Consultation Officer Peter Beatty that if we don’t log it, the next generation will,” she said.
Any comment made was not an expression of disregard for the views of community members,” Mr Beatty said.
“It’s just expressing that the area is available for harvest, and in due course all available areas will be subject to harvesting treatment.”
Uta Hoenig, who lives in a property adjacent to the logging area, said she had approached the FPC to get informed about how things worked.
“We just want to try and go with it and have as much influence as we can,” Ms Hoenig said.
“The area they are logging now looks very devastated, very little wood is coming out of it, but they have destroyed a lot.”
Ms Hoenig said she and other locals had managed to negotiate a buffer zone between the logging and neighbouring properties.
“It doesn’t seem like much but for us it’s better than nothing,” she said.
“We would love for it not to happen at all, but it’s not about being against the people, but against logging in general.”
Ms Hoenig said she had just returned from visiting her country of origin, Germany, where very little natural forest remains.
“After they cut it down they realised it was a mistake,” she said. “For me it’s hard to understand not learning from the mistakes of other countries.”
Mr Erasmus said the native forest timber industry was an important part of the fabric of the South West region.
“Harvesting of forest areas, such as Munro 04, not only generates revenue for Western Australia, but also employs people in the harvesting, processing and manufacturing sectors in regional Western Australia,” he said.
“Prescribed burning to reduce the fuel load and encourage regeneration is usually undertaken following harvesting.”
Mr Erasmus said in the planning of every harvest area the FPC assessed the likelihood of the presence of threatened species.
“Where they are considered likely to be present additional protective measures are undertaken as required by the Department of Parks and Wildlife,” he said.
“After harvesting, forest biodiversity recovers successfully due to regeneration practices and the resilient nature of the forest.”
He said the FPC would continue to engage with interested stakeholders to ensure Western Australia’s forests are managed in accordance with environmentally sound, socially acceptable and economically viable forest practices.
