After the Logging
new report reveals “systemic and widespread” failure to regrow Victoria’s forests after logging
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Woodchips to Weeds
Victorian government agency VicForests is failing to regrow the state’s native forests, with a third of coupes failing to regrow after logging, a new report co-published today by 19 Victorian environment groups* reveals.
The damning new report, based on data obtained under Freedom of Information laws, has exposed for the first time how Victoria’s state logging agency is failing to regrow forests despite its claims to be doing so.
New report After the Logging
The new report After the Logging finds:
- A third of logging coupes are failing to regenerate within three years, double the amount VicForests publicly claims.
- In Mountain Ash forests, half of logging coupes are failing to regenerate within three years.
- Even logging coupes that have passed the test for successful regeneration are failing to grow into forests. Ground checks and drone footage reveal some forests have been turned into weed-infested wastelands of blackberry and bracken, and others into thickets of wattle not eucalypts.
Report author Margaret Blakers OAM said: “This is the first external assessment of whether Victorian forests are actually being regrown as the state logging agency claims, and the results point to systemic and widespread failure.
The Victorian and federal governments promised to regrow all native forests back to the same state after logging, but this new evidence shows that’s simply not the case.
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Co-publishers
Alberton West Friends of the Forest
BEAM Mitchell Environment Group
Environment East Gippsland (EEG)
Environment Victoria
Friends of Bats and Habitat Gippsland
Friends of the Earth – Forest Collective (FOE)
Friends of Leadbeaters Possum (FOLP)
Friends of Noojees Trees Gippsland
Environment Group Goongerah
Environment Centre (GECO)
The Great Tree Project (GTP)
Kinglake Friends of the Forest (KFF)
Lawyers for Forests
Newlands Friends of the Forest
Rubicon Forest Protection Group (RFPG)
Toolangi Forest Protection Group
Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA)
Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH)
Warburton Environment (WE)