DEC proposes an increase in karri logging

Submitted by WAFA on June 14, 2011 - 22:52

The public comment period for this ended on the 5th August. We had a very strong response with over 1500 passionate submissions made rejecting the proposed increase and calling for the full and immediate protection of our native forests. New developments are unfolding and we'll keep you posted.

 

 

Summary of reasons why the Forest Management Plan 2004-2013

should not be amended as proposed

 

The proposed amendment to the Forest Management Plan 2004-2013 (FMP) to increase the allowable cut of karri other bole volume (KOBV) from 117,000 m3 to 170,000 m3a year should be rejected for the following reasons:

1.       The FMP says at page 33, “The provision of volumes of other bole volume beyond the upper limits in Table 4 would necessitate a review of the plan.”   This requirement has been ignored.

2.       The Forest Products Commission should not be rewarded for deliberately breaching the FMP for six years (the annual average of KOBV 2004-2009 was 145,411 m3instead of 117,000 m3).

3.       The Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) should not be allowed to dictate any proposed amendment to the FMP as it is seeking to do.

4.       DEC’s reasons for the excess of KOBV are invalid:

i.            DEC should have known what proportion of marri there is in karri regrowth, most of which has been hand planted, and it should have correctly estimated the sustained yield of KOBV.

ii.           DEC should have known the site quality of karri regrowth and correctly estimated the sustained yield of KOBV.

iii.         DEC should have known that it would have to clearfell more two-tiered forest to produce the allowable cut of 1st and 2nd grade karri sawlogs because it had over-estimated the amount of 1st and 2nd grade sawlogs in karri regrowth and that this would generate additional KOBV.

iv.         The increase in the minimum size of sawlogs accepted from first thinnings in regrowth stands has made little difference to the amount of KOBV. According to DEC, in 2007 the additional KOBV from this source amounted to only 6.7 per cent of the total.

v.          The amount of crown wood in KOBV is too small to affect the total amount of KOBV.  DEC says that in 2007 it likely comprised less than 3 per cent of the total.

vi.         The amount of regrowth marri in KOBV is too small to affect the total amount of KOBV.  Over the six years 2004-5 – 2009-10, marri comprised only 2.5 per cent of the total.

vii.       There is no evidence that the data and modelling used by DEC to estimate the sustained yield of KOBV are any better now than those it used in the preparation of the FMP, which on this issue is out by 45 per cent.

 

5.       Thinning karri regrowth as proposed will not increase the growth of timber that can be used to produce sawlogs because most regrowth karri trees are infected with fungal pathogens (e.g., ,Armillaria luteobubalina) and most regrowth logs are degraded by rot and incipient rot and cannot be used as sawlogs.  Thinning exacerbates the problem so the best option for disease management is not to ‘thin’ infested stands.

 

6.       It is biased and wrong on the part of DEC to propose an increase in karri logging while failing to propose a reduction or cessation of logging in the jarrah forest in the low and intermediate rainfall zones, which the Conservation Commission and the EPA have found to be unsustainable.

 

7.       The FMP has less than two and a half years to run and an amendment to increase the allowable cut of KOBV in isolation from all other aspects of the FMP at this late stage has the potential to pre-empt the preparation of the next FMP and is not acceptable. Instead, our native forests should be protected in secure reserves.