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Otways- Regional News - Nov 2003

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Conservationists Condenm Scare Campaign by Woodchip Industry - Otway Ranges Environment Network> OREN> press release Nov10, 2003

CONSERVATIONISTS CONDEMN FIRE SCARE CAMPAIGN BY WOODCHIP INDUSTRY

OREN press release - (Otway Ranges Environment Network)
Monday 10th November 2003

> Today members of the Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN) have
condemned
> the native forest woodchip industry for using the bushfire issue to try
and
> scare the community into believing there should be no national parks in
the
> Otways.
>
> OREN is concerned that the fire situation in the Otways is being wrongly
> comparable with what happened in Canberra and the North East where
> bushfires burnt earlier this year. Reports into fires that occurred in
> these places are being used by woodchipping interests to misrepresent the
> Otways situation.
>
> "OREN believes the attempts by the pro-clearfell logging and woodchipping
> interest groups to use the bushfire issue to scare the community will
> fail." Said spokesperson for the Otway Ranges Environment Network, Simon
> Birrell today.
>
> "The Forests of the North East and Canberra are dryer forests in low
> rainfall areas. The Otways has wet forests with the highest rainfall in
> Victoria which makes the tall mountain forests of the Otways naturally
fire
> resistant. Research shows that before European settlement wet forests, had
> a fire frequency of once every 300 to 500 years. Where Cool Temperate
> Rainforest grows in the Otways, it is so wet that it has not burnt for
> thousands or millions of years."
>
> "Ironically the dry foothill forests and heathlands in the Otways which
are
> fire prone, are already in State Parks, such as the Carlisle State Park
and
> Angahook Lorne State Park. The woodchipping industry was happy for these
> areas to be put into parks because they contain no commercially valuable
> timber to log. People have lived alongside these parks for decades now and
> the fire issue was not raised by the woodchipping industry until now."
>
> "It is only now that an expanded Otway National Park will protect more
wet,
> high rainfall, mountain forests from woodchipping that the loggers are
> falsely trying to compare apples with pears."
>
> "In fact logging practices are increasing the risk of bushfires in the
> Otways. Scientific research has shown clearfell logging is making the wet
> forests of the Otways drier and more fire prone. Logging destroys all the
> tree ferns and understorey species that help create a cool micro-climate
> that helps retain moisture and lower fire risk. The vegetation that grows
> back after woodchipping the forests is drier and more fire prone. Tree
> ferns and other moisture-holding species do not come back after clearfell
> logging for decades, if ever."
>
> For more information contact Simon Birrell 0429 149 472 or 03 5221 0314

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