Industrialised Logging: Cause of Bushfire Danger

Bushfire danger is increasing as a consequence of climate change predicted by scientists.1 Heavy logging and burning of forests increases rather than decreases flammability. Forests permitted to exist in their natural state (with dense shading canopies and intact boundaries) lose less moisture from drying wind and direct sun. An unlogged forest can remain cooler and damper - for longer. It has been demonstrated that it can slow, and even halt a fire. 2

Native forests left to recover, close canopies, create shade, cool all below

The effect of logging and/or burning natural areas as a fire preventative measure has long been debated. Scientific study of the relationship between industrialized logging and fire has now taken place and it is imperative that the findings are acted upon.3 Supported by scientific studies of comparable forest situations in other continents, this research provides conclusive evidence that industrialised logging of moist native forests alters natural fire regimes.

It does so by increasing susceptibility to ignition4, fire severity5, changing fuel load and condition6 and increasing fire frequency. These factors compound and escalate so that fire burns hotter and faster through stands of regrowth forests that have been heavily logged than in unlogged moist forests or in ones that have been allowed to recover to maturity.

Here is the typical disaster scenario of the heavily logged forest. For the first five or so years the logged area is (naturally), statistically unlikely to suffer severe fires. After seven years the hazard begins to increase. Most of those initial regrowth seedlings have succumbed to competition from their more vigorous neighbours and their dead, skinny, dry stems add a fine fuel to the ground. The mature canopy has been lost in the logging operation and the forest and the dead regrowth fuel has dried out in the sun. 15 years after the heavy logging event this regrowth forest reaches the peak of its flammability, illustrated by the following diagram of the likelihood of a crown (canopy) fire based on forest stand age.

If a moist forest is never logged, or is allowed to regrow to maturity (forty to several hundreds of years), the fire hazard is vastly reduced. Here is what happens.

The recovering process involves a return of original understorey species such as rainforest plants and tree-ferns which shade the ground, keeping it cool and moist. Then mosses grow and cover any fallen woody debris. These mosses can hold ten times their own weight in water. The dense understorey and ground cover reduces air movement and water loss through evaporation, contributing to general dampness. These moist conditions at ground level are unfavourable to fire and by the time the trees are approaching forty years old, and 50 metres tall, the risk of crown-fire is once again reduced.

So, if moist native forest is heavily logged the loss of a mature protective canopy exposes it to drying out by wind and sun. The moisture holding understorey is lost. Species able to withstand frequent fire become dominant. The forests become a tinderbox ready to burn.

To reiterate: The study of impacts of logging in moist Australian forests conducted over a number of years has now yielded these conclusive results:

‘Logging can alter key attributes of forests by changing microclimates, stand structure and species composition, fuel characteristics, the prevalence of ignition points, and patterns of landscape cover. These changes may make some kinds of forests more prone to increased probability of ignition and increased fire severity. Such forests include tropical rainforests where fire was previously extremely rare or absent and other moist forests where natural fire regimes tend toward low frequency, stand replacing events’.7

Note that: ‘Climate change is likely to drive substantial changes in fire regimes (Cary 2002; Westerling et al. 2006; Flannigan et al. 2008; Pittock 2009). If industrial logging changes fire proneness, then interactions between logging and climate change could lead to cumulative negative impacts, including those on biodiversity.’

Fires spread rapidly through regrowth of logged forests

Currently our native forests are being treated as ‘factories’

Claims that logging, ‘thinning’ and burning forests will lessen fire risk are dangerously misleading. To adopt the recommendation that logging native forests will lessen fire risk would enhance the fire risk to many Australians and their homes.

‘Industrialized’ forests are proven to burn on a scale and with a ferocity not previously seen. It is time to halt this practice. Allow native forests to regrow to maturity to lessen fire risk.

The Forestry Corporation's contribution to International Day of Forests has been to write to NEFA auditor Dailan Pugh threatening him with a $2,200 fine if he returns to meet with the EPA or audit Gibberagee State Forest.

When attending Gibberagee State Forest on 10th of March, at the invitation of the Environment Protection Authority to show them breaches he had identified a month earlier, Mr. Pugh was ordered to leave by the Forestry Corporation.

"The Forestry Corporation threw me out of the forest without allowing me to show the EPA any of the breaches they had asked me there to show them", NEFA auditor Dailan Pugh said.

Mr. Pugh said the Forestry Corporation have since written to him saying the forest was closed when he initially identified the breaches, and threatening that if he returned "Entering this area without proper authorisation is not permitted and if detected, Forestry Corporation may issue a Penalty Infringement Notice or pursue prosecution".

"Now the Forestry Corporation are threatening to fine me $2,200 if I return to Gibberagee to meet the EPA or do anymore auditing. They must have a lot to hide.

"It is no coincidence that currently the only two native forestry operations in NSW subject to closures for logging are the two closest to me at Gibberagee and Bungawalbin.

Dailan Pugh in the forest at Gibberagee 

“Stand up for koalas or they won't survive in the wild” is the warning call from the North East Forest Alliance.

“The NSW Government is carrying out a koala extermination program. It really can't be seen as anything else. It is gutting protections for koalas in all the relevant legislation” said Dailan Pugh, NEFA spokesperson.

Outcomes of a recent study by the Environmental Protection Authority prove that Koalas have a significant preference for larger trees and more mature forest, with Koala populations found to be collapsing in recently logged areas.

“The Government now has the evidence that logging is bad for Koalas and needs to take immediate action to identify and protect the remaining Koala colonies that are in public forests threatened by logging. Every day that the Forestry Corporation is allowed to go on logging Koala's preferred feed trees brings them closer to extinction. It has to stop now. We call on Premier Mike Baird to urgently intervene to save NSW's Koalas", said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

Conservationists meeting over the weekend at Bellingen agreed to support calls by Australian Solar Timbers boss Douglas Head, for an inquiry into Wood Supply Agreements for public lands in North East NSW.

The North East Forest Alliance and the North Coast Environment Council have serious concerns that the people of NSW have been misled on the wood contract issue.

"When the then Minister Katrina Hodgkinson announced the decision by the NSW Government in 2014 to buyback 50,000 cubic metres of sawlogs a year from Boral Timber for $8.55 million she said 'we have focused on reducing demand rather than trying to increase supply'", NCEC Vice-President Susie Russell said.

"Nowhere in the media announcements was the information that while the contracts had been reduced between 2015 to 2023, they had also been extended for a further 5 years, to 2028.

Ending logging of our public forests is part of the solution

With the climate emergency rapidly escalating, north coast conservation groups are calling on the NSW and Commonwealth Governments to immediately end the logging of public forests to allow them to maximise their carbon sequestration and storage.

It took a freedom of information request, by the North Coast Environment Council, but the Environment Protection Authority have finally released the membership of the Threatened Species Expert Panel advising on the re-writing of the logging rules for public forests.

The documents show that far from being independent experts they are Government employees, dominated by current and former employees of Forestry Corp.

There is a new threat to our public native forests: an extreme clear fell logging proposal.

Conservation groups have thanked NSW Minister for the Environment, Mark Speakman, for making the time to accompany them on a brief tour of north-east NSW's forests, for listening, and for showing interest in their concerns about our ailing public native forests.

On Saturday representatives of the North Coast Environment Council and the North East Forest Alliance took the Environment Minister on a tour of forests at Royal Camp and up the Richmond Range, west of Casino.

“The failure of today's deal by the Liberal-National Coalition and the ALP on a Renewable Energy Target to exclude native forests from being fed into power stations is a major blow for both the genuine renewable energy industry and the future health of our region's forests” said NCEC spokesperson Susie Russell.