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 North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) considers the intent of the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) $750,000 project assessing the North Coast private native forest north from Newcastle appears to be to identify private forests for loggers to target for sawlogs as supplies from public lands continue to rapidly decline.

DPI surveys of both millers and logging contractors attest to the degraded nature of north-east NSWs public and private forests due to over-logging, with supplies of high quality sawlogs rapidly declining across the forest estate, according to Dailan Pugh, spokesperson for NEFA.

"Regrettably 80% of private landowners are reported as having little understanding or interest in the logging rules, with 67% of contractors believing most landowners are only interested in maximising short term income.

"The Government needs to do more than just help loggers identify and flog the best stands remaining, they have a responsibility to identify and protect oldgrowth forests, the habitat of threatened species, endangered ecological communities and other special values. These too need to be mapped.

"This time the NSW Government is targeting the best Koala habitat left on private land for intensified logging, with the promised Koala strategy nowhere to be seen.

"There is nothing sustainable about forestry as currently practiced, and the Government's current proposals to increase logging intensity while slashing the few protections for threatened species and stream buffers on both public and private lands will just increase its unsustainability.

"For those landholders who want to do the right thing the Government should be providing incentive payments for management of forests to protect threatened species, improve stream quality, enhance rainfall, and store ever increasing volumes of atmospheric carbon as they age. This is to the benefit of all of us.

"For those landholders that don't care the Government needs to ensure that the logging rules for private lands are improved to limit the ongoing degradation, introduce meaningful protection for threatened species and improve protection for streams." Mr. Pugh said.

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) is calling on the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Fisheries to require the Forestry Corporation to comply with its Fisheries Licence and immediately stop illegal logging of headwater stream buffers in habitat of the Endangered Purple Spotted Gudgeon and to prosecute Forestry for the hundreds of steam buffers unlawfully logged over the past year.

NEFA is holding a march in Coffs Harbour at 10 am today (Wednesday) from the Forestry Corporation office to the Fisheries office to demand that both Government bodies comply with their obligations to protect the Endangered Purple Spotted Gudgeon in accordance with the terms of the Fisheries Licence issued under section 220ZW of the Fisheries Management Act, 1994.

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.

SOS: Virtual Protection for Virtual Koalas Won't Save a Species

"It beggars belief that money is being spent on models for koalas that ignores whether an area has been logged or not, and the age of the trees in the area concerned. Virtual habitat might be good for virtual koalas, but we want to see actual koalas protected"

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.

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

ROW OVER MASSIVE CLEAR-FELL ‘TRIALS’ CONTINUES
 
Assurances by NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) that ‘all is well’ in the region’s native forests have been rejected, as “not believable, nor based on reality”, North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) spokesperson Mr John Corkill, said today.     The comments are the latest in a major public dispute over the EPA’s support for proposed logging “trials” at massively increased levels of intensity.

HARM TO ENVIRONMENT FROM LOGGING ESCALATES UNDER E.P.A.
 
A vote of ‘no confidence’ in the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has been carried by the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) following revelations that the EPA propose to approve widespread clear-felling of public forests in north-east NSW, reduce protection of headwater streams, and remove the need to protect habitat for many Threatened species, including the Koala.

Attempts by Ballina Council to protect koala habitat and other high conservation value vegetation have been blocked by the NSW Government.

The North Coast Environment Council and North East Forest Alliance support Ballina Shire Council’s attempts to provide needed regulation of logging on private land.