May 13th, 2022Your Say – Letters

Let’s talk about the real fire risk in the Wombat State Forest. More than 13,000 hectares of the Wombat State Forest is regrowth from the overlogging of the forest up to 2006.

A team of Australian researchers including Professor David Lindenmayer and Dr Chris Taylor from the Australian National University completed a study that showed that logging amplified the severity of the Black Summer fires. This regrowth in the Wombat increases the risk of uncontrolled fires.
DELWP has had over 20 years to address this problem but has probably been constrained by a lack of funding. Instead we are seeing a grab for timber by VicForests that is being publicised as reducing fire risk for communities.
The large logs that are being removed from the forest are future habitat for fungi, insects and small mammals and reptiles. The environmental destruction by VicForests and their large machinery needs to stop now and the promised Wombat-Lerderderg National Park legislated.

• Gayle Osborne, Convenor, Wombat Forestcare