Alarm raised over Mt Cole logging

Aprominent Victorian conservation group has called for an end to an intensive commercial logging trial at Mt Cole west of Ararat.

Victorian National Parks Association has grave concerns the trial, which started in 2014, is devastating a Mount Cole State Forest area.

Association executive director Matt Ruchel said a field trip to the site revealed an increase in the intensity of logging in the region, with at least five cases of clear-fell logging including two areas of more than 30 hectares.

“Most people think clear-fell logging only happens in East Gippsland or around the Yarra Ranges, and would be surprised to learn that Mt Cole is getting the same treatment,” he said.

Mt Cole is a primary starting point of the Wimmera River system and home to popular tourist walking tracks.

“Mt Cole has long been a popular bushwalking, camping and picnic spot for generations of people and its amenity, ambience and ecology is being wrecked by an industrial logging trial. The logging should stop,” Mr Ruchel said.

“The scale and intensity of logging highlights the importance of fully assessing the need for better protection and management.

“Hopefully that will be addressed by the upcoming Victorian Environmental Assessment Council report.”

Mr Ruchel said Vicforests, the state government’s logging agency, had been undertaking a logging trial since 2014 as part of a ‘community forestry’ program.

He said about 40 percent, or 3600 hectares, of Mt Cole was scheduled for some form of logging and 19 areas had already been, or earmarked for clear-fell logging across about 360 hectares.

“At least five of the 17 clear-fell areas have been logged in the past few years, including two in the past six months. It is assumed that this is part of Vicforests three-year trial,” he said.

“Some of the future areas flagged for clear-fell logging have significant conservation values and need to be retained to ensure the long-term ecological health of the area.”

The association lists Mt Cole as home to more than 130 different types of native birds and its forest providing habitat for nine threatened animal species, 13 threatened types of plant, three endangered vegetation types and two vulnerable vegetation types underrepresented elsewhere in Victoria’s formal reserve system.

“Little of the accessible high-production timber forests at Mount Cole have been protected in national parks or other reserves, and this needs to be urgently considered in the current Central West Investigation being undertaken by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council,” Mr Ruchel said.