Derby logging concerns resurface
• Logging concerns surrounds the Derby trails have resurfaced with coups planned for work over the next 12 months. Image by Blue Derby.
By Taylor Clyne
July 29, 2020
In a developing story, local environmental activists are concerned about planned logging to take place on the northern slopes of the Blue Tier later this year.
In a Facebook post Blue Derby Wild co-ordinator Louise Morris said it was ‘heartbreaking’ to realise that’s where “massive trees on the log trucks rumbling through Derby were coming from”.
“This was one of three areas of old mixed rainforest being clearfelled away from the public eye,” she wrote.
“Seeing magnificent eucalypts in their full winter flush of colour, as they shed their bark to grow and expand, smashed to the ground and left to waste is infuriating.
“This wasting of glacial refugia forest recommended for National Park status is baffling.
“What is also baffling is that all of this is subsidised by taxpayers, and still making a financial loss.”
The works is part of a three-year wood production plan which has been publicly advertised and must adhere to the auspices plan of a forest practices.
Mayor Greg Howard said the upper part of the Derby trails were knowingly built in a production forest managed by Sustainable Timbers Tasmania.
“The construction of the trails involved a collaborative approach between Sustainable Timbers and Council,” he said.
“Trail locations and the shape of some coupes were negotiated so as both enterprises could continue to co-exist.
“The area being harvested are not rainforests, they are areas of wet sclerophyll forest which are dominated by eucalyptus with set parameters of understorey species.
“Buffer zones are agreed to between Sustainable Timbers and Council to ensure both the safety of riders and to minimise any visual impact on the trails.
“Loss of biodiversity claims are an absolute crock, it has been proven on numerous occasions that some of the richest example of biodiversity are contained within coupes that have been previously harvested and regrown,” Mayor Howard concluded.
Louise Morris is now spearheading a citizen science project in a bid to ride and record evidence of flora and fauna, wildlife and mapping out the significant trees to build a strong conservation case against the upcoming logging works.
The Advertiser will be looking into coupes near Derby planned for logging in coming years and the potential impact on the biodiversity of the area.