About 220,000 hectares of previously logged West Australian forest could still be subject to tree removal “for environmental health” beyond a 2024 native timber logging ban. Source: West Australian
The figure, identified in an independent report compiled for the state government, is about 11% of the forests available for harvest in the government’s current forest management plan, which ends when the ban begins.
The McGowan government decided in September to lock up almost two million hectares of state-managed forest in the South West from logging from 2024, and transition from the forest management plan’s traditional framework, centred around commercial timber harvesting, to one which focuses on forest health.
Close to one million hectares of the state-controlled land, including national parks and old-growth forests home to most of the tallest remaining trees, were already a no-go for logging.
The recently released report on the scientific and practical aspects of managing forests and woodlands that will underpin the next 10-year forest management plan says “ecological thinning” should be focused on 220,000 hectares of previously logged forest.
Thinning is a process where areas of thick regrowth are thinned out to reduce competition for resources like water.
The report says jarrah areas should be prioritised with most of the regrowth stands young, highly stocked and using up a lot of water.
“Regional reductions in rainfall and global increases in temperatures mean that the amount of water available to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in south-west WA is likely to decline over the next century,” it said.
“As water availability declines, tree vigour will decline and the potential for increased mortality rates within stands and forested landscapes will increase and riparian areas will continue to dry.
“A drying climate and changed forest water balance may also increase the severity of bushfires within these landscapes.”
About 24,540 hectares of replanted land, previously mined by companies such as Alcoa and South32 for bauxite, could still be used for timber given they were not natural forests, the report said.
Bauxite mining is allowed under decades-old state agreements and proposed expansions of the sector are currently facing assessment by the Environmental Protection Authority.
The report does not recommend the thinning of wandoo trees and suggests karri forest would not have to be thinned as much as jarrah.
But WA’s remaining native timber businesses – which employ about 500 people – are concerned thinning will not provide enough material for firewood, furniture and charcoal for things like silicon production, a material needed in solar panels, despite government assurances to the contrary.
Forest protection groups are also concerned that too much land is being made available for thinning.
The forestry industry has felt blindsided by the native timber ban and has been critical of the government’s communication and transition plans for businesses and workers.
About 50 jobs have already gone from the industry when one of the state’s largest mills in Greenbushes, owned by Queensland company Parkside, closed earlier this month.
West Aussies’ love of timber will see it sourced from Indonesian rainforests, industry warns
Forest Industries Federation WA acting chief executive Adele Farina, a former Labor MP, said the organisation was frustrated and disappointed because it did not believe much clarity had come from the silviculture report for the industry to get an idea of what commercial practices could still take place.
“We’re a little bit concerned about suggestions in the expert panel’s report that the ecological thinning under the next forest management plan will be taken as trials or experimental programs,” she said.
“We need clear instructions on the ecological thinning activities that need to be developed and implemented and they need to be developed at a sufficient scale and efficiency to meet stated objectives.
“Businesses need some surety as to access to supply before they make a decision to continue in the industry.
“If the government wants thinning for forest health they need to provide those businesses that will undertake those activities with some confidence in terms of there being sufficient activity to keep the business viable.”
Concerns have already been raised by FIFWA and Forestry Australia around the government meeting its current timber and firewood contracts.
Forestry Australia WA branch committee member John Clarke said a firewood shortage would be biting in the next few weeks with big providers running low.
“As far as the next forest management plan is concerned, unless ‘ecological thinning’ is embraced and pushed on a landscape scale, backed by commercial utilisation of the felled trees, we might as well turn the whole of our South West native forests into a national park,” he said.
“And each and every one of us would then need to accept that all our hardwood timber requirements would have to be imported.”
Clarke says forestry is sustainable and it was unfair and selfish for WA to kill off its native timber industry.
He pointed to a declaration from this year’s world forestry congress, run by the United Nations, which highlighted the potential of sustainably produced wood as a renewable, recyclable and versatile material for the future.
The silviculture report noted there could be difficulties in applying a new thinning system for the timber industry.
It said the thinning of young stands dominated by small trees would require different machinery than what was available.
“Forest contractors may have little appetite for investing in retooling if there are not long-term guarantees of harvest volume,” the report said.
“The costs of ecological thinning will need to be considered. If thinning is conducted on a non-commercial basis, it will need to be funded by government.”
The current management plan also called for 100,000 hectares of previously logged land to be thinned but the target was not reached.
Curtin University forest ecology and environmental management adjunct associate Professor Grant Wardell-Johnson said the state’s jarrah forests had been over-logged for more than 100 years.
The academic has studied biodiversity and climate change in the state’s forests for decades and said logs and debris that might be picked up for firewood should also be left alone.
“Much of the biodiversity depends on the logs and debris that lies on the forest floor and the carbon that makes up that firewood,” Wardell-Johnson said.
“We should not be allowing firewood to be taken from the native forest.
“But given we have committed the forest to mining … we should be using the rehabilitated mine areas as our source of the various industries they wish to establish based on the forest.”
Wardell-Johnson said the jarrah forests were one of the most biodiverse areas in the South West with more than 3000 species of plants.
WA Forest Alliance convener Jess Beckerling said the group was happy thinning had been ruled out for national parks but concerned logging could still occur under the guise of ecological thinning.
She said the area being considered for thinning was also too extensive.
“The report is looking broadly at thinning potentially being applicable across about 220,000 hectares of forest that has been intensively logged in the past,” Beckerling said.
“This is a massive area right across the forest regions, and the way that the jarrah forests in particular are being considered is far too broad-brush and simplistic.
“We acknowledge that the panel recommends further work be done to prioritise certain areas. This needs to be established with a transparent and robust process that builds trust with the community and brings in the views of independent forest ecology experts.”
Beckerling said if long-term supply guarantees were established as part of the thinning program there could be an inherent conflict.
“If this program has any chance of being ecological and adaptive, it cannot shackle itself to supply guarantees,” she said.
“This could still go in one of two ways. If the thinning program is highly targeted and small scale … it could bring tangible benefits to drought-prone unnaturally dense rehabilitation areas.
“If it is conducted extensively across the forests, using heavy machinery and selling the wood to questionable end-uses, it will have serious negative impacts both on the forests themselves, and on the recent progress made towards resolving the decades-long conflict over forests.”
