Peter Attiwell, professor and principal fellow in Botany at the University of Melbourne is lead author of the report Timber harvesting does not increase fire risk and severity in wet eucalypt forests of southern Australia. Source: ABC News
He said little research had been done in this area and the one paper published on the subject by the Department of Sustainability and Environment in 2002 was flawed.
“That study was confounded by the fact that it wasn’t just time since logging that was a variable, it was the position of the forests so that the older forests were in drier areas whereas the younger forests were in wetter areas.
“Really it’s a myth that’s been perpetrated that logging somehow makes vegetation more fire prone,” he said.
Some of the areas that weren’t burn in the 2002, 2003 and 2009 bushfires were forests that had regenerated after timber harvesting. He said that logging and subsequent burning of debris, mimics the effect on the environment of a naturally occurring bushfire.
As part of the study researchers measured the intensity of wildfire via aerial surveys and ground truthing. The intensity was measured by the amount of damage to the ground.
Researchers hope the study will better inform fire management in Victoria.
“We’re managers of the forests, we can’t simply leave forests to their own devices. We should be concentrating more on fuel reduction burning to protect these forests not on worrying about logging,” Attiwel said.
Environmental groups disagree with the findings of the research.
Jill Redwood, from the lobby group Environment East Gippsland said there was a conflict of interest in the study because three of its authors are from logging agencies.
“It’s a real mickey mouse report. I’ve read this, I’ve got contacts who are other scientists who have read it and they think it’s a bit of a joke,” she said.
Redwood claims there is no statistical evidence used in the study and it is based on anecdotal evidence.
“[The study’s authors] know that there has been a lot of research that’s done on this. There is more credible science on the side that says that logging does create more flammable forests,” she said.
