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A Supreme Court decision has threatened the immediate future of the native timber industry in Victoria, according to logging proponents.
Key points:
- The Supreme Court has ordered greater protection for endangered gliders in Victoria
- Some say the decision has made native timber forestry unviable
- VicForests says it will provide compensation to mills and contractors impacted by the decision
The court ordered stricter rules for VicForests operations, after it found the government-owned agency broke the law by failing to adequately protect the yellow-bellied glider and the endangered greater glider in Victoria.
The case was brought by two volunteer-run environmental groups: Kinglake Friends of Forest and Environment East Gippsland.
In orders handed down on Friday, Justice Melinda Richards ordered VicForests to undertake more rigorous surveying for gliders in logging coupes, create wider protected areas where gliders were located, and maintain at least 60 per cent of basal area eucalypts in harvested areas where gilders were identified.
Kinglake Friends of Forest president Sue McKinnon said the orders "give the greater gliders some hope".
"It's in terrible trouble. Its population has crashed by 80 per cent over 20 years and it's gone from common to vulnerable to endangered in six years," she said.
'Major impact' for timber towns
Forest and Wood Communities Australia managing director Justin Law said the new regulations were "incredibly restrictive and incredibly difficult" for the logging industry.
He said it put more pressure on the state government to bring forward its 2030 deadline to end native forest logging in Victoria, a date Mr Law wanted to see abolished.
"This [decision] has created a lot of uncertainty for people in Gippsland," he said.
"There are 1,100 direct jobs that rely on the timber industry [in Gippsland], so it's going to have major impacts."
Harvest contractors were reportedly moving machinery out of the bush in East Gippsland on Thursday in anticipation of the court's decision.
VicForests was also recently ordered by the court to survey and protect a threatened plant species — the tree geebung.
Former harvesting contractor Michael McKinnell said these decisions further restricted suitable areas for VicForests to harvest.
"They just don't have the volumes of commercially viable timber that they once did — those have been exhausted," he said.
"What is left has a high density of Leadbeater's possums, tree geebung, or the greater glider, and the courts have constrained them to the point where they can't continue.
"When you have a scarce resource, on top of that you put additional constraints, the effect can be catastrophic. That's where we are today."
Compensation on offer
Barrister Jonathan Korman, who represented the environmental groups in court, said there was room for logging to continue under the new restrictions.
"Contrary to what VicForests had claimed at trial … her Honour found there were many contractors available to conduct these surveys, and that the cost is minor in relation to the income from the logging," he said.
A VicForests spokesperson said they were analysing the impact of the court decisions.
"In the meantime, VicForests will continue to pay stand-down payments to contractors who are impacted by these court actions," they said.
"VicForests is also providing access to compensation for all mills who are not receiving contracted levels of supply."