Don't let them log the Dandenong Ranges National Park - Victorian National Parks AssociationVictorian National Parks Association

1,478 emails of 250 Goal

SEND YOUR EMAIL

Dear Ministers Plibersek and Dimopoulos,

I write to you with great concerns about Forest Fire Management Victoria's (FFMV) planned disaster logging operations within the Dandenong Ranges National Park – one of Victoria’s oldest and most loved national parks.

In June 2021 the area was hit with severe winds that caused mass damage across the suburbs of the Dandenong Ranges, and approximately 100 hectares of forests within the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

If logging in the proposed areas (when they are at their most vulnerable point of recovery) occurs, it will do more harm than good to our forest and wildlife habitat.

In my view these actions contravene the National Parks Act (1975) and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999).

The Dandenong Ranges National Park is protected under Victoria's National Parks Act. The park is a globally recognised protected area and is assigned the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Category II (National Parks) under the United Nations List of National Parks and Protected Areas.

Based on advice from FFMV representatives, it is understood that machinery will leave existing tracks and remove fallen logs to sell to commercial interests in pulp and saw logs, while piling up remaining biomass and habitat including tree limbs, root balls and branches in piles to burn them in areas within the park.

This is despite a 2018 commitment by then state environment minister that “The Andrews Labor Government has no intention to log in National Parks”. Events like these will likely increase as climate changes and highlights the need to help our parks adapt and become resilient to climate change. This does not include logging them.

This is an unacceptable and dangerous precedent for management of all national parks and endangered species habitat. It does not meet community expectations or current legislative objectives of the lands tenure.

Operating in an ecologically questionable manner based on very dubious science is becoming a disturbing pattern of behaviour from FFMV. This recurring issue was raised in the IGEM report following the 2019-20 bushfires.

As the national park is not within a Regional Forestry Agreement (RFA) area both state and federal environmental laws must be abided by and the exemption for forestry operations does not apply.

As environment ministers for both Commonwealth and state jurisdictions I call on you to carry out the following actions;

State level

- Keep your government's promise to not log national parks, and remove disaster logging operations from the Dandenong Ranges National Park
- Create an independent regulator of fire operations in Victoria to monitor and assess impacts on biodiversity of fire management operations

Commonwealth level

- Investigate FFMV for possible non-compliance with EPBC Act with salvage logging operations within the Dandenong Ranges National Park
- Add a national parks and protected areas trigger within the EPBC Act to protect our national parks from inappropriate operations and development

I look forward to your swift and meaningful action on this issue,

Our parks exist to protect the wildlife, landscapes and culture we love. But Forest Fire Management Victoria and VicForests are tearing up and removing parts of the popular Dandenong Ranges National Park.

They’re “rogue logging” the habitat of threatened native wildlife in forests recovering from storm events. Yellow-bellied and Greater Gliders, Powerful and Sooty Owls all have records in and around the proposed logging areas.

Our pressure has led FFMV to scale back the log removal operation from 110 down to 50 hectares. With your help we can keep protecting the places we love from taxpayer-funded exploitation.

Send your elected leaders a message today. You can include your own words for more impact.

Dandenong Ranges threatened wildlife records overlaid on Forest Fire Management Victoria’s salvage works.

Latest Activity

Gabi less than 1 second ago
Zoya less than 1 second ago
Francis less than 1 second ago