Local Greens members Express Bushfire concern

The fire hazards created by FCNSW's recent 2023 logging of the native Ourimbah State Forest have been reported by the ABC. Camp Ourimbah and many residents local to Ourimbah State Forest filed fire hazard reports with the RFS late last year. As we all know, logging native forests increases the chance of more frequent and more severe forest fires, yet another reason it should be halted!

Please read on for the article.

Residents and ecologists express bushfire concern over debris left after logging in Ourimbah State Forest

By Jesse Hyland

Thursday 18 Jan 2024 at 4:10 pm

Debris strewn over a state forest on the NSW Central Coast will be removed after months of "hazard complaints" from nearby residents concerned that the large piles of tree trunks and bark present an increased bushfire risk.

Key points:

• Logging operations took place in the Ourimbah State Forest from July to August

• Debris including stumps, logs, bark and fallen trees were left behind

• Forestry Corporation is preparing to clear the debris after complaints from residents

State government-owned Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) logged in the Ourimbah State Forest between July and August last year.

Local residents said piles of tree trunks, logs, bark, branches and fallen trees were left behind over an area of about 121 hectares afterwards, with debris blocking some fire trails.

The debris, which is located close to homes, is in addition to the piles of trunks and logs that were left in the forest after an operation in 2020.

Debbie Chu, who lives next to the forest, said the "numerous" piles of bark scattered throughout the logged section of the bush are "over a metre high" and "stacked one after another".

"I call them fire wicks," she said.

"If you could imagine putting a torch to it, they'll all catch alight, and it will spread into the forest."

Over the course of the operation, Ms Chu said she "noticed the huge disturbance to wildlife", with displaced birds and possums spotted on the road by the local community during the daytime.

Ursula Da Silva, who heads the Camp Ourimbah group that opposes native forest logging in the area, said the debris was "everywhere".

"There's people surrounding the whole area from about a couple of hundred metres onwards," she said.

"They'd be directly affected by it if it does catch alight. If a fire starts up there it's going to be catastrophic."

"It'll absolutely cause a firebomb."

A FCNSW spokesperson defended the operation, saying the organisation followed regulations "closely" and takes its "fire management obligations seriously" and that state forests are managed in line with strict regulations.

"The protection of forests and communities from the risk of fire is a top priority for Forestry Corporation," they said.

Following multiple questions about the debris from the ABC, FCNSW said it was preparing to clear some of the debris "shortly".

"Forestry Corporation is seeking to remove some of the debris left over from recent timber harvesting operations through a commercial operation to collect the fallen timber and sell this as firewood," a spokesperson said.

"Forestry Corporation will continue to work with the RFS to manage fuel loads."

Experts say debris and logging can lead to more severe fires

Ecologist Mark Graham, who visited the Ourimbah State Forest before the most recent logging operation, said the debris was "a threat to human life and property" and could result in "more frequent fires".

"I've seen quite a lot of photo and video evidence of those fuel loads, and they are extreme and they are very dangerous to people's lives and their properties because there are high population densities in the private lands surrounding these public lands."

Mr Graham said most of the logging was conducted "to the west of these higher human density settlements", which is where "hot dry westerly winds come from, where create the most extreme fire conditions".

"These are fairly small blocks of forest along the ranges, and then the homes are ringed around these areas of public land.

"That's what the Forestry Corporation has done to the residents surrounding Olney and Ourimbah, they've created an immense risk to their lives and properties with their industrial logging."

Mr Graham described the dumping of debris as "outrageous", "really dangerous" and "systematic".

But both FCNSW and the RFS have assured those concerned that there was no threat to homes after an assessment of the debris was made.

"Forestry Corporation and the NSW Rural Fire Services have reviewed the issue of fire hazard in the location discussed," a FCNSW spokesperson said.

"The findings were that the land does not present a significant bushfire threat."

The RFS conducted an inspection of the forest after "receiving a number of hazard complaints" from residents and concluded that there "was no increased risk to the properties assessed".

Logging has made the forest more vulnerable

But Mr Graham said that logging had dried out the forest and left it less protected than when it was sheltered by vegetation.

Ms Da Silva echoed this sentiment, saying the most recent operation would result in the wind "drying the forest around" the debris that had been left inside the logged area, creating the perfect conditions for a bushfire.

"We were not burnt in the 2019 bushfires but because they've opened up this area by logging, they've made it so they've changed it, so it's made it susceptible to a bushfire."

Australian National University ecologist Professor David Lindenmayer said logging a forest makes it more dangerous because it can drastically increase the severity of a fire burning through the area.

"We've measured the increase in fire severity, it's seven times higher in a logged forest [for] up to 40 years. Other people measured up to 70 years," he said.

"Logged forest burning under moderate fire conditions will still burn at [a] higher severity than unlogged forests burning under extreme conditions."

Professor Lindenmayer said high severity fires "are the ones that kill forests but also kill people" and "are spread widely across the landscape because of the effects of those dry lightning systems".

A fire sparked by an out-of-control campfire in the Ourimbah State Forest in November burned just over 1 kilometre from the debris left last winter but closer to what was left behind in 2020.