Wood or Water Wellington Shire? Greens

The Wellington Shire’s recent majority decision to support the continued logging of Melbourne’s water catchment in the Central Highlands shows a lack of understanding of the connection between logging and water.

Jill Redwood, long time forest campaigner and now Greens candidate for the seat of Gippsland East said she was astounded at the lack of thought by councillors on such an important issue.

“If the logging continues, it will dry out entire catchments of up to 50% of their normal stream flow for at least the next 80 years. This phenomena is acknowledged by Melbourne Water and many scientists. It will make the water shortage even more critical for not only Melbourne but many Gippsland towns as well. Our local town’s water supplies come from the very forests which Wellington councillors want to see clearfelled.

“Would Wellington Shire oppose moves by Melbourne to take water from Gippsland’s storages and rivers?

“Those Councilors seemed to believed that the Gunns‐owned Heyfield Mill was only dependant on more and more access to public forests for its future survival”, said JR. “In fact Gunns has already declared it will be closing down its native forest logging operations on the mainland in the near future.

“The sawn timber market is also on a steep downhill run with over 80% of all building materials now being supplied by plantation wood. This trend is continuing despite large public financial assistance that native forest logging still enjoys. So any amount of council support will be confetti in the wind. “The Greens would be looking to help transition the industry into a conflict‐free plantations future as soon as possible. Those in the industry should be allowed to exit with dignity, be retrained or assisted to move their skills to the substantial plantations in western Victoria. Those companies are screaming out for workers and are in fact importing workers from overseas to fill the jobs.”

Further information: Samantha Dunn 0429 29 29 04 or samantha.dunn@vic.greens.org.au