On: Intercepting water

The Wilderness Society:

WATER INTERCEPTION AN INCREASING PROBLEM

Launceston public meeting to expose water and forest mismanagement

Public meetings

Wed 8th March, 12:30 -1:30, Pilgrim Hall, Paterson St, Launceston

Wed 15th March, 7pm – 8pm, Doherty St Helens Resort, 1 Quail St, St Helens

Recent exposure (Sunday Examiner 19th Feb, 26th Feb and March 5th, Tasmanian Country March 3rd) of the problems of water interception by plantations highlights concerns The Wilderness Society has held for many years. The Chudleigh Report presented at the community meeting in Caveside reinforces the view that inappropriate location of industrial-scale forestry operations and plantation establishment are drying up Tasmania’s available water resource.

The Wilderness Society is concerned over the mismanagement of water resources in Tasmania by successive governments. Accordingly, we have made a submission to the Review of Water Management Act, calling for a reform in the way Tasmania’s water resources are allocated and managed.

Scientific and anecdotal evidence is repeatedly showing that intensive forestry operations and plantation establishment in domestic water catchments are affecting the availability and quality of water in Tasmania. The story of Olinda berry farmer Robert Taylor (Sunday Examiner 19 Feb) highlights the economic and social burden borne by the community due to forest and water mismanagement.

The outright denial and lack of responsibility shown by leaders in the forest industry demonstrates a blinkered, “head in the sand” attitude to the impacts of water interception by plantations. Years of tax breaks and limited planning controls saw the total plantation estate in Tasmania reach approx 225,000 ha in December 2004 (National Plantations Inventory).

The conversion of native forests to plantations has accelerated following the 2005 Supplementary Regional Forest Agreement. We believe that Forestry Tasmania is planning to convert an additional 16,000 ha to plantations in the coming year. Much of this will be in the north and north-east of the state, already heavily degraded by forestry operations and land clearing.

World-class forests in areas such as Ben Lomond, the Blue Tier, the Great Western Tiers and the eucalypt forests of the Tarkine are bearing the brunt of a landclearing agenda that is accelerating to beat imminent caps on land clearing.

Tasmania is a signatory to the National Water Initiative but continues to ignore forestry interception in water budgeting and management plans. The Wilderness Society, expert geo-hydrologist David Leaman, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association and countless Tasmanians are all calling upon the government to acknowledge the thirst of plantations and to start managing our water resources appropriately.

The Wilderness Society is holding public meetings in Launceston and St Helens that will expose the mismanagement of our forests and our water. These meetings will present a report compiled by a number of community representatives and will call upon the government to account for forestry interception when allocating water resources in management plans. An immediate cessation of the logging of upper catchments in Tasmania would be a great start in solving an impending water crisis.

Vica Bayley
Davey St,
Hobart