Concerned Residents of Mount Arthur
Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2.00PM. AEST, February 8, 2010
Professor’s report highlights potential BREACH of FOREST PRACTICES CODE
A report by Associate Professor Brian Finlayson, an independent expert hydrologist, points to apparent errors in plans for a clearfell/plantation coupe at Lilydale that could see a proposed forest operation breaching mandatory requirements under the Forest Practices Code.
The Forest Practices Code only allows for five percent of a town water catchment to be felled in a year and Professor Finlayson explained that “to determine how much of the catchment can be logged you must therefore define and calculate the catchment’s area. The plan for this operation appears to have incorrectly drafted and calculated the Rocky Creek catchment, resulting in the size of the catchment been overstated”. The area of the water catchment proposed to be logged in this coupe could therefore exceed the mandatory requirements of the Forest Practice Code.
Professor Finlayson also identified a number of other errors and concerns in regard to the plans. He questioned the accuracy of streamline mapping on the plan and raised concerns about an apparent lack of long term planning in regard to town water catchment’s protection. “When a catchment’s natural forest cover is disturbed and/or converted to plantation to the extent of approx 25%, the water flowing into streams will be significantly affected” said the Professor. Maps supplied to Professor Finlayson by the Launceston City Council suggest that this figure may have been exceeded in the Rocky Creek catchment but residents have asked the FPA to confirm this.
Concerned members of the Lilydale community delivered Professor Finlayson’s findings to the Chief Forest Practices Officer, Graham Wilkinson, today and have asked him to justify why approval of the plan should not be revoked and a full independent hydrological assessment undertaken for the coupe and town water catchment prior to any operations taking place.
Spokesperson for the group, Anthony Ross, said that “the Forest Practices Authority has previously stated they would consider any significant issues that Professor Finlayson identified, particularly in regard to mandatory planning requirements. We would view the errors in calculating the catchment size alone, to be a significant issue and one clearly connected to mandatory planning requirements. If the calculations are incorrect, the logging operation could be in breach of the Forest Practices Code”.
Mr Ross also said that the findings of this report highlight what appears to be a serious problem with the quality of the science, being used within the forest practices system, to manage Tasmania’s town water catchments.
Anthony Ross
