In a hard hitting letter in the Alexandra Standard (11 April 2018, here) Nick Legge of the RFPG has demolished the claims of federal forests minister Anne Ruston (reported in the Alex Standard 4 April 2018, here).  

The text of Nick Legge's letter follows: 

DESPITE what Forests Minister Anne Ruston may claim the two year RFA extension (Standard/Chronicle, April 4) allows the ongoing catastrophe for the Rubicon State Forest to continue unchecked.

Critical breaches of RFA  requirements have been ignored including failure to adopt sustainable harvest levels by Forest Management Area (FMA), failure to comply with the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014, and failure to implement a system of forest reserves meeting the agreed cnteria.

By maintaining accreditation of Victoria's forest management system despite these breaches the Commonwealth Government has breached its RFA obligations.

In 20I0, with masive timber shortfalls looming due to the mega-fires of the 2000s, the state government changed the timber allocation order - the legal instrument allowing Vicforests to log - so that instead of harvest levels being set by FMA and by various forest types, it was set statewide only and by just two forest types: ash and mixed species.

This removed a key foundation of Victorian RFAs that required each separate area to be managed for sustainable timber production. So instead of logging rates being reduced on account of the fires, across the Rubicon and Marysville State Forests ash forest logging rates increased.  If the pre-2010 system were restored, massive cutbacks to logging throughout the Central Highlands would be needed.

Breaches of the Code of Practice for Timber Production, such as the gigantic megacoupes on the Royston Range or ignoring agreed scenic protections go unchecked. This happens when enforcement is left to a State Government department subject to Ministerial control as opposed to an independent body accountable to the Parliament.

The RFAs also require that the forest reserve system be comprehensive, representative, and adequate.  While the current system may be comprehensive and representative it is certainly not adequate. For example, the mountain ash ecosystem was recently added to an international list of endangered  ecosystems due to the impact of recent fires and the extent of past and planned logging, plus global warming and the increased risk of future fires. The minor extensions in recent years to protect Leadbeaters possum colonies are no remedy.

We urgently need a properly resourced public enquiry by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council into the adequacy of the current system, during which time a moratorium should be imposed on further logging in the Rubicon  State Forest.

We also need an entirely new forest management framework ahead of any possible renewal of the RFAs in 2020. A first start would be to transfer enforcement of the Code of Practice for Timber Production to an independent statutory body, to make Vicforests’ operations subject to the Planning and Environment Act likee all other enterprises and to enshrine in legislation the need for ecologically sustainable management of our public native forests.