In a dramatic new fact sheet (The value in Victoria's Central Highlands) Heather Keith and colleagues sumarise the results of recent ecosystem accounting as applied to the Central Highlands.
Keith and colleagues demonstrate that employment in tourism in the Central Highlands far outweighs that of native forest logging.
Friends of LBP argues that the RFA regime is in place of the EPBC and that the 5-year reviews are an essential part of the framework. If VicForests is contemplating logging that might be caught by the EPBC it has to satisfy itself that the RFA exemption applies. VicForests on the other hand says RFAs are a blanket exemption from the EPBC Act irrespective of whether they have been complied with a little, a lot or not at all.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organisation that sets standards to evaluate whether forestry is practiced in an environmentally, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.
December 12, 2017
Logging has just commenced - unannounced - of a precious coupe, 'Calvin', on the West face of the Royston Range, directly opposite the Rubicon Historic Area (illegally logged by VF), just above Royston River Falls and gateway to the amazing Cerberean Plateau and the Rubicon Forest (now almost logged out).
The Rubicon State Forest and other state forests of the Central Highlands are being devastated by unsustainable, industrial-scale clear felling, despite huge forest losses in the Black Saturday bushfires. Mountain landscapes have been scarred for years to come, with swathes of mountain ash forest reduced to quasi-plantations.
Other forest values such as wildlife conservation, biodiversity, bushfire mitigation and outdoor recreation and tourism are being seriously compromised.
Off-road Cycling Adventures in Victoria's Central Highlands. Great resource for the off road cyclist. Suggested tours. Beautiful photographs. Thanks Aidan!
Rubicon Valley Historic Area
Great report by BIGCOL and Jen, 4x4 enthusiasts, on their August 2015 camping trip through the Rubicon. Magnificent photos. Thanks BIGCOL!
New data made available to the Rubicon Forest Protection Group (RFPG) confirm earlier analysis demonstrating that the current rate of logging in the Central Highlands is Unsustainable!
On and on it flows: a barbed, bristling, triffid-like sea of blackberries. Blackberries blanket roadsides and logged hills and as far as the eye can see; bunch around tall tree trunks; drape across tree ferns; choke mountain streams, and hang through the mossy branches of mystic Antarctic Beech trees, the Gondwana icon that attracts official conservation status.
The Rubicon Forest Protection Group takes a trip through the historic Rubicon forest to bear witness to its beauty, biodiversity, and its destruction as a result of logging. By Jill Sanguinetti
Few people are aware of the massive scale of year-round logging occurring behind a thin veil of protected forest on the escarprnents overlooking the major tourist roads from Toolangi to Marysville, Alexandra and Eildon, only 100kilometres north east of Melbourne.
