Baw Baw frog
RSOS logging
Melb. waterVicForests
VicForests is a State business corporation owned by the Victorian Government and public. VicForests role is to log native forest on public land and then sell the sawlogs and woodchips.
VicForests only operates in areas that are covered by a Regional Forest Agreement.
On the VicForest webs site they say:
As a state business corporation, VicForests has autonomy in the commercial decisions it makes for the sale and supply of timber resources, and the development of an open and competitive sales system. However, VicForests is accountable to government. It must operate in a framework consistent with Victorian government policy and priorities.
VicForests' resources are allocated to them through a Timber Release Plan (TRP). The TRP nominates logging coupes, which are areas in the forest to be clearfell logged. VicForests owns all the trees on these logging coupes before they are even logged.
To see all the TRP's for Eastern Victoria see the governments TRP webpage.
Below is an extract of the 2004 Erica TRP that shows clearfell logging planned for the Thomson dam catchment area, part of the Melbourne's domestic water supply catchment.
When the TRP above is overlayed onto Google Earth, as shown in the image below, it is far easier to see the context for which logging is going to take place.
Download hi res pdf image of this view. The taps represent where VicForest will clearfell log in the 2006/2007 logging season.
Find out more about VicForests on their website! (Note: The nice forest on the VicForests webpage has probably now been clearfell logged and woodchipped.)