Hancock Watch

April 2012

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Recent FSC certified burn offs in Rainforest reserve have severely burnt remnant vegetation, most likely leading to tree death. Why were such hot burns allowed inside Rainforest Reserve in such innappropriate locations?

Approximate location (yellow dot) of recent burnoffs at this location in College Creek/Cores and Links Rainforest reserve. Red = cool temperate rainforest.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Piles of logging materials were burnt at this location in College Creek. Many other recently burnt areas in the rainforest reserve have also been observed.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Another view of the recent burning inside rainforest reserve.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Many old stags, vital for fauna habitat have been destroyed and burnt and bulldozed at College Creek since logging began in the catchment in February 2009. Other species recorded at College Creek since the 1990's included: Long-nosed Bandicoot, Brushtail Possum, Mountain Bobuck, Ringtail Possum, Yellow-bellied Glider (chew balls), Sugar Glider, Black Wallaby, Brown Antechinus, Dusky Antechinus, Bush Rat, Swamp Rat, Water Rat, Wombat and Short-beaked Echidna. Greater Gliders were recorded in this catchment in 1982.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Another view of trees with their canopies scorched due to burn offs. These fires would have been very hot and would have released alot of greenhouse gases.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Old stags, which provide good fauna habitat have also been torched. Why has this been done in a rainforest reserve? Surviving fauna would have been struggling to find enough suitable habitat post the logging inside the catchment, now burning as well.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Killed off vegetation due to recent burns.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. A remnant stag now incinerated.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Burnt tree hollows, vital for fauna.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Another burnt out stag.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Another burnt out stag, with yet another scorched burn in the background. All of these burns have been carried out within buffers ecotones of state significant cool temperate rainforest.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Another large fire pile near remaining stags. Logging at this location in College Creek started in January 2010, meaning that the regeneration is 27 months old.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Closer view of burnt log dumps.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Burning log dumps has also incinerated hundreds of trees hand-planted in the reserve. Who paid for the plantings and why were they allowed to be killed by burning? Will these sites now have to be hand planted again?

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek: 1 year old regeneration in site of national rainforest significance, burnt and bulldozed? Why has regeneration at this coupe been destroyed, as it was supposed to be allowed to regenerate and retired as a conservation reserve? Previous photos taken in coupe in the distance.

Location for following burn off images inside Cores and Links Rainforest Reserve

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. One of the 30 piles of logging slash recently burnt at this coupe alone. These burn sites also have killed possibly hundreds of trees planted into this reserve some time ago. Who paid for the plantings?

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. An example of one of the hundreds of hand planted trees burnt during unnecessary burnoffs in rainforest buffers at College Creek.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Dead tree with yellow tree guard.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. More examples of hand planted eucalypts burnt at this location.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Not only hand planted trees have been killed off by these unnecessary and unwanted burns. Here are examples of at least 3 mature eucalypts burnt - as shown previously on this page..

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. This is what 3 year old regeneration looks like - at a coupe off track 32. Will this coupe also suffer the same fate as the coupe highlighted previously?

April 2009 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Same site just after logging in April 2009.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/College Creek. Good regeneration on track 32, three years after logging in Cores and Links Rainforest Reserve.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Albert River. Recent FSC certified logging within cool temperate rainforest buffers in the headwaters of the Albert River catchment. Myrtle Beech within 20-30 metres of logging coupe.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Albert River. Pulp logs destined for Maryvale pulp mill logged within rainforest buffers.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Albert River. Sawlogs destined for local sawmills logged within rainforest buffers. Clearly unsustainable despite FSC certification.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Greig Creek. Plenty of logging has recently occurred in the headwaters of this catchment.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. View looking west into cores and links rainforest reserve, with yellow dots representing reserve boundary on Dubois Track. Logging commenced near Dubois Track in June 2008, meaning that the reserve regeneration in this photo is almost 4 years old.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. More recent logging on the eastern side of the Jack River (Pines Road) in the Cores and Links Rainforest Reserve.

Location of recent logging near Pines Road in cores and links rainforest reserve.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. This pine coupe located at Cable Track was logged 2-3 years showing appalling regeneration inside rainforest reserve.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. Recent track work near Pines Road included this 10-15 metre high pile of soil sitting near a gully head in the cores and links Reserve.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. View looking west into Cores and Links Rainforest Reserve.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. View looking west into Cores and Links Rainforest Reserve and recent clearfelling of hardwood.

 

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River. More unattended burn offs inside rainforest reserve. Three were occurring in close proximity to each other on the day when this photo was taken.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek. Recent clearfells of 30 year old pine plantations, will create large amounts of soil loss in times of heavy rain.

Morris Creek, marked with yellow dot in comparison to Cores and Links Rainforest Reserve

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek. Torched log landing.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek. Pines at this location will probably be replanted with Shining Gum.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek. FSC certified log landing, with boulders starting to roll down slopes.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek. Signs of wet weather work and FSC certified roading.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morris Creek. Another torched log landing.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Jack River.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges. Recent logging at Dingo Creek Road.

April 2012 - Strzelecki Ranges/Morwell River Catchment. Recent spraying of roadsides in rainforest reserve.