For someone that claims to have lived and worked in the Otways for over 60 years, as Jim Speirs did, (Your Say GA 22/2) he shows a remarkable lack of knowledge of the Australian old growth eucalyptus forests and waterways.

His statement that wildfires have ruined more forests than logging may be true for some European forests but couldn’t be further from the truth in relation to our eucalypt forests.

Fires are actually required in healthy eucalyptus forests approximately every 7 years; not only to cull the weak and invigorate the growth of the strong but also to provide nutrients to the soil and to germinate seeds for regrowth.

As for logging in the immediate vicinity of rivers or waterways; it’s accepted world wide that this encourages waterways to be overgrown by weeds as well as causing soil erosion, salinity and the desecration of the water quantity and quality.

Jim Speirs claim that there is now more area covered with forest now than 60 years ago is also, at best, misleading as even forestry commission maps show that only about 30% of the Otway’s old growth forests are still standing, compared to what was there before European settlement. Admittedly, in recent years some regrowth forests have been planted but this doesn’t compensate for the old growth trees that are still being felled.