The Weld Valley - forgotten forest

Lachlan Maxwell, Huon Valley

The federal government's forest industry rescue package has protected the large Myrtle tract of the Tarkine forest, selective areas of the Styx Valley, and other minor areas throughout Tasmania from intensive forestry operations.

Unfortunately many areas, such as the Lower Weld Valley, have been excluded from such protection.

The Lower Weld Valley, situated north of the Tahune Airwalk, is currently under threat, with planned forestry operations to extend to the boundary of the South West World Heritage area.

The Lower Weld Valley consists of many geomorphic features, such as karst landscapes (where the dissolving of soluble rock leads to the development of underground drainage and landforms), glacial features dating to the Cainozoic era, virgin rivers and lakes. It also contains some of the most unique forest types in the world (buttongrass moorland, lowland heath and sedgeland, dry and wet sclerophyll, mixed forest, rainforest, alpine heath, and alpine rainforest).

The Lower Weld Valley was listed as having high conservation value in the original Regional Forest Agreement. It also satisfies two criteria of the World Heritage Convention, and has been registered with the National Estate.

The 2002 Australian Forestry Standards sustainability requirements include maintenance of healthy forest ecosystems; protection of waterways and soil qualities; and protection and maintenance of the natural, cultural, social, religious and spiritual heritage values of all forest users.

The Lower Weld contains possibly some of the tallest Eucalyptus obliqua documented in Tasmania — scientific approximations suggest some are over 80 metres tall and are 3-400 years old.

The clear-felling of pristine old-growth forest directly adjacent to World Heritage-listed areas is incomprehensible, especially when the federal government's recent forest package outlines the necessity of preserving untouched wilderness with cultural, ecological, geomorphic and historical significance. Surely the day is coming when logic will be seen as more important than corporate interest or gain.

From Green Left Weekly, June 29, 2005.

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From GLW issue 631