Tell the state government to get VicForests out of our water catchments.

The Wilderness Society is dedicated to protecting the source of Melbourne’s water supply, the forested catchments of the Central Highlands just east of Melbourne.

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet and water is our most precious resource. On top of that, climate change is expected to make Victoria warmer and direr. The CSIRO forecasts that by 2020, Melbourne will have 8% less water, so it is vital that we save every drop.

While water supply is scarce, the quality of our water is the envy of the world. But now it is under threat.

Tragically, the Brumby government allows logging in five of Melbourne’s water catchments which supply more than half of the city’s water, including our largest catchment, the Thomson Dam.

A plan to guarantee long term water security, not quick fixes.

We need a twenty year plan to solve the water crisis, not just quick fixes. Premier Brumby is prepared to push ahead with expensive and unpopular options such as the desalination plant and the north-south pipeline, but allows the destruction of Melbourne’s water catchments for woodchips.

Logging wastes up to 1,000 litres of clean drinking water every second.

Research by Melbourne Water has found that, after logging a young regrowing forest uses twice as much water as an old growth forest, because young growing trees are thirstier than old trees. That means up to 50% less water is flowing into our dams from logged areas.

Logging catchment areas is made worse by the fact that the trees most sought after by the logging industry are in the high rainfall areas of the catchments.

If you add up all the lost water, Melbournians are losing up to 1,000 litres of drinking water every second (30,000 mega litres annually or the size of the Maroondah Reservoir every year), and can take 150 years water levels to recover after logging.

Phasing out logging of the Thomson catchment would save 20,000 mega litres per annum by 2050.

Logging pollutes our water supply.

Logging and logging roads also cause erosion, leading to large amounts of sediment to enter rivers, silting up of dams and killing of fish and other marine life. The more sediment in our water, the more chlorine is required to make our water safe to drink.

Studies in the Thomson catchment revealed that logging roads can dump 45 – 60 tonnes of sediment per hectare every year into catchment rivers.

Plantation forests can produce our wood. Let native forests produce our water.

Next year Victoria’s plantation estate reaches maturity and there will be at least 3 times more wood available in plantations compared with native forests. On top of that we have an oversupply of wood exacerbated by the global financial crisis due to a shrinking in the global demand for wood.

This means with government assistance, we can have our cake and eat it too. We can easily and quickly move logging out of catchment areas and into Victoria’s huge plantation resource.

Not only a waste of water but a waste of money.

Logging our water catchments doesn’t even make economic sense, because the dollar value of the water lost due to logging is far higher than the value of the wood extracted. In fact an economic study undertaken in the Thomson catchment found that when comparing the value of water versus timber extraction, a no logging policy would leave Victorians $147 million better off.

Increasing the fire risk to our water catchments.

Logging catchment areas also increases their exposure to wildfire, by replacing old, moist fire resistant forest with a rainforest understory with young, dry fire prone regrowth forests over large areas.

Protecting Victoria’s forests will increase our precious water supplies long into the future.

The State government is correct to run advertising campaigns to educate the public about the need to use less water, and give us tips on how to do so.

But what’s good for the public is also good for Premier Brumby. The state government also needs to do its bit to save water, and that starts by protecting our water catchments from logging, so that present and future generations can enjoy a clean and adequate drinking water supply.

Take action – you can make a difference:

1. Write to Premier John Brumby - Asking him to protect water catchments from logging. Send letters to:

The Hon. John Brumby, Premier, Level 1, 1 Treasury Place, East Melbourne VIC 3002

2. Sign our petition to Premier John Brumby.  Sign the petition »

3. Stay in touch - Become a friend of the Wilderness Action Group on facebook or sign up to receive regular updates and information via email and sms. Email melbourne@wilderness.org.au to register.

4. See for yourself - The Wilderness Society runs day tours out to majestic forest of the Central Highlands. Email: melbourne@wilderness.org.au or call: 03 9038 0888 for details.

5. Find out more -

  * About The Wilderness Society’s Victorian Forest Campaign. Visit our homepage www.wilderness.org.au/victoria

  * About who is logging our forests - visit www.sicforests.com.au to find out more about VicForests, the state government business enterprise charged with logging our water catchments

  * About the science - The Central Highlands Alliance has produced two excellent reports which can be downloaded from their website. Visit www.tcha.org.au/Logging_water_catchments.html to download the Baw Baw Report and the 2006 Water Investigation.