Spatial analysis of logging on steep slopes across Special Water Supply Catchment areas in the Central Highlands of Victoria A summary of a submission provided to the audit of VicForests’ logging operations against the FSC Controlled Wood Standard for Forest Management Enterprises December 2019 Chris Taylor and David Lindenmayer The Australian National University Fenner School of Environment and Society Recommended citation: Taylor C and Lindenmayer DB. (2018) Spatial analysis of logging on steep slopes across Special Water Supply Catchment areas in the Central Highlands of Victoria. Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, Canberra. Cover photo: Coupe 318-512-0009 in the Upper Goulburn showing the slope we measured at 33° and the largest area cut exceeding 30° in slope (Photo: C. Taylor). Table of contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 Study area 3 2.2 Code of Forest Practices for Timber Production 4 2.3 Data inputs 5 2.4 Analysis 6 2.5 Field inspection 7 3. Results ........................................................................................................................................... 9 3.1 Upper Goulburn Catchment 9 3.2 Thomson Catchment 15 3.3 Tanjil River Catchment 20 3.4 Tyers River Catchment 21 3.5 Loch River and Deep Creek Catchment 25 3.6 McMahons Creek Catchment 27 3.7 Starvation Creek Catchment 30 3.8 Tarago River Catchment 33 3.9 Bunyip River Catchment 35 4 Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 37 4.1 Comparison with previous submission 37 4.2 VicForests rebuttal 37 4.3 Forest Audit Program under the Code of Forest Practices 38 4.4 Implications for forest management 39 4.5 Implications under the FSC Standards 40 5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 40 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 41 References ............................................................................................................................................ 42 i Figures Figure 1. Location of Special Water Supply Catchments analysed in this study 3 Figure 2. Slope raster derived from 10m DTM 7 Figure 3. Areas identified above 30⁰ within previous clearfell logged coupes 8 Figure 4. Coupe areas classified into percentage of net areas logged exceeding 30⁰ 8 Figure 5. Net coupe areas showing extent of Code of Forest Practice (CFP) exclusion zones logged 9 Figure 6. Upper Goulburn West Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 10 Figure 7. Upper Goulburn East Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 11 Figure 8. Coupe 318-512-0009 in the Upper Goulburn showing the slope we measured at 33⁰ and the largest area cut exceeding 30⁰ in slope 11 Figure 9. Another slope we measured on site at 34⁰ in Coupe 318-512-0009 12 Figure 10. Coupe 318-512-0010 in Upper Goulburn featuring a slope measured on site at 31⁰ and we estimated around 2.9ha exceeds 30⁰ 12 Figure 11. Coupe 320-502-0021 in the Upper Goulburn Catchment was checked and a slope within analysed area measured on site at 36⁰. We estimate around 2.9ha exceeds 30⁰ 13 Figure 12. Coupe 320-501-0024 Upper Goulburn Catchment and two sites measured on site at 37⁰ and 38⁰ 13 Figure 13. Upper Goulburn West Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 14 Figure 14. Upper Goulburn East Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 14 Figure 15. Coupe 320-512-0026 featured 10.4 ha of CFP exclusion logged, equating to 33% of net area logged 15 Figure 16. Thomson Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 16 Figure 17. Coupe 458-508-0011 where we estimated around 4.6 ha cut exceeded 30⁰, the largest area detected in the Thomson Catchment 17 Figure 18. Thomson Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 18 Figure 19. Coupe 457-504-0005 featured 5.7 ha of CFP exclusion logged, equating to 36% of net area logged 19 Figure 20. Tanjil Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 19 Figure 21. Steep slopes exceeding 30⁰ in coupes 459-503-0000, 459-503-0001, 459-503- 0003 and 459-503-0010, where the combined area cut exceeding 30⁰ was estimated to be 7.1 ha 21 Figure 22. Tanjil Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 21 Figure 23. Tyers Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 23 ii Figure 24. Tanjil Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 24 Figure 25. Loch Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 26 Figure 26. Loch River and Deep Creek Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 26 Figure 27. McMahons Creek Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 25⁰ 28 Figure 28. McMahons Creek Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 29 Figure 29. Starvation Creek Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 25⁰ 31 Figure 30. Starvation Creek Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 32 Figure 31. Tarago Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 30⁰ 34 Figure 32. Tarago River Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 34 Figure 33. Bunyip Special Water Supply Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes with slopes > 25⁰ 36 Figure 34. Bunyip River Catchment and logging 2004-2019 showing coupes where CFP exclusions were logged 36 Tables Table 1. Extract of requirements specified in Appendix 3, Table 11 of the Management Standards and Planning Procedures 4 Table 2. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Upper Goulburn Catchment 9 Table 3. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Upper Goulburn Catchment 10 Table 4. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Thomson Catchment 15 Table 5. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Thomson Catchment 17 Table 6. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Tanjil Catchment 20 Table 7. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Tanjil Catchment 20 Table 8. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Tyers Catchment 22 Table 9. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Thomson Catchment 22 Table 10. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Loch Catchment 25 Table 11. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Loch Catchment 27 iii Table 12. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in McMahons Creek Catchment 27 Table 13. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in McMahons Creek Catchment 27 Table 14. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Starvation Creek Catchment 30 Table 15. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Starvation Creek Catchment 30 Table 16. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Loch Catchment 33 Table 17. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Thomson Catchment 33 Table 18. Number of Coupes containing areas of slopes > 30° in Starvation Creek Catchment 35 Table 19. Number of Coupes containing areas cut assigned as Code of Forest Practice Exclusion Zones in Starvation Creek Catchment 35 List of Abbreviations FSC Forest Stewardship Council DELWP Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning DSE Department of Sustainability and Environment IFA Institute of Foresters Australia iv 1. Introduction In November 2019, the Victorian Government announced logging across the state’s native forests would close by 2030 (1). Following on, the Victorian Government’s logging business, VicForests, was assessed by accredited auditors against the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Controlled Wood Standard (2). The FSC is widely recognized as a leading forest certification scheme, on the basis that it enjoys support from a wide range of environmental, social and economic interests (3). The FSC label has grown considerably across the world (4), with leading brands featuring the FSC logo on many of their products (5). VicForests has recognized this market push and it has made several unsuccessful attempts to meet FSC Controlled Wood Standard for Forest Management Enterprises (FSC-STD-30-010 V2.0) (6) as well as the more rigorous FSC forest management certification standard (7). In November 2019, VicForests made another attempt at meeting FSC-STD-30-010 V2.0, which requires forest management companies to not illegally log forests, to not violate