Toolangi State Forest

Toolangi State Forest
Toolangi

Toolangi State Forest, Yea Link Track
Geography
Location Central Highlands (Victoria), Australia
Coordinates 37°32′15″S 145°30′44″E / 37.53750°S 145.51222°E
Elevation 700 to 100m
Governing body Department of Environment and Primary Industries (Victoria)
Ecology
Indicator plants Eucalyptus regnans
Fauna Leadbeater's Possum
Toolangi State Forest
Melbourne
Canberra
Location in Victoria
Yea River along Yea Link Road track near Little Red Toolangi Treehouse
Forest along Yea Link Road track near Little Red Toolangi Treehouse

The Toolangi State Forest region in southern Australia extends from Mount Monda in the south up to Murrindindi in the north and includes the township of Toolangi. The forest is mainly Eucalypt forest that has regrown from the 1939 Victoria Bushfires.

Large sections of the forest were also burnt in the 2009 Victorian Bushfires, although there are some pockets of old growth forest that have not been logged or seriously burnt.

Notably, the forest provides habitat for the threatened Leadbeater's Possum.[1]

Kalatha Giant tree

Federal Environment Minister Mark Butler opening the Kalatha walk on National Tree Day, July 28, 2013, Sylvia Creek Rd, Toolangi, Victorian Central Highlands

After the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009, the Toolangi and Castella community proposed to construct a walk to the Kalatha Giant tree located at Kalatha Creek in the Toolangi State Forest. The Kalatha Giant Tree Walk Forest project was funded by the Victorian Bushfires Appeal Fund and was declared open by the federal Minister for the Environment, the Hon. Mark Butler, on 28 July, National Tree Day.[2][3]

The Kalatha Giant, a mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), has striking buttressing and is the seventh largest tree in Victoria with a volume of 200 cubic metres, a girth of 13.85 metres and is 65.5 metres tall.[4]

Recreation

The Toolangi State Forest is popular for a variety of recreation uses due to its close proximity to Melbourne and its natural attributes. Recreation activities include bushwalking, birdwatching, mountain biking, trail bike riding and four wheel driving.

Walking tracks

There are a number of walking tracks in the Toolangi State Forest[5] including:

Tanglefoot Walking tracks

These are a 20 km loop walking route that may be undertaken as a single long walk, or as sections. Main access points with car parking are the Tanglefoot Car Park (Sylvia Creek Rd), the Wirrawilla Rainforest Reserve (Sylvia Creek Rd), and Mt St Leonard (Monda Rd). The route follows the Myrtle Gully Track, Quarry Rd, and the new Tanglefoot Track. The Mr Tanglefoot Boardwalk was opened in March 2008 and has a covered picnic area, seats and drinking water.

Rare and threatened species

The following plant species found in Central Highlands Forests, including the Toolangi State Forest, are listed under either the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and/or the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999:[6]

The following animal species found in Central Highlands Forests, including the Toolangi State Forest, are listed in the Central Highlands Forest Management Plan 1998:[7]

Logging

Logging in Toolangi State Forest along Blowhard Track. Taken 4 Jan 2014.

Logging within the Toolangi State Forest is sanctioned by the Victorian government and is managed by the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (Victoria) and VicForests. There is strong local opposition to this logging due to the destruction of small remaining areas of intact forests that provide habitat for the threatened Leadbeater's Possum.[8] [9][10][11]

The Little Red Toolangi Treehouse in the Toolangi State Forest, Victoria, Australia

On June 8, 2011 Councillors of the Yarra Ranges Shire voted to write to politicians and call for an immediate halt to logging and future logging on the Bicentennial Trail and Mt St Leonard.[12]

Save Sylvia Creek Supreme Court Case

Following a community led blockade on Sylvia Creek Road, Toolangi State Forest in July to August 2011,[13] MyEnvironment Inc, a local environment group, obtained an injunction in the Supreme Court, preventing logging in the subject coupes pending resolution of the allegation of unlawful logging. The legal case proceeded on the basis that the logging of the three coupes:

In late January 2012 MyEnvironment Inc. received an open offer to limit the area logged in the three subject coupes if the action was discontinued. The action proceeded.[14]

Result of court case

Justice Osborn accepted VicForests interpretation that the primary instrument they are required to follow in logging is the Prescription in the Central Highlands Forest Management Plan that includes Leadbeater’s Possum Zone 1A Habitat (living mature and senescing trees) in the Special Protection Zone. He did not agree with VicForests that the trees must be both mature and senescing but preferred the interpretation that both living mature and living senescing trees would be counted. He defined mature as more than 120 years old.

He also found the Action Statement under the FFG Act does not independently impose obligations on VicForests.

On this basis, Justice Osborn found that:

Justice Osborne made some further comments in the judgment:

VicForests made a commitment to exclude all Zone 1A in the three coupes from logging, to log Gun Barrel by the VRH system and not to conduct a regeneration burn. These two concessions greatly reduced the environmental damage done by the logging.

Costs were awarded against My Environment, but not on the higher scale (indemnity).

Calls for Great Forest National Park

In August 2013 Professor David Lindenmayer called for a new "Great Forest National Park" in the mountain forests east of Melbourne from Kinglake through to the Baw Baws, and north-east up to Eildon to protect them from logging.[15][16]

"The last 30 years of work has shown that logging significantly degrades habitats for Leadbeater's possum and makes areas of forest unsuitable for 150 to 200 years. Logging has reduced the amount of old growth forest to less than 1 per cent of the forest cover."
"Now that's far worse than anything you would see in Tasmania, and so really what we've seen is a system that's at a state of collapse, possum populations in a state of collapse, and the industry itself is in a state of collapse."

The Little Red Toolangi Treehouse

A tree sit protest in The Little Red Toolangi Treehouse commenced in the Toolangi State Forest during November 2013. Hannah Patchett, moved into The Little Red Toolangi Treehouse of the 20th of November, motivated by the recommendation of Prof. David Lindenmayer, who called for an end to logging in the area by the end of December 2013 to provide Leadbeater's possum with a chance at avoiding extinction.[17] Hannah pledged to remain in the 14-square-metre home until the Victorian state government announces plans for protecting the endangered possum. Hannah moved out for personal reasons and was replaced by Beee Mallia, another young conservationist.

Beee has endured all climatic variations since the 1 December 2013 and is sacrificing creature comforts in an act of Non-Violent Direct Action to bring attention to the need to protect this unique and globally significant forest. The Toolangi treehouse is also currently functioning as a point of engagement for the broader public.[18]

Gallery

References

  1. Sending Leadbeater’s Possum down the road to extinction, Professor David Lindenmayer, The Conversation, 14 December 2012
  2. Leadbeater's Possum, Victoria's endangered Faunal Emblem
  3. Dig in for tree planting, Mountain Views Mail
  4. Landmark Trees
  5. Toolangi State Forest, Guide to short Walks in Victoria
  6. Central Highlands Comprehensive Regional Assessment Report, June 1997
  7. Central Highlands Forest Management Plan 1998, Department of Natural Resources and Environment
  8. Forests agency sued for logging, The Age, March 19, 2012
  9. Knitting nannas in court over purler of a protest against logging at Mount St Leonard, The Age, December 1, 2013
  10. Federal Govt suggests Victoria's animal emblem is critically endangered, The World Today, 27 May 2013
  11. Loggers, activists clash over forest, The Age, 17 August 2011
  12. Council calls for stop to native logging in Yarra Ranges Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader, 28 June 2010
  13. Silvia Creek forest, Greenlivingpedia
  14. Save Sylvia Supreme Court Case, MyEnvironment Inc
  15. New national park proposal to save the Leadbeater's possum, PM, 13 August 2013
  16. Park Plan, David Lindenmayer, Great Forest National Park
  17. Leadbeater's possum faces 'managed extinction' without action, Sydney Morning Herald, March 27, 2012
  18. Protester occupies forest treehouse to protect Leadbeater's possum, The Age, November 11, 2013

Coordinates: 37°32′15″S 145°30′44″E / 37.53750°S 145.51222°E

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