Australia: 500 year old forest destruction on a daily basis in East Gippsland is confirmed

Since 1992, sometimes… when I’ve come across a recently fallen elder tree, I pay my respects to that tree by counting each ring of its life. Enviros and loggers alike can make the effort once in a while, to take the time, to have the patience… The patience to relive each year of life that the tree lived. It only takes about 5-10 minutes to count each ring of a 500 hundred year old tree, especially if you give yourself the chance to practice. And what’s even better is that the mind altering experience / wisdom tree ring counting creates makes it worth the effort! So next time you have the chance please take the time to remember the life of a tree by counting it’s rings! –Editor, Forest Policy Research

A Victorian environment group has radiocarbon-tested a felled
old-growth eucalypt and the result suggests the giant gum was at least
500 years old. The battle to save the old-growth forests of Brown
Mountain in Victoria’s far east has been waged by environmentalists
since 1989. When another coupe was cut down early this year, logging
opponents decided to send a sample of a felled tree to the University
of Waikato in New Zealand for radiocarbon dating tests.

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Jill Redwood is the coordinator of the lobby group, Environment East
Gippsland. “Considering that ancient trees like these have been
chainsawed down every day across south-east Australia, no-one has ever
been able to give a definitive age on the trees,” she said.

“We just thought it would be really interesting to try and get an absolute age
for these trees.” The test results said there was an 84 per cent chance the tree was between 500 and 600 years old. Botanist Steve Mueck has worked for the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment and is now a consultant in the private sector. He says radiocarbon dating of eucalypts is unusual and the result in this case is significant.

“Current forest managements practices are looking at harvesting on rotation times in the vicinity of 80 to 120 years with the perception that that’s a particularly long period of time,” he said.

“Now it is, I suppose, in the context of a human lifetime, but it is a very, very short period of time in comparison to the age in which many of the components that live in these forests can in fact get to in a natural system.”

Comments (3)

Marco DiazSeptember 5th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

What a crime against all humanity. Unimaginable that someone would not feel any respect for what nature took 500 years to grow, and so easily destory it, with no significant international outcry. Shame on those who have perpetrated such an act, and shame on those Australian authorities who have passively accepted or allowed loggers to do this and did not act to prevent it.

ForesterJanuary 23rd, 2010 at 12:01 pm

Hi,

very nice post, thank you

Maria WesterbergFebruary 13th, 2010 at 7:45 am

Theese crimes are made all over the world. It is shameful.

Please, help us save the few percent of old growth forest remains from clearcutting in Sweden by joining many scientists, biologists, organizations and others in signing an appeal to the Swedish Parliament and Government.
The initiator of the Appeal is the organization Protect the Forest. This year is electionyear in Sweden and with international support we hope to be able to change the directions.
According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency only a few percent of high conservation value forests remain below the mountain region in Sweden, less than one percent is primeval forests, which puts Sweden far below other countries preservationplans like U.S.A , Germany, Costa Rica, New Zealand. among others.

Read more and sign here: http://protecttheforest.se/upprop/en
(Note! Scientists in any of the fields of forest, climate, environment, biology or ecology, and organizations that wish to sign the Appeal can do this by contacting Protect the Forest: viktor.safve@skyddaskogen.se )
With the very best regards.
Maria Westerberg
Protect the Forest

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