Despite announcing an end to native forest logging, destructive logging practices continue in Victoria under the guise of firebreaks and post-storm debris removal – with serious consequences for biodiversity, fire risk and public trust.

In May 2024, the Government of Victoria announced that it would stop native forest logging in public forests. This would have been welcome news – if it were true. But it is not.

Previous media reports have highlighted the extent of log removal to create firebreaks in Victoria’s forests – an action for which there is very little empirical evidence for its effectiveness. The wood from hundreds of kilometres of firebreaks is being on-sold to sawmills or for firewood, and there is widespread loss of large old habitat trees for animals such as the Endangered Southern Greater Glider.

This matters not only for forests and wildlife, but for public trust in government commitments and the integrity of environmental policy. New evidence is emerging that the Victorian Government is not only still logging via the creation of so-called firebreaks, it is doing an even worse kind of logging. It is called salvage logging and it is when a forest is logged after there has been a prior disturbance such as a wildfire or a windstorm.

The........

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