The pic below shows a stretch of the Railway Dam road north of the Fryers Ridge Road. Significant numbers of sizeable trees have been cut down: ‘hazardous tree removal’ in preparation for DELWP’s upcoming management burn.
This exercise is a reminder of the Department’s tree massacre on Mount Alexander last year, in which we were informed (after numerous enquiries) that all trees had been checked by an arborist before removal. And, further back, we had some bizarre lopping and felling of small trees along Forest Creek , supposedly for safety reasons.
With the best will in the world, we’re getting sceptical of the kind of expertise that waves a wand over these activities…
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Click on image for info/order page
It appears that the track needed a little thinning out in case of fire to allow fire trucks and the like to pass safely.
DELWP’s stated reason is that the trees were ‘hazardous’–ie, they could fall across the road. This has been a standard reason in some other clearances. Our case is that lopping is often a better way–and that in any case the criteria are not clear.
They have done a mish mash hack on One tree Hill track Bendigo They dig around trees near the track .Why don’t they use mosaic burning in winter like is to be used at Kalimna Road Castlemaine etc Past burnoffs at Wildflower drive and Salomons reserve Bendigo resulted in thicker than usual re growth of native grasses and Golden wattles etc .