Paperlinx Green Shareholders' Group

Gullies & Watercourses

• Much of the soil in West Gippsland and the Strzeleckis is sensitive to erosion.
• New topsoil is generated very slowly.
• Topsoil is a critical resource for long term plantation productivity.
• Many of PaperlinX's plantations lie on steep slopes and erodible soils.
• Even where average slope is not extreme, the last 10 to 30 metres into the gullies is frequently over 40 degrees.
• Try to climb this and it feels near vertical. Where the soil and rock is loose and friable you just slide backwards on a small avalanche.
  
• Removal of the forest canopy and soil disturbance exposes these steep slopes.
• Heavy rain and rapid water flow carries the topsoil with it.
• The soil removed, together with its nutrients, ends up in the creeks, rivers, and ultimately the Gippsland Lakes.
• Burning of large waste log piles will sterilise some of the remaining topsoil.

To see what the Code of Forest Practices has to say about plantation planning and logging on steep slopes where there are streams, click here.

To retain topsoils within the plantations the key requirement is to minimise disturbance on the steeper slopes. Where the soil is resistant to erosion this may extend up to 30 degrees of slope. Where the soils are highly erodible slopes as 'little' as 20 degrees can be difficult to manage.

Where topsoils are carried by water it is important that buffer and filter zones of undisturbed vegetation are left to stop them before they reach the streams.

Here we see the cable logging tower on top of the log landing above. It has been used to haul felled pine across the permanent streams in the several gullies running down the coupe. The grey rocks above mid height in the gully is the site of a tiny waterfall. Slopes by the waterfall are about 40 degrees. The soils and rock are light, loose and friable. It is difficult to climb into and out of gullies such as this one as the soil slips beneath your feet. Heavy rain will carry away great quantities of the topsoil in the steeper parts of these areas. Photo Strzeleckis: Traralgon-Balook Rd, west face of Mt Tassie, catchment of Traralgon Ck, Lanigans Rd, logging tower and landing Location E461.82 S5751.69, looking East, August 2000 Source: JFP

This view from the logging road downwards makes the slopes appear less formidable. However they exceed 40 degrees in the steeper parts of the gullies. The two gullies each contain permanent streams which are running, in spite of 3 years of comparative drought in the area. The left hand gully has a very narrow band of native species at its bottom, Blackwoods and TreeFerns being the most noticeable. TreeFerns have been dragged out of this gully higher up. Photo: Strzeleckis, Mt Tassie, Lanigans Rd. Location E461.94 S5751.41, looking North, August 2000 Source: JFP

Looking down the right hand gully we gain an impression of the steepness of slopes down into the stream, and see something of the timber debris dropped into the stream line. Water quality measurements in these streams give surprisingly high salinity figures, which increase markedly from top to bottom of the logging coupe. More work is to be done to determine the significance, if any, of these figures. These gullies need to be stabilised and retained: with buffer and filter zones whose width is at least the minimum specified by the code, planted with the natural mix of local species, left undamaged in future to act as filters and buffers for the streams, corridors for native flora and fauna. Photo: Strzeleckis, Mt Tassie, catchment of Traralgon Ck. Location E461.82 S5751.69, looking North, August 2000 Source: JFP

To learn more about the background to our concerns, click here.

To contact us, please click here


To return to our home page, click here