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DSE assessing impact of recent Club Terrace fires

Wildfires around Club Terrace earlier this month burnt over 4500 hectares of public land. This included all of Lind National Park, but almost two thirds of the fire occurred on State Forest.

By DSE - 17th October 2003 - Back to News

Caption: Cann River District Senior Forester, Nathan Trushell and Operations Forester, Stephen Young assessing damage to future sawlogs from the recent Club Terrace fires.

After the fire suppression effort, work on wildfire recovery is still a major task.  This not only includes the rehabilitation of tracks used to contain the wildfires but also an assessment of damage to public assets caused by the fire.

Senior Forester for the Cann River District, Nathan Trushell said that the fires occurred under relatively severe spring conditions and due to dryness of forest fuels and strong North-westerly winds, the forest suffered severe damage in some areas.

"The Department of Sustainability and Environment has now completed fire intensity mapping by categorising the amount of tree crown scorch or ‘browning off’ of leaves as viewed from an aircraft and by ground work," Mr Trushell said.

"The burnt State Forest contained large areas of high value eucalypt regrowth and we will need to salvage some of the worst affected areas as they will now have little potential for future sawlog production."

"There are also other areas that we will monitor for some time to see how well they recover."

"While it is disappointing that the fire has forced the early harvesting of this forest, with this early detailed analysis work and the help of industry, we can salvage the timber and regenerate the forest again for the long term."

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: support@gippsland.com

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