Study finds Tasmanian native forest logging increases potential for more severe bushfires

"Logging worsens bushfires because regrowth eucalyptus trees are highly flammable in comparison to mature trees, which act as "green fire breaks...A fire expert says mature forests can "act as a buffer" to slow bushfires, whereas regrowth eucalypts are more flammable."

"The study has found around a fifth of Tasmanian tall wet forest is regrowth under 40 years old, largely a result of intensive logging and recent fires."

"Professor Bowman said this raised concerns around community safety and the sustainability of the state's timber industry."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-10/bushfire-risk-worsened-by-regrowth-after-logging-study-finds/106546528

Landscape-scale experimental proof that tall wet Eucalyptus regrowth burns more severely than mature forest >>
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae4d62
#bushfires #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #LoggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #FCNSW #risks #harm #forests #biodiversity #CommunitySafety #Bellingenshire #RegrowthHazard

Australia’s alpine ash forests are now officially endangered.

"Intensifying fire seasons are threatening this balance to the extent the Federal Government has just officially listed this forest type as an endangered ecosystem. This means these forests face a high risk of collapse or extinction. "

"It is also an important part of First Nations cultural landscapes – in north-east Victoria, the Taungurung people harvested Bogong moths (or Deberra) when the moths migrated to mountain forests where alpine ash is a key part of the landscape. " >>
https://theconversation.com/australias-alpine-ash-forests-are-now-officially-endangered-can-we-save-them-279099

Image: Eugène von Guérard, Warrenheip Hills near Ballarat, 1854 "The name "Warrenheip" is derived from the Aboriginal word "warrengeep," meaning "trees on mountain top" or "emu feathers on top".
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/a-brush-with-fidelity-three-works-by-eugene-von-guerard/

#AlpineAsh #BogongMoths #LeadbeatersPossums #GreaterGliders #LoggingImpacts #Bushfires #extinction #ecosystem #collapse #biodiversity #FossilFuel #climate #IndigenousPeoples

It is the Australian story for biodiversity:
"The swift parrot’s distinctive call was recorded dozens of times in a patch of Tasmanian forest. Then the forest was logged" >>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/06/the-swift-parrots-distinctive-call-was-recorded-dozens-of-times-in-a-patch-of-tasmanian-forest-then-the-forest-was-logged

#Biodiversity #birds #wildlife #SwiftParrot #loggingImpacts #forestry #ClearFelling #extractivism #harm #governance

A deluge of timber: From vanishing forests to deadly disasters
"Mysterious sea of logs hit ‘powerless communities’ the hardest."

"From vanishing forests to deadly disasters Houses were swept away and large logs came with the flood, crashing into homes and carrying them off. We don’t exactly know where the logs came from … there is a palm oil plantation upstream, it’s several thousand hectares.”

"And those who suffer most are not the perpetrators or the investors. It’s the powerless communities,” Muhadi Bukhari said. Another Indonesian environmental NGO, Wahli, described the disaster not just as “nature’s fury” but one that was “amplified by decades of deforestation”. >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-05/sumatra-floods-disaster-reforestation-climate/106443342
#deforestation #LoggingImpacts #floods #plantations

Now that they can put an economic value on Australian grey-headed flying foxes...

"We would like people to better appreciate them, not as pests, but as keystone species that are of great importance to the ecology of Australian ecosystems and how we benefit from their existence."

"...Research was needed to encourage co-existence with native species in a world "where habitat destruction, deforestation is the way".

"The economic value of their service definitely offsets or outweighs the nuisance effect, I think, but you know, this is just the beginning of the story," Dr Kolkert said.
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/economic-value-australian-grey-headed-flying-fox-bat-poo/106507002
#Bats #forests #ecology #GreyHeadedFyingFoxes #deforestation #loggingimpacts #destruction #biodiversity

We have the proof that logging makes Tasmania’s forests more flammable
Lots of regrowth, lots more fire

"Regrowth does indeed burn more intensely than mature forests. Some experts suggested forests regrowing from logging were a key factor in the huge area burned during the notorious 2019–20 fire season, though others have disputed this."

"Recent research has shown commercial thinning of regrowth in Tasmania doesn’t reduce the risk of fire, because bark, limbs and smashed trunks left after logging act as fuel." >>
https://theconversation.com/we-have-the-proof-that-logging-makes-tasmanias-forests-more-flammable-279103

Landscape-scale experimental proof that tall wet Eucalyptus regrowth burns more severely than mature forest >>
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae4d62
#bushfires #loggingimpacts #FCNSW #forests #WetEucalyptus #forestry #thinning #NSWlogging #BellingenLogging #harm

Businesses Can Either Lead Transformative Change or Risk Extinction

Businesses Can Either Lead Transformative Change or Risk Extinction All Businesses Depend on and Impact Nature

"Business-as-usual Incentives are Driving Nature’s Decline
The loss of biodiversity is among the most serious threats to business
100+ Concrete Actions for Governments, Financial Actors & Civil Society"

"Every business depends on biodiversity, and every business impacts biodiversity. The growth of the global economy has been at the cost of immense biodiversity loss, which now poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing. This is a central finding of a landmark new report published today by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)."

“Yet the twisted reality is that it often seems more profitable to businesses to degrade biodiversity than to protect it. Business as usual may once have seemed profitable in the short term, but impacts across multiple businesses can have cumulative effects, aggregating to global impacts, which can cross ecological tipping points. The Report shows that business as usual is not inevitable – with the right policies, as well as financial and cultural shifts, what is good for nature is also what is best for profitability. To get there, the Report offers tools for choosing more effective measurements and analysis.”

"The Report provides more than 100 specific examples of concrete actions that can be taken, across each of these five components, by businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society."
>>
https://www.ipbes.net/node/97532
#Biodiversity #life #habitability #Nature #degradation #loss #extractivism #IPBES #report #greenwashing #loggingImpacts #LobbyActivities #FossilFuelSubsidies #climate #BAU #risks #transformation

Small persistent humid forest clearings drive tropical forest biomass losses

"Tropical forests store about half of the global forest above ground carbon (AGC), yet extensive areas are affected by disturbances, such as deforestation from agricultural expansion and degradation from fires, selective logging, and edge effects...Findings highlight the disproportionate impact of small clearings on tropical carbon losses, suggesting the need to curb land-use changes and protect young and recovering forests."
>>
Xu, Y., Ciais, P., Santoro, M. et al. Small persistent humid forest clearings drive tropical forest biomass losses. Nature 649, 375–380 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09870-7 (paywall)
#Deforestation #Climate #LoggingImpacts #degradation #FCNSW #NSWLogging #PostHarvestBurn #DeliberatelyBurningAForest #EPA #MicroClimate #bushfires #NativeForests #AGC #BookkeepingApproach #ESA #TropicalForests #biodiversity

Large-scale mechanical thinning of biodiversity
Forests as machine-accessible landscapes

""Large-scale mechanical thinning operations are essentially a waste of money. At worst, they degrade forests, making them more flammable, eroding habitat, compromising water security and compacting soils."
>>
https://theconversation.com/victorias-mountain-ash-forests-naturally-thin-their-trees-so-why-do-it-with-machines-268201
#loggingImpacts #NSWLogging #thinning #Biodiversity #wildlife #machines #FossilFuel #climate #nativeforests #destruction #loggingIndustry #extractivism

Roadless area conservation: No roads, no extractive activities

Trump pushes to allow new logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
* "The move would affect more than half of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, opening it to potential logging, energy and mining projects. It would undercut a sweeping Clinton administration policy known as the “roadless rule,” which has survived a decades-long legal assault." >>
https://geosinstitute.org/past-initiative-forest-legacies/tongass/trump-pushes-to-allow-new-logging-in-alaska-s-tongass-national-forest/

* "Roadless area conservation is a conservation policy limiting road construction and the resulting environmental impact on designated areas of public land...In 'Industrial Tourism and the National Parks': Abbey describes road construction as "unnecessary or destructive development" and the loss of wilderness as a consequence of what he called "industrial tourism", where once-secluded natural areas become popularized and degraded." >>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadless_area_conservation

* What Is the Roadless Rule? "Enacted in 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Roadless Rule) designated forests across the country as “inventoried roadless areas,” prohibiting the building of — you guessed it, new roads — but also logging and other harmful industries on these lands." >>
https://environmentamerica.org/articles/what-is-the-roadless-rule-and-why-should-you-care-about-it/
#forests #biodiversity #rainforest #roads #harm #extractivism #roadless #conservation #LoggingImpacts #mining #tourism #BellingenLogging #GlenifferRoad #NSWLogging #RoadlessRule