A review meeting on the Strategic Fire Break (SFB) in the Muckleford Forest has prompted several key local groups to write to DELWP to provide feedback: the letter was initiated by Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club with Muckleford Catchment Landcare; Castlemaine Landcare Group; Muckleford Forest Friends Group; and Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests.
In the letter to DELWP, the groups thanked Justine Leahy and her team for the time spent working together and their willingness to take issues raised by the groups into account.
A site visit to the Bells Lane SFB (Muckleford Forest) with Justine Leahy reviewed the work undertaken, noting that the experimental section carried out with brush-cutters gave a better result than the slashing, with the vegetation reduced to an acceptable height for the break while still maintaining a good ground cover of living vegetation, meaning less impact overall on the forest. This contrasted with other areas that had been subjected to tractor-mounted slashing where there was much greater impact on the shrub layer and significant amounts of soil disturbance from vehicle tracks. Soil disturbance has the potential to increase erosion during heavy rainfall events as well as encouraging the establishment of annual introduced grasses and other weeds.
The letter also expressed concerns about other proposed SFBs in floristically rich areas south of Castlemaine, expressing the hope that similar levels of consultation and flexibility using staff with high levels of local expertise will be maintained in the future with respect to both SFBs and other forest management programs.
To read the full letter, click here.
Muckleford Forest 