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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Deforestation and flooding

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I blame the NSW State Forestry Corporation operations for the devastating floods that have all but destroyed our community and our economy. Many editions of The Echo contain articles on the logging and clear-felling of the last of the forested headwaters that once slowed the movement of rainwater down to the lowlands. Protection of these essential catchment and water storage forests have been removed by the NSW Liberal National Government for their billionaire supporters. The width of the stream-side forested corridors have now been reduced to only five metres on either side, ensuring the last surviving trees will soon be washed away as the denuded slopes pour ever more water into our creeks. The NSW State Forestry Corporation has been given another five years to finish their operations – ensuring the death of the forest community that is vital for our protection against flooding and runaway climate change.

In the 1970s I worked as a Queensland National Parks ranger up at the O’Reilly’s Green Mountains section of Lamington National Park and have walked the trails of the adjacent national parks that protect the Border Ranges regularly ever since. The topography and vegetation is similar to the rest of the hilly landscapes at lower elevations. Those ranges receive the heaviest rainfalls, occasionally equivalent to the ‘rain bomb’ that has just destroyed us. Hydrologists measuring water flow within the undisturbed forests found that it took many months for each rain weather event to percolate down to the creeks. As rangers mainly involved in repairing the walking trails we noticed that there was relatively little increase in the headwater flows and no sign of mud or erosion. Even after a nine-month-long drought in the mid-1980s the creeks were still running as if it had been constantly raining.

The gigantic canopy trees, the dense middle strata of smaller trees, the ground cover of ferns and mosses and the combined roots of all the plants absorb all of the rainfall. Here in north-eastern NSW, we have a private power company that is transporting and burning the last of our forests for electricity generation. With the removal of the big trees that shade and create protection for the lower strata of vegetation the devastated forests dry and become a bushfire hazard.

The logging exterminates all of the nest hollows for sixty per cent of our birds and all of our possums, gliders and other arboreal animals that consume the invertebrates that feed on the vegetation until only weeds and sickly trees survive. The beautiful bellbirds are the only survivors as they feed on the exudates of tiny sap-sucking insects that rapidly increase with the extinction of all the other birds and possums that normally keep them under control. Forestry then blames the bellbirds for the death of the forests and calls for their extermination.

A few members of our community protest the devastation of our essential forests while the majority concern themselves with their own wellbeing and creativity, now washed away and destroyed by the removal of the protective forested headwaters. The city-centric community knows nothing of this, and if the Liberal National Party win the upcoming Federal election the devastation will be complete. As I said in my letter published in The Echo in July 2017, the future for north-eastern NSW will not be a kind one for humanity, the ever-increasing floods and heatwaves accompanied by a rapidly heating Coral Sea will be perfect for saltwater crocodiles enjoying the flooding.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. Greed is at the centre of all of humanity’s problems. The abuse of our beautiful and unique home . It’s about time that we have a total shift and shun greed as it deserves

  2. I agree. It’s a change in topography.
    The climate alarmists get in the way of solving problems with the dogmatic rhetoric of their ideology.
    Decrease inflow and/or increase out flow.
    It’s not rocket surgery.

  3. Well put, Gary. There’s not enough listeners & environmentalists are too
    short on the ground. It’s more than a sad song if the LNP hold power on
    what I call “Judgement Day.”

  4. Here here. This guy knows what he’s talking about. He’s lived it out there not learnt it from behind a desk. The steep slopes should be left alone as a buffer, protection for the lowlands. There should already be plantations on the flatter cleared land planted 40, 50, 60 years ago. Why arnt they there. It’s 5 times harder working on a slope than on the flat. There’s no money to be made. The gov subsidies them at a big loss. So much waste and greed no wonder the planet is overheating. In the low flat country should be 50 ft buffer either side of creeks that’s native forest . Fenced off from the cattle. With water troughs in the paddock so they don’t erode the banks getting a drink. The bigger the water course (river) the wider the buffer should be. Even on farms the steeper slopes could be left uncleared. It just grows crap buffalo up there that the cattle don’t like. It’s a poor feed and trying to maintain it , slash it ect , is dangerous. Roll the tractor. It’s not worth the danger. Cheaper and safer to leave it. If the buffer zone was done 50 even 30 years ago there’d be a lot less erosion and mud in the river now. We were swimming in a creek inland from Nambucca in the 80 s and the old farmer told us that there used to be a diving board there that he used when he was a kid. 8 feet above the creek. And now he said it’s about 10 ft under the rocks and stones buried under the creek. That much erosion , 18 feet, nearly 6 mts . In 70 years. Ocean going ships used to dock at Lismore . Imagine if a paddle steamer could cruise up the river daily . . Jazz band on the weekends. Would be a big tourist attraction. Friendly card games . Two up on Anzac Day . Stop at all the towns on the way. There’s a lot of profit in doing the right thing. The gov could subsidise it. It could be a win win for everybody.

    • So your saying that the rivers have been filling in so that they can carry sudden flows of water when needed?
      A wider, shallower river can not speed it’s flow up like a narrower deeper one can, cause, laminar flow.
      That sounds like a drainage problem!
      But I’m sure it’s just cow farts causing the problem.

      • No Chris, he said that a diving board that used to be 8 feet above the creek is now 10 feet under the creek, buried – and that that equates to 18 feet of “erosion”. Doh

  5. As Gary pointed out, if you leave the forest alone on the steeper mountainous country then that helps to lessen sudden runoff into the lower country. That rain bomb tho was very unusual , biblical , mind boggling. So was the dry dry heatwave in 2019. Not even any dew in the morning. No moisture in the air at all, from July till February. …. Having the creek and river buffer zones of forest on the low lands will obviously help with less erosion. Also the extra little birds and beneficial insects in these green corridors will eat the bad bugs and pests in the crops and pastures meaning the farmer sprays less poison. There’s enormous benefits. If they are paid to maintain these then that’s a win win. …….. Pollution. I’m talking piddle and poo. It’s wrecking the creeks, rivers and oceans . And chemical fertiliser. Made from petro chemicals. It’s killing the soil. It’s to easy to use to much , it’s so potent. The excess runs off and wrecks the rivers and oceans. Kills coral and kelp. Why not use the wasted piddle n poo. Ferment it in a tank, make gas off that and store it to sell. It’s odourless . They have to add a smell to it to make it safe to use . Then what’s left gets mixed with water at the right amount . Probably 100 to 1, and sprayed on pastures. I’d keep the beasties off it till it rained a bit or manually water it in, just like you would if you’d put super down. A dusting of dolomite once a year does wonders. Sewerage , it’s a wasted natural resource. It’s the extra poisons and chemicals in it that need to be removed , or just quit using them. Eg: biodegradable and natural cleaning products. There really is a clever more natural way to do this where everyone wins and make extra money while your doing it. Instead of the uncaring way that they’ve been doing it since the end of the war. The 50 s. That’s when all the chemicals and poisons where first introduced. Our grandparents and great grand parents didn’t use them. You might get a bit less volume from crops but it’s offset by the premium price you get for the natural non poisonous produce.

  6. Hahahaha , just read Stefanies hahshaha , Yknow , I reckon Chris is probably a nice guy, I could enjoy a beer and game of pool with. I think he thinks that there needs to be an opposite point of view up here where most people are on the same page , so he’s providing it. And that’s good , that’s a democracy. Should be able to peacefully protest if we want. In a way, I can agree with both sides . For and against. I grew up with farmers and general workers and became a capitalist when I had a 5 man team with 100 plus clients for 25 years non stop. I can see the risk and the gamble in the Unknown. You don’t wanna go broke , your trying to avoid that as much as you can. Small business keeps this country going , we pay the most tax. but as I got older I can see that we need to do something about it. There’s a way forward where we can heal it ( the land ) and still make money off it. Just have to think outside the box, laterally . It feels like petty politics and bickering , creates diversion. The right hand is giving while the left hand is taking. Pretending to do something and not doing it. Divide ,, at all cost keep them divided and bickering , so we can do the secret deals and no one notices. If we all joined forces and ignored the diversions then they’d have to do something real about it. I want a win win so no one loses. Who cares about the billionaires , they got enough already . Look after the rest of us. To much greed . Stop wrecking it. Fix it.

  7. What a silly attempt to blame forestry, again.

    Why does the northern rivers community continually embarass itself in this way? It makes us look as stupid as Angus Taylor.

    The facts are:

    1. Forestry does not deforest areas. But urban, infrastructure and agricultural developments iften do.
    2. The northern rivers region has long passed the era of peak deforestation, and now has much more tree cover than at that peak decades ago – so increased flooding in the region (to the extent it is actually happening) is not due to deforestation, let alone harvesting trees from forests.

    Major floods are natural and have long occurred – long before the clearing of land started, and long before the burning of fossil fuels commenced.

    However, climate change due to burning of fossil fuels does increase the risk of major floods – both probability and severity. So we must address this real risk of flooding (and other catastrophic outcomes).

  8. A good point and fairly true from one perspective but why not leave the hills and slopes alone and just work the flatter plantations on already cleared land . There’s heaps of wasted eroding flatter land everywhere that could be planted right now. If our grandfathers had done that we’d be harvesting them now like in Sweden Norway . The subsidies spent on forestry could be spent on plantation timber planted in the right spots not the wrong spots. It might take a few years to transition but there could be other alternatives made available to workers while they’re waiting for the plantations to mature. 1: Forestry has gotten greedy over the years as the bigger native trees have become more rare. They can bypass the 45* degree slope rule by pushing a road in sideways to the steep hill and logging up and down the slope from that flat area they created to get to these ancient giant trees. It’s to tempting . Easier to bend or blatantly break the rules. A lot more cubic feet of timber in one big tree than in 20 or 30 little ones. Yes, major floods are natural but large trees can lessen the impacts. Especially on slopes and area above the creek. Forestry thins out areas , logging the same area every 30 to 60 years, and makes them more fire prone in dry times and more eroding in wet times. A tree that’s 30 to 60 years old is not a large native tree. It’s a sapling. A large native tree is 400,500, 1000 plus years old . It’s 100 times bigger than a 50 years old tree. Its roots go down deeper and spread wider. Makes the ground more friable ( more sponge like ) and able to hold and store more water . The finer rootlets hold the ground together . Less chance of land slip in floods. . There’s no comparison between a 40 year old sapling and a 500 year old giant. It’s nonsense and a blatant lie. In dry times it pumps more water vapour into the atmosphere creating rain. To compare a 50 year old tree to an ancient giant is like a home fish tank pump compared to a Honda fire fighter pump. No comparison. Not even close. Thinned forest is bush fire forest. Catastrophic fire tornado forest. Wood chip forest . Only good for poles and erosion , land slips , weeds, feral animals, Cranky foresters not making enough money out of saplings. It’s corrupt governments fault. Not the workers . They just want to work and be paid a decent wage. ………. 2: They’re still logging on the northern rivers, only a bit further west and out of sight. That’s the idea. Keep it out of sight and out of mind , hope no one notices so no one can complain. The entire east coast is still being logged. It’s kept out of sight of the highways and roads so the average person can’t see the damage that it does. Weed seeds come in on the wheels of the big logging machinery and road makers. Roads cut in steeper areas are the reason for a deluge charging down the slope and land slips . It’s obvious that that is going to do damage. Forestrys and national parks fix for damaged areas is to cut saplings either side of the steep dirt road and just let em drop over the road in a mish mash log jamb and just leave it and forget it had hope no one notices the blatant damage they did. They figure, if they can’t get in there and see it , they can’t complain . On with the next butchery. That’s no fix at all. Still eroding and still a worse fire hazard than if they left it alone. Didn’t make the road in the first place.

  9. Corrupt politicians and beurocrats who make the decisions . The big bosses of forestry with relatives and friends adjoining the state forests who allow the thinning of forests . More grass grows underneath so in winter , when there’s no feed on the flats the cattle can be driven up there for 2 or 3 months till spring. When the flats have grown a feed for the beasties. Basically they’re just making pasture for the cattle. Native forest and animals have no priority. Fire hazard and erosion and flood run off have no priority. That’s the plane truth of it. Greed and corruption and pretend to follow the rules while breaking them in secret.

  10. Oh I forgot the best part of the diving board story. The old farmer who was in his 70 s his neighbour was the last property ( about 400 acres) in the little deadend valley . His farm was about 300 acres. The next one down the valley. Their fathers had set it up and shared a creek boundary. From up high you could say it looked a bit messy . Trees here and there. Both sides of the winding wiggly creek had trees and paddocks behind . They all got on good . The neighbours son went away to become a chemist . Then both his parents died ( the old farmers friends) and the son was to busy running his chemist about 200 ks away . So he used to come up once a fortnight and work on the farm over the weekends . What he did was he cut down all the trees . And all that erosion silted up the old farmers farm on the creek boundary and below and they ended up feuding , non stop. That’s why the old farmer made a point of pointing it out to us. Coz he was kinda cast as the baddie but he wasn’t really. That 18 foot of rocks stones sand mud took about 15 to 20 years to erode . So that averages about 1 foot a year ,, 300 ml…. For a little creek . Imagine what that does on a big river scale.. The old guy knew . He was showing us. His place light have looked a bit scrubby but it blended into the area. It didn’t erode till the upstream neighbour cleared it all.

  11. The majority of trees were cleared for cattle! Stop eating meat problem solved! Veganism is 25 to 40 times more land efficient. About 70 percent of all grain produced is fed to livestock while die of malnutrition.

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