Casual observation shows that most blocks around Lucaston have been logged in the past. The native forest has recovered. The difference is that nowadays, the general practice is for outsiders to rip out everything and move on. Contractors often replant only because the Forest Practices Act says that they must. In the past, logging was selective, probably removing 30% of the canopy every 10 - 20 years. The remaining trees provided genetically suitable seed, homes for wildlife, wind breaks, and a stable viewfield.
The people doing the logging lived in the community and had a long-term caring relationship with the forest environment. Such a caring relationship can still be found in many communities, Lucaston is one.
People wanting to buy rural residential properties, generally want either pasture or natural bush. Your blocks are too steep for pasture so bush is the only alternative. If you want to sell your properties for a reasonable price within the next 40 years, retaining a natural ecosystem will greatly assist sales. No one wants to live in a ridiculously steep, genetically altered, monoculture plantation. Real estate values of your and surrounding properties are sure to fall. However a native forest block which promises to provide another crop every 20 years, would be quite attractive to many people. Selective logging may achieve such an end.
A casual examination of hillsides that are visible from Bakers Creek Road and the road to Ranelagh will illustrate the landslip dangers of clearing steep areas. Erosion is a slower version of the same concept.
Large contractors doing broadscale plantations will usually use chemicals to kill every threat, plant or animal. 1080 or shooting is unfair on the creatures that are just doing what comes naturally in eating fresh shoots. Herbicides target all but the plantation species, creating a monoculture that is unsuitable for the majority of native creatures. The food chain starts with a wide variety of plants, supporting a wide variety of browsing mammals, and invertebrates.
The invertebrates provide food for other mammals, birds etc. A monoculture does not allow this diversity and tends to be species poor. Selective logging and native seed dispersal obviates the need for chemicals.
There are properties downstream from yours that have been chemical free for a long enough period to gain accredited organic certification, and are in the process of achieving certification. Some are already in organic production. Chemical use upstream from them would prevent certification, spoiling their dream and affecting them economically. There are also many homes that take their drinking water downhill/downstream from your properties. They can currently do so because our valley is unpolluted. Any chemicals used, no matter how carefully applied, will eventually find their way into water supplies.
There are also several ecotourism proposals by individual properties at Lucaston. A logged area would seriously affect the viability of these.
Much of Lucaston has been settled by people with the intention of living in a managed natural environment. Eight properties are currently part of the Parks and Wildlife Service recognised Mount Misery Habitat Reserve. Seven more are being considered for inclusion. We would be glad to make a copy of the reserve management plan available to you as it explains how to live with nature, using some and leaving some for the future. There may even be aspects of the management plan that you would like to adopt for your properties and some financial support is available from government conservation agencies.
We are not wealthy so cannot offer compensation for lost short-term income, so hope that you will see the longer-term benefit to you and those who follow and that this will affect your actions now. It has been the promise of a fast buck that has created most of the world's environmental problems. It is up to us all to make a small short-term sacrifice for the long term good. An option that some community members may be interested in exploring is purchase of your properties. <
We hope that you have read this far, with an open mind, and now understand our feelings and vague proposals. We also hope that we have alerted you to the possibility of other options. We would be glad to help you pursue them.
Please do not log our beautiful valley.
