Conservation groups have rubbished moves to protect a portion of old growth forest in WA's South West, claiming the rules defining what's to be saved from logging have been "quietly changed" to allow more felling to take place.
Clearing of the Barrabup Forest near Nannup was recently put on hold pending the outcome of an old-growth assessment and Indigenous heritage survey after angry locals noticed trees in the area had been marked for logging and a road cleared.
On Friday Environment Minister Stephen Dawson announced an assessment of Barrabup had identified 43 hectares of jarrah old-growth within an area set to be logged.
This old growth will be set aside from logging, which has been opposed at Barrabup by a number of conservation groups angry that tracks were being pushed into the area to prepare for timber operations.
"Unfortunately, it was found that track construction had disturbed about one hectare of the old-growth forest which is extremely disappointing," Mr Dawson said.
"It is imperative that our unique natural values are conserved and protected through greater stringent controls and I have asked DBCA to ensure stricter compliance."
Forestry Minister Dave Kelly is now asking why the old growth areas were not identified earlier.
"FPC will also be re-evaluating the harvest strategy for the Barrabup coupe and harvesting will not commence until this is complete," he said.
However, these developments have been met with skepticism from conservation groups, who believe there could be more old growth within the Barrabup area.
"Parts of Barrabup 03 that would have met the definition of old growth a few months ago are now on the chopping block because bureaucrats in the Department quietly changed the definition of old growth jarrah," said Jess Beckerling, convener of the WA Forest Alliance.
"Under the previous Conservation and Parks Commission definition, jarrah forest with five stumps per hectare and an intact canopy would be protected as old growth.
"Once DBCA was given responsibility for identifying old growth, it quietly weakened the definition to six stumps per 2-hectare block, with no consideration of canopy structure, making more ancient jarrah forest available for intensive logging."
With regard to stump count, the final report on Barrabup's old growth status said "in western jarrah forest, a threshold of six or less stumps per 2 hectares (four combined 0.5 hectare cells) generally indicates minimal disturbance from past harvesting and possible old growth forest.
"Stump counts in most of the cells surveyed exceeded this threshold, and were therefore categorised as more than minimally disturbed. The status of these areas therefore remains as non old-growth forest," the report said.
In response to the accusations, Environment Minister Stephen Dawson said the definition of old-growth forest "has not changed and is consistent with the National Forest Policy (1992) definition."
"The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has developed a procedure to identify and demarcate old-growth forest areas including a range of parameters such as the presence of dieback, mining and grazing history and stand density and structure among others," he said.
"The assessment of old-growth forest status from public nominations is now carried out by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, as required by the Forest Management Plan 2014-2023. Public consultation on options for administering the public nomination process were proposed in the Draft Forest Management Plan 2014-2023 which was released for a 12-week public comment phase, as part of the extensive consultation process for the Forest Management Plan 2014-2023.
"This was done in consultation with the Conservation and Parks Commission. This procedure was finalised earlier this year, and this approach is now more intensive than was previously the case.
"The Forest Management Plan ensures forests with high conservation values are adequately represented in reserves and other areas set aside from timber harvesting, such as fauna habitat zones and stream and river zones.
"There are a number of reserves near Barrabup forest block, such as the proposed St Johns Brook Conservation Park and the Milyeannup and Easter national parks."
The Alliance has welcomed the state government's review of logging procedures, but want it carried out by an independent authority.
Greens Forests Spokesperson Diane Evers MLC said the government's failure to notice the old growth "before illegally bulldozing some of it in preparation for logging has damaged its credibility on forests."
"The 43ha is less than 10 per cent of the total area proposed to be logged, and much less than what the community expected the report to show," she said.
"It appears the Government recently changed the definition of old growth, without any community oversight or consultation and this is a matter I will be investigating as an urgent priority."
But Mr Kelly said the government appreciates community efforts to highlight the issue.
"The McGowan Government, like Labor governments of the past, takes the conservation of our old-growth forests very seriously," he said.
"After all, it was the Gallop Labor Government that stopped the harvesting of old-growth forests in 2002."
