A KOONDROOK-BASED sawmill is calling for the return of the firewood permit system following reports the collection of domestic firewood would be banned within five years.
The Weekly Times reported recently the popular practice could be phased out as resources diminish.
Minister for Environment, Lisa Neville said that local residents and concession card holders will have priority access to free firewood when collection periods occur.
Residents in the Campaspe, Gannawarra and Loddon shires, along with the Swan Hill Rural City Council, are only permitted to collect firewood from the Gunbower Forest Firewood Collection Area.
“We are working to ensure that people who rely on firewood continue to have access to this fuel for heating and cooking this winter and beyond,” Ms Neville said.
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s Hume regional director, Christine Ferguson said the main aim of the project is to engage with communities along the Murray River corridor to better understand their use of firewood in their homes and businesses and to identify alternative options.
“Domestic firewood supplies in river red gum parks are rapidly declining along the Murray River and the Goulburn River, near Shepparton,” she said.
“We are aware that the shortage will affect those in the community who are reliant on firewood to heat their homes or cook meals. We hope to support a transition to more sustainable sources of energy. Some areas of public land along the Murray River will run out of firewood during the next five years.”
However, Koondrook-based Arbuthnot Sawmills managing director, Paul Madden said an option to address the situation is to renew the permit system, which was removed by the Baillieu Government in 2011, as well as firewood from red gum State forests only be available to residents who live within a “given” radius of Gunbower Island, Gutterum and Benwell State Forests.
“Areas outside with natural gas availability should not have access to wood through the permit system and would be able to access firewood through legal commercial operators,” he said.
Mr Madden said since the closure of 80 per cent of red gum forests seven years ago, the pressure for firewood collection on the remaining forest has been intensified.
“Following this the government changed from the permit system to free collection in the designated areas which added more intensity to a much smaller forest area,” he said.
“This was further exacerbated by firewood collectors from long distance, including Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat, coming and getting quantities of wood and also illegal commercial scale operators coming day and night and taking truckloads.
“All this has added up to a shortage of wood for local residents and is not the planned outcome especially for local areas without the prospect of natural gas.”
