Global Warming Forest Group

Whilst the problem of Dieback (Phytophthora cinnamomi) infestation in Western Australia’s forest region is complex, the best methods of control are complicated only by the government and industries unwillingness to commit adequate funding.

Logging coupes in uninfested areas are managed almost entirely with financial profits in mind. Adequate dieback management requires both time and financial investment. The attitude of the government authorities and industries responsible for dieback management is to do as little as they can get away with and just enough to make it look as if they are doing the job responsibly.

By Kim Redman

The Dieback Disaster

There are no adequate provisions for vehicle drivers or pedestrians to remove potentially contaminated material
Even if contaminated material is removed from vehicles and footwear, there is never any means of disposing of the material to stop it attaching to other vehicles or boots, or from entering dieback free areas after rain (fig 1)
The total lack of adequate monitoring leaves little incentive for vehicle operator and pedestrians to cooperate with the regulations
Inadequate education and training for onsite employees
Gates are usually left open, unlocked or positioned so people and vehicles can easily move around them (fig 2)
The separation from loader to trucks may help to prevent the spread of dieback from vehicle movement, but offers no protection from pedestrians carrying infected mud from one area to the other on their boots
Clean gravel on roads through infected areas only provides protection for as long as flooding or animals don’t transport infected material onto the surface area

These measures are virtually useless because:

(fig 2)

Gate erected in logging coupe to protect the forest from nearby dieback infested area, but never closed. Photo taken on the weekend of 18 June 2011 Jolly forest coupe.

Stop all logging thinning and clearing of native forest and close off all roads leading into Dieback Risk Areas with gates and signs and permanently closing roads no longer of use (fig 3, 4) GWFG believes this is the best environmentally responsible solution.
Providing adequate cleandown areas and equipment with security camera monitoring plus adequate procedures for disposing of potentially infected material (fig 5, 6, 7)
Only allow logging in the dry summer months and then only if there has been no recent rain.

There are three main methods of resolving the problems:

(fig 3)

(fig 4)

(fig 1)

(fig 5)

(fig 6)

(fig 7)

Footwear cleaning station consisting of a metal ramp and disinfectant bath with an immersion plate for the cleaning of footwear prior to entering uninfested area.

Truck washdown bay includes

effluent management system

Here we see a cleandown station at a minesite. Whilst such an elaborate station would be impractical in logging coupes, a more modest version with camera monitoring is the only realistic method of ensuring contamination removal.

(fig 7)

This usually involves:

Signs indicating that vehicles should be clear of materials such as mud or vegetation that could carry dieback into the coupe
Occasionally a gate
Loading areas that separates the log loading machine from the log trucks
Occasionally some road area surfaced with dieback free grave

Phytophthora cinnamomi is a soil-borne water mould that produces an infection which causes a condition in plants called root rot or dieback. The plant pathogen is one of the world's most invasive species.