Sadly Victoria is one of the few States that still supports clearfelling our main water catchment the Thomson reservoir.
Every year 150 hectares of high water catchment forest is clearfelled for woodchips. Once a diverse wet sclerophyll forest it now becomes a monoculture, uniform age dry sclerophyll plantation. 1/3 of the trees are taken to the chip mill whilst 2/3's of it are dozed into piles and burnt. The area is cleared of understory, sprayed and burnt in preperation for the spreading of single Euc species.
We loose 1,000 litres of water per second due to logging Melbournes water catchment. I full Maroondah dam goes up the trunks of the thirsty eucalyptus plantation every year.
To see how we destroy our water supply go to google earth or www.tcha.org.au and see the massive clearfelling in our Thomson.
80% of our logs go to woodchip export or pulp purely because its cheaper for the companies to clearfell public forests than use their plantations. As our Thomson dries up the woodchip companies clearfell on untill the Government of the day has the guts to say thats it.
WATER OR WOODCHIPS THATS THE DEBATE.

To 'bizkit'
I had resolved not to participate any further in this because of time constraints, but your post needs massive corrections:

You refer to huge areas clearfelled in the Thomson catchment.
Actually, the average area harvested in the Thomson Dam catchment is 120 ha. The catchment is 47,600 ha in size, so at that rate it would take 396 years to log it all.

However, logging is only permitted in 8,200 ha of the Thomson catchment (about 17%). So 83% won't be logged again - some of it has been logged in the past when it wasn't part of Melbourne's catchments ie. prior to 1983 which was when the dam was built.

You say 'a diverse wet sclerophylle forest becomes a monoculture, uniform age dry sclerophylle plantation...'
The forests being used for timber production are 1939 regrowth so they are already uniform age. They are regenerated with seed so they are not plantations (which are planted). Wet sclerophylle could only revert to dry sclerophylle if rainfall massively declined - which it hasn't. Regeneration after logging is the same as after natural fire with full regeneration of understorey species over time.

You say 'about 2/3 rd logs are dozed in heaps, then area is sprayed and burnt in preparation for single Euc species.'
You obviously know nothing about these forests - they produce both sawn timber and woodchips. There is no heaping of debris, except for bark heaps at landings. There is no spraying. The forest is of a single species, so that is what is used to regenerate it

Continue response to 'bizkit':
You would obviously prefer to use plantations for timber but that is where herbicides are sprayed, animals are poisoned (if necessary) - not in native forest operations such as in the Thomson catchment.

You say "1000 litres per second' - a ridiculous figure. The difference in water use between young regrowth after logging and 70 year regrowth if left unlogged, is not that great. If the aim was to increase water flow into reserviors, the catchments would be clearfelled and turned into pasture - would you prefer that?

You say the 'logging companies prefer to use public forests instead of their plantations'. It is not up to the companies (the government already limits logging to just a minor portion of the catchments) and they don't have plantations capable of supplying eucalypt sawlogs which is what they want from the catchment forests. Woodchips are a by-product. Some companies have woodchip plantations but these are mostly too young to harvest.

I'm afraid you don't know really what you are talking about, but hopefully this will help you understand.

Mr Poynter,

You just don't get it.
Deforestation is generally a curse and is a part of a historical disease that has its roots in an attitude that humans have the right to pillage, exploit, rape and dominate nature.
All your well rehearsed arguments amount to nothing but justifications for an evil that has/is supported by governments, corporations and those who cannot see past their own narrow self interests.
Your words are so twisted. You make our that your industry has a balanced, responsible and caring agenda. BS! Your industry is driven by corporate greed, political weakness and ignorence.
The environmental, social, economic crisis is the tip of a huge iceberg. You are like the captain of the titanic refusing to believe that your enterprise is fatally flawed.
Sure, I admit that a radical change in thinking and policy would disrupt most of our lives to some extent. We have become so over-dependent on amazingly massive unsustainable ways of living. Clear-fell logging is one evil among many. And we are all involved in the mess we have created. But for goodness sake, what will it take for people like you Mr Poynter to wake up and see the writing on the wall?
What would the loggers from 70 years ago have to say I wonder about present logging practices?
We are destroying the planet. YES WE ARE. And deforestation is at the head of the beast.

to keithcolin'

This is my last post - it is not worth going on when you just refuse to accept the facts and dismiss than as propaganda. If you don't believe me, I suggest you look at the Victoria's State of the Forests Report on the DSE website.

I don't disagree that the world is facing massive problems with deforestation in SE Asia and Brazil where forests are being permanently replaced by other non-treed land uses. But this is different to harvesting and regenerating Australian forests for wood where trees are being grown in perpetuity.

You really need to find out what deforestation is.

Mr Poynter, this will probably be my last post on this thread too...unless you decide to have another last post.
You suggest I read the DSE website but the DSE and Vic Forests are entrenched in a culture of thinking in specific ways and are therefore a major part of the problem. It is like saying if you don't believe my views (mistakingly referred to as facts) about vegetarianism go to the website of Department for Vegans and read up the facts. And lets for goodness sake expose this word "harvesting" for the furphy that it is. Clear fell devestation is harvesting...sure, nice, clean, beneficial kind-hearted foresters.
BS! This new spin would be in shatters if people stood in the midst of a recently logged coup...except for those who are desensitised. People who can chop, hunt, maim, kill, exploit, dominate and destroy in the name of progress and jobs. Let's keep all the armament factories and personnel intact because jobs are at stake!
Your perspective Mr Poynter is greately coloured. So is mine. But who is really caring about the whole ecological life-support existence?
Who is really feeling a deep connection with Nature? We read the book of life on vastly different pages. Or do we?