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Appendix 2
Photographic Plates
(Plates 1 to 22- LR 686; Plates 23 to 38 - LR 687;Plates 39 to 49 - LR 689; and, Plates 50 to 53 - LR 691)
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Logged over forest with dense cover of Merremia peltata. Note lack of canopy retention and hence non viable residual stand. (LR686) |
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Logged forest stands out starkly from adjacent non commercial area above the Gehe River. Again Merremia peltata smothers both residual stand and secondary growth. More than 80% of the canopy has been lost on this logging coupe. (LR686) |
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Spar left after commercial mechanised logging above Gehe Plantation. Such post harvest mortality is common in rainforest where microclimate changes are as dramatic as indicated in this logged over forest. There is no likelihood of this site producing a commercially viable second harvest forest stand in a reasonable time frame. (LR686) |
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More recently logged forest in LR 686 with similar loss of canopy and rampant growth of Merremia peltata smothering the sparse remnant non commercial canopy trees and dense secondary growth. (LR686) |
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Remnant Canarium indicum (Gnali Nut) in logged forest for which no compensation was paid to the landholders. Note cause of death illustrated by Plate 5. (LR686) |
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Machinery damage to base of Canarium indicum (Gnali Nut) which resulted in the death of this fruit bearing individual. (LR686) |
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This exposed remnant canopy tree is most likely to suffer the same fate as the spar illustrated by Plate 3. (LR686) |
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Road verge collapsing within LR 686. The extent of erosion is so severe that the bedrock has been exposed in the foreground. |
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Road verge collapsing exposing buried felled logs and other post harvest debris. Such a road building practice is the anathema of longevity for these roads. (LR686) |
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Road collapse due to culvert failure. Note growth of Merremia peltata and logs piled in waterway to construct culvert. (LR686) |
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Skid track on steep slope (indicated on logging plan as too steep for logging) with serious erosion evident and large volumes of mobilised topsoil following disturbance to this erosion prone part of the landscape. (LR686) |
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The ultimate fate of all of the mobilised sediment is the freshwater and hence the estuarine and marine environments. This erosion gully which has cut the road (for vehicular traffic) exemplifies typical road drainages throughout LR 686. |
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The scale of inputs of mobilised sediment is clearly seen in this photograph where many tonnes of material are being made transportable from machinery mediated topsoil disturbance and the loss of vegetative cover and litter layers. (LR686) |
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The proximity of felling operations to the low flow banks of the Gehe River is illustrated in this plate. The stump is only 16.5 m from the main river and was surrounded by Heliconia spp. (seen in background). Any Heliconia sp. dominated community should delineate areas that should remain free of any logging or related disturbances. (LR686) |
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Another collapsed culvert with logging debris utilised for road verge and culvert construction. (LR686) |
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A short section of level road surface being rapidly covered with Merremia peltata. This is not typical of LR 686 as most of the logged area is on steep slopes draining into the Gehe River. |
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| Alluvial flat adjacent to the main waterway of the Gehe River. These areas should not be disturbed, either by logging or other related machinery mediated artificial perturbations. (LR686) | |
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The degree of disruption to the alluvial plain of the Gehe River is clear in this photograph. These floodplain forests should not be logged in this manner, if at all. (LR686) |
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Stumps on the levee bank of the main stream of the Gehe River (A Class 1 stream) with logging debris fallen into the waterway. (LR686) |
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Pterocarpus indicus (Rosewood) felled into the Gehe River from the side of the main logging road through LR 686. |
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Formerly the major bridge crossing the Gehe River. The multitude of logs utilised in the apparently poor construction of this major bridge are now being moved downstream during high flow flood events. (LR686) |
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The poor structural and floristic diversity of the residual forest is depicted in this photograph. It appears that any forest patch with a commercial stem has been logged within the four logging areas surveyed during the recent field inspections. (LR687) |
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| Plate 23 | The Kahigi River floodplain buffer zone with extensive machinery related soil disturbance and stumps left from felled trees. (LR687) |
| Plate 24 | The indication of the buffer zone is clear with the machinery operators leaving the marked tree, but felling of trees and machinery access to the floodplain clearly evident in this photograph. The person marking this buffer zone did not have any means of measuring the distance or any training in field estimation of the required distance (50 m), hence the buffer at this point was only 28.4 m. (LR687) |
| Plate 25 | A elbow in the Kahigi River which has been completely cleared. The degree of disturbance to these sensitive stream banks is obvious with the entire site clearfelled and all topsoil disturbed by repeated machinery movements. (LR687) |
| Plate 26 | A 50 m tape measure utilised to verify buffer zones and other features is seen with the mid point of this traverse at 20.6 m. Thus bank to bank on the Kahigi River elbow was only 41.2 m. Trees were felled and the logs extracted from areas which were designated as protection zones. (LR687) |
| Plate 27 | Another view of the site depicted by Plates 26, 27 and 29. These stumps are on the levee banks of the Kahigi River and the crowns remain blocking the stream. |
| Plate 28 | Logging debris blocking the Kahigi River in clear violation of logging agreements, the Code of Practice and even the lay person’s concept of sound environmental practices. (LR687) |
| Plate 29 | Fuel tank adjacent to the Gehe River floodplain. Split fuel drains directly into a tributary of the main waterway of the Gehe River. (LR687) |
| Plate 30 | A culvert blocked by silt mobilised by logging operations. Overland flow is now rapidly eroding the road surface. (LR687) |
| Plate 31 | A collapsed culvert due to poor construction techniques and material selection. Vehicular traffic is impossible and foot traffic is becoming more difficult. (LR687) |
| Plate 32 | Blocked roadway with landslips, slumps and failed drainage all contributing to defeat the reported long term benefits of these roads within the logged areas. (LR687) |
| Plate 33 | A skid track with severe erosion. More than a metre of topsoil has been lost and the bedrock exposed along many metres of this skid track. Unfortunately, this is not an atypical situation across the logged over forests within ITC operations on Ysabel which have been surveyed in this study. (LR687) |
| Plate 34 | The mature phase epiphytes ubiquitously suffer extensive mortality as seen in this photograph. The host tree has lost it’s canopy due to a lack of vine cutting prior to felling of commercial stems. (LR688)Skid tracks actually constructed within the waterway which crosses the main logging road. The unacceptable nature of such actions is self apparent. (LR687) |
| Plate 35 | Downslope of the blocked culvert depicted by Plate 30 with logging debris utilised for road construction/maintenance washing downstream along with large volumes of sediment. (LR687) |
| Plate 36 | An abandoned felled tree partially buried in a logging coupe. Much of the soil seen will be moved into the nearby waterway. (LR687) |
| Plate 37 | Machinery damage to a residual tree. The commercial potential of this stem has been lost as it will die as a result of serious bark damage which will allow subsequent fatal fungal infections. (LR687) |
| Plate 38 | Seldom has there been as extensive disturbance to both forest cover and soil for such remarkably low commercial returns as observed in this coupe. Only 2 stems per hectare were harvested for greater than 80 % canopy loss and almost total soil and litter layer disturbance. (LR687) |
| Plate 39 | The main logging road (actively in use at the time of this photograph) close to failure due to poor construction techniques and use of logging debris in the road verge. (LR689) |
| Plate 40 | Despite very recent construction and active use, this culvert has already failed and filled with sediment. The long term prognosis for it’s adequate functioning is nil. (LR689) |
| Plate 41 | Massive areas of exposed earth adjacent to main logging road which are being eroded into the nearby Sidhu River. (LR689) |
| Plate 42 | The northern side of the bridge over the Sidhu River with numerous Vitex coffasus stumps evident in the foreground and middle distance. (LR689) |
| Plate 43 | Bridge collapse on the Sidhu River typical of all river crossings seen during field inspections. (LR689) |
| Plate 44 | The main river crossing in LR 691 with total bridge collapse - this only a matter of months since cessation of logging operations in this area. |
| Plate 45 | The bridge over the Sidhu River with recent repairs enabling access to the logging coupes being operated upon at the time of the field survey. (LR689) |
| Plate 46 | Formerly gravelled stream full of sediment from logging related soil erosion and deposition. Note stumps on levee banks. (LR689) |
| Plate 47 | Stream banks of the Sidhu River with totally unacceptable machinery related disturbance to forest and soil. (LR689) |
| Plate 48 | The floodplain of the Sidhu River adjacent to the bridge depicted by Plates 44 and 45 which has been decimated by uneconomic, illogical and completely environmentally unsound use of machinery in such regularly flooded landscapes. (LR689) |
| Plate 49 | Large stump on the crest of the levee bank only 4 m from the waterway - well within the 50 m buffer zone. (LR689) |
| Plate 50 | Road surface covered by Merremia peltata within logged area on the level areas within LR 691. |
| Plate 51 | Road collapse almost smothered by Merremia peltata and further making even pedestrian progress difficult and hazardous. (LR691) |
| Plate 52 | Blocked culvert with permanent pondage upstream of main logging road. (LR691) |