The local ramifications of the State Government’s decision to finish native forest harvesting by 2030 in state-owned forests are serious and far-reaching according to local timber industry leaders.

Fenning Timbers in Bairnsdale, which uses 100 per cent ash species to produce furniture, joinery and structural grade timber, is directly affected.

The company’s principal, Leonard Fenning, and resource manager, Brian Donchi, want people to understand the far-reaching effects of the decision.

“It’s unending what the domino effect of this decision will be,” Mr Fenning warned.

“The government does not realise how big a flow-on effect there will be across the state.”

Mr Donchi said the whole Victorian timber industry used just six per cent of state forest.

“We cannot allow Daniel Andrews to destroy our timber industry,” Mr Donchi said.

“It provides real jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity to all sectors of many businesses in Victoria.

“People think it’s going to help the bush, it won’t.

“There are thousands of hectares in the national parks and millions of trees already dead from fires - it will all be destroyed. Locking it up won’t save it – it will do the reverse.”

Mr Donchi said it was estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people were indirectly employed by the industry statewide.

“It’s not just us employing 50 people, it’s all the businesses we use and the people they employ, as well as the plumbers, the electricians, all the supply businesses. There are a huge number of people in Bairnsdale indirectly employed by the timber industry.”

In the wake of the decision, the Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI) released a statement stating the industry was highly regulated and environmentally responsible, and in the forest estate of eight million hectares just 3000 hectares, or put more simply, four of every 10,000 trees, were harvested annually.

“And when they’re harvested they grow back,” Mr Donchi said.

“It’s almost like a plantation because it’s been logged - it can be sustainable in perpetuity.”

The VAFI statement also says trees in forests and plantations typically sequester carbon at a maximum rate between 10 and 30 years of age with the rate slowing until maturity at 80 to 100 years.

Mr Donchi warns another issue will be when the next big bushfire burns in the High Country.

“It needs thinning out and it needs to be managed better. When the timber workers are gone, no one else has the machinery, the knowledge or the skill to help in a bushfire.”

He said the area that burnt in the terrible 1939 fires, from Kinglake near Melbourne to almost Orbost, grew back to become the largest hardwood timber producing area in Australia.

“Everything needs to be managed,” Mr Donchi said.

“Locking it up will mean the roads will become blocked, the culverts will become blocked, the fuel loads will build up.

“This decision has been made to please environmentalists, but the bush will be a mess and with drier, hotter weather conditions it will need more management.

“We can’t get it through to the government - just leave our industry alone. We want our jobs and towns to survive.”