BUSHFIRE SCIENCE INFORMATION REPORT 4: 
What are the ecological consequences of post-fire logging in the native forests of south-eastern Australia?

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Fact Sheet

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• Post-fire logging is a forest management activity that originated in the Northern Hemisphere. It is designed to recover some of the economic value of disturbed forests by harvesting dead trees.  However, the majority of Australian forests are dominated by eucalypt tree species that are not killed by fire. 
  
  
• The ecological impacts of post-fire logging are different from the effects of bushfire. Post-fire logging results in the immediate loss of vital habitat resources. The mechanical disturbance of post-fire logging damages surviving plants, soil and seed banks, disrupting natural processes of post-fire recovery. It is a new type of disturbance that compounds the impacts of bushfire.
  
  
• In some forests, the combined impacts of logging and fire are causing a collapse in the availability of large, hollow-bearing trees, which are vital habitat to many forest animals, including threatened mammal and bird species.
  
  
• Post-fire logging damages important ecosystem services and the ecological damage caused by post-fire logging may outweigh short-term economic benefits
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• Post-fire logging does not reduce subsequent fire risk and may increase fire risk over the short term.