FLOOD PREVENTION IN VICTORIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22320, 18 January 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

FLOOD PREVENTION IN VICTORIA

WITH the object of determining to what extent deforestation and consequent erosion has caused disastrous Hoods in Gippsland in recent years, members of the Victorian Treoplanters' Association intend to make a survey of Gippsland on the occasion of the ■ association's annual conference in March. Particular attention will be paid in the survey to areas in which floods have occurred, and it is proposed to formulate a policy of tree-planting with tho object of eventually preventing further disasters. The lionora ry secretary of tho association, Mr. J. S. Owens, said recently that, in the opinion of tho association, tho denudation of timber in the upper reaches of Gippsland rivers was partly responsible for the severe floods. Strong representations would bo made to the

Ministry that a State-wide tree-plant-ing plan was imperative to correct tho tho'ughtless destruction of millions of acres of valuable timber by early settlers. In Gippsland, particularly, tremendous areas were becoming useless because tho absence of trees was converting them into churned watercourses. Tho soil, Mr. Owens continued, lacked the essential binding that was provided by trees. Natural watersheds were being ruined by tho collapso of the ground, and floods wero causing whole hillsides to fall into the valleys. Government departments wero fully conscious of tho growing effects of erosion in Gippsland, and it was hoped that a defailed report by the association, togethor with expert recommendations, would impress tho Ministry with tho urgent need for action.