About Chester Forest

Chester Block is in the extreme south-western corner of WA’s public forests, about 20km North East of Augusta.
It is very low lying, drained by a system of interconnected streams and wetlands. In winter it could be described as a shallow lake, with islands of trees and shrubs.
It is an area of exceptional conservation value. The 1998 Comprehensive Regional Assessment (CRA) Species Richness map shows Chester to be of maximum floral diversity (700-800 species per sq. km).

The only Karri outlier in the district is here, protected by a nature reserve at Chester’s centre, while the Southern border adjoins another nature reserve (Paget Nature Reserve). It borders a conservation park to the east. Over one third of the proposed coupe is informal reserves (swamps) due to its low lying topography. The interconnected wetlands provide habitat for a variety of vegetation types from predominantly water dependent species – paperbarks, teatrees, rushes and sedges, to other complexes on the slightly higher ground where the tree species include jarrah, marri, banksias, sheoak peppermint, bullich, Christmas tree, snottygobble, woody pear and grass trees.

Biodiversity

A total of 34 biodiversity hotspots have been identified world-wide where “exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat”(1) Only one occurs in Australia, in the south west of WA. As well as the requirement for over 2000 endemic plants in the area, one of the criteria for the international biodiversity hotspots is that at least 70% of the natural vegetation has been cleared.
Given the massive clearing in the wheatbelt, our forests represent most of the <30% remaining natural vegetation of this area, south of a line from Jurien Bay to Esperance.

More information about International Biodiversity Hotspots

Chester also lies within one of 12 Federally declared biodiversity hotspots – the Busselton to Augusta biodiversity hotspot.

More information about Australian Biodiversity Hotspots

Chester lies at the foot of the Blackwood Plateau on the Scott Coastal Plain, which has been widely cleared for agriculture. Being on the very edge of the southern forests, the trees on Chester block are considered to be "marginal' in terms of timber value. The placement of Chester, on the border of the forest and the coastal plain, makes it quite unique in terms of the number of different habitats and ecosystems which can be found in this relatively small area, and the Scott River Plains soil system is well known among botanists for the high level of endism in the local flora. (Plants that have evolved in, and are only found in that area.)

More information about these Soil Types

Chester is in excellent condition, with only one recorded logging event in the 1950’s. This was a decade known for its light, selective logging. Most of the few tracks now overgrown, there are no gravel pits and the last known burn was also in the 1950’s.
Much of Chester, including a large area in the centre of the logging coupe, is so far unaffected by Phytophthora cinnamomi - Jarrah dieback - also known as "the biological bulldozer".
The western end of Chester, including much of the logging coupe, contains plant communities described as “the most threatened in Western Australia”(2) These are the restricted plant communities of the massive ironstones (ferrocretes) of the Scott Coastal Plain, and the main threat to them is from the spread of Phytophthora cinnamomi, a threat that would be greatly increased should the logging proposal proceed.
. This combination of a wide range of vegetation and soil types, the presence of the wetlands and Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs), along with the range of associated macro to micro fauna combined with widespread adjacent land clearing, make this varied habitat rare, beautiful, and extremely important to biodiversity conservation.

More Information about the ironstone communities (the 'Gibson Report')

The map below shows the distribution of the Scott River Ironstone Communities (blue circles), and how few are on public land.
As you can see, apart from the Chester block, the rare communities are almost totally confined to roadside populations, and very little in National Park.
Surely this is a good case on its own to prohibit any logging of any part of Chester!

Although Chester is known to contain rare and conservation priority flora, and some of its rare and priority flora is in known populations, it has never been systematically surveyed for flora. Nor has its fauna been surveyed, although many vulnerable species are considered to have a moderate to high chance of being found there. Its placement between the forest, woodland, wetland and plain ensures that its biodiversity will be higher than any one of those systems, as it is, in fact, a major ecotone.

Ecotone defined

Climatic drying in the South West of WA means that wet, southerly forests will inevitably become refuges for species migrating from drying regions to the north. For biodiversity conservation, areas such as Chester forest are necessary and important, and it should be part of our response to climate change that they are protected.

Read newspaper article about climate change refuges

(1) Myers, N., Mittermeier, C.G., de Fonseca, G.A.B. and Kent, J. (2000).
Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature (Lond.). 403:853-858
(2) N. Gibson, G Keighery, & B Keighery, Threatened Plant Communities of Western Australia. 1. The Ironstone communities of the Swan and Scott Coastal Plains