ACT Parks and Conservation has announced that Pine harvesting operations are under way at Majura Pines this week, with trucks running up and down the Majura Parkway.
Director, Daniel Iglesias said the harvest was expected to take six to eight weeks to complete.
“It’s important to take care in the area with a high volume of heavy machinery and traffic expected throughout the harvesting operation,” Mr Iglesias said.
“The ACT Parks and Conservation Service is working to minimise any hazards that may be caused by the harvest — this can include falling trees, unstable log stacks at the roadside or overhead dangers in trees not yet felled.”
He said just like any construction or building work site, harvesting areas would be closed to the public regardless of whether machinery or trucks were actively operating in the area.
“This will be clearly indicated by signage on all roads and tracks around the boundary of the work area,” Mr Iglesias said.
“An excavator-based harvester will fell the trees, remove the branches and cross-cut them into logs.”
He said the timber would then be sold as part of the ACT Government’s trade operations.
Mr Iglesias said the work was planned to mitigate the impact of forest harvesting operations on existing mountain bike trails, most of which would not be affected.
“This harvest operation is the first of a three-stage replacement of the pines at Majura over a 10-year period as identified in the master plan for this trial development in 2014,” he said.
