Riding to the edge - understanding logging around Blue Derby trails
What's going on with the forestry work at Blue Derby - and why? We had Rob Gunstone investigate.
By Rob Gunstone
Photos: Nick Waygood, Blue Derby Wild, Tim Bardsley-Smith, Cam Mackenzie
An increasingly heated conflict between environmentalists and loggers is playing out alongside some of the best trails Derby, Tasmania, has to offer. What happens when the competing economic forces of forestry and tourism start to play tug-of-war on the doorstep of one of the world’s best mountain bike riding destinations?
What inspires mountain bike riders to hold a trail network like Blue Derby in high regard?
For most riders it is a combination of factors from the quality and length of the network, ease of access to a variety of trail experiences, and the all-important ‘yiew’ factor that brings smiles to the faces of anyone who rides there.
It is also the opportunity to explore some of the most beautiful environments in the country on our own terms.
The north-east of Tasmania, and the former mining town of Derby in particular, has embraced all of these factors over the past six years and built one of the most desirable riding destinations in the world. The international status of the Derby network has been cemented by the regular return of the Enduro World Series (EWS), and the awarding of the prestigious EWS Trail of the Year award to Detonate in 2017, followed by the Kumma-Gutza/Air-Ya-Garn run in 2019.
Many of the trail experiences in Derby are now iconic to Australian riders who travel from across the country just to spend a few days in this small part of regional Tasmania. It is not uncommon to see fully kitted out parents sharing the seat on the shuttle bus to the Black Stump carpark with their children ready to share the stoke and build family memories, or lines of young riders waiting for their turn to drop in and test their skills on the recently installed pump track at the trail head.
One experience is to stop on the trails and admire the forest surrounding the trails, with the giant tree ferns and mighty eucalypts towering overhead. These forests provide a glimpse to the wider environment past and allow riders to imagine an escape from the modern world.
There are no doubts the loamy dirt ribbons running through the Derby network provide riders with one of the best experiences in the country, all accessed just a stone’s throw from your accommodation (and in easy access of a post ride beverage), but the trails have come with a legacy which has the potential to affect the impression of a pristine, ancient environment.
What’s the problem?
A conflict is occurring in Derby with logging close to the trails, along sections of rider-favourite trails Krushka’s and Atlas, set to commence before the end of the year.
On one side is the forestry industry, which provides local employment in the harvesting, transport and processing of timber, and the other is the mountain bike tourism and local environmental activists calling for an end to logging.
Despite the recent explosive of growth, mountain bike tourism (plus the wider tourist industry) is just one aspect of the Derby economy.
According to Cr. Greg Howard, the Dorset Council mayor and a qualified forest practice officer, tourism sits third behind agriculture and forestry in terms of the economic impact on the wider community, and without the forestry industry there would not be enough space for trails to make Derby as successful as it currently is.
“The first trails that were built were constructed in a Crown land reserve, and that accounted for around the first 30-40kms,” Cr Howard said. “Beyond that we ran out of Crown land reserve so the only way we could expand the trail network was to move into the Sustainable Timber’s land, that land was dedicated as part of a permitted timber zone.”
Cr Howard said the Dorset Council came to a compromise with Sustainable Timbers Tasmania (STT) regarding the placement of the trails and plans for future logging around the outside of the trail network.
“We came to a compromise and shook hands on it,” Cr Howard said. “And as far as I’m concerned a handshake is as good as a signature on a piece of paper. So, we went ahead and built trails in the full knowledge there would be coupes outside of the trail network which are planned for future harvesting.
“Without the STT agreement and assistance there would not be a big enough trail network to make Derby as successful as it is today. It would have become a little boutique set of trails rather than the 140kms of trails. Without the STT land we would only have about 50-60kms (of trails) or something like that.”
Cr Howard stressed there are no plans for any logging coupes inside the Derby trail network.
Louise Morris, a local rider and coordinator for environmental conservation organisation Blue Derby Wild, described the push for logging in the region as ‘bloody minded’.
“The wrongheaded approach of logging because (the council) said we are going to in areas such as Krushkas, Atlas, Weld Hill or Blue Tier just makes no sense ecologically, economically or socially,” Morris said.
“What we have got here is really special and it is worth protecting.”
Morris acknowledges the need for economic diversity in Derby is extremely important and highlights the opportunity to make the town a hub for nature-based tourism in Tasmania’s northeast.
“Initially the trails were designed (by the council) for men in lycra who just wanted to ride fast and didn’t care what they were riding through,” she said. “Now we have the opportunity with Derby to create a hub town where people can go for walks, explore the cultural history of the tin mining, the Chinese Dragon Trail, and the indigenous history. People can go to Scottsdale Brewery, gorge on local cheese, or drive to the coast at St Helens and explore one of the most beautiful beaches.”
Places That Rock: St Helens
“It’s always been a conversation that this town can be more than just extreme mountain bike riders.”
What are the economics of Mountain Bike Riding?
Since the trails were developed and opened to the public in 2015, the riding community has flooded to Derby. Accommodation providers have taken over all of the available houses, there are queues at the coffee shops in the morning and the pizza shop at dinner time.
Regarding the economic impact of mountain bike tourism on the town, a report prepared by AusCycling in March 2021 stated:
Blue Derby is an excellent example of the success of mountain biking tourism in achieving economic benefits for local communities. Derby, a small town in north east Tasmania was on the brink of collapse (due to a downturn in traditional mining and forestry industries) before $3.1 million was invested in mountain bike trails in 2015. Now, more than 30,000 tourists visit the trails each year. These visitors generally spend four to five nights in Derby, then another five nights elsewhere in Tasmania, injecting more than $30 million back into the Tasmanian economy each year. (Mountain Biking in Australia: An Economic and Participation Analysis, p1)
Big Mountain Derby is one business that has opened its doors in Derby in recent years. Owner Adam Campbell said establishing a bike hire and guiding business was a “natural commitment to the region” after running tour groups to the town from his Queensland base for several years.
“We have been running tour groups through Derby since 2018,” Campbell said. “I currently employ three people in the store but are looking to double this number. We have one local girl employed as an apprentice, and we are currently recruiting staff and have had applications from all over the world. On a global scale Derby is on the map.”
He said the riders who participated in his Derby tours travel to the area for the trail network as the “first and most obvious” reason.
“We can all agree this is one of the best trail networks in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world. The dirt ribbons here are just glorious.”
Campbell said riders coming along have “seen the videos and read the articles” and expected the trails to be of outstanding quality. What riders don’t expect is just how beautiful the trail network is, and that the scenery itself is an important part of what Big Mountain offers.
“You are riding through rainforests, ferns, some of the biggest trees you will ever see. The scenery itself is breathtaking. When we are on our tours, we tell people to stop along the way and breath it all in,” he said. “It is really iconic and unique to Derby, it’s just stunning.
“People want to travel to Derby for the lifestyle, for the mountain biking. But if the trail network is destroyed because of logging, those opportunities may be lost. It’s been a long time since towns like Derby have been able to generate opportunities for locals in terms of employment and now that could all go away.”
Jules Seymour is another rider who has moved to Derby from Margaret River five years ago to enjoy both the quality riding and the lifestyle in the region.
“I feel so lucky to be here, I love my diving and hiking and there is all of that within an hour of here,” Seymour said.
After working as a mountain bike guide, Seymour started a property management business and now employs a range of local subcontractors to work on the 20 properties she manages. She said the business operates at a 90% occupancy rate during the riding season, well above the industry average.
“It’s pretty flat out,” she said. “It’s incredibly hard to find people in this area, if there are workers there is nowhere for them to stay and there are no locals around Derby or the surrounding towns, so people have to travel from Scotsdale. For a Tasmanian, 25-30mins travel is too long.
“Most of my properties have one or two free days per month through the last season. This is incredibly high for the industry, averaging you would be happy if your occupancy was around 70% but with all the hype around Derby and people knowing what the trails and the scenery is like people are flocking here.
Eat, stay, ride Blue Derby
“I see all of these families riding around Derby, it’s not just the shredders anymore. There is families and young kids who are the future of regions like this. How is it going to affect the sustainability of a region like this if half of the forest is gone?”
“A lot of people don’t just come for the riding, they come for the feeling of being in the beautiful glacia refugia forest, the beautiful old growth forest, they don’t want to be riding through logged areas. I remember doing that in Rotorua and I hated it, it’s not nice.”
Seymour is worried about the impact of the logging close to the core Derby trails.
“It’s hard because I understand both sides, the guys working in (the logging) industry are just trying to feed their families. They have a job to do. There are a few guys working in this industry who think it’s wrong as well, but what choice do they have. My argument is not with plantation, it’s with logging old growth forest. There is biodiversity in there and species which are on the brink of extinction as it is. You are only going to make it worse by chopping their homes down.”
“They are planning on closing the trail during the time they are logging it. But this is affecting the rideability of the network. Is it going to affect visitation? If people will think they can’t ride Krushka’s or Trouty’s or other trails on that ridge, will they decide to come down? I 100% think that it will.”
Edge effect and the potential for trail damage.
Louise Morris is concerned about the potential for damage to the Krushka’s and Atlas trails running along the edge of the logging coupes.
“We are seeing more and more erosion along the trails which have already been impacted by the logging near Big Mama tree,” she said. “The trails that are being targeted are really central to the Blue Derby brand, and Atlas has also been put on the list for next year.
“We have also just had a bunch of trees come down on Krushka’s along the edge of the (previous) clear-fell, because of the edge effect where the winds are stronger and the trees aren’t protected by the forest anymore.”
The edge effect occurs along the sides of the clear-fell logging coupes where trees previously protected by surrounding forest are now exposed to the wind, sun and other weather events. Soils (and therefore trail surfaces) are also exposed to more sun resulting in them drying and hardening.
Campbell pointed to the impact of logging on the Rotorua as a ‘perfect example’ of what can happen to the trails.
“You go from moist, tacky, loamy trails when you have the canopy, and then you enter the area that has been logged and it’s exposed,” he said. “The surface of the trail becomes hard, rocky and janky. It’s just not enjoyable to ride.
“The trails will be absolutely decimated; New Zealand and Derby are not dissimilar. It looks like a warzone, trees are just gone, and all you have is a vast wasteland, and that is what will happen. Even if they create a buffer, there is going to be an impact to the trail network.”
Cr Howard does not believe the edge effect will be as damaging to the trails as others believe.
“We didn’t notice any edge effect from the previous trail that was harvested (alongside Krushkas in 2016),” he said.
Cr Howard said the drying out of soils because of the edge effect occurs mostly on north facing edges. “These edges close to the trail will be either southern facing or west to south-west facing edges, so we expect the edge effect to the trails will be next to negligible,” he said.
He said a 50m buffer zones has been planned to run between the trails and the logging coupes, and this will work to protect the trails.
“(The buffer) will vary because the trail is not a straight line and nor is the boundary of the coupe, but it won’t come any closer than 50m and for a fair bit of it will be further away. Riding down Krushkas you would never know that harvesting had taken place.”
Where to next?
Louise Morris is hoping Blue Derby Wild will have a similar level of success to when the group managed to get previous logging activity stopped around the central trails of Flickety Sticks, Return to Sender and Roxanne.
“Those areas were supposed to be logged a few years ago, and we had some interesting barneys with the local council, we managed to get logging coupes stopped in those areas which would have been more visible from the main street much more than these (current areas) are,” she said.
“Now we are having more people come here then just riders, the development is happening despite the lack of planning.”
“You can spend a week up here and still do a tiny amount, from the orange rocks of the coast, through to the big forests, or the amazing button grass plains on the peaks of the highlands.”
And of course, ride to your edge along the amazing Derby trails.
Definitions: Sustainable forestry vs clear-fell logging?
According to an article published by the Rainforest Alliance in 2016, sustainable forestry is about ‘balance’ in timber harvesting. The process involves mimicking natural processes of ‘disturbance and regeneration’. Basically, selecting individual trees to be harvested, leaving a canopy and understory behind to maintain an ecologically stable environment.
Working in this fashion is more expensive, and more challenging to remove the harvested timbers from the forest area, than clear-fell harvesting.
Cr Howard said the wet sclerophyll forest coupes bordering the trail network are not suitable for the selected harvesting method.
“Wet sclerophyll forests are essentially dominated by eucalypts and they have a very different set of understory depending on the location,” he said. “If you selectively harvest them then you probably won’t get any regrowth because the eucalypt seeds need to land on bare earth for them to germinate. If they land on logging slash or understory left behind, you won’t get any regrowth. That is essentially why they do clear-fell, burn and sow in wet forests.”
Cr Howard said in some instances a thinning operation might be undertaken where the eucalypts were so dense some trees were starting to die because they were outcompeted. In this case the only bare ground available would be where the machines were driven, limiting the opportunity for regrowth.
“One of the advantages Tasmanian forestry has is where we have commercial forestry there is really high rainfall and really good soils, and not only the trees but the undergrowth comes back very quickly and strongly,” Cr Howard said. “This allows the area to be repopulated by the native animals, they move back in in a couple of years.”
Want to have a bit on input? Email us at AMB@nextmedia.com.au, or take part in our survey, you might even win 1 of 4 $500 vouchers for the Blue Derby Pods Ride experience!
Or check out the Blue Derby Wild page on how to get involved in their stand against forestry. Alternatively, you can contact Dorset Council with your support.
