Friday 8 December 2006

Picton River Valley

I managed to get this view of the Picton Valley from Google Maps. (The enlargement is clearer). It's out-of-date, but I'm unsure how much. The recent coupe high up on the Picton foothills doesn't seem to be evident, and the ones which stand out most clearly have grown over somewhat now.
That's Mt Picton on the west (left of the picture) with it's lakes showing clearly. Hartz Peak is at the bottom, off to the east a little, and the Picton River flows down the middle between the various forestry coupes. The somewhat infamous Farmhouse Creek meets the Picton at approximately where the most southerly forestry work can be seen. This forestry work effectively splits the Hartz Mountains from the rest of the World Heritage Area. It would be tempting to assume that the cutting at Farmhouse Creek years ago was to make sure the furthest possible incursion had been made at an early stage. Interesting chronology here.
There's some more information at the Tasmanian Times and The Wilderness Society about Google Earth views of forestry coupes. The maps of forestry coupes are available at the Forestry Tasmania site, but they're in a great big long list, and you really need to look carefully at them to work out where they are. Being able to decipher the map references helps.

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