When the Victorian government announced it would stop logging its own native timber for commercial purposes, environment groups celebrated. …Commercial logging officially ended on January 1 this year, but those celebrations now seem premature. The timber mills that haven’t shut their doors continue to process native hardwood timbers – now fed by private landholders felling forests on their properties, and the government’s 300 per cent expansion of bushfire “fuel reduction” targets. Much of the timber felled by government-employed or contracted workers in state forests and national parks will be sold as firewood. …Bushfire mitigation works do not require approval under federal environment laws. …Professor David Lindenmayer, one of the world’s most cited ecologists, said he was yet to see evidence that the government’s fuel breaks program would reduce bushfire risks.