Melbourne's water supply at risk due to 'collapse' of forests caused by logging

Tree-felling helped trigger 'hidden collapse' of mountain ash forests, ecologists say

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Melbourne's water supply is at risk because decades of logging and forest loss from large bushfires has triggered the imminent collapse of the mountain ash forests in Victoria's central highlands, ecologists have said.

The Victorian government was warned of the likelihood of ecosystem collapse by Australian National University researches in 2015. New research led by Prof David Lindenmayer of ANU, published in PNAS journal on Tuesday, has found the ecosystem has already begun to undergo a "hidden collapse".