Simon French stands on a road looking out over a section of soon-to-be harvested Tasmanian native forest.
The coupe has been earmarked by the state-owned Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) as "production forest" for at least three years.
"We shuttle tens of thousands of guests each year up this road to the top of the hill and the coupe is directly behind us," Mr French said.
"The current proposal is to log right up to the side of the road here."
Mr French is the managing director of Maydena Bike Park, which has a network of almost 100 trails that snake through the forest nearby the coupe.
The Maydena facility is arguably Australia's best "gravity" park and will host the opening round of the Enduro World Series in late March.
The Tasmanian government has provided funding to bring the Enduro to Maydena and Derby in Tasmania's north-east, with the sport's popularity credited as helping to revitalise the area.
An arrangement has been reached so that logging in the area will not happen during the Enduro event and the global attention the competition brings.
But the issue of logging in close proximity to a tourism hotspot remains white hot.
The coupe, designated TN031B, sits in what is known as Risby's Basin and was last selectively logged in the 1940s. It is now set to be harvested again.
"It's ready to go from the perspective of managing regrowth forests for saw logs," Dave White, southern operations manager for STT, said.
"Eighty to 100 years is prime for rotation, consistent with the sustainable yield modelling by Sustainable Timber Tasmania."
In preparation for harvesting, roadworks are underway to create vehicular access to Roberts Road, the forestry-managed road STT shares with the Maydena Bike Park, something which Mr White explains "needs to happen in dry conditions so you're working with dry soil".
"That process should take another week and a half. Because we are in proximity to the Maydena Bike Park, we're aware of a significant event for them [Enduro World Series] at the end of March and we've made a commitment not to commence harvesting the coupe until after that event," he said.
When pressed on the mountain bike park's proximity to forestry operations and their concerns regarding the specific selection of this coupe for harvest, he offered a pragmatic reply.
"I think a reasonable person would expect to drive through production forest and see some harvesting of trees, growing of trees, trees of different ages," he said.
"We're not running a national park, and I think if you want to be genuine about what we are talking about, this production forest involves viewing production forestry."
Just as harvesting this coupe has been in STT's plans for several years, hosting an Enduro World Series event at Maydena is the realisation of a long-term goal for Mr French and his team.
"We've been working on securing this Enduro event for five years," he said.
"It's been a lot of work over a long period of time and several hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment this year just to get the venue ready for the event we're having in a few weeks' time," he said.
He believes it is not just the tracks they've built but also the surrounding rainforest that has put the park at the top of enthusiasts' to-do list — hopefully even more so after the Enduro event is seen by a worldwide audience expected to be in the millions.
"The forest is a huge part of why they (customers) come here," he said.
"At the moment, you've got this pristine rainforest drive that gets you to the top of the hill and that (the logging of the coupe) just takes a huge chunk out of that and opens a view up to clear-felled plantation."
'They're running a business — and we're running a business'
Dan Booker is Tasmania's only professional male Enduro mountain bike rider and has qualified for this month's world series event.
"Each location around the world you travel has amazing features," he said.
"In Europe, obviously, there are some really big mountains you get to ride," he said.
"Here in Tasmania, the massive trees you get to ride through, the temperate rainforests make it really special."
Mr French admits he would "love it if [the forest] was just left alone".
"But we're practical, we understand they're running a business and we're running a business."
In previous talks with STT, Mr French said he proposed an idea of a significant buffer zone between the harvest within the coupe and Roberts Road, something which STT said it considered but could not commit to in this instance due to operational and safety reasons.
Coupe TN031B contains some giant trees.
STT defines giant trees as those "at least 85 metres tall or at least 280 cubic metres estimated stem volume", with a company policy being to protect known giant trees in timber production zones.
Mr White says "most of the mature elements" in the forest "we're looking to retain and not impact in the course of this harvest".
Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor, who has toured the coupe with Maydena community members, said she was concerned there were trees of great value that did not conform to STT's definition.
"Some of those enormous trees don't fit within STT's giant-tree measurements but they're hundreds of years old," she said.
"They're big beautiful, old, carbon-storing habitat trees that should be left as they are."
She accused the state government of expecting Tasmanians to believe it supported sustainable tourism, yet unleashed a "dinosaur" government business enterprise "on a forest right next to the Maydena Bike Park".
When asked about the competing priorities in this instance, a government spokesperson said: "Our government strongly believes that world-class tourism and working forests can and do successfully coexist."
"The government understands the importance of hosting this world-class event here in Tasmania and the visitation and boost to the regional economy it will generate," they said.
"The government will continue engaging with STT on how the community is working together to ensure we put on a uniquely Tasmanian experience."
