Residents of a rural Tasmanian town were told to either leave, or wear masks, when dense "acrid" smoke blanketed the valley following more than 115 hectares of post-native forest logging regeneration burns nearby.
Businesses in Maydena – reliant on mountain bike trails in the surrounding hills – have raised concerns about widespread cancellations in the lead-up to the Easter long weekend, while elderly residents said the density of the smoke temporarily exacerbated health issues.
Tasmania's public forestry company, Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), carried out seven regeneration burns over two days within 30 kilometres of Maydena, including in coupes logged three years earlier.
Residents started to lodge complaints with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) on Thursday when the smoke settled, and some received verbal advice to leave the town.
Andrea Ewanchuk, who runs the Tasmanian Gravity Girls mountain biking group, said it was impossible to escape the smoke.
"I've never seen the smoke that bad. Inside the house was smoky and it gave you a dry nose and throat," she said.
"I had one girl on my tour, visiting from Western Australia, who is asthmatic and tried to ride with a mask.
"This is now one of the quietest weekends I've seen at the mountain bike park."
STT released its planned burning program in mid-March, and posted specific coupes on its Facebook page on the day of the burns. Residents within 1.5 kilometres received a letter.
Maydena Mountain Bike Park managing director Simon French said they were notified of the burns when the smoke started to descend.
"We were dealing with the fallout of it as we were being notified. We had a lot of very angry customers on Good Friday because the town was blanketed in smoke," he said.
"I'm an asthmatic, I couldn't breathe well.
"We had a numbers of customers ask for a refund and leave — a lot of interstate customers."
Autumn generally provides the most suitable conditions for STT to carry out regeneration burns, which are undertaken prior to logged coupes being reseeded for new trees.
Mr French said the process could be handled better.
"The EPA is telling us to leave the town due to the intensity of the smoke. That's not a well-managed process, when you're requiring people to leave the town that they live in," he said.
EPA receives 'a number of complaints'
The smoke also made its way further down the valley.
Tyenna resident Diana Quilliam, 72, said she feared for her health due to pre-existing heart disease.
"It's the worst that I've ever encountered, and I've lived here for 10 years," she said.
"I had to wear a P2 mask because I'm at risk. I didn't want to keep having the sore throat and headache either. I don't know why it was so acrid."
Ms Quilliam said the worst smoke pollution occurred on Thursday morning, when conditions were still and an inversion layer appeared to prevent it from dispersing. She said the only notice residents received was when a fire logo appeared on Tasmanian Fire Service's "what's burning now" page.
The EPA does not carry out air quality monitoring in Maydena or the surrounding area. The closest monitoring station is at New Norfolk – about 50 kilometres away – which reached "fairly poor" air quality levels on Thursday through to Saturday.
The EPA confirmed it received "a number of complaints" from members of the public about the smoke around Maydena, and recommended people stay indoors, and close their windows, vents and doors.
Burning near Easter common around Maydena
Maydena – about 60 kilometres west of Hobart – has a long history of native forest logging, but in recent years the town has become a tourist hotspot due to the construction of mountain bike trails near STT forests.
The town hosted the Enduro World Cup last month.
Native forest logging continues at pace, including in coupes that are regrowth native forest and in coupes near the mountain bike paths. Some of the coupes that had regeneration burns last week were regrowth forest.
STT uses various levels of regeneration burning after logging has occurred to create an "ash-bed effect", particularly in wet forests.
High-intensity burns occur after clear-felling, moderate burns happen for wet eucalypt forests that are partially harvested, and low intensity is for open understorey forest.
Coupes are then usually resown from the air.
Technical guidelines for the STT note that burning "is usually undertaken in autumn on mild sunny days a few days after rain".
"Successful burning removes the majority of fuel while the soil is relatively dry (to maximise the 'ash-bed effect'), and prepares receptive seedbed for subsequent autumn sowing," the guidelines read.
Burning near Easter is common around Maydena, but some residents say the scale of this year's burning was far greater than previous years.
Some of the coupes had been logged several years earlier, with the subsequent debris waiting an extended period before being burnt.
STT's general manager of conservation and land management Suzette Weeding said last week presented good conditions for burning.
"This past week, favourable weather conditions have resulted in many regeneration burning and fuel reduction burning operations being conducted across the state," she said.
"As a result, there has been some residual smoke across Tasmania, and local communities like Maydena.
"Smoke from Sustainable Timber Tasmania's regeneration burning is mostly visible, but dispersal is planned away from populated areas wherever possible so that impacts from smoke are minimal. On poor smoke dispersal days, burning is postponed."
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said residents were encouraged to "be aware of planned burns in their area" via the Tasmanian Fire Service and have a management plan.
"Those at higher risk should actively manage their symptoms, and if they have a condition such as asthma or chronic lung disease, follow their management plan," they said.
