IT’S been a crowd-pleaser and hugely popular part of Glenelg Shire’s largest one-day festival for many years, but what is the future for woodchopping?

While the event will go ahead as scheduled on February 25, the sport itself – invented and perfected in Australia – is facing an uncertain future.

It stems from a Supreme Court case – which is under appeal – that stopped VicForests from supplying woolybutt logs to the sport, after the court found in favour of two environmental groups that the state-owned corporation failed to survey, and thus adequately protect, the endangered greater and yellow-bellied gliders in its forests in Gippsland and Kinglake.

However, as the gliders are found in many of its forests statewide, it has not harvested from any of them until it does surveys that comply with the court’s order.

And that is the problem for woodchopping.

The Wood, Wine and Roses Festival, scheduled for Saturday, February 25, is held by the Western Victorian Axemen’s Association.

President Scott Anderson said while it would go ahead, there would be fewer choppers and the popular tree felling events could not be held as “we just can’t get tree poles”.

“We’ve got enough logs to run (the Heywood) carnival, but it’s a statewide problem,” he said.

“We just can’t get access to any public forests to supply any logs.

“If you’re lucky you’ve got some private stuff you can get on to but that’s only limited.

“Hardwoods are becoming more valuable for mill logs so it’s not viable.

“There’s going to be a limited number of choppers travelling around (the Heywood event attracts them from Victoria and South Australia) and the uncertainty of whether or not we’ll be able to run anything towards the end of the year.”

While the state government has banned harvesting of native timber from 2030, it had a deal through VicForests with the sport to supply it affordable logs from the forests, Mr Anderson said.

“The fact that the government has promised to supply logs for as long as the sport exists, there’s access to plenty of logs if they want to do it,” he said.

“But I suppose the inner Melbourne votes is what they’re chasing, not the country votes.

“All the ag shows will be a thing of the past at the rate this is going if they don’t do something to protect them.

“The more people realise this is happening, the better.

“Things like this (the Heywood woodchopping) are big events and could disappear off the calendar very quickly if something’s not done.

“Unless something is done this could be the last year it’s there. There’s too many people not aware of it and they need to make their voices heard.

“The government’s importing logs from Tasmania now, that’s how stupid it is.

“It’s a puddle in the ocean considering what resources are there.”

While the tree-felling events won’t be held at Heywood, the Wills and Ray Trotter Memorial championships (10-inch and 11-inch standing block respectively) will go ahead, as well as the underhand competitions.