The Junortoun resident showed the Advertiser an area where multiple large trees had been cut down so recently that the sawdust still smelt.

The paper visited the site last Friday.

"They are really well organised. You can see by how they come in, cut the tree and then its gone before you next walk through the area," the resident said.

The resident asked for anonymity.

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The trees had been growing roughly a kilometre away from a firewood collection coupe set up by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

The resident pointed to other large tree stumps they said had been taken in previous years.

It appeared to be part of a deliberate strategy of felling trees close to the area's firewood coupes so that the sound of their chainsaws would blend together, the resident said.

The department was still investigating a report that the trees were cut down in a designated firewood collection area on Wednesday afternoon.

While people can cut up wood already felled in the coupes, they cannot cut down trees themselves nor remove hollow logs and dead trees.

The Junortoun resident and members of the Wellsford Forest Conservation Alliance said the trees were too large to have been cut down by DELWP as part of forest thinning exercises.

Alliance member John Bardsley said bigger trees were more valuable, if the intention was to sell them illegally.

"From our observations over the years, it only takes a week after the DELWP contractor cuts down trees in the coupes for any decent firewood to be left," he said.

Dr Bardsley estimated that two of the trees recently cut down were over 70 years old.

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Fellow alliance member Wendy Radford said the alleged incidents added to long-standing frustrations that sections of the forest were yet to be declared national parkland, and firewood harvesting was yet to be phased out.

"What is the hold-up? That's what I want to know," she said.

The alliance has been pushing for 20 years and is mystified as to why the state government is yet to declare a position on Victorian Environmental Assessment Council report that called for changes in the Wellsford.

It should have done so more than a year ago.

The Wellsford Alliance is among groups to sign an open letter advertised in the Advertiser on Tuesday.

A government spokesperson told Australian Community Media - which publishes this masthead - it would "advise on timing for finalising its response to VEAC's report shortly".

DELWP district manager Adrian Parker urged people to report suspicious activity in the Wellsford or any other public land to 136 186.

"Our officers regularly patrol our forests and reserves to ensure the public are doing the right thing in relation to firewood collection," he said.

Illegally felling trees on public land carries a maximum penalty of one-year imprisonment, a fine of up to $8261 or both.

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