Our distorted values

Kath Angus, Thornbury
The Age, letter, 18 Nov 2015

That the proposed Great Forest National Park is in question because VicForests has made long-term logging contracts tells us nothing about the industry's viability or even the need for its existence (The Age, 17/11). It simply tells us our value system is so distorted we would rather  release ever more carbon into the atmosphere and watch species go extinct than break a contract and pay a fee. Chopping down trees simply because we said we would is madness.

Great Forest National Park needed now

Peter Campbell

Letter to editor, The Age (not yet published), 16/11/15

VicForests signing expensive and dubious logging contracts (Age 16/11) just before the change of government in 2014 highlights the urgent need for the Great Forest National Park.

VicForests lacks the social licence for continued logging of our native forests and ongoing destruction of Leadbeaters possum and other threatened species forest habitat. Species extinction and ecosystem collapse are not acceptable.

The declining availability of wood resource from native forests, consumer avoidance of timber and paper produced from it, paltry revenue and debts owed equates to the upcoming cessation of native forest logging.

There are few jobs involved now that whole logs are exported to China.

The future lies in transitioning the logging industry to sustainable plantations and recycled fibre - this will be good for jobs and good for the environment.

Nine out of ten Victorians support the immediate creation of Great Forest National Park during the term of current government. We now just need the political will to do so.

Leadbeater's possum national park plans dealt a blow

Josh Gordon, State Political Editor
The Age, November 15, 2015

The Leadbeater's possum is believed to be perilously close to extinction. Photo: Justin McManus

A plan for a new national park to protect the endangered Leadbeater's possum has been dealt a blow with revelations VicForests locked in millions of dollars worth of new logging contracts.

State Labor ducked a proposal to create a Great Forest national park stretching from Kinglake to Mt Baw Baw and north-east up to Eildon in the recent state election, instead announcing a taskforce made up of environment groups, scientists, the union and the forestry industry.

The decision to set up the taskforce to strike a "consensus" followed pressure during the campaign from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and and Energy Union, which had threatened to campaign against Labor on concerns that ending logging in the area would threaten Gippsland jobs.

Environment Minister Lisa Neville earlier this year said she believed the park would be created this term, with a commitment to protect logging industry jobs. Conservations and scientists – including Sir David Attenborough – have long argued that the park is needed to protect the possum, which is believed to be perilously close to extinction.

But VicForests' latest annual report, tabled in Parliament last week, suggests ending logging before the 2018 election could be difficult. The report shows VicForests negotiated various contracts to harvest and haul 900,000 cubic  metres of wood a year for the next three or four years.

It said the agreements – which could cost more than $50 million a year assuming current harvest and haulage costs – had the potential to be extended, "providing the greatest level of security that contractors have had since 2009".

News of the new deals has left the state government struggling to explain how a national park might be created into the near future. A government spokeswoman said the annual report confirmed the finalisation of the timber allocation process that began in late 2012, under the previous government.
But in a potentially controversial decision, Labor confirmed it would not financially back any new long-term timber deals until the taskforce has delivered its findings.

"The Labor government has determined that we will not indemnify any new long-term timber sales agreements until the deliberations of the industry taskforce are completed and the government has received its recommendations," the spokeswoman said.

"The taskforce involves government, industry and science working together to reach common ground on the issues facing the industry, such as job protection, economic activity and protection of our unique native flora, fauna and threatened species such as the Leadbeater's possum."

The annual report also showed VicForests returned a $4.7 million   profit last financial year, the third in a row, with a dividend of $1.5 million expected to be paid to the state. VicForests chief executive Robert Green said the industry contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy a year.

"Our revenue from timber sales is up on last year and VicForests alone has injected more than $85 million into regional economies through contracts with local businesses and wages," Mr Green said.
The report also confirmed VicForests started exporting low-grade logs, with approximately 3600 cubic tonnes sent overseas, most likely to China.

New colonies of Leadbeater's possum discovered in logging forests

Tom Arup, Environment Editor
Sydney Morning Herald, October 23, 2015

The politically sensitive and critically endangered Leadbeater's possum, which is also happens to be Victoria's animal emblem, is again proving a challenge with the discovery of dozens of new colonies in forests on Melbourne's northern doorstep that are open to logging.

In recent months government and community surveys have found 71 new colonies of Leadbeater's possum in the central highland forests.

That has prompted dozens of new 200-metre logging exclusion zones to be established across the patches of forest in the state's central highlands where the possum populations are being discovered.

A Leadbeater's possum at Healesville sanctuary. New wild colonies of the species have been found in state and national parks. Photo: Joe Armao

The new colony finds are documented in a progress report on state government efforts to protect the possum, which were first launched by the Napthine government (in conjunction with the timber industry and Zoos Victoria) after community and scientific concern for the creature's fate reached fever pitch.

The plan's goal is to find 200 new Leadbeater's colonies in state forest within two years. In April the Andrews government announced it was going to speed up the surveying program.

By September, 71 new colonies had been discovered. And a further 45 new colonies were also found in national parks, which already exclude timber harvesting.

Environment Minister Lisa Neville said the discovery of 116 colonies across state and national parks was "encouraging" and it was pleasing to see progress made "though a collaborative effort across government and with the community".

But Sarah Rees, from the green group MyEnvironment, said new discoveries were well short of the target and "deeply concerning".

"They have looked everywhere, like our teams," she said.

"We are now seeing most of the remnant possums in logging zones and this is what scientists and survey teams have been saying for years."

A spokesman for the state-owned timber company, VicForests. said it was "incredibly positive" to see more than 100 new detections of a critically endangered species and survey work was continuing with areas being protected to ensure harvesting did not impact on possum colonies.

The report says 188 protection zones have now been put in place to protect the newly found colonies, along with another 283 that were already known.

But scientists from the Australian National University have previously criticised the 200-metre protection areas as too small to be effective, arguing they need to be one kilometre to ensure the animal's safety.

The government's progress report also says that logging has been delayed in areas where there is a 65 per cent chance of the species living there, meaning harvesting of 14,800 hectares of forest has been deferred for two years to allow more surveys to take place.

The report also monitored whether Leadbeater's possums were nesting in artificial hollows that have been created, which replicate their natural habitat in old trees, finding about 25 per cent were being used.

It is still unclear how many possums the newly discovered colonies contain.  And there is significant debate about how many Leadbeater's possums still live in the wild overall, with different estimates ranging below 2000 to as high as 11,000.

But the decline of the species due to bushfires and logging pressures prompted federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to this year boost its threatened species status to critically endangered, which is one step before extinction.

Irreparable loss

Linda Zibell, Mount Helen 

The Age, Letter, 10 May 2015

I grew up near the Australian Paper Mills. My family listened to its drone, smelt it, even earned by it. I also love a tiny pocket of temperate rainforest close by, Tarra Valley/Bulga Park, where lyrebirds call ("National park moves a step closer to reality", 3/5). The loss of a great Mountain Ash tree cannot be weighed against giving a human the job of cutting it down. We are all going down if we frame it like this.

Using the word "environmentalist" reduces and stereotypes people who support a healthy ecosystem in this Great Forest Park. As the federal government's "Australia, State of the Environment Report" 2006 states: "The environment is everybody's business."

The question is what will a Great Forest National Park mean? The possum is close to its heart but untold benefits for people are built into this genuinely sustainable proposal. It is designed for the future – to generate jobs, restore habitat, bring great healthy outdoor recreation to Melbourne's doorstep and create a tourist destination to rival Phillip Island. All this, in Australia's most environmentally depleted state.

Its time for the Great Forest National Park

Peter Campbell
Letter to the Editor (submitted to Heraldsun), 14/8/14

A clear majority of Victorian's want our native forests protected.

However, the Napthine government still allows Vicforests to continue logging them, even though they operate at a loss.

The export woodchip industry in NSW has collapsed and no longer buys wood from VicForests - which now has a very low value product with no buyers.

It's time for this to change.

Vicforests don't make a profit and should be shut down.

We need political leadership and a commitment to modernise the Victorian paper industry by shifting out of native forests into existing plantations.

Our forests are far more valuable for the water they produce, the carbon they store and for tourism.

The proposed Great Forest National Park would see our Central Highlands forests protected, along with Leadbeaters Possum and several other threatened species, for future generations to appreciate.

The inconvenient truth is out, logging forests increases bushfire severity

Peter Campbell

Letter to the Editor, The Age. Submitted 4/8/14

The inconvenient truth is out, logging forests increases bushfire severity according to recent research from Professor Lindenmeyer.

This was demonstrated during the Black Saturday bushfires when previous logged drier forests were decimated by bushfire while intact moist forests in Melbourne's water catchments resisted burning.

Yet the Napthine government continues to fund Vicforests, a sheltered workshop for environmental vandals who log them, while grossly overstating the paltry number of jobs in this destructive industry.

It time this logging stopped and our Central Highlands forests were protected in a Great Forest National Park for future generations to appreciate.

External links

• Logging can 'greatly increase' fire severity for 50 years, researchers say - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) : 

VicForests should be chopped

Peter Campbell

The Age, Letter (not published yet), 29 May 2014

The Victorian Government should cease subsidising VicForests, its loss-making logging business . Most of the logged forest logged ends up as low value woodchips, the market for which has just collapsed with the Japanese-owned South East Fibre Exports woodchip mill no longer accepting Victorian woodchips (The Age, 29/5/14).

However, VicForests continues to log our remaining wonderful native forests, including Toolangi State Forest that wasn't burnt during the Black Saturday bushfires. Professor David Lindenmeyer has repeatedly warned that Leadbeaters possum, Victoria's faunal emblem, is destined for extinction if VicForests continues to log our Central Highlands forests.

Instead, the Victorian Government should support the community-led proposal to create the Great Forest National Park to protect our scarce remaining native forests, rather than continue to destroy them.

It makes much more sense to create long-terms jobs in managing and protecting our forests and associated tourism. These forests harbour the tallest flowering trees in the world. In addition, the forests provide valuable water.

There is more than enough plantation timber resource available than can immediately provide a substitute timber resource.

We are just lacking the political will and courage to stop the logging and create the urgently needed new national park that will benefit all Victorians.