Nick Higginbottom with AAP
Herald-Sun, November 03, 2006
Two protesters have been charged with public nuisance after chaining themselves to a logging truck that was "hijacked" by a group of environmentalists today. Lauren Caulfield, 25, from Brunswick and a 29-year-old Goongerha man were arrested this morning and will be summonsed to appear at the County Court at a later date. They were part of a demonstration that blocked part of normally busy Swan St in Richmond to stop a logging truck carrying timber to a Geelong woodchip mill, about 4am. They were cut free by police almost five hours later.
Truck driver Steven Reed from Warburton, east of Melbourne, said he stopped his truck when he saw a car that appeared broken down. "I sort of had to slow down to a stop, then I noticed there were people on the footpath. They came running out and everybody went around the truck," he told ABC radio. Mr Reed said he was annoyed at the protest and he considered running the group of protesters over. "I would have loved to have but you can't do it. I don't feel like getting charged with manslaughter at four o'clock in the morning for something I am not really in control of," he said.
A joint media release from Friends of the Earth and the Australian Student Environment Network said the group of about 20 protesters had "hijacked" the truck in protest at the logging of old growth forests in Victoria. Speaking to Southern Cross Broadcasting from the back of a police divisional van after her arrest, Ms Caulfield said Victorian Premier Steve Bracks had failed to act to protect the state's forests. "Obviously, this is a very, very serious issue and it is a real shame that Victorians have to get out there on the streets and get into this kind of situation in order to send such a strong message to government," Ms Caulfield said.
Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said the alleged protesters represented majority public opinion. "Every day of the week, Victoria's high conservation value forests are being hijacked by the Bracks government," he said. However Premier Steve Bracks was critical of the demonstration. "I don't believe it is an appropriate way to present your views," said Mr Bracks.
Original article
03 November, 2006
26 October, 2006
LETTERS: Blind ideology endangers sound debate
Mark Poynter, forestry consultant, Institute of Foresters of Australia
October 26, 2006
The outraged response to my article about the GHG abatement benefits of native forest wood production reinforces my central point that blind anti-logging ideology threatens to counteract alternative energy initiatives that are addressing global warming.
Despite evoking a passionate save-the-forest tirade, my article clearly stated that wood production is only permitted within a 10 per cent portion of Victoria's forests, and so concerns that logging threatens forest survival and integrity are irrelevant.
If our society is to advance, we must address environmental issues in a clear-eyed rational manner. This cannot occur if public debate continues to be dominated by ill-informed armchair environmentalists whose only answers lie in tired rhetoric, self-righteous indignation, and discrediting the informed thoughts of scientists who grapple with environmental issues on a daily basis.
Foresters know what they are doing
Norman Endacott, Warranwood
Your four correspondents (Business, 24/10) pillory Mark Poynter (Business, 18/10) for dutifully sticking to the truth in debunking the misinformation perpetrated by Gavan McFadzean, who has attributed bad global warming outcomes to the harvesting and concomitant regeneration of our native forests. Those forest management practices have been honed over the years, and cannot be accused of depleting or degrading those forests, in terms of environmental values or long-term timber sustainability or carbon retention.
Those four people have an ignorance of the life cycle of a tree, a forest, a forest landscape mosaic, or an ecosystem, and they just cannot perceive the waxing and waning associated with the interplay of the foresters' ministrations and nature.
Source
October 26, 2006
The outraged response to my article about the GHG abatement benefits of native forest wood production reinforces my central point that blind anti-logging ideology threatens to counteract alternative energy initiatives that are addressing global warming.
Despite evoking a passionate save-the-forest tirade, my article clearly stated that wood production is only permitted within a 10 per cent portion of Victoria's forests, and so concerns that logging threatens forest survival and integrity are irrelevant.
If our society is to advance, we must address environmental issues in a clear-eyed rational manner. This cannot occur if public debate continues to be dominated by ill-informed armchair environmentalists whose only answers lie in tired rhetoric, self-righteous indignation, and discrediting the informed thoughts of scientists who grapple with environmental issues on a daily basis.
Foresters know what they are doing
Norman Endacott, Warranwood
Your four correspondents (Business, 24/10) pillory Mark Poynter (Business, 18/10) for dutifully sticking to the truth in debunking the misinformation perpetrated by Gavan McFadzean, who has attributed bad global warming outcomes to the harvesting and concomitant regeneration of our native forests. Those forest management practices have been honed over the years, and cannot be accused of depleting or degrading those forests, in terms of environmental values or long-term timber sustainability or carbon retention.
Those four people have an ignorance of the life cycle of a tree, a forest, a forest landscape mosaic, or an ecosystem, and they just cannot perceive the waxing and waning associated with the interplay of the foresters' ministrations and nature.
Source
21 October, 2006
ARTICLE: Gunns must pay Greens costs
Xavier La Canna
The Heraldsun, 21 October 2006
Tasmanian timber company Gunns must pay legal costs for a group of environmentalists it tried to sue for millions of dollars, a Victorian judge has ruled.
Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday ruled that Gunns must pay the costs, which relate to an unsuccessful claim that 20 environmentalists took part in conspiracies against the company.
Greg Ogle, the legal coordinator for the Wilderness Society, one of the defendants, said the costs would probably amount to more than $1 million.
But Mr Ogle said it was unlikely the environmentalists would be given the money for at least one year, while the exact amount was decided.
Gunns had tried to sue the 20 defendants, who included Greens Senator Bob Brown and Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt, for almost $7 million.
Since December 2004 the company has filed three separate statements of claim, which have all been thrown out of court.
In August, Justice Bongiorno ruled three of the defendants should be given a total of nearly $87,000, which related to the first statement of claim.
Yesterday's ruling relates to the third statement of claim Gunns made against the environmentalists.
Wilderness Society spokeswoman Virginia Young welcomed the ruling but said it would not cover the organisation's total costs.
The costs will include the expense of reading and responding to the statement of claim, as well as researching and formulating the legal arguments, and the costs of the three-day hearing in August last year, the society said in a statement.
Justice Bongiorno also gave Gunns until November 2 to seek leave to file a fourth statement of claim in relation to the alleged conspiracies against the company.
AAP
Original article
The Heraldsun, 21 October 2006
Tasmanian timber company Gunns must pay legal costs for a group of environmentalists it tried to sue for millions of dollars, a Victorian judge has ruled.
Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday ruled that Gunns must pay the costs, which relate to an unsuccessful claim that 20 environmentalists took part in conspiracies against the company.
Greg Ogle, the legal coordinator for the Wilderness Society, one of the defendants, said the costs would probably amount to more than $1 million.
But Mr Ogle said it was unlikely the environmentalists would be given the money for at least one year, while the exact amount was decided.
Gunns had tried to sue the 20 defendants, who included Greens Senator Bob Brown and Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt, for almost $7 million.
Since December 2004 the company has filed three separate statements of claim, which have all been thrown out of court.
In August, Justice Bongiorno ruled three of the defendants should be given a total of nearly $87,000, which related to the first statement of claim.
Yesterday's ruling relates to the third statement of claim Gunns made against the environmentalists.
Wilderness Society spokeswoman Virginia Young welcomed the ruling but said it would not cover the organisation's total costs.
The costs will include the expense of reading and responding to the statement of claim, as well as researching and formulating the legal arguments, and the costs of the three-day hearing in August last year, the society said in a statement.
Justice Bongiorno also gave Gunns until November 2 to seek leave to file a fourth statement of claim in relation to the alleged conspiracies against the company.
AAP
Original article
LETTER: Give us water, not timber
Ellen Sandell, East Brunswick
The Age, Saturday 21 October 2006
The Bracks Government has finally gone mad. The decision not to end logging in Melbourne's water catchments ( The Age, 20/10) is irresponsible, shortsighted and stupid.
With countless reports highlighting the fact that logging causes a significant water loss, the Government sits on its hands and spits out rhetoric about jobs and money from timber. Isn't it aware that the amount of water that would be saved is worth more money than the timber coming out of the catchments?
Labor's forest policy was hijacked in the 1990s by forest industry staff who planted spies in environment groups and blocked discussion on forest protection. Now, with the ridiculous decision about our water catchments, one cannot help but wonder if this is happening again.
The Age, Saturday 21 October 2006
The Bracks Government has finally gone mad. The decision not to end logging in Melbourne's water catchments ( The Age, 20/10) is irresponsible, shortsighted and stupid.
With countless reports highlighting the fact that logging causes a significant water loss, the Government sits on its hands and spits out rhetoric about jobs and money from timber. Isn't it aware that the amount of water that would be saved is worth more money than the timber coming out of the catchments?
Labor's forest policy was hijacked in the 1990s by forest industry staff who planted spies in environment groups and blocked discussion on forest protection. Now, with the ridiculous decision about our water catchments, one cannot help but wonder if this is happening again.
20 October, 2006
ARTICLE: No end to logging in catchments
Liz Minchin, Environment Report
The Age, October 20, 2006
Loging in Melbourne's water catchments will continue for at least another two years, despite government-appointed experts conceding it reduces the amount of water running into the city's biggest dam.
This week the State Government released its strategy to supply Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and the Latrobe Valley with water for the next 50 years.
But the strategy did not include any decisions about continuing to log water catchment areas, including higher rainfall areas above Melbourne's main reservoir, Lake Thomson.
Four years ago, an expert committee appointed by the Bracks Government said phasing out logging in the Thomson catchment by 2020 could increase Melbourne's long-term water supply by an estimated 20,000 megalitres a year by 2050 — enough to supply 80,000 Melbourne homes.
Their report, 21st Century Melbourne: a WaterSmart City, called for an investigation to be completed within two years into whether logging in the Thomson Reservoir catchment should be phased out.
Similar recommendations were made in a 2003 Department of Sustainability and Environment paper.
The Government has now commissioned studies into how much water is being lost from logging and whether it could be replaced with timber from plantations outside catchment areas.
But its new water strategy says those studies will not be completed until December 2008, with a Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman confirming that "the project is still at an early stage".
A spokesman for Water Minister John Thwaites defended the time the Government was taking to act, saying "any decision on logging in catchments has to balance any potential increase in water yields with the impact on regional jobs and the economy".
In response, the State Opposition and environment groups accused the Government of trying to delay controversial decisions until after next month's election.
"This is another example of the Bracks Government hiding critical data ahead of the state election," Liberal environment spokesman David Davis said.
Central Highlands Alliance president Sarah Rees said studies going back to 1968 showed that logging reduced water flows into water catchments.
"How many more reports do they need before they'll finally do something?" Ms Rees said.
Meanwhile, Latrobe Valley power workers have called for reassurances about the Government's $2.4 billion plan to use recycled water to cool Victoria's biggest electricity plants, after a Government report suggested it may increase their chances of catching legionnaire's disease.
The feasibility study for the Eastern Water Recycling proposal notes that more chemicals will be needed to treat recycled water used in cooling towers "due to expected higher nutrient levels in cooling water … to control biological growth including legionella".
"I'm concerned that introducing new impurities, new toxins or nutrients into our system … presents a potential risk of increased outbreaks and perhaps the introduction of new bugs," Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union spokesman Greg Hardy said."
Original article
The Age, October 20, 2006
Loging in Melbourne's water catchments will continue for at least another two years, despite government-appointed experts conceding it reduces the amount of water running into the city's biggest dam.
This week the State Government released its strategy to supply Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and the Latrobe Valley with water for the next 50 years.
But the strategy did not include any decisions about continuing to log water catchment areas, including higher rainfall areas above Melbourne's main reservoir, Lake Thomson.
Four years ago, an expert committee appointed by the Bracks Government said phasing out logging in the Thomson catchment by 2020 could increase Melbourne's long-term water supply by an estimated 20,000 megalitres a year by 2050 — enough to supply 80,000 Melbourne homes.
Their report, 21st Century Melbourne: a WaterSmart City, called for an investigation to be completed within two years into whether logging in the Thomson Reservoir catchment should be phased out.
Similar recommendations were made in a 2003 Department of Sustainability and Environment paper.
The Government has now commissioned studies into how much water is being lost from logging and whether it could be replaced with timber from plantations outside catchment areas.
But its new water strategy says those studies will not be completed until December 2008, with a Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman confirming that "the project is still at an early stage".
A spokesman for Water Minister John Thwaites defended the time the Government was taking to act, saying "any decision on logging in catchments has to balance any potential increase in water yields with the impact on regional jobs and the economy".
In response, the State Opposition and environment groups accused the Government of trying to delay controversial decisions until after next month's election.
"This is another example of the Bracks Government hiding critical data ahead of the state election," Liberal environment spokesman David Davis said.
Central Highlands Alliance president Sarah Rees said studies going back to 1968 showed that logging reduced water flows into water catchments.
"How many more reports do they need before they'll finally do something?" Ms Rees said.
Meanwhile, Latrobe Valley power workers have called for reassurances about the Government's $2.4 billion plan to use recycled water to cool Victoria's biggest electricity plants, after a Government report suggested it may increase their chances of catching legionnaire's disease.
The feasibility study for the Eastern Water Recycling proposal notes that more chemicals will be needed to treat recycled water used in cooling towers "due to expected higher nutrient levels in cooling water … to control biological growth including legionella".
"I'm concerned that introducing new impurities, new toxins or nutrients into our system … presents a potential risk of increased outbreaks and perhaps the introduction of new bugs," Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union spokesman Greg Hardy said."
Original article
18 October, 2006
ARTICLE: Campaigners can't see forest for trees
Mark Poynter
Forestry consultant, and member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.
The Age, October 18, 2006
THE start of Victoria's renewable energy trading scheme in January signifies a welcome Government willingness to step up the fight against global warming.
Yet environmental groups continue to pressure the Government to act against native forest logging and close Victoria's hardwood timber industry - a debate that was reignited recently by an ABC Four Corners program.
Although not obvious to most Victorians, there is a counter-productive link here that needs to be acknowledged if we are to make headway against global warming.
Sustainable logging is now restricted to just 10 per cent of Victoria's native forests. Yet anti-logging campaigns continue to attribute it with damaging environmental impacts out of proportion to its nature and extent. This includes the erroneous claim that timber
production promotes global warming by diminishing the capacity of native forests as carbon sinks when the opposite is true.
It is widely appreciated that growing forests sequester atmospheric carbon that effectively counteracts greenhouse gas emissions. But rates diminish as growth slows with age. Over time, undisturbed forests store carbon but sequester little new carbon once they reach maturity and
become "old growth".
But sustainable harvesting maintains a continuous cycle of vigorous growth that actively sequesters carbon at high rates while annually transferring carbon storage from trees to various wood-based products.
Losses of carbon occur along the way, most notably through greenhouse gas emissions from mechanised timber harvesting, log cartage, primary processing, and from slash burning to promote forest regeneration. But the losses are relatively small compared with the rate of enhanced carbon sequestration and storage by logging regrowth.
Sustainable logging in Victoria's designated wood production zones produces about 1.5 million cubic metres of hardwood sawlogs and residual logs a year from an estimated total harvested biomass of about 2.1 million cubic metres, including roots, bark, branches and foliage. The
concept of sustainability dictates that annually harvested amount is replaced by an equivalent volume of growth.
Carbon sequestered each year in new biomass growth in Victoria's production zones is estimated to be equivalent to saving 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is net of emissions from fuel and power use inherent to timber production and emissions from the regeneration process. It is also additional to the carbon that could have been sequestered if the forest had alternatively been left unlogged.
Putting this into perspective is that clean energy produced from Victorian wind farms has been estimated to save 250,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Put another way, if anti-logging campaigns were to close Victoria's native forest timber industry, 10 times as many wind turbines as now exist would be required just to make up for the carbon sequestration lost by "locking up" wood production forests.
Enhanced carbon sequestration is only part of the "greenhouse" benefit of sustainable logging. Australian domestic hardwood production also offsets imports of tropical hardwoods and the use of steel, aluminium and concrete that offer poor environmental outcomes.
Tropical timber imports - often illegally produced from unsustainable sources - have increased by 50 per cent since 2001 as state governments have reduced the native forest harvest. This has been accompanied by additional greenhouse gas emissions inherent to international freight.
Unfortunately, this is likely to continue as we have few hardwood plantations being grown for solid wood production.
The use of substitute products is also believed to have increased as governments have reacted to anti-logging campaigns. These are problematic because they rely on finite resources and because their manufacture involves substantially greater carbon emissions compared with producing a similar unit of renewable solid timber. In particular, greenhouse gas emissions from steel and aluminium making are several hundred times greater than that associated with timber.
No one disputes the benefits of focusing on conserving biodiversity as is now the case in most of our native forests. But it must be recognised there are also substantial environmental benefits associated with sustainably harvesting wood from a portion of our forests.
At a time when environmental awareness is starting to drive urgent political action to tackle global warming, unwarranted campaigns to "save" a minor portion of our forests from sustainable timber production threaten to counteract much of the good work being done by governments and Australians to embrace cleaner "green" energy alternatives.
Forestry consultant, and member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.
The Age, October 18, 2006
THE start of Victoria's renewable energy trading scheme in January signifies a welcome Government willingness to step up the fight against global warming.
Yet environmental groups continue to pressure the Government to act against native forest logging and close Victoria's hardwood timber industry - a debate that was reignited recently by an ABC Four Corners program.
Although not obvious to most Victorians, there is a counter-productive link here that needs to be acknowledged if we are to make headway against global warming.
Sustainable logging is now restricted to just 10 per cent of Victoria's native forests. Yet anti-logging campaigns continue to attribute it with damaging environmental impacts out of proportion to its nature and extent. This includes the erroneous claim that timber
production promotes global warming by diminishing the capacity of native forests as carbon sinks when the opposite is true.
It is widely appreciated that growing forests sequester atmospheric carbon that effectively counteracts greenhouse gas emissions. But rates diminish as growth slows with age. Over time, undisturbed forests store carbon but sequester little new carbon once they reach maturity and
become "old growth".
But sustainable harvesting maintains a continuous cycle of vigorous growth that actively sequesters carbon at high rates while annually transferring carbon storage from trees to various wood-based products.
Losses of carbon occur along the way, most notably through greenhouse gas emissions from mechanised timber harvesting, log cartage, primary processing, and from slash burning to promote forest regeneration. But the losses are relatively small compared with the rate of enhanced carbon sequestration and storage by logging regrowth.
Sustainable logging in Victoria's designated wood production zones produces about 1.5 million cubic metres of hardwood sawlogs and residual logs a year from an estimated total harvested biomass of about 2.1 million cubic metres, including roots, bark, branches and foliage. The
concept of sustainability dictates that annually harvested amount is replaced by an equivalent volume of growth.
Carbon sequestered each year in new biomass growth in Victoria's production zones is estimated to be equivalent to saving 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is net of emissions from fuel and power use inherent to timber production and emissions from the regeneration process. It is also additional to the carbon that could have been sequestered if the forest had alternatively been left unlogged.
Putting this into perspective is that clean energy produced from Victorian wind farms has been estimated to save 250,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Put another way, if anti-logging campaigns were to close Victoria's native forest timber industry, 10 times as many wind turbines as now exist would be required just to make up for the carbon sequestration lost by "locking up" wood production forests.
Enhanced carbon sequestration is only part of the "greenhouse" benefit of sustainable logging. Australian domestic hardwood production also offsets imports of tropical hardwoods and the use of steel, aluminium and concrete that offer poor environmental outcomes.
Tropical timber imports - often illegally produced from unsustainable sources - have increased by 50 per cent since 2001 as state governments have reduced the native forest harvest. This has been accompanied by additional greenhouse gas emissions inherent to international freight.
Unfortunately, this is likely to continue as we have few hardwood plantations being grown for solid wood production.
The use of substitute products is also believed to have increased as governments have reacted to anti-logging campaigns. These are problematic because they rely on finite resources and because their manufacture involves substantially greater carbon emissions compared with producing a similar unit of renewable solid timber. In particular, greenhouse gas emissions from steel and aluminium making are several hundred times greater than that associated with timber.
No one disputes the benefits of focusing on conserving biodiversity as is now the case in most of our native forests. But it must be recognised there are also substantial environmental benefits associated with sustainably harvesting wood from a portion of our forests.
At a time when environmental awareness is starting to drive urgent political action to tackle global warming, unwarranted campaigns to "save" a minor portion of our forests from sustainable timber production threaten to counteract much of the good work being done by governments and Australians to embrace cleaner "green" energy alternatives.
13 October, 2006
NEWS: Govt to protect Strzelecki forest
www.abc.net.au
Friday, October 13, 2006
The Victorian Government has struck a deal to permanently protect 8,000 hectares of the Strzelecki forest in Gippsland.
After six years of negotiations, the Government has paid Hancock Plantations $7 million for the Cores and Links.
The new reserve features cool-temperate rainforest and mountain ash and will link Tarra Bulga National Park to the Gunyah Rainforest Reserve.
But Deputy Premier John Thwaites says a pocket of plantation timber within the reserve will be logged under the deal.
"They'll be able to log once and then it will never be logged again," he said.
Greens candidate Louis Delacretaz says the compromise is inappropriate.
"It's incredibly difficult to put back the biodiversity after you log an area," he said.
This morning's announcement in Gippsland by the Deputy Premier was kept secret to prevent protests by green groups.
Original articles
Friday, October 13, 2006
The Victorian Government has struck a deal to permanently protect 8,000 hectares of the Strzelecki forest in Gippsland.
After six years of negotiations, the Government has paid Hancock Plantations $7 million for the Cores and Links.
The new reserve features cool-temperate rainforest and mountain ash and will link Tarra Bulga National Park to the Gunyah Rainforest Reserve.
But Deputy Premier John Thwaites says a pocket of plantation timber within the reserve will be logged under the deal.
"They'll be able to log once and then it will never be logged again," he said.
Greens candidate Louis Delacretaz says the compromise is inappropriate.
"It's incredibly difficult to put back the biodiversity after you log an area," he said.
This morning's announcement in Gippsland by the Deputy Premier was kept secret to prevent protests by green groups.
Original articles
02 October, 2006
THE AGE:Revealed: spying on Greens
Michael Bachelard
The Age, October 2, 2006
Multinational packaging company Amcor stacked the Labor Party, infiltrated environment groups, sent people pretending to be greenies to forest protests and paid bribes overseas to secure its supply of native hardwood in the 1990s.
Company documents obtained by the ABC's Four Corners show that, for more than a decade from 1989 to 2001, the company funded its staff, through the so-called "A-team", to spy on and sabotage its opponents.
The union, the pulp and paper workers, which later joined the forestry division of the CFMEU, co-funded the A-team.
It was led by Derek Amos, a former state Labor MP and shadow minister for energy, and Victoria was the epicentre of the group's activities.
At its height in the late 1990s, A-team representatives were in the majority on the state ALP's environment policy committee, hindering any discussion of forest policy in the party.
They had got their places on the committee by working through the union, but also by taking over the Traralgon branch of the ALP.
"Oh, it was stacked, there was no doubt about that," the Labor MP for Morwell, Keith Hamilton, told the program.
A-team spokesman and mill worker Chris Moody became the branch's president and Mr Amos' daughter, Leanne Martin, the secretary.
"We would sit around a table and the A-team would sit in a group together; they were extremely well organised," former environment policy committee member Kerry Baker said.
Another member, Cheryl Wragg, said "any time that people other than the Amcor A-team mentioned forestry policy, they would be yelled out of the room". Calls by non-A-team committee members to ALP head office for an investigation fell on deaf ears.
But in the lead-up to the 1999 state conference, an election year, something was finally done. The environment committee drafted a forest policy, which would have opened up 40 per cent of Victorian old growth forest for logging, but, as non-A-team members threatened open revolt, ALP head office, under state secretary John Lenders, took the policy in and rewrote it.
Mr Amos has also confirmed that the A-team infiltrated the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and Environment Victoria, where a spy, "Tracy", would get paid time off from her shifts at Amcor's Maryvale pulp and paper mill to attend meetings, photocopying any documents she could get hold of.
She took "copious notes" and filed written reports on Environment Victoria's discussions.
Some of those reports found their way to the then member for McMillan, Barry Cunningham, a Labor MP whom the A-team had helped to get elected to Federal Parliament. When he started quoting Environment Victoria minutes in Federal Parliament, the environment group realised they had been infiltrated.
Mr Amos said this was part of "a program to discredit environmental groups" through "covert operations which included the planting of volunteers as bogus greenies in targeted environmental organisations".
A-team players were active on the front line of the 1990s environment movement: the forest protests.
In 1993, the team's members joined in as the green protesters set up camp in Goongerah, East Gippsland, to protest against woodchipping in national estate forests.
According to veteran green campaigner Jill Redwood, the two spies, "David and John", turned up at the camp in "a big, clean, white four-wheel-drive ute" and "nice neat clothes".
The spies' report to Amcor says the protesters were "unkempt" with "matted hair and dishevelled clothing, similar to early '70s styling".
Mr Amos claimed success, through the help of federal Labor MPs, in convincing the Keating government in 1995 to institute a more pro-logging policy. He also admitted to international bribery, saying in a document he had paid the customers of Amcor's competitors to find out commercially sensitive information.
The A-team was disbanded in 2001 after Amcor's paper-making operations were spun-out into a new company, PaperlinX. Amcor went on to further notoriety when its executives were sacked two years ago for their part in a cartel to fix prices for cardboard boxes
Original article
The Age, October 2, 2006
Multinational packaging company Amcor stacked the Labor Party, infiltrated environment groups, sent people pretending to be greenies to forest protests and paid bribes overseas to secure its supply of native hardwood in the 1990s.
Company documents obtained by the ABC's Four Corners show that, for more than a decade from 1989 to 2001, the company funded its staff, through the so-called "A-team", to spy on and sabotage its opponents.
The union, the pulp and paper workers, which later joined the forestry division of the CFMEU, co-funded the A-team.
It was led by Derek Amos, a former state Labor MP and shadow minister for energy, and Victoria was the epicentre of the group's activities.
At its height in the late 1990s, A-team representatives were in the majority on the state ALP's environment policy committee, hindering any discussion of forest policy in the party.
They had got their places on the committee by working through the union, but also by taking over the Traralgon branch of the ALP.
"Oh, it was stacked, there was no doubt about that," the Labor MP for Morwell, Keith Hamilton, told the program.
A-team spokesman and mill worker Chris Moody became the branch's president and Mr Amos' daughter, Leanne Martin, the secretary.
"We would sit around a table and the A-team would sit in a group together; they were extremely well organised," former environment policy committee member Kerry Baker said.
Another member, Cheryl Wragg, said "any time that people other than the Amcor A-team mentioned forestry policy, they would be yelled out of the room". Calls by non-A-team committee members to ALP head office for an investigation fell on deaf ears.
But in the lead-up to the 1999 state conference, an election year, something was finally done. The environment committee drafted a forest policy, which would have opened up 40 per cent of Victorian old growth forest for logging, but, as non-A-team members threatened open revolt, ALP head office, under state secretary John Lenders, took the policy in and rewrote it.
Mr Amos has also confirmed that the A-team infiltrated the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and Environment Victoria, where a spy, "Tracy", would get paid time off from her shifts at Amcor's Maryvale pulp and paper mill to attend meetings, photocopying any documents she could get hold of.
She took "copious notes" and filed written reports on Environment Victoria's discussions.
Some of those reports found their way to the then member for McMillan, Barry Cunningham, a Labor MP whom the A-team had helped to get elected to Federal Parliament. When he started quoting Environment Victoria minutes in Federal Parliament, the environment group realised they had been infiltrated.
Mr Amos said this was part of "a program to discredit environmental groups" through "covert operations which included the planting of volunteers as bogus greenies in targeted environmental organisations".
A-team players were active on the front line of the 1990s environment movement: the forest protests.
In 1993, the team's members joined in as the green protesters set up camp in Goongerah, East Gippsland, to protest against woodchipping in national estate forests.
According to veteran green campaigner Jill Redwood, the two spies, "David and John", turned up at the camp in "a big, clean, white four-wheel-drive ute" and "nice neat clothes".
The spies' report to Amcor says the protesters were "unkempt" with "matted hair and dishevelled clothing, similar to early '70s styling".
Mr Amos claimed success, through the help of federal Labor MPs, in convincing the Keating government in 1995 to institute a more pro-logging policy. He also admitted to international bribery, saying in a document he had paid the customers of Amcor's competitors to find out commercially sensitive information.
The A-team was disbanded in 2001 after Amcor's paper-making operations were spun-out into a new company, PaperlinX. Amcor went on to further notoriety when its executives were sacked two years ago for their part in a cartel to fix prices for cardboard boxes
Original article
08 September, 2006
LETTER: Simplistic take on logging and water
Mark Poynter, Victorian media spokesman, The Institute of Foresters of Australia
The Age, 8/9/06
Recent correspondents (Letters, 1/9 and 7/9) who simplistically advocate excluding regrowth as a solution to our water problems have seemingly forgotten the recent massive bushfires in north-eastern Victoria and the Grampians.
That these have sparked regrowth events that will reduce stream flows for several generations clearly demonstrates that nature, not a tiny amount of logging, is the ultimate determinant of how much flows into our storages.
If anti-logging activists were serious about water beyond it being just a convenient argument for their agenda, they would rethink their opposition to active catchment management.
Source
The Age, 8/9/06
Recent correspondents (Letters, 1/9 and 7/9) who simplistically advocate excluding regrowth as a solution to our water problems have seemingly forgotten the recent massive bushfires in north-eastern Victoria and the Grampians.
That these have sparked regrowth events that will reduce stream flows for several generations clearly demonstrates that nature, not a tiny amount of logging, is the ultimate determinant of how much flows into our storages.
If anti-logging activists were serious about water beyond it being just a convenient argument for their agenda, they would rethink their opposition to active catchment management.
Source
07 September, 2006
LETTER: Logging our way to a long, hot summer
Ellen Sandell, East Brunswick
The Age, 7 September 2006
With an increased risk of bushfires this summer due to lower than average rainfall ( The Age, 5/9), the CFA has questioned whether there will be enough water to deal with the fire season.
As logging in our water catchments loses 1000 litres of water every second, perhaps if we stopped logging we would have enough water to fight bushfires! Logging also increases the risk of bushfires as old, damp forests are replaced with young, dry regrowth. Perhaps if we just left our old-growth trees alone we wouldn't be complaining about water restrictions, bushfires and climate change.
The Age, 7 September 2006
With an increased risk of bushfires this summer due to lower than average rainfall ( The Age, 5/9), the CFA has questioned whether there will be enough water to deal with the fire season.
As logging in our water catchments loses 1000 litres of water every second, perhaps if we stopped logging we would have enough water to fight bushfires! Logging also increases the risk of bushfires as old, damp forests are replaced with young, dry regrowth. Perhaps if we just left our old-growth trees alone we wouldn't be complaining about water restrictions, bushfires and climate change.
01 September, 2006
LETTER: Why lug buckets if we continue to log our forests?
Lee O'Mahoney, Diamond Creek
Letter to the Editor, The Age
September 1, 2006
Once again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Original letter
Letter to the Editor, The Age
September 1, 2006
Once again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Original letter
ARTICLE: Forestry row taken to the marginals
Ellen Whinnett
Sunday Herald Sun, September 1, 2006
Environment groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. "It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne. They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy. But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs. "Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard. The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale. "It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said. "It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs. "They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said."
Original article
Sunday Herald Sun, September 1, 2006
Environment groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. "It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne. They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy. But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs. "Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard. The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale. "It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said. "It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs. "They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said."
Original article
29 August, 2006
THE AGE:Gunns, greenies and the law
Andrew Darby
The Age, August 29, 2006
The Tasmanian timber giant is adamant it will sue environmental protesters, despite a legal setback yesterday. Is free speech in the firing line? By Andrew Darby.
As pirate ships go, the Weld Ark is more feral Australian than Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl. The Jolly Roger up the mast is where the similarities end. The Ark is built of poles and corrugated iron, and has no hull to speak of. Then there's the location at the end of a forest road - a long way from the Caribbean. But against the odds this "ship" is still causing trouble, nearly eight months after it was rigged to block access in one of Tasmania's more tenacious forest protests.
Through a sub-zero winter, a small crew of activists have stuck to the ark despite worries that opponents who wrecked a car, fired shots nearby, and offered verbal abuse, were returning more often to intimidate them.
Behind the camp, a flowing blanket of tall eucalypt rises up mountain foothills to the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. About 5000 hectares of this forest outside the heritage area is earmarked for logging. The environmentalists, mainly from the nearby Huon Valley, have blocked access for more than 20 months.
For a similar time, 20 people and organisations have been prosecuted by the timber industry giant, Gunns Ltd, and a logging contractor, in a landmark case at the Victorian Supreme Court. In its latest claim, thrown out yesterday, Gunns sought $6.9 million in damages from the environmentalists over protests they made against it.
Earlier this year, 40 British lawyers wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern at Gunns' decision to sue the 20, an act that they said could financially cripple individual defendants, and have a chilling impact on freedom to protest.
Australian lawyers also warned that increased litigation against community participation in public issues silenced voices that should be heard. Led by eminent figures such as the Australian National University's Professor Hilary Charlesworth, dozens signed a statement in support of law reform.
Out in the Weld Valley, the pirate ship stands as evidence that Tasmania's forest debate is entrenched. As Gunns confirmed yesterday that it would pursue the action, what effect has the case had?
When it was lodged in December 2004, the Gunns writ was a surprise, even though the company had sued before, over a protest at one of its woodchip mills. Another forest contractor had also started a damages case over an action near the Weld, but the scale of the Gunns' writ was unprecedented.
The massive suit covered 10 different protest actions, in the state and overseas, over four years. Greens leaders Bob Brown had a $1.7 million claim against him. Four people from the Wilderness Society each faced claims in excess of $1.3 million, and the organisation itself a further $3.9 million. Those sued range from a country grandmother to a town dentist, and a filmmaker to a law student. Some had assets, others not.
Since the case began, the world has changed for both plaintiff and defendant. Prime Minister John Howard's Tasmanian forests protection package took the fire out of the hottest protests. Gunns moved further down the track towards a goahead for its contentious $1.4 billion Tasmanian pulp mill at Bell Bay on the Tamar River, spending $11 million to reach the public assessment stage, but its share price has plunged.
Some of those sued said the case was causing anguish, others claim to be disregarding it and one opponent of Gunns' pulp mill plan had prepared for prosecution, though it hasn't happened. Others were said to have been deterred from joining protest.
The Burnie dentist, Peter Pullinger, his wife Leonie and their four grown children, have much at stake. Locals for 30 years, they campaigned to protect one of the southern hemisphere's largest remaining tracts of temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, and largely won.
But there is now a $784,000 claim against Dr Pullinger for action he is alleged to have taken against Gunns, linked to a protest at a woodchip mill, and over a stockpile on the wharf at Burnie.
"I ignore this case, and literally don't think about it day to day," said Pullinger. "It's almost as if I made a conscious decision to say: 'well stuff this for a game of darts'."
The legal action seems to have made little difference to his general standing. He recently went to Canberra to meet John Howard and the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to talk about federal plans for protecting the Tarkine.
But in the Pullinger marriage, Leonie has always been the administrator, and the burden of dealing with the case has fallen to her. She went to the last Gunns shareholders' meeting, where she took the floor, held up a large photograph, and explained to the directors what sort of people her family were.
"We are not ratbags. That's the message I was trying to get across. We are ordinary, everyday Tasmanians who became involved in the environment because of what was happening on our doorstep."
She said the board did not respond. Outside the meeting, Gunns executive chairman, John Gay, told a reporter for the Hobart Mercury he regretted Mrs Pullinger had been affected - a sorrow that extended to his employees and their families who had been damaged by the green movement, and indeed, even to his own family.
"I'm very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it," he said.
Jenny Weber and her partner Adam Burling are in a different phase of life. Burling is one of the 20, prosecuted over his alleged role in a road blockade at Lucaston in the Huon Valley.
Plans they had to marry have been postponed, as have those of buying a house. Burling now works in Senator Brown's offi ce. Weber remains an activist - the spokeswoman for the Weld protest. "Some people say I have courage, and they're the nice ones," Weber said.
In recent months, 10 people have been arrested in this protest as they chained themselves to logging machines and the gates of a nearby timber plant. She said threats had been made of further law suits.
"I don't want to be intimidated by a company who might want to silence me or what I work for," she said. "This is about free speech rights."
Brown believes the democratic implications of Gunns' action are as great as those of forest protection. "We're in the main getting on with life and trying to save Tasmania's forests with no less vim and vigour," he said.
"People are worried about the huge expenses involved, but it's made world news and certainly attracted support . . . It's helped make the protest more durable."
He felt no constraint in speaking out. Recently he issued a media release pointing out that Gunns' share price had fallen from $4.35 to $2.54, refl ecting the investment advisory service CommSec's prediction of $2.56 a share and an even lower $2.38 if the company proceeded with the pulp mill. Yesterday the shares closed at $2.56.
Near the mill site, the main community opponent of Australia's largest single timber industry investment has hung up his spurs. Les Rochester cited a feud with the Greens for the demise of the Tamar Residents Action Committee. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gunns, he said. "When I started this . . . I divested myself of anything I owned," he said. "I'm not worth a zac."
But he believes others in the community were still frightened of speaking out against the mill.
John Gay broke a lengthy silence on the case as he confi rmed yesterday it would be pursued, at least against some of the individuals. "Gunns isn't about silencing the Greens," he said. "What we're sick of is the malicious damage some people are doing to us. We will continue to chase that down to the nth degree."
Terry Edwards, the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, believes the case hasn't prevented people from "expressing their opinions, however ill-founded those opinions might be".
"A contractor was picketed out of a coupe in the Denison forest, there are those people with the pirate ship in the Weld, and it hasn't resulted in any attempt to shut them up," he said. "They have done that with complete impunity.
"I don't think Gunns has tried to trammel free speech. In fact, quite the contrary. Gunns has been quite genuine about opening the company up to debate, particularly with the pulp mill."
The loggers - the small businessmen who contract their men and machines to supply Gunns - are currently in a pinch. Their contracts are lapsing in a depressed market for old growth chips.
"The high Australian dollar's competitiveness is contributing to that," said Rodney Bishop, chairman of the Forest Contractors Association. "And our (overseas) customers are telling us they have been told what we are doing is environmentally wrong."
Bishop defended his members' decision to commence legal action. "Not being specific to any case, we have a legal right to do what we do."
Louise Morris is one of the Gunns 20. She also discovered, a year after the event, that she had been separately sued by a logging contractor for a protest in the Denison Valley in January 2004, when she acted as media spokeswoman.
"If life ground to a halt around this I would be a rather useless campaigner," said the 29-year-old who now lives in Melbourne, where she is continuing with a university course, and becoming involved in anti-nuclear work. "In 10 years' time this will all be a lovely chapter in the story of how we managed to get free speech legislation enshrined in the constitution."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
DECEMBER 14, 2004 Process servers working on behalf of Gunns hand writs to 20 environmentalists and organisations involved in Tasmanian forests campaigns, over alleged conspiracy, interference with contracts, and interference with trade and business.
APRIL 9, 2005 Counsel for six defendants, Mark Dreyfus, QC, foreshadows applications to strike out parts of Gunns’ statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, describing it as embarrassing and confused.
JULY 18, 2005 Justice Bernard Bongiorno dismisses the first and second statements of claim saying: "It would be a singularly unprofi table exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction." The court allows the claim to be refi led.
MARCH 9, 2006 The defence argues for the third statement of claim to be struck out, saying it is substantially the same as the earlier statements. Justice Bongiorno asks Gunns to provide a single document for his consideration, which runs to 641 pages. He reserves his decision.
AUGUST 28, 2006 The third statement of claim is thrown out, being ruled "too general" by Justice Bongiorno. "Too much is sought to be alleged against too many," he says. Gunns has until October 19 to tell the court if it will attempt to introduce another statement of claim.
THE GUNNS 20
1. ALEC MARR, national director of The Wilderness Society (TWS)
$1.56 million
2. GEOFF LAW, Tasmanian forest campaigner, TWS
$1.45 million
3. RUSSELL HANSON, chief executive, TWS
$1.35 million
4. LEANNE MINSHULL, business analyst, former TWS
$1.55 million
5. HEIDI DOUGLAS, filmmaker, TWS
$464,313
6. THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY INC
$3.97 million
7. ADAM BURLING, Huon Valley environmentalist
$399,018
8. LOUISE MORRIS, environmentalist, student
$419,018
9. SIMON BROWN, new media artist
$309,108
10. SENATOR BOB BROWN, Greens leader
$1.76 million
11. PEG PUTT, Tasmanian Greens leader
$1.47 million
12. HELEN GEE, environmentalist
$45,473
13. BEN MORROW, environmentalist
$121,014
14. LOU GERAGHTY, cafe owner
$249,018
15. NEAL FUNNELL, law student
$70,000
16. BRIAN DIMMICK, filmmaker
$204,704
17. HUON VALLEY ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
$569,490
18. DR PETER PULLINGER, dentist
$784,313
19. DR FRANK NICKLASON, physician
$750,000
20. DOCTORS FOR NATIVE FORESTS INC.
$550,000
Article source
The Age, August 29, 2006
The Tasmanian timber giant is adamant it will sue environmental protesters, despite a legal setback yesterday. Is free speech in the firing line? By Andrew Darby.
As pirate ships go, the Weld Ark is more feral Australian than Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl. The Jolly Roger up the mast is where the similarities end. The Ark is built of poles and corrugated iron, and has no hull to speak of. Then there's the location at the end of a forest road - a long way from the Caribbean. But against the odds this "ship" is still causing trouble, nearly eight months after it was rigged to block access in one of Tasmania's more tenacious forest protests.
Through a sub-zero winter, a small crew of activists have stuck to the ark despite worries that opponents who wrecked a car, fired shots nearby, and offered verbal abuse, were returning more often to intimidate them.
Behind the camp, a flowing blanket of tall eucalypt rises up mountain foothills to the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. About 5000 hectares of this forest outside the heritage area is earmarked for logging. The environmentalists, mainly from the nearby Huon Valley, have blocked access for more than 20 months.
For a similar time, 20 people and organisations have been prosecuted by the timber industry giant, Gunns Ltd, and a logging contractor, in a landmark case at the Victorian Supreme Court. In its latest claim, thrown out yesterday, Gunns sought $6.9 million in damages from the environmentalists over protests they made against it.
Earlier this year, 40 British lawyers wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern at Gunns' decision to sue the 20, an act that they said could financially cripple individual defendants, and have a chilling impact on freedom to protest.
Australian lawyers also warned that increased litigation against community participation in public issues silenced voices that should be heard. Led by eminent figures such as the Australian National University's Professor Hilary Charlesworth, dozens signed a statement in support of law reform.
Out in the Weld Valley, the pirate ship stands as evidence that Tasmania's forest debate is entrenched. As Gunns confirmed yesterday that it would pursue the action, what effect has the case had?
When it was lodged in December 2004, the Gunns writ was a surprise, even though the company had sued before, over a protest at one of its woodchip mills. Another forest contractor had also started a damages case over an action near the Weld, but the scale of the Gunns' writ was unprecedented.
The massive suit covered 10 different protest actions, in the state and overseas, over four years. Greens leaders Bob Brown had a $1.7 million claim against him. Four people from the Wilderness Society each faced claims in excess of $1.3 million, and the organisation itself a further $3.9 million. Those sued range from a country grandmother to a town dentist, and a filmmaker to a law student. Some had assets, others not.
Since the case began, the world has changed for both plaintiff and defendant. Prime Minister John Howard's Tasmanian forests protection package took the fire out of the hottest protests. Gunns moved further down the track towards a goahead for its contentious $1.4 billion Tasmanian pulp mill at Bell Bay on the Tamar River, spending $11 million to reach the public assessment stage, but its share price has plunged.
Some of those sued said the case was causing anguish, others claim to be disregarding it and one opponent of Gunns' pulp mill plan had prepared for prosecution, though it hasn't happened. Others were said to have been deterred from joining protest.
The Burnie dentist, Peter Pullinger, his wife Leonie and their four grown children, have much at stake. Locals for 30 years, they campaigned to protect one of the southern hemisphere's largest remaining tracts of temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, and largely won.
But there is now a $784,000 claim against Dr Pullinger for action he is alleged to have taken against Gunns, linked to a protest at a woodchip mill, and over a stockpile on the wharf at Burnie.
"I ignore this case, and literally don't think about it day to day," said Pullinger. "It's almost as if I made a conscious decision to say: 'well stuff this for a game of darts'."
The legal action seems to have made little difference to his general standing. He recently went to Canberra to meet John Howard and the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to talk about federal plans for protecting the Tarkine.
But in the Pullinger marriage, Leonie has always been the administrator, and the burden of dealing with the case has fallen to her. She went to the last Gunns shareholders' meeting, where she took the floor, held up a large photograph, and explained to the directors what sort of people her family were.
"We are not ratbags. That's the message I was trying to get across. We are ordinary, everyday Tasmanians who became involved in the environment because of what was happening on our doorstep."
She said the board did not respond. Outside the meeting, Gunns executive chairman, John Gay, told a reporter for the Hobart Mercury he regretted Mrs Pullinger had been affected - a sorrow that extended to his employees and their families who had been damaged by the green movement, and indeed, even to his own family.
"I'm very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it," he said.
Jenny Weber and her partner Adam Burling are in a different phase of life. Burling is one of the 20, prosecuted over his alleged role in a road blockade at Lucaston in the Huon Valley.
Plans they had to marry have been postponed, as have those of buying a house. Burling now works in Senator Brown's offi ce. Weber remains an activist - the spokeswoman for the Weld protest. "Some people say I have courage, and they're the nice ones," Weber said.
In recent months, 10 people have been arrested in this protest as they chained themselves to logging machines and the gates of a nearby timber plant. She said threats had been made of further law suits.
"I don't want to be intimidated by a company who might want to silence me or what I work for," she said. "This is about free speech rights."
Brown believes the democratic implications of Gunns' action are as great as those of forest protection. "We're in the main getting on with life and trying to save Tasmania's forests with no less vim and vigour," he said.
"People are worried about the huge expenses involved, but it's made world news and certainly attracted support . . . It's helped make the protest more durable."
He felt no constraint in speaking out. Recently he issued a media release pointing out that Gunns' share price had fallen from $4.35 to $2.54, refl ecting the investment advisory service CommSec's prediction of $2.56 a share and an even lower $2.38 if the company proceeded with the pulp mill. Yesterday the shares closed at $2.56.
Near the mill site, the main community opponent of Australia's largest single timber industry investment has hung up his spurs. Les Rochester cited a feud with the Greens for the demise of the Tamar Residents Action Committee. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gunns, he said. "When I started this . . . I divested myself of anything I owned," he said. "I'm not worth a zac."
But he believes others in the community were still frightened of speaking out against the mill.
John Gay broke a lengthy silence on the case as he confi rmed yesterday it would be pursued, at least against some of the individuals. "Gunns isn't about silencing the Greens," he said. "What we're sick of is the malicious damage some people are doing to us. We will continue to chase that down to the nth degree."
Terry Edwards, the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, believes the case hasn't prevented people from "expressing their opinions, however ill-founded those opinions might be".
"A contractor was picketed out of a coupe in the Denison forest, there are those people with the pirate ship in the Weld, and it hasn't resulted in any attempt to shut them up," he said. "They have done that with complete impunity.
"I don't think Gunns has tried to trammel free speech. In fact, quite the contrary. Gunns has been quite genuine about opening the company up to debate, particularly with the pulp mill."
The loggers - the small businessmen who contract their men and machines to supply Gunns - are currently in a pinch. Their contracts are lapsing in a depressed market for old growth chips.
"The high Australian dollar's competitiveness is contributing to that," said Rodney Bishop, chairman of the Forest Contractors Association. "And our (overseas) customers are telling us they have been told what we are doing is environmentally wrong."
Bishop defended his members' decision to commence legal action. "Not being specific to any case, we have a legal right to do what we do."
Louise Morris is one of the Gunns 20. She also discovered, a year after the event, that she had been separately sued by a logging contractor for a protest in the Denison Valley in January 2004, when she acted as media spokeswoman.
"If life ground to a halt around this I would be a rather useless campaigner," said the 29-year-old who now lives in Melbourne, where she is continuing with a university course, and becoming involved in anti-nuclear work. "In 10 years' time this will all be a lovely chapter in the story of how we managed to get free speech legislation enshrined in the constitution."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
DECEMBER 14, 2004 Process servers working on behalf of Gunns hand writs to 20 environmentalists and organisations involved in Tasmanian forests campaigns, over alleged conspiracy, interference with contracts, and interference with trade and business.
APRIL 9, 2005 Counsel for six defendants, Mark Dreyfus, QC, foreshadows applications to strike out parts of Gunns’ statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, describing it as embarrassing and confused.
JULY 18, 2005 Justice Bernard Bongiorno dismisses the first and second statements of claim saying: "It would be a singularly unprofi table exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction." The court allows the claim to be refi led.
MARCH 9, 2006 The defence argues for the third statement of claim to be struck out, saying it is substantially the same as the earlier statements. Justice Bongiorno asks Gunns to provide a single document for his consideration, which runs to 641 pages. He reserves his decision.
AUGUST 28, 2006 The third statement of claim is thrown out, being ruled "too general" by Justice Bongiorno. "Too much is sought to be alleged against too many," he says. Gunns has until October 19 to tell the court if it will attempt to introduce another statement of claim.
THE GUNNS 20
1. ALEC MARR, national director of The Wilderness Society (TWS)
$1.56 million
2. GEOFF LAW, Tasmanian forest campaigner, TWS
$1.45 million
3. RUSSELL HANSON, chief executive, TWS
$1.35 million
4. LEANNE MINSHULL, business analyst, former TWS
$1.55 million
5. HEIDI DOUGLAS, filmmaker, TWS
$464,313
6. THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY INC
$3.97 million
7. ADAM BURLING, Huon Valley environmentalist
$399,018
8. LOUISE MORRIS, environmentalist, student
$419,018
9. SIMON BROWN, new media artist
$309,108
10. SENATOR BOB BROWN, Greens leader
$1.76 million
11. PEG PUTT, Tasmanian Greens leader
$1.47 million
12. HELEN GEE, environmentalist
$45,473
13. BEN MORROW, environmentalist
$121,014
14. LOU GERAGHTY, cafe owner
$249,018
15. NEAL FUNNELL, law student
$70,000
16. BRIAN DIMMICK, filmmaker
$204,704
17. HUON VALLEY ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
$569,490
18. DR PETER PULLINGER, dentist
$784,313
19. DR FRANK NICKLASON, physician
$750,000
20. DOCTORS FOR NATIVE FORESTS INC.
$550,000
Article source
ARTICLE: Gunns to try a fourth time on case
Peter Gregory
The Age
August 29, 2006
The timber company Gunns Ltd has been given a fourth chance to plead its case in a multimillion-dollar damages claim against environmentalists.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday struck out the current 221-page claim, saying it made too many claims against too many defendants in the one proceeding.
He also pointed to difficulties it caused for those sued in understanding the case against them, and the likely cost.
But Justice Bongiorno gave the company until October 19 to ask the court if it could bring another claim. If it did not, the 20 environmental groups and individuals the company had sued could make claims for costs.
Giving his judgement in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bongiorno said Gunns had made serious allegations about conduct by some individuals, some of which could amount to criminal offences.
He said it would be unjust to deny Gunns the opportunity to bring its allegations in an intelligible form. But it was legally embarrassing for defendants to have to grapple with the 714-paragraph claim, which apparently was accompanied by another 2217 paragraphs of additional information, he said.
In an action seeking more than $6 million damages, Gunns sued environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, his Tasmanian counterpart, Peg Putt, and Wilderness Society national campaign director Alec Marr.
The action also named the Wilderness Society, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors For Native Forests.
Gunns claimed it was hurt financially and in its reputation, and that some defendants were conspiring against it.
Gunns said it would continue its efforts to sue. Chief executive John Gay said: "We've got the answer we wanted."
With AAP
Original article
The Age
August 29, 2006
The timber company Gunns Ltd has been given a fourth chance to plead its case in a multimillion-dollar damages claim against environmentalists.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday struck out the current 221-page claim, saying it made too many claims against too many defendants in the one proceeding.
He also pointed to difficulties it caused for those sued in understanding the case against them, and the likely cost.
But Justice Bongiorno gave the company until October 19 to ask the court if it could bring another claim. If it did not, the 20 environmental groups and individuals the company had sued could make claims for costs.
Giving his judgement in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bongiorno said Gunns had made serious allegations about conduct by some individuals, some of which could amount to criminal offences.
He said it would be unjust to deny Gunns the opportunity to bring its allegations in an intelligible form. But it was legally embarrassing for defendants to have to grapple with the 714-paragraph claim, which apparently was accompanied by another 2217 paragraphs of additional information, he said.
In an action seeking more than $6 million damages, Gunns sued environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, his Tasmanian counterpart, Peg Putt, and Wilderness Society national campaign director Alec Marr.
The action also named the Wilderness Society, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors For Native Forests.
Gunns claimed it was hurt financially and in its reputation, and that some defendants were conspiring against it.
Gunns said it would continue its efforts to sue. Chief executive John Gay said: "We've got the answer we wanted."
With AAP
Original article
03 July, 2006
ARTICLE: Seeing the wood waste from the trees
Andrew Lang
The Age, July 3, 2006
Australia should be paying closer attention to Europe on biofuels, writes Andrew Lang.
AUSTRALIA could within 15 years be producing up to 20 per cent of its energy needs from oody waste, but this has thus far been almost totally ignored.The media is informative about nuclear and fossil fuels energy, with the occasional mention of renewable sources of electricity production only touching on wind and solar energy.The potential for woody biomass as fuel for off-the-shelf cost-effective energy plants for some reason is being overlooked. Government pronouncements and speakers rarely mention bioenergy, except in the odd comment about biodiesel, or ethanol in petrol.
Yet, in central Finland, up to 45 per cent of industrial and household energy consumption is produced by power plants burning woody waste. This is mainly sourced from thinning or harvesting of private forest, or timber processing waste. Overall in Finland, the world leader in industrial bioenergy production, it is more than 22 per cent.
The European Union has a short-term goal of 12 per cent of energy to be produced from renewable sources by 2010. Austria already produces about 18 per cent from wood, with central heating or power plants in many towns. The smaller plants are often supplied with their wood chip fuel by farmer syndicates. In Sweden, the figure is almost 20 per cent. The Swedes have recently decommissioned two nuclear plants, and are decommissioning their remaining seven nuclear plants as soon as they can replace them with renewable energy sources, mainly with wood-fuelled plants. The Germans are aiming to similarly decommission all their nuclear power plants. In Bavaria, taxes on fossil fuels are used to generate subsidies for municipalities to develop co-generation plants fired by a mix of municipal waste and woody waste.
Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries use the same general principle. There, heating oil and vehicle fuels are taxed on the basis of their energy value, and part of the revenue raised is used to lift the price paid for chipped forest thinnings and harvest waste delivered to the power plants. In Finland some incentive subsidy is paid for the thinning process and to offset transport and chipping costs.
Last September there was an international conference in Finland about the latest available technology on woodchip-fired power generators. These come in all sizes, from about two megawatts — enough for a small rural community — to over 200MW, enough for a city of 100,000 residents. An equally informative conference was held some months later in Norway.
The Finnish website www.finbio.fi shows the great potential for this energy source. The Swedes have a similar website at www.svebio.se. The Danes, leaders in using straw as a biofuel, are at www.danbio.dk. A web search using "bioenergy" plus the country name will bring up similar sites for Germany and Austria.
The British are building a power plant near Lockerbie in southern Scotland that will be fuelled by woody biomass.
This will use about 200,000 tonnes a year of thinnings and harvest waste from plantation forestry management in the area (Victoria exports five times that amount, mostly from chipped eucalypt logs).
In the US, despite a primary renewable energy focus on wind, solar and hydro-electricity, there are many websites detailing the growth in the bioenergy sector. A general site is www.bioenergy.ornl.gov.
Woody waste comes from several main sources. In practice, for a 10MW or larger plant, it would come from an extensive, sustainably managed, private forestry industry. Sawlog-producing plantations are normally thinned twice as part of good management. Five thousand hectares of managed sawlog plantings progressively established — whether as scattered farm sawlog woodlots across 500 farms, or as several large industrial plantations — will annually produce enough chipped thinnings and harvest waste to fuel a significant bioenergy plant.
Waste wood from building demolition or renovation is another significant source, largely going to waste in Australia. In some countries, including Denmark, householders must by law separate all flammable municipal waste for energy generation or recycling.
A key issue in favour of bioenergy as a by-product of a sustainably managed plantation timber industry is that it is almost carbon neutral. For each tree cut down, at least one more is planted, or the coppice regrowth is managed.
In addition, appropriately sited trees are playing a role in salinity mitigation, improving water quality, or providing habitat. The logs from harvested trees are milled, with up to 50 per cent of the volume going into durable products. These may keep the carbon component sequestered for 100 years or more.
Crucial for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the use of woody biomass for generating energy means that it reduces the fossil fuel used by that amount of energy. And the ash from the clean wood combustion process is a useful product as a potential component of agricultural fertiliser.
Off-the-shelf power plants fuelled by woody biomass are relatively cheap, have low visual impact, and come in all sizes. They can be fuelled by alternative solid flammable wastes, such as straw, nut husks or olive pits, and can be the source of heat and steam for adjacent industry.
Andrew Lang is a farmer, farm forester, and chairman of the innovative SMARTimbers marketing co-operative.
21 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Cockatoo threat to pulp mill
Liz Minchin
The Age, June 21, 2006
A $650 million pulp mill has been put on hold because of plans to cut down six potential nesting trees for an endangered cockatoo.
Yesterday the federal Department of Environment and Heritage wrote to the developers of the Penola Pulp Mill in South Australia, just over the Victorian border, demanding more evidence that their plans would not affect the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo.
The mill's project director, John Roche, said he was surprised by the intervention, and concerned that the pulp mill might go the way of a Gippsland wind farm, recently vetoed by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell because of a one-in-1000-year risk of it killing an endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"To build the mill we have to knock over six red gums that could be used as nesting habitat for the birds, but up until today we thought that decision would be made by the local council," Mr Roche said.
"Now that decision is with the Federal Government, obviously people are a little bit anxious after what happened with the wind farm in Victoria recently."
Better known to Victorians as Commonwealth Games mascot Karak, there are only about 1000 remaining south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoos, which are found only in western Victoria and parts of South Australia.
The greatest threat to their survival is the destruction of their nesting trees and food sources. A final decision on the mill is likely to take between three months and a year.
Original article
The Age, June 21, 2006
A $650 million pulp mill has been put on hold because of plans to cut down six potential nesting trees for an endangered cockatoo.
Yesterday the federal Department of Environment and Heritage wrote to the developers of the Penola Pulp Mill in South Australia, just over the Victorian border, demanding more evidence that their plans would not affect the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo.
The mill's project director, John Roche, said he was surprised by the intervention, and concerned that the pulp mill might go the way of a Gippsland wind farm, recently vetoed by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell because of a one-in-1000-year risk of it killing an endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"To build the mill we have to knock over six red gums that could be used as nesting habitat for the birds, but up until today we thought that decision would be made by the local council," Mr Roche said.
"Now that decision is with the Federal Government, obviously people are a little bit anxious after what happened with the wind farm in Victoria recently."
Better known to Victorians as Commonwealth Games mascot Karak, there are only about 1000 remaining south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoos, which are found only in western Victoria and parts of South Australia.
The greatest threat to their survival is the destruction of their nesting trees and food sources. A final decision on the mill is likely to take between three months and a year.
Original article
12 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber sale not much chop, says industry
Philip Hopkins
The Age (Business section), June 12, 2006
Victoria's forestry industry has launched action against VicForests' latest timber auction, saying it is unfair and produces outcomes that threaten parts of the industry.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said many of the prices reached in the auction were unsustainable.
Some of the state's best and most progressive value-adding sawmills refused to pay the high prices, and were feeling threatened, he said.
VAFI has lodged formal grievance procedures with the auction manager of online auctioneers BOMweb. The grievances will have to be heard before contracts arising from the auctions can be finalised.
The grievance procedure involves representatives from VicForests, BOMweb and an independent probity officer making a decision on the complaint.
The auction was held last week, the second in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be progressively phased out. All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
The first auction in April was for 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs, while the second was for about 700,000 cubic metres.
Mr Murray said the auction did not operate as buyers had been led to believe. He said it was far more complex than the first auction, with a combination of lots creating an incredible number of variables.
"There are a number of aggrieved buyers and bidders, both successful and unsuccessful, hit by the vagaries of the system," he said. "Many felt compelled to pay more than they would have thought, and others missed out on buying wood as a consequence."
Successful buyers were believed to include Neville Smith Timber Industries, Gould Sawmills, Auswest and Fenning Bairnsdale. Those missing out are believed to be leading players such as McCormack Timbers, Drouin West Timber and Black Forest Timbers.
Mr Murray said several prices, including for mountain ash, were excessive at 20-50 per cent above the administered price delivered at the mill gate.
Original article
The Age (Business section), June 12, 2006
Victoria's forestry industry has launched action against VicForests' latest timber auction, saying it is unfair and produces outcomes that threaten parts of the industry.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said many of the prices reached in the auction were unsustainable.
Some of the state's best and most progressive value-adding sawmills refused to pay the high prices, and were feeling threatened, he said.
VAFI has lodged formal grievance procedures with the auction manager of online auctioneers BOMweb. The grievances will have to be heard before contracts arising from the auctions can be finalised.
The grievance procedure involves representatives from VicForests, BOMweb and an independent probity officer making a decision on the complaint.
The auction was held last week, the second in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be progressively phased out. All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
The first auction in April was for 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs, while the second was for about 700,000 cubic metres.
Mr Murray said the auction did not operate as buyers had been led to believe. He said it was far more complex than the first auction, with a combination of lots creating an incredible number of variables.
"There are a number of aggrieved buyers and bidders, both successful and unsuccessful, hit by the vagaries of the system," he said. "Many felt compelled to pay more than they would have thought, and others missed out on buying wood as a consequence."
Successful buyers were believed to include Neville Smith Timber Industries, Gould Sawmills, Auswest and Fenning Bairnsdale. Those missing out are believed to be leading players such as McCormack Timbers, Drouin West Timber and Black Forest Timbers.
Mr Murray said several prices, including for mountain ash, were excessive at 20-50 per cent above the administered price delivered at the mill gate.
Original article
10 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Pulp mill gets green light
Philip Hopkins
The Age (Business Section), June 10, 2006
Construction of a $700 million pulp mill at Heywood in Victoria's south-west will get under way by the end of this year after the project received the go-ahead from the Victorian Government.
The mill, 20 kilometres from Portland, will take two years to build and is expected to produce its first pulp by 2009.
It is a sister mill to a proposed pulp mill in Penola, north of Mount Gambier, which is awaiting approval from the South Australian Government.
Together, the two pulp mills represent $1.3 billion in investment, and each will employ 120 people when in full production. About 600 jobs will be created in building each mill.
Woodchips for the mills — 1.4 million green tonnes a year — will be sourced from Timbercorp's blue gum hardwood plantations in the Green Triangle, the fertile region that stretches from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in SA.
The Heywood pulp mill is valued at about $400 million, but the total project will cost about $700 million when other works are included. These include a 120 megawatt, gas-fired power station connected to the SeaGas gas pipeline between Victoria and SA, and upgrades to road, rail and terminals at the Port of Portland.
Both plants will be chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) mills. CTMP is used to manufacture soft and absorbent tissue, box-board and coated fine paper among other things.
The developer is Protavia, which is backed by an alliance of companies that includes Timbercorp, chemical giant Orica, CellMark, Andritz and Silcar. CellMark is the world's largest pulp and paper trader, Andritz is the world's largest provider of the CTMP technology, and Silcar is a joint venture between German companies Thiess and Siemens.
Project director John Roche said there was huge demand for the CTMP pulp and prices were very high. "It requires much energy to produce, and Australia's energy prices are very competitive," he said.
"We are not competing against Australian electricity prices, but prices in the rest of the world. Only Russia and South Africa are comparable with Australia, but they do not have the same stable political environment." Mr Roche said adding value to the woodchips would be of great benefit to Australia. Woodchips sell for about $150-$160 a tonne, whereas pulp fetches about $800 a tonne. Mr Roche said the pulp would be exported to Taiwan, Korea and China. The two mills are expected to generate export earnings of $700 million a year, which will put a big dent in Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Timbercorp's plantation timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Original article
The Age (Business Section), June 10, 2006
Construction of a $700 million pulp mill at Heywood in Victoria's south-west will get under way by the end of this year after the project received the go-ahead from the Victorian Government.
The mill, 20 kilometres from Portland, will take two years to build and is expected to produce its first pulp by 2009.
It is a sister mill to a proposed pulp mill in Penola, north of Mount Gambier, which is awaiting approval from the South Australian Government.
Together, the two pulp mills represent $1.3 billion in investment, and each will employ 120 people when in full production. About 600 jobs will be created in building each mill.
Woodchips for the mills — 1.4 million green tonnes a year — will be sourced from Timbercorp's blue gum hardwood plantations in the Green Triangle, the fertile region that stretches from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in SA.
The Heywood pulp mill is valued at about $400 million, but the total project will cost about $700 million when other works are included. These include a 120 megawatt, gas-fired power station connected to the SeaGas gas pipeline between Victoria and SA, and upgrades to road, rail and terminals at the Port of Portland.
Both plants will be chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) mills. CTMP is used to manufacture soft and absorbent tissue, box-board and coated fine paper among other things.
The developer is Protavia, which is backed by an alliance of companies that includes Timbercorp, chemical giant Orica, CellMark, Andritz and Silcar. CellMark is the world's largest pulp and paper trader, Andritz is the world's largest provider of the CTMP technology, and Silcar is a joint venture between German companies Thiess and Siemens.
Project director John Roche said there was huge demand for the CTMP pulp and prices were very high. "It requires much energy to produce, and Australia's energy prices are very competitive," he said.
"We are not competing against Australian electricity prices, but prices in the rest of the world. Only Russia and South Africa are comparable with Australia, but they do not have the same stable political environment." Mr Roche said adding value to the woodchips would be of great benefit to Australia. Woodchips sell for about $150-$160 a tonne, whereas pulp fetches about $800 a tonne. Mr Roche said the pulp would be exported to Taiwan, Korea and China. The two mills are expected to generate export earnings of $700 million a year, which will put a big dent in Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Timbercorp's plantation timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Original article
06 June, 2006
LETTER: Missing the logging message
Fiona Nelson, Otway Conservation Council, Apollo Bay
The Age ( letter) 6/6/06
Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.
The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.
Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.
The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.
The Age ( letter) 6/6/06
Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.
The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.
Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.
The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.
04 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Vic urged to protect old-growth forests
ABC News Online
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Environmentalists want the Victorian Government to do more to protect the state's old-growth forests from logging.
The Wilderness Society says while the Government has bought out about one-third of the state's logging quotas and it should now go further.
Marking World Environment Day tomorrow, the society's Alec Marr says the old-growth forests in the east, water catchments and the homes of endangered wildlife must be saved.
"We certainly expected the Government to do more this term than they have and we are running out of time," he said.
"So we want to see the Premier take a leadership role and protect all of these fantastic areas of forest that the community has been fighting for for years."
17 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Forest industry can't see wood for the (imported) trees
Philip Hopkins
The Age, May 17 2006
Plantation hardwood woodchip exports increased significantly last financial year, but Australia is set to record another $2 billion trade deficit in forest products.
Log removals from eucalypt hardwood plantations — mostly blue gums — rose by 58 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres last financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in its latest report on forest and wood products. Sales of eucalypt sawlogs from native forests fell by 4 per cent, to 10 million cubic metres.
ABARE's executive director Brian Fisher said the logs were used for woodchip exports.
Exports of hardwood and softwood woodchips totalled a record $858 million last financial year. Woodchips were 40 per cent of Australian timber exports of $2.1 billion, but this was dwarfed by forest product imports of $4.1 billion.
About half the imports ($2.1 billion) were of paper and paperboard, with printing and writing paper ($1.4 billion) the main source. Figures for this financial year's first half show imports totalling $2.05 billion, and exports $1.02 billion.
Chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries Catherine Murphy said the rise in plantation woodchip exports showed the effectiveness of the Federal Government's policy, which gives tax benefits to individual plantation investors.
"We have been able to build a strong plantation sector on this platform," she said.
Ms Murphy said plantations would form the basis of the pulp mills planned for Australia. Gunns aims to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania, and pulp mills are planned for south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, based on the regions' blue gum plantations.
The high level of paper imports showed the necessity to get such projects off the ground, she said. But Ms Murphy said the figures also underlined that the native forest sector could not be underestimated.
"It's still three times the size of the plantation hardwood sector," she said.
Sawn wood exports in both the September and December quarters remained just above $31 million, about 22 per cent higher than the same period the year before. Dr Fisher said the increase was driven by the rise in pine sawlog exports to Asia, particularly Chinese Taipei.
Original article
The Age, May 17 2006
Plantation hardwood woodchip exports increased significantly last financial year, but Australia is set to record another $2 billion trade deficit in forest products.
Log removals from eucalypt hardwood plantations — mostly blue gums — rose by 58 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres last financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in its latest report on forest and wood products. Sales of eucalypt sawlogs from native forests fell by 4 per cent, to 10 million cubic metres.
ABARE's executive director Brian Fisher said the logs were used for woodchip exports.
Exports of hardwood and softwood woodchips totalled a record $858 million last financial year. Woodchips were 40 per cent of Australian timber exports of $2.1 billion, but this was dwarfed by forest product imports of $4.1 billion.
About half the imports ($2.1 billion) were of paper and paperboard, with printing and writing paper ($1.4 billion) the main source. Figures for this financial year's first half show imports totalling $2.05 billion, and exports $1.02 billion.
Chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries Catherine Murphy said the rise in plantation woodchip exports showed the effectiveness of the Federal Government's policy, which gives tax benefits to individual plantation investors.
"We have been able to build a strong plantation sector on this platform," she said.
Ms Murphy said plantations would form the basis of the pulp mills planned for Australia. Gunns aims to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania, and pulp mills are planned for south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, based on the regions' blue gum plantations.
The high level of paper imports showed the necessity to get such projects off the ground, she said. But Ms Murphy said the figures also underlined that the native forest sector could not be underestimated.
"It's still three times the size of the plantation hardwood sector," she said.
Sawn wood exports in both the September and December quarters remained just above $31 million, about 22 per cent higher than the same period the year before. Dr Fisher said the increase was driven by the rise in pine sawlog exports to Asia, particularly Chinese Taipei.
Original article
16 May, 2006
ABC: Tasmania suffers downturn in woodchip demand
The World Today
Tuesday, 16 May , 2006
Tuesday, 16 May , 2006
Reporter: Tim Jeanes
ELEANOR HALL: In Tasmania today, the controversial proposal for a pulp mill in the state's north could be back on the table, in response to plummeting demand for Tasmanian woodchips.
The state's biggest timber company, Gunns Limited, is now cutting some timber contracts by up to 40 per cent.
And the Liberal Opposition and Tasmanian Greens are calling for a crisis meeting to help forest contractors.
Quotes from Greens Senator Bob Brown in the interview:
BOB BROWN: There must be a crisis meeting to deal with the pain that's being felt by so many contractors and workers in the industry who just 18 months ago were cheering John Howard and Paul Lennon in the run to the federal election. They're not cheering now.
BOB BROWN: Well, the one thing about the Greens is we've got a transition strategy, which would have saved the industry from this pain.
Let there be no doubt about this. The Greens and the environment movement, in particular the Wilderness Society, are going to continue to campaign to save Tasmania's old growth forests, because that's what we should doing for Australia's magnificent ecological resource in these remnant forests, but it's also the best long-term prospect as far as job creation and long-term, good quality job creation.
Through the hospitality and the tourism industries we won't have this boom and bust phenomenon.
Original article
The state's biggest timber company, Gunns Limited, is now cutting some timber contracts by up to 40 per cent.
And the Liberal Opposition and Tasmanian Greens are calling for a crisis meeting to help forest contractors.
Quotes from Greens Senator Bob Brown in the interview:
BOB BROWN: There must be a crisis meeting to deal with the pain that's being felt by so many contractors and workers in the industry who just 18 months ago were cheering John Howard and Paul Lennon in the run to the federal election. They're not cheering now.
BOB BROWN: Well, the one thing about the Greens is we've got a transition strategy, which would have saved the industry from this pain.
Let there be no doubt about this. The Greens and the environment movement, in particular the Wilderness Society, are going to continue to campaign to save Tasmania's old growth forests, because that's what we should doing for Australia's magnificent ecological resource in these remnant forests, but it's also the best long-term prospect as far as job creation and long-term, good quality job creation.
Through the hospitality and the tourism industries we won't have this boom and bust phenomenon.
Original article
15 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber sale gets strong price growth for coffers
Philip Hopkins
The Age, May 15, 2006
Cutting to the chase. Some in the timber industry believe the prices achieved have been manipulated.
VICFORESTS' first auction of native forest timber has dramatically increased the money going to Treasury's coffers, but has been strongly criticised by the timber industry.
The weighted average price of timber sold was 43 per cent higher than the prices paid by timber mills under the current licence system. Some wood lots were 118 per cent higher, while others were 22 per cent lower.
VicForests' sales director, Matthew Crapp, said the percentage increases were on top of the 10-20 per cent price rises for licensed timber brought in last year.
The auction was the first in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be phased out.
All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
A total of 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs in 47 lots was sold, with forward sales spread over all years until 2014-15. Revenue was $3 million higher over the 10 years than it would have been under the administered system.
Mr Crapp said the catalogue was small, but gave bidders the opportunity to use the new system. "The system worked well and is broadly accepted," he said.
The average lot size was 1610 cubic metres, with the largest 5000 cubic metres and the smallest 500 cubic metres. The 931 bids involved 14,000 different price calculations.
A total of 42 bidders qualified for the first two auctions, and 34 eventually placed bids, with 18 successful. All were Victorian domestic processors.
Mr Crapp said competition was strongest for the higher-grade lots, which was reflected in the higher prices.
"The higher-grade logs tended to go to the value-adding sawmills," he said.
"Bidding dropped during rounds three and four, when most lots went above the administrative price levels."
Mr Crapp said the specialised, mixed species lots from East Gippsland, such as yellow stringybark and silvertop ash, received the best prices.
Longer-term lots outperformed the shorter-term, and larger lots were also more popular. The prices would be more moderate in the long term, he said.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said while industry accepted the auction model, it was not a true market-based system.
"It is conducted by a monopoly supplier that, with other parts of government, dictates the release of wood to the market in terms of volume and tenure," he said.
"It thus has the ability to manipulate both to extract the maximum price from buyers."
Mr Murray said despite the State Government's formal commitment to a sustainable yield of 560,000 cubic metres of sawlogs, industry remained uncertain about the total volume of wood available in the future. This uncertainty created an artificial market environment and helped explain why the auction prices were so high.
Mr Murray said the prices were much higher than administered prices for wood in other states. "These higher prices are not necessarily a reflection of the intrinsic commercial value of this wood," he said.
Mr Murray said bidders marginally costed the wood and offset this against wood supplied under the supply contracts.
The small catalogue lots also gave the market the chance to "cherry pick" prime lots, while other bidders used the auction to improve their wood quality so as to forfeit supply of lower-quality wood, he said.
Mr Murray said many big businesses did not win any wood, or only small volumes. This indicated the prices were unrealistic and uncommercial for business of scale, he said.
VicForests will hold a second auction this month for 680,000 cubic metres of sawlog. Mr Crapp said this would give an indication of what the future timber industry might look like.
Original article
03 May, 2006
ARTICLE: $6m to end clear-fell
The Mercury
SUE NEALES
3 May 2006
A NEW $6 million research program will focus on finding alternatives to the controversial dual issues of the clear-felling of ancient native forests and the use of 1080 poison in private forestry plantations.
Federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz said the partnership between the Federal and State governments would ensure scientific rigour was added to the often heated and emotional debate surrounding these contentious forestry practices.
Announcing the research initiative in Hobart yesterday, Senator Abetz said it was important science determined the outcome of these issues, rather than the "shrill mantra of some in our community".
About $4m of the research by the Forestry Co-operative Research Centre, based at the University of Tasmania, has been flagged as part of the 2004 Regional Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, while the State Government is contributing another $2 million.
Forests Minister Bryan Green is confident the alternatives to clear-felling developed by the Forestry CRC will allow all clear-felling of "old growth forests" to be eliminated by 2010.
The State Government has already committed to this.
However, Mr Green said that, in practice, this clear-felling of native forests termed as "old growth" by Forestry Tasmania only accounted for 300 to 400 hectares a year.
But the conservation movement claims this figure is playing with statistics because Forestry Tasmania labels any ancient forest that has had a natural wildfire through it as regrowth to be clear-felled, rather than old growth.
"A lot of this is recycling announcements and commitments that have already been made, and muddying the water with confusing statistics," the Wilderness Society's Vica Bayley said last night.
Also announced yesterday was a renewed commitment by both the State and Federal governments to seek an alternative to the use of 1080 poison on farms and in private plantations.
The use of 1080 to kill browsing native animals that harm crops and young tree seedlings was stopped last year by Forestry Tasmania in the face of a growing international storm about the mass and cruel killings of species such as wallabies, Tasmanian devils, bandicoots and paddymelons.
Original article
SUE NEALES
3 May 2006
A NEW $6 million research program will focus on finding alternatives to the controversial dual issues of the clear-felling of ancient native forests and the use of 1080 poison in private forestry plantations.
Federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz said the partnership between the Federal and State governments would ensure scientific rigour was added to the often heated and emotional debate surrounding these contentious forestry practices.
Announcing the research initiative in Hobart yesterday, Senator Abetz said it was important science determined the outcome of these issues, rather than the "shrill mantra of some in our community".
About $4m of the research by the Forestry Co-operative Research Centre, based at the University of Tasmania, has been flagged as part of the 2004 Regional Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, while the State Government is contributing another $2 million.
Forests Minister Bryan Green is confident the alternatives to clear-felling developed by the Forestry CRC will allow all clear-felling of "old growth forests" to be eliminated by 2010.
The State Government has already committed to this.
However, Mr Green said that, in practice, this clear-felling of native forests termed as "old growth" by Forestry Tasmania only accounted for 300 to 400 hectares a year.
But the conservation movement claims this figure is playing with statistics because Forestry Tasmania labels any ancient forest that has had a natural wildfire through it as regrowth to be clear-felled, rather than old growth.
"A lot of this is recycling announcements and commitments that have already been made, and muddying the water with confusing statistics," the Wilderness Society's Vica Bayley said last night.
Also announced yesterday was a renewed commitment by both the State and Federal governments to seek an alternative to the use of 1080 poison on farms and in private plantations.
The use of 1080 to kill browsing native animals that harm crops and young tree seedlings was stopped last year by Forestry Tasmania in the face of a growing international storm about the mass and cruel killings of species such as wallabies, Tasmanian devils, bandicoots and paddymelons.
Original article
02 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Forest protest flap
Warrnambool Standard
By LIZ McKINNON
2 May 2006
A PROTEST to save the Cobboboonee forest near Portland and the state's remaining old-growth forest took a windy turn at a Warrnambool landmark yesterday.
Protesters scaled the dizzy heights of the Fletcher Jones water tower in the early hours
The first said in colourful writing `Save the Cobboboonee' and the second `Save Our Old Growth Forests' in black and white. Students from Deakin University and University of Melbourne launched the protest to stop clear-fell logging,
sparking outrage from Warrnambool City Council.
The council hired a crane to take down the banners later in the morning at a ``significant cost'' out of fears for the public's safety.
Warrnambool conservationist and protest member Piers Johnson said that in the past 100 years 95 per cent of the Portland forest management area and Cobboboonee forest had been cleared.
he area was home to endangered species such as the red-tailed black cockatoo and is under threat of land clearing, forest burning and general habitat destruction because of logging, Mr Johnson said.
``Actions will continue until (Premier) Bracks acts to protect remaining forests and declare them part of the existing Glenelg National Park,'' he said.
University of Melbourne student union environment officer Julia Dehm said the State Government vowed to stop logging in state forests at the last election but had continued to assign contracts to logging companies.
She said state parks like Cobboboonee should be declared national parks for future protection.
``Nothing has been done to stop it. We are hoping to put more pressure on the Government to ensure it is protected,'' she said.
Two protesters fitted with professional climbing apparatus scaled the rusted tower ladder at 2am yesterday and didn't abseil down until 5.30am.
Ms Dehm said the prominence of the site made it ideal to stage the protest.
``I think a lot of people support us. They are passionate about protecting their forest,'' she said.
Warrnambool City Council economic development director Andrew Minack said the banners were put up illegally and in a very dangerous site.
``Because of occupational health and safety we had to get a crane in to do anything. It was at a significant cost,'' he said.
``Council staff are forbidden to go up there. There are parts of the ladder rusted off.''
He said the banners were weighted down by bags filled with bricks and sand which had the potential to fall through the Fletcher Jones building roof onto TAFE students or pedestrians on paths. ``I understand people feeling passionate
about old-growth forests, but I don't think this is an appropriate way of displaying or promoting it,'' Mr Minack said.
21 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Not Out of the Woods Just Yet
By DON MELNICK and MARY PEARL
New York Times, April 20, 2006
OUR forests are the heart of our environmental support system. And yet, in the 36 years that have passed since the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, we have lost more than one billion acres of forest, with no end in sight.
The people most vulnerable to the disappearance of forests are the poor: nearly three-quarters of the 1.2 billion people defined as extremely poor live in rural areas, where they rely most directly on forests for food, fuel, fiber and building materials. But those of us in the developed world are hardly immune. Smaller forests mean fewer predators keeping insects and rodents in check in the Northeastern United States, a phenomenon linked to the spread of Lyme disease and West Nile virus, among others.
Everywhere, forests prevent erosion, filter and regulate the flow of fresh water, protect coral reefs and fisheries and harbor animals that pollinate, control pests and buffer disease. That is why the single most important action we can take to protect lives and livelihoods worldwide is to protect forests. And one of the best ways to do that is to change how we think about their economics.
First, we must connect local, informal foresters, who harvest timber and other forest products for a small fraction of their value, to better markets. A good example is in Papua New Guinea. A community there receives about $13 for a cubic meter of tropical hardwood. That same cubic meter of wood, transferred through a series of intermediaries, shows up in New York Harbor with a new price tag, $700. Minimally processed into thin veneer, it sells for $2,300. That same cubic meter, fully finished, goes for over $3,000. Small forest holders who receive just pennies on the dollar for a valuable natural resource can hardly be expected to practice sustainable forestry. Opening access to regional and global markets at fair value will create strong incentives for sustainable forest management.
Second, we must recognize the importance of forests in maintaining water and soil by encouraging their preservation along rivers. Markets can help here, as well. Costa Rica's hydroelectric power companies pay upland farmers to keep land forested to prevent the companies' dams from filling with silt. The cost is shared between a power company and its customers. Logic dictates that those who benefit when forests stop erosion should return some of those benefits to those who protect forests.
Third, we must seek a global trade agreement that promotes legally, sustainably harvested timber. We should not tolerate the forest destruction abetted by most countries, which will neither monitor what is extracted at home, nor place conditions on imports. When we first visited Sumatra and Borneo fewer than 20 years ago, there were vast tracts of forest. Recent estimates indicate that these two islands, among the six largest in the world, could be largely clear-cut by 2012. With those trees will go people's livelihoods, communities, cultural values and health, as well as the forests' unexplored biological diversity.
Finally, we must protect the role that forests play in mitigating global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Markets for trading carbon dioxide emissions credits must expand to all sources and all nations. They already exist in the developed world, where yesterday morning carbon credits from efficient factory operations and tree re-planting projects were traded at roughly 30 euros per ton.
If a company in Belgium can own carbon credits because it has reduced its factories' carbon emissions, then a forest owner in the Central African Republic should be able to trade the carbon credits he earns by not cutting down its trees. To the atmosphere, a ton of carbon is a ton of carbon. By opening trade in carbon credits to all countries, we provide economic opportunity to developing nations and create a very powerful incentive to conserve forests.
Together, these measures have the potential to reverse rates of forest loss. Sustainable forests, in turn, can form the basis for the health and economic well-being of the poorest among us, while benefiting everyone else as well. What could be a more satisfying vision for Earth Day 2006?
Don Melnick is a professor of conservation biology at Columbia University. Mary Pearl is president of Wildlife Trust."
ARTICLE: Supporters sought to lobby Govt on sustainable logging
ABC News Online
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1621116.htm
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1621116.htm
ARTICLE: Supporters sought to lobby Govt on sustainable logging
ABC News Online
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said."
Original article
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said."
Original article
18 April, 2006
LETTERS: Green logging solution gets the chop
David Hall, Brunswick East
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your article on Ron the “lumberjack” (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) brought up the important point that the environment movement is not about no logging, it’s about sustainable logging that makes sense.
Woodchipping old-growth forest in 2006 doesn’t make sense on any level. It isn’t boosting the economy. It isn’t creating jobs. And this isn’t wasteland.
The area being clear-felled in East Gippsland is a national treasure. Its destruction is so sad.
I applaud Ron for his comments, and I applaud the unlikely alliance between loggers who do have a vision for the future with greenies who always have.
Bracks would win my vote and that of many of my friends and family if he was brave enough to stop woodchipping of old-growth forests.
Colin Smith, St Kilda
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your story about the small timber cutter in Bruthen (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) shows up the hypocrisy of the State Government about forestry. It denies him any logs and sends them aji to the chip-mill instead. This makes a nonsense of its claim to be interested in value-adding. Instead, it promotes clearfelling, which is value-destruction.
Peter Quinn, Lome
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Park Victoria and the Bracks Government sadly are on a hat-trick of tourism decimation. After last year’s Wi!sons Promontory burn fiasco and this year’s Grampians inferno, Parks Victoria next summer could well be responsible for the Colac/Otways bushfire that is coming because an ecological burn is well overdue.
Parks Victoria and Bracks Government are pandering to inner-Melbourne greens. Parks Victoria’s pest management is also a disgrace in the Great Otways National Park.
So enjoy your visit to the Colac-Otways while you can. Parks Victoria's incompetence could well mean a charred Great Ocean Road landscape.
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your article on Ron the “lumberjack” (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) brought up the important point that the environment movement is not about no logging, it’s about sustainable logging that makes sense.
Woodchipping old-growth forest in 2006 doesn’t make sense on any level. It isn’t boosting the economy. It isn’t creating jobs. And this isn’t wasteland.
The area being clear-felled in East Gippsland is a national treasure. Its destruction is so sad.
I applaud Ron for his comments, and I applaud the unlikely alliance between loggers who do have a vision for the future with greenies who always have.
Bracks would win my vote and that of many of my friends and family if he was brave enough to stop woodchipping of old-growth forests.
Colin Smith, St Kilda
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your story about the small timber cutter in Bruthen (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) shows up the hypocrisy of the State Government about forestry. It denies him any logs and sends them aji to the chip-mill instead. This makes a nonsense of its claim to be interested in value-adding. Instead, it promotes clearfelling, which is value-destruction.
Peter Quinn, Lome
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Park Victoria and the Bracks Government sadly are on a hat-trick of tourism decimation. After last year’s Wi!sons Promontory burn fiasco and this year’s Grampians inferno, Parks Victoria next summer could well be responsible for the Colac/Otways bushfire that is coming because an ecological burn is well overdue.
Parks Victoria and Bracks Government are pandering to inner-Melbourne greens. Parks Victoria’s pest management is also a disgrace in the Great Otways National Park.
So enjoy your visit to the Colac-Otways while you can. Parks Victoria's incompetence could well mean a charred Great Ocean Road landscape.
16 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Death puts spotlight on Leadbeater plight
John Elder
The Sunday Age , April 16 2006
The Sunday Age , April 16 2006
Leadbeater's possum was once the tiny comeback kid of Australian wildlife.
Thought to have vanished, the possum was rediscovered alive and struggling in 1961. Ten years later it was made the faunal emblem of Victoria. Now it looks as if we will have to find a new one.
The death of the last Leadbeater in captivity, which was announced yesterday, means the little possum is no longer a promise and symbol of life renewed. In the wild, there are thought to be only a 1000 left.
In what appears to be a last-ditch stand, author Peter Preuss is calling for co-operative effort by Victoria's zoos, the timber industry and the State Government to relaunch a possum breeding program.
Preuss is the biographer of late amateur naturalist Des Hackett, who successfully bred the possums in captivity.
He said efforts to revive the possum's population faltered after Mr Hackett died in 1997, and today the possum's natural habitat was under threat from logging.
Preuss said the last possums in the wild lived in a 50-square-kilometre area in Victoria's central highlands - the mountain ash forests around Noojee, Powelltown, Marysville and Warburton.
In one positive sign, he said possum numbers were increasing in the Yellingbo Nature Reserve, an area of swamp and forest protected for the helmeted honey-eater, Victoria's bird emblem.
"This shows the possums can survive if we give them some nesting boxes," he said.
A spokesman for Healesville Sanctuary yesterday confirmed that the last captive possum, a male, died on Monday, following the death of its female mate last month. The pair had become too old to breed.
With AAP
12 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber group invests heavily to stay at the cutting edge
Philip Hopkins
April 10 2006
The coloured laser beams quickly hone in on the timber slab as it moves along the conveyor, pinpointing accurately how best to cut the wood.
Vince Erasmus looks on with approval. The South African, who has just joined timber group Integrated Tree Cropping as chief executive, is a firm believer in the role of new technology in giving a competitive edge. Previously, an operator would have judged manually the best way to cut the timber, but lasers do it better.
Neville Smith Timber, a division of ITC, uses the laser equipment at its processing plant at Heyfield in Victoria, along with a new piece of technology that was pioneered for the aerospace industry.
The $400,000 investment applies the technique of ultrasonic void detection to solid timber — the first time this has been done in the world.
"With ultrasonics, we're now able to affectively see inside each solid piece of timber that comes through the mill and pick up discontinuities in the wood," Erasmus said. "The technology allows us to detect tiny internal faults that are invisible to the eye."
Those faults make the timber unsuitable for appearance-grade products, but fine for structural use such as joints, lintels and bearers.
In South Africa, Erasmus was executive manager of Hans Merensky Timber, the country's largest sawmilling group and an operator of extensive eucalypt and pine plantations with a turnover of $210 million.
ITC, a listed subsidiary of Futuris Corporation, is of similar ilk; it manages more than 140,000 hectares of hardwood plantations, and through Neville Smith, is the largest hardwood timber processor in Australia.
Neville Smith's main timber mills are at Heyfield in central Gippsland, but it also has operations in Seymour, Tasmania and southern NSW. Neville Smith, acquired by ITC 20 months ago, has the capacity to process more than 250,000 cubic metres of native hardwood, all sourced from regrowth forests.
On an inspection tour at Heyfield, Erasmus said timber processing was going through a tough period. "Internationally, supply now exceeds demand for hardwood products and demand is not that good," he said. "It's difficult to sell products at the right price."
Erasmus said hardwood processing was volume driven, but customers were getting increasingly choosy, so timber quality was paramount.
Hence the new investments at Neville Smith. Erasmus said that, apart from the check scanner, ITC was buying a reconditioner kiln to dry timber more slowly and to a higher standard. A finger jointer will also be acquired to turn offcuts that would be normally woodchipped or made into sawdust into a new, higher-value product. ITC is also putting a greater emphasis on sales and marketing, having hired seven sales staff. ITC has been Perth-based, but Erasmus is seeking a house in Melbourne, signalling ITC's intention to locate itself on the east coast.
Erasmus said there was capacity for growth in the Australian timber market through high-quality niche products.
About 18 per cent of Neville Smith's products are exported, and Erasmus signalled interest in forging a partnership with a Chinese manufacturer. "China is an opportunity for us, given Australia's relative proximity to China and the cheaper shipping rates compared with other countries," he said.
ITC has launched a campaign to market its products as "GoodWood", emphasising the timber is harvested from regrowth native forests, not old growth or tropical forests, and highlighting its advantages as a storer of carbon in the age of climate change.
Erasmus said ITC intended to gain Forest Stewardship Council certification for its native hardwood products. ITC has already gained FSC approval for its plantation management. FSC is allied to WWF and is supported by green groups.
Bell Potter Securities, in a research paper, noted ITC's negative cash flow despite the company's profit of $6.3 million in the first half of 2005-06.
Analyst Ian Gibson said the result was below expectations, but was entirely due to the processing division. "With respect to processing, we believe that the operating performance has bottomed … when the recovery does come, the Neville Smith Group will be stronger."
But uncertainty about the tax treatment of managed investment schemes and the housing market may weigh on the share price, causing it to trade below Bell Potter's assessed value of $1.67, Gibson said.
ITC's share price closed at $1.09 on Friday.
Original article
April 10 2006
The coloured laser beams quickly hone in on the timber slab as it moves along the conveyor, pinpointing accurately how best to cut the wood.
Vince Erasmus looks on with approval. The South African, who has just joined timber group Integrated Tree Cropping as chief executive, is a firm believer in the role of new technology in giving a competitive edge. Previously, an operator would have judged manually the best way to cut the timber, but lasers do it better.
Neville Smith Timber, a division of ITC, uses the laser equipment at its processing plant at Heyfield in Victoria, along with a new piece of technology that was pioneered for the aerospace industry.
The $400,000 investment applies the technique of ultrasonic void detection to solid timber — the first time this has been done in the world.
"With ultrasonics, we're now able to affectively see inside each solid piece of timber that comes through the mill and pick up discontinuities in the wood," Erasmus said. "The technology allows us to detect tiny internal faults that are invisible to the eye."
Those faults make the timber unsuitable for appearance-grade products, but fine for structural use such as joints, lintels and bearers.
In South Africa, Erasmus was executive manager of Hans Merensky Timber, the country's largest sawmilling group and an operator of extensive eucalypt and pine plantations with a turnover of $210 million.
ITC, a listed subsidiary of Futuris Corporation, is of similar ilk; it manages more than 140,000 hectares of hardwood plantations, and through Neville Smith, is the largest hardwood timber processor in Australia.
Neville Smith's main timber mills are at Heyfield in central Gippsland, but it also has operations in Seymour, Tasmania and southern NSW. Neville Smith, acquired by ITC 20 months ago, has the capacity to process more than 250,000 cubic metres of native hardwood, all sourced from regrowth forests.
On an inspection tour at Heyfield, Erasmus said timber processing was going through a tough period. "Internationally, supply now exceeds demand for hardwood products and demand is not that good," he said. "It's difficult to sell products at the right price."
Erasmus said hardwood processing was volume driven, but customers were getting increasingly choosy, so timber quality was paramount.
Hence the new investments at Neville Smith. Erasmus said that, apart from the check scanner, ITC was buying a reconditioner kiln to dry timber more slowly and to a higher standard. A finger jointer will also be acquired to turn offcuts that would be normally woodchipped or made into sawdust into a new, higher-value product. ITC is also putting a greater emphasis on sales and marketing, having hired seven sales staff. ITC has been Perth-based, but Erasmus is seeking a house in Melbourne, signalling ITC's intention to locate itself on the east coast.
Erasmus said there was capacity for growth in the Australian timber market through high-quality niche products.
About 18 per cent of Neville Smith's products are exported, and Erasmus signalled interest in forging a partnership with a Chinese manufacturer. "China is an opportunity for us, given Australia's relative proximity to China and the cheaper shipping rates compared with other countries," he said.
ITC has launched a campaign to market its products as "GoodWood", emphasising the timber is harvested from regrowth native forests, not old growth or tropical forests, and highlighting its advantages as a storer of carbon in the age of climate change.
Erasmus said ITC intended to gain Forest Stewardship Council certification for its native hardwood products. ITC has already gained FSC approval for its plantation management. FSC is allied to WWF and is supported by green groups.
Bell Potter Securities, in a research paper, noted ITC's negative cash flow despite the company's profit of $6.3 million in the first half of 2005-06.
Analyst Ian Gibson said the result was below expectations, but was entirely due to the processing division. "With respect to processing, we believe that the operating performance has bottomed … when the recovery does come, the Neville Smith Group will be stronger."
But uncertainty about the tax treatment of managed investment schemes and the housing market may weigh on the share price, causing it to trade below Bell Potter's assessed value of $1.67, Gibson said.
ITC's share price closed at $1.09 on Friday.
Original article
11 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Protesters held over logging blockade
The Age
April 10, 2006 - 3:34PM
Police have arrested three anti-logging protesters and moved 17 other demonstrators from a blockade in the East Gippsland region of Victoria.
Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) spokeswoman Fiona York said the protest was in an area of old growth forest being logged less than 100 metres from the Goolengook forest.
The three protester who were arrested had chained themselves to logging machinery, she said.
"The rest of them have been moved out of the coupe by 20 or so Parks Victoria, DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment) and police," Ms York said.
Thirty arrests had been made at 15 blockades in East Gippsland since December 2005, she said.
The Goolengook Forest is the subject of an investigation by the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC).
"This particular coupe is right on the border of the assessment area that VEAC is looking into protection for Goolengook," Ms York said.
"While the Goolengook Forest is being investigated and under moratorium from logging, forest of comparable value is being logged right next door."
The area was at the headwaters of the Arte River, and the old-growth forest and rainforest were habitat for endangered flora and fauna, she said. Its unique eco-system was home to more than 300 rare and threatened plant and animal species, including the tiger quoll and the powerful owl.
"Premier Steve Bracks needs to do more than just investigate icon areas for the sake of a few votes," Ms York said.
"All old growth forest needs to be protected immediately."
AAP
07 April, 2006
LETTER: Lucky polly (Campbell "protects" the orange bellied parrot
Jill Redwood, Orbost
The Age, April 7, 2006
Luckily for the orange-bellied parrot, it spends some of the year in a marginal seat that's arguing about the aesthetics of wind farms. Our whales, sooty owls, tiger quolls and hundreds of other threatened species aren't so lucky under the Federal Government's Environment Act.
The $11 million logging industry in East Gippsland, for example, takes out threatened species every day without a shred of concern from the Howard Government.
The Age, April 7, 2006
Luckily for the orange-bellied parrot, it spends some of the year in a marginal seat that's arguing about the aesthetics of wind farms. Our whales, sooty owls, tiger quolls and hundreds of other threatened species aren't so lucky under the Federal Government's Environment Act.
The $11 million logging industry in East Gippsland, for example, takes out threatened species every day without a shred of concern from the Howard Government.
06 April, 2006
MEDIA RELEASE: Sustainable timber industry council announced
FROM THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE
Thursday, April 6, 2006
The sustainable growth of Victoria’s timber industry will be assisted by the establishment of a new peak advisory body, the Sustainable Timber Industry Council (STIC), the Minister for Agriculture Bob Cameron announced today.
Mr Cameron said STIC would foster a united, whole of industry approach to securing the sustainable development of Victoria’s forest and forest products sector and will provide advice to him on a broad range of timber industry issues.
“The timber industry in Victoria is based on plantation and native forest timber resources. It has an annual turnover of more than $3 billion and is of critical importance to the economic future of this state.
Mr Cameron said as part of the ‘Our Forests, Our Future’ policy initiative, the Bracks Government made a commitment ensuring that our forests, the timber industry and their communities are protected for the long term.
“That commitment was reiterated in the ‘Moving Forward’ Provincial Statement announced late last year and STIC is an important part of that process.
“One of STIC’s major roles over the next year will be the development of a Timber Industry Strategy, which will establish Victoria as a world leader in sustainable timber industries,” Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said he was pleased to announce Christian Zahra as the Chair of STIC.
“Christian Zahra has an excellent understanding of the important issues facing the timber industry in Victoria and is widely respected within the sector,” Mr Cameron said.
The remaining members of STIC come from key industry sectors, and include:
Thursday, April 6, 2006
The sustainable growth of Victoria’s timber industry will be assisted by the establishment of a new peak advisory body, the Sustainable Timber Industry Council (STIC), the Minister for Agriculture Bob Cameron announced today.
Mr Cameron said STIC would foster a united, whole of industry approach to securing the sustainable development of Victoria’s forest and forest products sector and will provide advice to him on a broad range of timber industry issues.
“The timber industry in Victoria is based on plantation and native forest timber resources. It has an annual turnover of more than $3 billion and is of critical importance to the economic future of this state.
Mr Cameron said as part of the ‘Our Forests, Our Future’ policy initiative, the Bracks Government made a commitment ensuring that our forests, the timber industry and their communities are protected for the long term.
“That commitment was reiterated in the ‘Moving Forward’ Provincial Statement announced late last year and STIC is an important part of that process.
“One of STIC’s major roles over the next year will be the development of a Timber Industry Strategy, which will establish Victoria as a world leader in sustainable timber industries,” Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said he was pleased to announce Christian Zahra as the Chair of STIC.
“Christian Zahra has an excellent understanding of the important issues facing the timber industry in Victoria and is widely respected within the sector,” Mr Cameron said.
The remaining members of STIC come from key industry sectors, and include:
- Diane Tregoning – Chief Executive of Black Forest Timbers Pty Ltd
- Andrew Lang – Chairman of SMARTimbers Cooperative Ltd
- Bob Smith – former CEO of State Forests of NSW
- Kevin White – former CEO of Hancock Victorian Plantations
- Ken Robertson – former Strategic Development Manager for Carter Holt Harvey.
- Michael O’Connor – National Secretary of the forestry section of the CFMEU
- Ian Kennedy – former Executive Director of Regional Development Victoria
28 March, 2006
LETTER: Bracks must protect Leadbeater's habitat
It is sad news indeed that only one Leadbeater's possum, Victoria’s state faunal emblem, remains in captivity after its mate died in a Melbourne sanctuary.
The possum’s survival is under threat because clearfell logging of the Central Highlands, including Melbourne’s water catchments, is destroying its habitat. It needs old trees with hollows for its nests.
Steve Bracks should act immediately to protect these forests and prevent the possum's extinction in its natural habitat. He should also protect the remaining forest habit of Karak, the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo which was the Commonwealth Games mascot, to assist its survival in the wild too.
ARTICLE: One left as possum dies in captivity
March 28, 2006
Only one member of the endangered possum species that is Victoria's state faunal emblem remains in captivity after its mate died in a Melbourne sanctuary.
Leadbeater's possum, which lives in the mountain ash forests of the state's central highlands, was considered extinct until it was rediscovered in 1961 and a successful captive breeding program started.
But the death of the second-last Leadbeater's possum at the Healesville Sanctuary has ended that program, author Peter Preuss said yesterday.
Mr Preuss, the biographer of the late amateur naturalist Des Hackett, said Mr Hackett had remarkable results breeding the possums in captivity. By the 1980s he was able to hand over breeding colonies to zoos throughout Australia, with the hope the offspring could one day be released in the wild.
"Unfortunately, the Leadbeater's possum is a very politically sensitive animal," he said. "Because their natural range is almost exclusively within Victoria's timber harvesting areas, Leadbeater's possums were never released. Instead, colonies were exported to zoos throughout the world."
"Today, there are just 1000 left in the wild and only one lonely individual remains in captivity (in Victoria)," he said.
AAP
Original article
Only one member of the endangered possum species that is Victoria's state faunal emblem remains in captivity after its mate died in a Melbourne sanctuary.
Leadbeater's possum, which lives in the mountain ash forests of the state's central highlands, was considered extinct until it was rediscovered in 1961 and a successful captive breeding program started.
But the death of the second-last Leadbeater's possum at the Healesville Sanctuary has ended that program, author Peter Preuss said yesterday.
Mr Preuss, the biographer of the late amateur naturalist Des Hackett, said Mr Hackett had remarkable results breeding the possums in captivity. By the 1980s he was able to hand over breeding colonies to zoos throughout Australia, with the hope the offspring could one day be released in the wild.
"Unfortunately, the Leadbeater's possum is a very politically sensitive animal," he said. "Because their natural range is almost exclusively within Victoria's timber harvesting areas, Leadbeater's possums were never released. Instead, colonies were exported to zoos throughout the world."
"Today, there are just 1000 left in the wild and only one lonely individual remains in captivity (in Victoria)," he said.
AAP
Original article
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