Anna Krien
The Age (article), September 4, 2010
I'M AT the National Park Hotel on the road to Maydena, the last town before the Florentine and Styx valleys. It is dark when I walk in and order a beer at the bar. Ignoring the hush, I try to act as if I always walk into pubs full of men in the middle of nowhere. Perched on a barstool, I flick nonchalantly through the paper - but as I scan the front page, I realise my timing is unfortunate.
"Isn't that the river I just drove over?" I asked the barman, holding up the front page. It shows a photo of an Asian girl alongside a picture of the Tyenna River. The barman jerks his head.
"Yes, but it wasn't any of us."
A voice behind me chips in. "Definitely not us. That's a stupid place to put a body. I mean, there's hundreds of mine shafts around here."
I turn around, but there are too many eyes looking at me expectantly and I can't figure out who spoke. I nod slowly and read through the article. Police have arrested two Hobart men after discovering the girl early this morning, her body weighed down by rocks in the shallows.
"Are you a greenie?" another voice calls out, startling me. I spin around quickly this time and catch the speaker, a young man wearing an orange high-visibility top and blue pants; he falls back behind his mates as if to share around responsibility for his question. A couple of girls have walked in to buy a six-pack of sweetened mixers and they pause to look at me. I shrug.
"I dunno. Are you?"
His mates semi-shriek and fall over themselves, while he puffs himself up.
"No way!"
I tell them I'm a writer and that I've been staying at the Florentine blockade up the road. The men recoil.
"They stink, don't you reckon?" says a fella in a hi-vis fleece jumper. "They smell disgusting." I don't answer. "Go on, admit it, they stink. If one were sitting right there, would you sit next to them?"I say I would and the men scream with horror.
"No way! Go on, admit it. They smell," another pitches in.
"Well, yeah," I begin tentatively, "they've got their own …" But before I can finish, they're clapping and cheering.
"She admits it! She thinks they stink!"
I start to laugh, giving in. "OK, some can smell a bit gross, but I reckon Lynx deodorant and most women's perfume stinks as well."
Some of the men nod sagely. Others are giddy with joy that they've made me say it.
I look around. It's an OK pub. Stickers are plastered all over the walls, the usual "I love beer, shooting and f---ing"jokes ("Credit is like sex - some get it, some don't," I spy above the door). It's perhaps a little too antiquated, cashing in on the "Oh, aren't we oddballs, us Tasmanians"theme for the tourists. But at least it makes an effort to charm, unlike the other pubs I've seen on the island, renovated with rows of pokie machines and shrieking metal chairs. I look up at the dinner menu on a blackboard. I want to order a vegetable pattie but worry it will condemn me to "greenie-yuppie" status. Asking for a salad roll can be fraught with danger down here. When I asked for one at a cafe in New Norfolk, the woman behind the counter looked at me with suspicion and asked, "You want ham, chicken or beef with that?"
I order fish and chips, silently apologising to my stomach. I hate meals that are all yellow.
When my meal arrives, a parmigiana is plonked down in front of the man beside me. He introduces himself as John, and tells me he is a tree-faller, a subcontractor in a harvesting team in the Styx Valley. Fallers are among the few who still touch the trees before they fall. If a tree is too difficult to cut with the jerky outstretched arm of a machine, the faller steps in with a hand-held chainsaw and with a series of cuts can make it fall away from the crew. "You can tell the fallers," one activist told me earlier. "They're the skinny ones. The rest are fat from sitting in machines all day." John isn't skinny, but he isn't fat either.
"We're also the 'sawlog chasers'," he explains; they trim the tops, branches and butts off felled trees and separate any sawlogs from the stem - the straight, wide logs suitable for boards rather than pulping.
A big man with blond hair, John is in his early 30s. He was a shearer before he got into falling, but his current occupation runs in the family. "My grandpa did it, my father too, but he got out after Gunns took control of everything. Said it was too much of a monopoly."
John stayed in the game. His family lives in Buckland on the east coast, a few hours' drive across the island from the Styx Valley. He commutes to work, living at this pub during the week and at home on weekends. "I'm trying to get the boss to give me a portion of his fuel subsidy," he tells me. "But it's not looking good."
John is a thoughtful presence amid the fluoro rowdiness. As we chat, there are times I think he hasn't heard me he is quiet for so long. I ask him about the activists.
"It's the weirdest thing," he says slowly, two beers between us. "You come to work and there they are. One dressed as an eagle, another looking like she wants to tear your eyes out, and then they try to talk to us as if this is normal."
John is part of a small "bush crew", contracted by Forestry Tasmania to fell a coupe and haul the timber to a mill. "[The protesters] tell you to call the police and FT, so you have to drive back in to phone reception, and then the boss tells us to go back - and then they want to talk to you all mate-like. Offering us cups of tea and bullshit like that. I mean, f--- , we're here to work, not to have a chat."
He shakes his head and says again, "It's the weirdest thing. You see them barefoot on top of a machine or tree, and there's a frost and they're dancing round, singing - they're f---ing crazy."
For many of the activists at the Florentine blockade, it's woodchips they have the biggest problem with, the turning of whole hectares of forest into mulch. I am told repeatedly that sawlogs account for only a small portion of the industry's output. They are cynical about the industry's claims that sawlogs are their top priority.
When I put this to John, he looks genuinely confused.
"It's the cream of the crop. I'd have to be stupid to send a sawlog to the chipper. What's left over goes to woodchips."
I tell John what the activists at the Florentine told me: 80 to 90 per cent of the forest felled there will go to the chipper.
"Yeah, but sawlogs are the prime cut," he insists.
LIKE a carcass in an abattoir, the forest is divvied into cuts. But unlike a cow that couldn't live without its T-bone, perhaps a forest could be left standing and just its prime cuts removed? John considers this for a while before answering cautiously.
"In regrowth forest, selective logging would be possible, but in old-growth it would be way too dangerous. You'd have to clear-fell." John already has the most dangerous job in the industry, and the most under-represented. When I ask him who in all the forestry brouhaha speaks for him, he again goes quiet, as if fishing in some dark place for an answer.
"Not Ferdie Kroon [CEO of the Forest Contractors Association], that bastard loves himself. And Barry Chipman, he's a wanker. I mean, who is Chipman? He is quoted in every bloody news item but I've never
seen him [Chipman is the Tasmanian spokesman for Timber Communities Australia, an industry group]." John laughs out loud. "And now Brant Webb is
running for election. What a goose."
Webb became famous when he and another miner were trapped in the Beaconsfield mine for two weeks. Their survival story made headlines around the world; they even appeared on Oprah.
As we talk, advertisements play on the television above the bar. There's one promoting Forestry Tasmania, another publicising a "Walk Against Warming" to be held in the Upper Florentine. A tourist on a nearby barstool overhears our conversation and starts to talk to the man behind the bar about the logging of old-growth forests.
"We used to go into the pub and say we were loggers," John tells me. "Now we keep quiet if we don't know the place. It's intimidating. I wanted to go see Johnny Diesel play in Hobart last month, but he was at the Republic Bar and I just thought I'd stand out like a sore thumb."
Around us, there's a hum in the room, fuelled by talk of timber. A younger logger leans between us to listen. Boyish, he gains confidence as more men gather. Pulling out a mobile phone, he shows me videos of working in the forest - skidders going back and forth, timber being dragged to a landing, trees falling over.
John eyes him and says with a dry smile, "When have you got time to do this, Mitch? Shouldn't you be working?"
Mitch laughs and shows another clip to a man standing near us.
"Oh, I reckon she would have already seen that one, mate," the man says knowingly. Curious, I lean over. It's the video of the car being smashed with Nish and Miranda inside it. Mitch must have downloaded it on to his phone. I wonder how many times he's watched it. He giggles as he replays it for me. I look at the faces around me, wondering who might be one of the blurry bodies in the video.
I ask John what he does when protesters come into a coupe he's working in.
"I try to keep out of it. Just don't say anything. But there was this one time we'd started logging a coupe in the Styx, 10F, and this woman she came out of nowhere and was going crazy at us. She was sobbing, a thirty-something-year-old woman, sobbing over a few trees. I was pretty rude to her, I could have dealt with that better."
Again I ask John about clear-felling. "It's the safest way in the old forests," he says. But what about all the potential sawlogs that go to the chipper before they've grown? Isn't that your future yield? John is quiet.
But then Leon, the pub owner, appears behind the bar. Leon is a retired logger himself, and John snaps up his head. "It would be OK if you guys didn't cut everything in the '70s."
A small round man with white hair and glasses, Leon barks back: "That's not true - we did a good job around Triabunna. All the wood was rotten, so we cleared it and reseeded."
John shakes his head accusingly. "That's bullshit. There was good wood in there."
"No, it was all rotten, John, I'm telling you."
"Good wood and you guys cut it all for the chipper. So now we're two generations behind."
I'm not sure what I've started. The man sitting on the other side of me winks and says in my ear, "Who needs an activist?"
Further down the bar, another man puts his beer down and says loudly, "I recommend that everyone shut their mouths and not say another word to this woman."
There's a silence. I lean forward to look at him properly. He's wearing a fluorescent orange jacket, and has closely cropped hair and a pointy face that almost fits into his beer glass. "She'll take it all back to the Greens, to Bob Brown. Or you'll be on A Current Affair next week."
I protest. "C'mon, mate - I've got standards. Today Tonight, at least."
The man beside me says, "Lay off, Turk, she's OK." But the others are quietly looking me over more closely.
"So, whose side are you on?" asks John, leaning back, his blue eyes on me.
This is an extract from Anna Krien's Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's Forests, published by Black Inc
Source: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/where-the-wild-things-are-20100903-14uhd.html
04 September, 2010
18 August, 2010
Forests NSW investigated over logging breaches
Ben Cubby, August 18, 2010
Sydney Morning Herald (article)
Source
Forests NSW is being forced to review its logging practices, after the discovery of a spate of new breaches including logging old-growth rainforests and destroying the habitat of threatened native animals.
The latest damage, at Girard State Forest near Tenterfield, is the fifth time in five months that the state agency has come under investigation.
The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, which oversees environmental protection licences, is conducting a joint audit with the agency of logging in the region.
The review will examine the regulations under which contractors are employed by Forests NSW, and rules protecting native wildlife, young trees and trees surrounding waterways.
The department has already handed out four penalty notices to the agency this year for breaking logging rules in the nearby Yabbra State Forest.
Damage in Girard State Forest was uncovered by a team of zoologists and botanists, working with an environment group, North East Forest Alliance.
It included a nine-hectare stand of mature trees, some of them two metres wide at ground level and 50 metres tall, which was part of a ''special prescription zone'' under the area's forestry agreement. This does not forbid logging, but requires contractors to "maintain or enhance the values that the area is zoned to protect".
The area was also part of Forests NSW's 1995 Tenterfield environmental impact statement, and part of one of the wildlife corridors the state government is striving to link up along the Great Dividing Range, from Queensland to Victoria.
Girard State Forest provides a home for koalas, stuttering frogs, sooty owls, powerful owls, golden-tipped bats and yellow-bellied gliders.
"Recent audits have exposed illegal logging of rainforest, wetlands, endangered ecological communities and now old-growth forest,'' said a spokesman for North East Forest Alliance, Dailan Pugh.
''These are what the regional forest agreement was meant to protect. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. This is in addition to systemic failures by Forests NSW to implement many of the measures required to protect threatened species and streams.''
Altogether, the report documented 24 recent breaches of a threatened species licence, 10 of an environmental protection licence, nine of a fisheries license and two of the site's integrated forestry operations approval.
Forests NSW, a public trading enterprise within the NSW Department of Primary Industries which plays a central role in the state's $1 billion timber industry, confirmed it was taking part in the joint audit.
''In addition, a compliance response team has been established to address these issues,'' the agency said in a statement.
''Forests NSW is committed to ensuring that the highest possible standards are maintained during harvest operations.''
The environment department said separate investigations into other breaches in Double Duke and Grange state forests were still under way.
''Once these investigations are complete and, if a pattern is identified, [the department] would consider further regulatory steps,'' a spokesman said.
Sydney Morning Herald (article)
Source
Forests NSW is being forced to review its logging practices, after the discovery of a spate of new breaches including logging old-growth rainforests and destroying the habitat of threatened native animals.
The latest damage, at Girard State Forest near Tenterfield, is the fifth time in five months that the state agency has come under investigation.
The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, which oversees environmental protection licences, is conducting a joint audit with the agency of logging in the region.
The review will examine the regulations under which contractors are employed by Forests NSW, and rules protecting native wildlife, young trees and trees surrounding waterways.
The department has already handed out four penalty notices to the agency this year for breaking logging rules in the nearby Yabbra State Forest.
Damage in Girard State Forest was uncovered by a team of zoologists and botanists, working with an environment group, North East Forest Alliance.
It included a nine-hectare stand of mature trees, some of them two metres wide at ground level and 50 metres tall, which was part of a ''special prescription zone'' under the area's forestry agreement. This does not forbid logging, but requires contractors to "maintain or enhance the values that the area is zoned to protect".
The area was also part of Forests NSW's 1995 Tenterfield environmental impact statement, and part of one of the wildlife corridors the state government is striving to link up along the Great Dividing Range, from Queensland to Victoria.
Girard State Forest provides a home for koalas, stuttering frogs, sooty owls, powerful owls, golden-tipped bats and yellow-bellied gliders.
"Recent audits have exposed illegal logging of rainforest, wetlands, endangered ecological communities and now old-growth forest,'' said a spokesman for North East Forest Alliance, Dailan Pugh.
''These are what the regional forest agreement was meant to protect. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. This is in addition to systemic failures by Forests NSW to implement many of the measures required to protect threatened species and streams.''
Altogether, the report documented 24 recent breaches of a threatened species licence, 10 of an environmental protection licence, nine of a fisheries license and two of the site's integrated forestry operations approval.
Forests NSW, a public trading enterprise within the NSW Department of Primary Industries which plays a central role in the state's $1 billion timber industry, confirmed it was taking part in the joint audit.
''In addition, a compliance response team has been established to address these issues,'' the agency said in a statement.
''Forests NSW is committed to ensuring that the highest possible standards are maintained during harvest operations.''
The environment department said separate investigations into other breaches in Double Duke and Grange state forests were still under way.
''Once these investigations are complete and, if a pattern is identified, [the department] would consider further regulatory steps,'' a spokesman said.
13 August, 2010
LETTER: Plantations the solution
John Renowden, Princes Hill
THE government must recognise that the community is overwhelmingly opposed to the continued woodchipping of our native forests. Modern forestry is destructive, with clear felling followed by intensely hot regeneration burns. These practices obliterate wildlife and convert natural forest into even-aged monocultures for industrial use. They are uneconomic and are subsidised by taxpayers. The time is long overdue to transition logging into plantations, which have sufficient wood to meet 90 per cent of our timber needs. Mr Brumby, respect the wishes of the broader community, and protect our forests for biodiversity, water and carbon storage.
The Age, August 13, 2010
THE government must recognise that the community is overwhelmingly opposed to the continued woodchipping of our native forests. Modern forestry is destructive, with clear felling followed by intensely hot regeneration burns. These practices obliterate wildlife and convert natural forest into even-aged monocultures for industrial use. They are uneconomic and are subsidised by taxpayers. The time is long overdue to transition logging into plantations, which have sufficient wood to meet 90 per cent of our timber needs. Mr Brumby, respect the wishes of the broader community, and protect our forests for biodiversity, water and carbon storage.
LETTER: Volunteers to the rescue
Chris Owens, Lysterfield South
The Age, August 13, 2010
IT IS now official. Protection of rare and endangered species now relies on volunteer organisations rather than governments. This case demonstrates how you can't find rare animals if you are not looking for them.
The only question now is: Will the Victorian government change the rules so the plunder can continue, as occurred in Tasmania?
LETTER: Signs there decades ago
Judith Wakeman, Templestowe
THOSE asserting that thousands of jobs will be lost and rural towns decimated by the decision to suspend logging should ask the forestry industry and state governments why they did not heed the recommendations of the Land Conservation Council review into East Gippsland in 1986, which stated that the industry was operating at twice the level required to ensure it was sustainable, and that the biggest threats to employment in the forestry industry were unsustainable practices and the development and implementation of methods aimed at greater efficiency.
The review also stated that the best hope for increasing employment opportunities was in the environmental education and tourism industries, provided they were properly supported.
These opportunities are undermined by logging activities.
Maybe this decision will open the door to an alternative future for Gippsland.
The Age, August 13, 2010
THOSE asserting that thousands of jobs will be lost and rural towns decimated by the decision to suspend logging should ask the forestry industry and state governments why they did not heed the recommendations of the Land Conservation Council review into East Gippsland in 1986, which stated that the industry was operating at twice the level required to ensure it was sustainable, and that the biggest threats to employment in the forestry industry were unsustainable practices and the development and implementation of methods aimed at greater efficiency.
The review also stated that the best hope for increasing employment opportunities was in the environmental education and tourism industries, provided they were properly supported.
These opportunities are undermined by logging activities.
Maybe this decision will open the door to an alternative future for Gippsland.
LETTER: The many faces of conservation
April Reside, North Ward, Qld
The Age, August 13, 2010
Source
As entrusted custodians of our environment and biota, we would hope that our government would act to protect our iconic endangered species. Sadly, this is not the case.
If it weren't for the community group Environment East Gippsland, rare and endangered species such as the long-footed potoroo would have seen their old-growth forest habitat on Brown Mountain destroyed long ago (''Greens hail win on logging'', The Age, 12/8). VicForests is aware that logging practices in Victoria are unsustainable.
Protecting forests is a pivotal conservation issue, with many states banning land clearing. However, protecting forests is not just an endangered-species issue: it is a water conservation issue, a carbon issue, a tourism issue and a community issue. This landmark case will hopefully show the government that the community will hold it accountable.
The Age, August 13, 2010
Source
As entrusted custodians of our environment and biota, we would hope that our government would act to protect our iconic endangered species. Sadly, this is not the case.
If it weren't for the community group Environment East Gippsland, rare and endangered species such as the long-footed potoroo would have seen their old-growth forest habitat on Brown Mountain destroyed long ago (''Greens hail win on logging'', The Age, 12/8). VicForests is aware that logging practices in Victoria are unsustainable.
Protecting forests is a pivotal conservation issue, with many states banning land clearing. However, protecting forests is not just an endangered-species issue: it is a water conservation issue, a carbon issue, a tourism issue and a community issue. This landmark case will hopefully show the government that the community will hold it accountable.
12 August, 2010
Greens hail win on logging
Adam Morton
The Age (article), August 12, 2010
Source
ENVIRONMENTALISTS are claiming a landmark victory after the Supreme Court upheld a ban on logging of old-growth forest in hotly disputed parts of East Gippsland.
Environment East Gippsland had sued VicForests, the government agency responsible for logging in state forests, over plans to log about 60 hectares at Brown Mountain, near Orbost.
Justice Robert Osborn yesterday ruled that campaigners had shown that part of the proposed logging zone was home to endangered potoroo and glider species and should be protected.
The rest of the area cannot be felled until the court is satisfied the government has carried out surveys that show endangered frog and quoll species are not present. The judgment effectively rules that government surveys that prompted Environment Minister Gavin Jennings to lift a moratorium on logging in the area failed to properly examine whether endangered wildlife was at risk.
Justice Osborn ruled VicForests was obliged to take a precautionary approach if warned that endangered animal species were in proposed logging areas.
Environmentalists said they were confident new surveys would force an end to logging at Brown Mountain, which is seen as a symbolically important battleground by greens and the timber industry.
Greens leader Bob Brown, in court supporting the environmentalists' case, said the judgment was ''breakthrough territory for the whole nation''. ''This is a green letter day for the forests, for endangered species and for the 80 per cent of Australians who want the destruction of our wild forests [with] their carbon stores and their magnificent biodiversity ended,'' he said.
Environment East Gippsland won a temporary injunction over logging last year after producing video footage showing an endangered long-footed potoroo in the area to be felled.
The group's co-ordinator Jill Redwood said the ruling was a significant win that would force the state government to abide by its logging laws.
Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the judgment meant extra precautions needed to be taken before the ban on logging the four Brown Mountain zones could be lifted.
''The decision does not mean that logging cannot occur in these areas in the future,'' he said.
The Age (article), August 12, 2010
Source
ENVIRONMENTALISTS are claiming a landmark victory after the Supreme Court upheld a ban on logging of old-growth forest in hotly disputed parts of East Gippsland.
Environment East Gippsland had sued VicForests, the government agency responsible for logging in state forests, over plans to log about 60 hectares at Brown Mountain, near Orbost.
Justice Robert Osborn yesterday ruled that campaigners had shown that part of the proposed logging zone was home to endangered potoroo and glider species and should be protected.
The rest of the area cannot be felled until the court is satisfied the government has carried out surveys that show endangered frog and quoll species are not present. The judgment effectively rules that government surveys that prompted Environment Minister Gavin Jennings to lift a moratorium on logging in the area failed to properly examine whether endangered wildlife was at risk.
Justice Osborn ruled VicForests was obliged to take a precautionary approach if warned that endangered animal species were in proposed logging areas.
Environmentalists said they were confident new surveys would force an end to logging at Brown Mountain, which is seen as a symbolically important battleground by greens and the timber industry.
Greens leader Bob Brown, in court supporting the environmentalists' case, said the judgment was ''breakthrough territory for the whole nation''. ''This is a green letter day for the forests, for endangered species and for the 80 per cent of Australians who want the destruction of our wild forests [with] their carbon stores and their magnificent biodiversity ended,'' he said.
Environment East Gippsland won a temporary injunction over logging last year after producing video footage showing an endangered long-footed potoroo in the area to be felled.
The group's co-ordinator Jill Redwood said the ruling was a significant win that would force the state government to abide by its logging laws.
Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the judgment meant extra precautions needed to be taken before the ban on logging the four Brown Mountain zones could be lifted.
''The decision does not mean that logging cannot occur in these areas in the future,'' he said.
11 August, 2010
Environmentalists hail court win
Michelle Draper
The Age (article), August 11, 2010
AAP
Source
Logging in an environmentally significant old growth forest in Victoria will remain banned until the state government implements a host of measures to protect endangered species.
Victoria's Supreme Court has upheld the ban preventing logging at Brown Mountain in the state's far east under an injunction, while a number of surveys on endangered wildlife are carried out.
In a decision hailed as a victory by environmentalists, Justice Robert Osborn also ordered special protection zones and "habitat retention" areas be created at Brown Mountain, north of Orbost in East Gippsland before logging can start.
Anti-logging campaigners Environment East Gippsland took action in the Supreme Court last year to stop the state-owned timber agency VicForests logging at Brown Mountain.
Logging was due to start at the site last September but it was halted until the outcome of the Supreme Court trial, which took place in March.
In a pivotal point for the environmentalists' case, video footage of an endangered long-footed potoroo was captured at the site and formed a key piece of evidence in the trial.
The decision will benefit several threatened and rare species including the potoroo, greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders, the spot-tailed quoll and two species of endangered frogs, the giant burrowing frog and the large brown tree frog.
Wednesday's decision means VicForests will be legally obliged to take further action to protect endangered species, along with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, before logging can take place.
Unless VicForests complies with the requirements to establish the special protection zones and habitat retention areas, logging at Brown Mountain would be illegal, Justice Osborn said.
Greens leader Bob Brown labelled the ruling a "breakthrough".
"This is breakthrough territory for this whole nation," Senator Brown told reporters outside the court.
"It is now up to the legislators in Melbourne and in Canberra to follow through and not leave it to the courts but to represent the people of Australia by legislation with teeth in it to protect our forests and our wildlife."
Environment East Gippsland spokeswoman Jill Redwood hailed the decision as a win and said it sent a strong message to the DSE and VicForests.
"This is a huge win for not just Brown Mountain, that's just the tip of the iceberg, but old growth forests right across the state," Ms Redwood said.
Ms Redwood said the decision was significant because pre-logging surveys had not been required previously.
She said if the surveys ordered by Justice Osborn were carried out correctly then endangered species would certainly be uncovered in the logging areas.
Justice Osborn ordered habitat retention areas be created for potoroos found at the logging site while special protection zones should be established for the gliders and further surveys for the frogs.
"In order to give effect to these conclusions VicForests should be restrained by injunction from harvesting until the relevant steps have been completed," Justice Osborn said.
Reviews of management areas that are currently under way for powerful owls and sooty owls should also be completed, he said.
VicForests director of strategy Nathan Trushell said the organisation wanted time to digest the 232-page judgment.
"Clearly the injunction remains until a number of conditions that need to be met to the satisfaction of the Department of Sustainability and Environment are met," he told reporters.
The Age (article), August 11, 2010
AAP
Source
Logging in an environmentally significant old growth forest in Victoria will remain banned until the state government implements a host of measures to protect endangered species.
Victoria's Supreme Court has upheld the ban preventing logging at Brown Mountain in the state's far east under an injunction, while a number of surveys on endangered wildlife are carried out.
In a decision hailed as a victory by environmentalists, Justice Robert Osborn also ordered special protection zones and "habitat retention" areas be created at Brown Mountain, north of Orbost in East Gippsland before logging can start.
Anti-logging campaigners Environment East Gippsland took action in the Supreme Court last year to stop the state-owned timber agency VicForests logging at Brown Mountain.
Logging was due to start at the site last September but it was halted until the outcome of the Supreme Court trial, which took place in March.
In a pivotal point for the environmentalists' case, video footage of an endangered long-footed potoroo was captured at the site and formed a key piece of evidence in the trial.
The decision will benefit several threatened and rare species including the potoroo, greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders, the spot-tailed quoll and two species of endangered frogs, the giant burrowing frog and the large brown tree frog.
Wednesday's decision means VicForests will be legally obliged to take further action to protect endangered species, along with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, before logging can take place.
Unless VicForests complies with the requirements to establish the special protection zones and habitat retention areas, logging at Brown Mountain would be illegal, Justice Osborn said.
Greens leader Bob Brown labelled the ruling a "breakthrough".
"This is breakthrough territory for this whole nation," Senator Brown told reporters outside the court.
"It is now up to the legislators in Melbourne and in Canberra to follow through and not leave it to the courts but to represent the people of Australia by legislation with teeth in it to protect our forests and our wildlife."
Environment East Gippsland spokeswoman Jill Redwood hailed the decision as a win and said it sent a strong message to the DSE and VicForests.
"This is a huge win for not just Brown Mountain, that's just the tip of the iceberg, but old growth forests right across the state," Ms Redwood said.
Ms Redwood said the decision was significant because pre-logging surveys had not been required previously.
She said if the surveys ordered by Justice Osborn were carried out correctly then endangered species would certainly be uncovered in the logging areas.
Justice Osborn ordered habitat retention areas be created for potoroos found at the logging site while special protection zones should be established for the gliders and further surveys for the frogs.
"In order to give effect to these conclusions VicForests should be restrained by injunction from harvesting until the relevant steps have been completed," Justice Osborn said.
Reviews of management areas that are currently under way for powerful owls and sooty owls should also be completed, he said.
VicForests director of strategy Nathan Trushell said the organisation wanted time to digest the 232-page judgment.
"Clearly the injunction remains until a number of conditions that need to be met to the satisfaction of the Department of Sustainability and Environment are met," he told reporters.
20 July, 2010
Twice-shy Labor lets forest jobs policy slide
Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent
The Age (article), July 20, 2010
The Gillard government is reluctant to produce a forestry jobs policy before the election because it fears getting its fingers burnt, as Labor did during the 2004 election campaign.
Talks between timber industry players are well advanced to end or reduce old-growth logging in Tasmania, and the big parties are under pressure to unveil a jobs-rescue policy to help the timber workers who will inevitably lose out.
But the government, while watching developments closely, is staying at arm's length from negotiations and will step in with a jobs package only when it is sure there will be no backlash.
At least two marginal seats - Bass and Braddon - are at risk.
''It's not going to happen unless everyone's in the boat this time,'' said a senior government source. ''We got burnt last time.''
In 2004, the Labor Party's then-leader, Mark Latham, had his campaign badly damaged when John Howard outflanked him on forestry policy. Mr Howard put more emphasis on jobs than trees, and wrested Bass and Braddon from Labor.
But since then the bottom has fallen out of the market for old-growth products such as wood chips and there is a growing consensus to start shutting the industry down.
A worldwide glut of wood and, more significantly, a public awareness campaign in key markets such as Japan, have significantly reduced demand.
Talks are well advanced between the industry, unions and conservation groups.
''Even the native-forest logging industry in this state and Victoria and NSW is in very hard times,'' the Greens leader, Bob Brown, said in Hobart yesterday.
''It requires government involvement at state and federal level. It's a key issue. It's a test of the government's and the opposition's recognition that biodiversity is a huge economic and environmental issue.''
Labor has already struck a preference deal with the Greens in key marginal seats, including Bass and Braddon.
The Labor source said there was a level of co-operation between interested parties ''that no one would have thought possible. There's a willingness to reach a settlement.''
However, he said Labor was in no rush to step in before the election and, at best, would release ''a statement of general principles'' before August 21.
He speculated that negotiations could take another three months because of the details that need to be sorted out.
These include what constitutes high-value forests which would warrant complete protection. There is disagreement over details such as whether a forest damaged by fire is still a natural forest or could be classified as regrowth and be logged.
''The Liberals are running around, they want a Latham deal, they want to say thousands of jobs will be lost,'' he said. ''It's not going to happen.''
Asked on Saturday whether she envisaged intervening before the election, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said she expected negotiations to continue for some time.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
The Age (article), July 20, 2010
The Gillard government is reluctant to produce a forestry jobs policy before the election because it fears getting its fingers burnt, as Labor did during the 2004 election campaign.
Talks between timber industry players are well advanced to end or reduce old-growth logging in Tasmania, and the big parties are under pressure to unveil a jobs-rescue policy to help the timber workers who will inevitably lose out.
But the government, while watching developments closely, is staying at arm's length from negotiations and will step in with a jobs package only when it is sure there will be no backlash.
At least two marginal seats - Bass and Braddon - are at risk.
''It's not going to happen unless everyone's in the boat this time,'' said a senior government source. ''We got burnt last time.''
In 2004, the Labor Party's then-leader, Mark Latham, had his campaign badly damaged when John Howard outflanked him on forestry policy. Mr Howard put more emphasis on jobs than trees, and wrested Bass and Braddon from Labor.
But since then the bottom has fallen out of the market for old-growth products such as wood chips and there is a growing consensus to start shutting the industry down.
A worldwide glut of wood and, more significantly, a public awareness campaign in key markets such as Japan, have significantly reduced demand.
Talks are well advanced between the industry, unions and conservation groups.
''Even the native-forest logging industry in this state and Victoria and NSW is in very hard times,'' the Greens leader, Bob Brown, said in Hobart yesterday.
''It requires government involvement at state and federal level. It's a key issue. It's a test of the government's and the opposition's recognition that biodiversity is a huge economic and environmental issue.''
Labor has already struck a preference deal with the Greens in key marginal seats, including Bass and Braddon.
The Labor source said there was a level of co-operation between interested parties ''that no one would have thought possible. There's a willingness to reach a settlement.''
However, he said Labor was in no rush to step in before the election and, at best, would release ''a statement of general principles'' before August 21.
He speculated that negotiations could take another three months because of the details that need to be sorted out.
These include what constitutes high-value forests which would warrant complete protection. There is disagreement over details such as whether a forest damaged by fire is still a natural forest or could be classified as regrowth and be logged.
''The Liberals are running around, they want a Latham deal, they want to say thousands of jobs will be lost,'' he said. ''It's not going to happen.''
Asked on Saturday whether she envisaged intervening before the election, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said she expected negotiations to continue for some time.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
15 July, 2010
Loggers lash out at claims
Bryony Triggs
Daily Examiner (article), 15th July 2010
TIMBER industry representatives have lashed out at Clarence Environment Centre conservationist John Edwards over allegations lowland rainforest and old growth was illegally logged at Grange State Forest.
Mr Edwards' claims, pub-lished in yesterday's Examiner, relate to a 15 hectare area, alleged to have been illegally logged in the forest 50km west of Grafton early this month.
The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) is now investigating.
However NSW Forest Products Association executive director Russell Ainley said Mr Edwards was “unqualified” to make the allegations.
“John Edwards and the Clarence Environment Centre are running a campaign of unsubstantiated trivial allegations to attack the good work of well-qualified and highly experienced forest managers,” he said.
Mr Ainley said less than two per cent of the available area of State Forest was harvested each year. “That is after areas of old growth, rainforest, riparian zones and other special protection areas are excluded,” he said.
He said Mr Edwards' allegations of harvesting of rainforest and old growth in Grange State Forest were “wrong”.
“Such areas are carefully mapped, checked on the ground and excluded from all harvesting activity,” he said.
Mr Ainley said the definition of lowland rainforest was “complex”.
“It involves a full description, transitional forms, sub alliances and a great deal of scientific interpretation,” he said. “Contrary to John Edwards' assertion, you do have to be a botanist to even start to understand the definition.”
Spiro Notaras, owner of Notaras & Sons Timber Mill in South Grafton, backed Mr Ainley's comments, declaring he felt the public was being misled by an “instant expert”.
Mr Notaras said more than one million hectares of State Forest was put into National Parks in 1996/1997, as per the Regional Forest Agreement.
“The industry paid dearly for the lock-up of the forest and the government did too,” he said.
“We've spent millions to stay there and do the right thing.
“It doesn't matter what logging operation you look at, you could find little things you could pick on. Cutting trees down is emotional for anybody.”
Mr Notaras said the Forestry Commission only logged 30 per cent of the actual area they mapped to log each year, “because of all the restraints”.
He said there was a “plan of management” for every State Forest block, which had to have National Parks and Wildlife Service and DECCW approval before a contractor started logging.
Source: http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2010/07/15/loggers-conservationists-claims-grange-forest/
Daily Examiner (article), 15th July 2010
TIMBER industry representatives have lashed out at Clarence Environment Centre conservationist John Edwards over allegations lowland rainforest and old growth was illegally logged at Grange State Forest.
Mr Edwards' claims, pub-lished in yesterday's Examiner, relate to a 15 hectare area, alleged to have been illegally logged in the forest 50km west of Grafton early this month.
The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) is now investigating.
However NSW Forest Products Association executive director Russell Ainley said Mr Edwards was “unqualified” to make the allegations.
“John Edwards and the Clarence Environment Centre are running a campaign of unsubstantiated trivial allegations to attack the good work of well-qualified and highly experienced forest managers,” he said.
Mr Ainley said less than two per cent of the available area of State Forest was harvested each year. “That is after areas of old growth, rainforest, riparian zones and other special protection areas are excluded,” he said.
He said Mr Edwards' allegations of harvesting of rainforest and old growth in Grange State Forest were “wrong”.
“Such areas are carefully mapped, checked on the ground and excluded from all harvesting activity,” he said.
Mr Ainley said the definition of lowland rainforest was “complex”.
“It involves a full description, transitional forms, sub alliances and a great deal of scientific interpretation,” he said. “Contrary to John Edwards' assertion, you do have to be a botanist to even start to understand the definition.”
Spiro Notaras, owner of Notaras & Sons Timber Mill in South Grafton, backed Mr Ainley's comments, declaring he felt the public was being misled by an “instant expert”.
Mr Notaras said more than one million hectares of State Forest was put into National Parks in 1996/1997, as per the Regional Forest Agreement.
“The industry paid dearly for the lock-up of the forest and the government did too,” he said.
“We've spent millions to stay there and do the right thing.
“It doesn't matter what logging operation you look at, you could find little things you could pick on. Cutting trees down is emotional for anybody.”
Mr Notaras said the Forestry Commission only logged 30 per cent of the actual area they mapped to log each year, “because of all the restraints”.
He said there was a “plan of management” for every State Forest block, which had to have National Parks and Wildlife Service and DECCW approval before a contractor started logging.
Source: http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2010/07/15/loggers-conservationists-claims-grange-forest/
PM's visit linked to forest deal
Sue Neales
The Mercury (article), July 15, 2010
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is expected to fly into northern Tasmania tomorrow ahead of an expected announcement on Saturday of a late August election.
But it is not yet certain whether Ms Gillard will use her rushed visit to the marginal electorates of Bass and Braddon to announce a breakthrough in the decades-old and divisive Tasmanian forest conflict.
Last night forest industry insiders were denying a deal had been reached with environmentalists to end all logging of Tasmania's high-conservation native forests.
Federal Forestry Minister Tony Burke is in Tasmania and will address the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association national conference in Launceston today.
But a spokesman for Mr Burke denied the Gillard Government was ready to announce a peace pact or breakthrough affecting Tasmania's forests.
Before going to the polls the Prime Minister is keen to announce a sweeping "climate statement" addressing voter concerns about the Federal Government's commitment to tackle climate change.
Any deal to end all native forest logging in southern Australia, accompanied by an industry restructuring package and a switch to a plantation-only timber industry, would be part of the environmental or climate policy pitch.
The Federal Government has previously indicated to the stricken forest industry that Commonwealth funds are available to encourage some native forest loggers and contractors to leave the industry.
But talks appear to be stymied by debate between industry groups about how quickly and completely logging should cease in all state-owned native forests.
While an immediate end to felling high-conservation native forests appears certain, the speed with which a transition out of all native forests can be completed lies at the heart of last-minute negotiations.
It is understood the industry is also keen to get concessions from environmentalists to allow the $2.2 billion Gunns pulp mill in the Tamar Valley to proceed, but using only plantation timber.
Tasmanian Forestry Minister Bryan Green said he was not aware of any visit to northern Tasmania by the Prime Minister tomorrow.
Source
The Mercury (article), July 15, 2010
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is expected to fly into northern Tasmania tomorrow ahead of an expected announcement on Saturday of a late August election.
But it is not yet certain whether Ms Gillard will use her rushed visit to the marginal electorates of Bass and Braddon to announce a breakthrough in the decades-old and divisive Tasmanian forest conflict.
Last night forest industry insiders were denying a deal had been reached with environmentalists to end all logging of Tasmania's high-conservation native forests.
Federal Forestry Minister Tony Burke is in Tasmania and will address the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association national conference in Launceston today.
But a spokesman for Mr Burke denied the Gillard Government was ready to announce a peace pact or breakthrough affecting Tasmania's forests.
Before going to the polls the Prime Minister is keen to announce a sweeping "climate statement" addressing voter concerns about the Federal Government's commitment to tackle climate change.
Any deal to end all native forest logging in southern Australia, accompanied by an industry restructuring package and a switch to a plantation-only timber industry, would be part of the environmental or climate policy pitch.
The Federal Government has previously indicated to the stricken forest industry that Commonwealth funds are available to encourage some native forest loggers and contractors to leave the industry.
But talks appear to be stymied by debate between industry groups about how quickly and completely logging should cease in all state-owned native forests.
While an immediate end to felling high-conservation native forests appears certain, the speed with which a transition out of all native forests can be completed lies at the heart of last-minute negotiations.
It is understood the industry is also keen to get concessions from environmentalists to allow the $2.2 billion Gunns pulp mill in the Tamar Valley to proceed, but using only plantation timber.
Tasmanian Forestry Minister Bryan Green said he was not aware of any visit to northern Tasmania by the Prime Minister tomorrow.
Source
14 July, 2010
Gillard paves way to end Tasmania logging conflict
Tom Arup
The Age (article), July 14, 2010
The Gillard government has offered to finance a potential breakthrough between environmentalists and forestry companies to end the decades-long conflict over native forest logging in Tasmania.
In meetings in Tasmania last week, Forestry Minister Tony Burke is understood to have told negotiating parties some federal money is available for an agreement and he has asked for a deal to be presented to him by early next week.
Over recent months, representatives of the timber industry and the environmental movement have been negotiating an agreement that could end much of the native forest logging in the state.
While any deal could still fall through, the parties are now understood to be getting close. The environment movement - represented in the negotiations by the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania - is understood to want an almost immediate halt to logging of high-conservation-value forests and a phased end, over a number of years, to almost all native logging throughout the state except in rare circumstances.
In return, the struggling Tasmanian timber industry - represented by Timber Communities Australia, the National Association of Forest Industries, and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - wants a restructuring package to help industry move towards certified plantation timber.
The industry is also understood to be asking for financial help for new infrastructure and roads to ensure its long-term survival. It also wants support for Gunns' stalled Bell Bay pulp mill.
Mr Burke is understood to have asked the parties to present a deal to the government by early next week and has told them that while there is not unlimited money to get an agreement, the government would step in if an appropriate agreement were presented.
While refusing to comment on any government offer, Mr Burke told The Age yesterday ''there are genuine efforts being made by people who have spent their lives arguing with each to see if they can reach a settlement''.
''We are not there yet, but it would be a massive change from the conflict that has plagued this issue for generations.''
National Association of Forest Industries chief executive Allan Hansard will meet his Tasmanian member companies today to discuss the agreement.
Green groups have also presented parts of the deal to many of the community-based environment bodies they are representing in the talks.
Logging in Tasmania has been a vexed issue for federal Labor for years. Labor leader Mark Latham's promise to protect large parts of Tasmania's forests during the 2004 election sparked an angry campaign by the CFMEU against the proposal, which is credited with losing Labor the Tasmanian seats of Braddon and Bass at that election.
The Tasmanian timber industry has suffered financially in recent years because of a global glut of wood chips and an increased demand for environmentally friendly plantation timber from key Asian customers.
Source
The Age (article), July 14, 2010
The Gillard government has offered to finance a potential breakthrough between environmentalists and forestry companies to end the decades-long conflict over native forest logging in Tasmania.
In meetings in Tasmania last week, Forestry Minister Tony Burke is understood to have told negotiating parties some federal money is available for an agreement and he has asked for a deal to be presented to him by early next week.
Over recent months, representatives of the timber industry and the environmental movement have been negotiating an agreement that could end much of the native forest logging in the state.
While any deal could still fall through, the parties are now understood to be getting close. The environment movement - represented in the negotiations by the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania - is understood to want an almost immediate halt to logging of high-conservation-value forests and a phased end, over a number of years, to almost all native logging throughout the state except in rare circumstances.
In return, the struggling Tasmanian timber industry - represented by Timber Communities Australia, the National Association of Forest Industries, and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - wants a restructuring package to help industry move towards certified plantation timber.
The industry is also understood to be asking for financial help for new infrastructure and roads to ensure its long-term survival. It also wants support for Gunns' stalled Bell Bay pulp mill.
Mr Burke is understood to have asked the parties to present a deal to the government by early next week and has told them that while there is not unlimited money to get an agreement, the government would step in if an appropriate agreement were presented.
While refusing to comment on any government offer, Mr Burke told The Age yesterday ''there are genuine efforts being made by people who have spent their lives arguing with each to see if they can reach a settlement''.
''We are not there yet, but it would be a massive change from the conflict that has plagued this issue for generations.''
National Association of Forest Industries chief executive Allan Hansard will meet his Tasmanian member companies today to discuss the agreement.
Green groups have also presented parts of the deal to many of the community-based environment bodies they are representing in the talks.
Logging in Tasmania has been a vexed issue for federal Labor for years. Labor leader Mark Latham's promise to protect large parts of Tasmania's forests during the 2004 election sparked an angry campaign by the CFMEU against the proposal, which is credited with losing Labor the Tasmanian seats of Braddon and Bass at that election.
The Tasmanian timber industry has suffered financially in recent years because of a global glut of wood chips and an increased demand for environmentally friendly plantation timber from key Asian customers.
Source
04 July, 2010
LETTER: The bones will tell the story
Sarah Rees, executive director, My Environment, Healesville
Letter, The Age, 3 July 2010
VICFOREST chief executive David Pollard claims ''all trees harvested in Toolangi had dated from 1939 bushfire regrowth and no possums had been affected'' - ''Green groups in logging case bid'' (The Age, 1/7).
We may have a different picture. Beneath a large, smashed tree in the logging zone lies the burnt remains of what looks to be a small marsupial. We exhumed some skeletal remains, bone-white against the charred soil, from the coupe burn. The skeleton is at a veterinary clinic, awaiting analysis. It may be an eastern pygmy possum, a bobuck possum, a ringtail possum or even a Leadbeater's possum.
This forest had many possums and as many gliders again - the Department of Sustainability and Environment's maps shows this. These bones may tell the story of the logging disaster that took place in this possum's home. But let us leave it for the judge to decide.
Letter, The Age, 3 July 2010
VICFOREST chief executive David Pollard claims ''all trees harvested in Toolangi had dated from 1939 bushfire regrowth and no possums had been affected'' - ''Green groups in logging case bid'' (The Age, 1/7).
We may have a different picture. Beneath a large, smashed tree in the logging zone lies the burnt remains of what looks to be a small marsupial. We exhumed some skeletal remains, bone-white against the charred soil, from the coupe burn. The skeleton is at a veterinary clinic, awaiting analysis. It may be an eastern pygmy possum, a bobuck possum, a ringtail possum or even a Leadbeater's possum.
This forest had many possums and as many gliders again - the Department of Sustainability and Environment's maps shows this. These bones may tell the story of the logging disaster that took place in this possum's home. But let us leave it for the judge to decide.
29 June, 2010
VicForests accused of felling old-growth mountain ash
ADAM MORTON
The Age (article) June 29, 2010
The Victorian government's forestry arm will face a legal challenge over claims it illegally logged old-growth forest and increased the risk to a threatened species.
Environmental groups accuse VicForests of felling dozens of pre-1900 ash eucalypts, breaching the Central Highlands Forest Management Plan.
An impending legal case will also claim the timber agency failed to protect habitats necessary for the survival of Victoria's threatened faunal emblem, Leadbeater's possum.
Ecologist Jacques Cop, from consultants Acacia Environmental Group, said a survey of just one coupe near Toolangi found 31 pre-1900 ash eucalypts had been logged. Five stumps were more three metres across.
''These are trees that are 200 or 300 years old,'' he said.
Mr Cop said the area should also have been protected as a Leadbeater's possum habitat as it met the threshold of having at least 12 hollowed trees within three hectares.
He said neither the state Department of Sustainability and Environment nor VicForests carried out ground surveys to check if ecological requirements were being met.
Sarah Rees, president of local group My Environment, said the situation was an emergency.
''If this doesn't stop we're going to lose the last viable habitat for a range of different species, but Leadbeater's possum carries the strongest case for legal protection,'' she said.
The state government said it took the allegations ''extremely seriously''.
Spokesman Michael Sinclair said VicForests would investigate the alleged breaches and report to the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
VicForests spokesman David Walsh said the agency carried out detail planning before harvesting to ensure it acted within the law and had offered to meet local residents to better understand their concerns.
''No old-growth forest is harvested by VicForests in Victoria's central highlands region,'' he said.
The legal case, being prepared on behalf of a group called the Flora and Fauna Research Collective, comes amid community concern about the scale of logging in the central highlands after the Black Saturday bushfires.
The Wilderness Society said that evidence supporting the latest claims showed illegal logging of native forests was rife under the state government's watch.
A separate allegation of illegal logging at Brown Mountain, in east Gippsland, is the subject of a pending Supreme Court judgment.
''Premier Brumby must act now to end VicForests' woodchip rampage in Victoria's magnificent native forests,'' said Wilderness Society spokesman Luke Chamberlain.
Article source
The Age (article) June 29, 2010
The Victorian government's forestry arm will face a legal challenge over claims it illegally logged old-growth forest and increased the risk to a threatened species.
Sarah Rees at the base of an ancient mountain ash spared the chainsaw but killed during a clean-up fire near Toolangi. She says the present situation is an emergency. Photo: John Woudstra
Environmental groups accuse VicForests of felling dozens of pre-1900 ash eucalypts, breaching the Central Highlands Forest Management Plan.
An impending legal case will also claim the timber agency failed to protect habitats necessary for the survival of Victoria's threatened faunal emblem, Leadbeater's possum.
Ecologist Jacques Cop, from consultants Acacia Environmental Group, said a survey of just one coupe near Toolangi found 31 pre-1900 ash eucalypts had been logged. Five stumps were more three metres across.
''These are trees that are 200 or 300 years old,'' he said.
Mr Cop said the area should also have been protected as a Leadbeater's possum habitat as it met the threshold of having at least 12 hollowed trees within three hectares.
He said neither the state Department of Sustainability and Environment nor VicForests carried out ground surveys to check if ecological requirements were being met.
Sarah Rees, president of local group My Environment, said the situation was an emergency.
''If this doesn't stop we're going to lose the last viable habitat for a range of different species, but Leadbeater's possum carries the strongest case for legal protection,'' she said.
The state government said it took the allegations ''extremely seriously''.
Spokesman Michael Sinclair said VicForests would investigate the alleged breaches and report to the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
VicForests spokesman David Walsh said the agency carried out detail planning before harvesting to ensure it acted within the law and had offered to meet local residents to better understand their concerns.
''No old-growth forest is harvested by VicForests in Victoria's central highlands region,'' he said.
The legal case, being prepared on behalf of a group called the Flora and Fauna Research Collective, comes amid community concern about the scale of logging in the central highlands after the Black Saturday bushfires.
The Wilderness Society said that evidence supporting the latest claims showed illegal logging of native forests was rife under the state government's watch.
A separate allegation of illegal logging at Brown Mountain, in east Gippsland, is the subject of a pending Supreme Court judgment.
''Premier Brumby must act now to end VicForests' woodchip rampage in Victoria's magnificent native forests,'' said Wilderness Society spokesman Luke Chamberlain.
Article source
28 June, 2010
Council calls for stop to native logging in Yarra Ranges
Emily Webb
Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader (aricle), 28 Jun 2010
Yarra Ranges Council is putting its weight behind a community push to stop native forest logging within the shire.
At a packed meeting on June 23, residents from Toolangi and Healesville heard from council representatives and environmental lobby and conservation groups.
Lyster ward councillor Samantha Dunn told the audience of more than 300 at Healesville Memorial Hall that the forestry industry’s claim that it was a “significant driver of the Yarra Ranges economy” was a myth. She said the industry contributed $24 million annually - .02 per cent - to the local economy and accounted for 91 of the 35,000 jobs in the shire.
“Timber workers should have a job but it is time to (move) to plantation logging and get out of our native forests,” Cr Dunn said.
She was joined by councillors Tim Heenan, Jeanette McRae and Noel Cliff. Event organiser Steven Meacher said logging had already proceeded at sensitive sites that were approved after Black Saturday.
“The Department of Sustainability and Environment is considering VicForests’ application for 148 more coupes, with a decision expected soon,” Mr Meacher said.
Healesville resident Bernie Mace said he was concerned about an application for further logging coupes on Mt St Leonard.
“I want the profile of the mountain to be respected and retained by VicForests,” Mr Mace said.
He said the proposed logging was at the base of the mountain, which was at the start of the Bicentennial National Trail, a world-renowned 5330km trail.
“It would be a catastrophe if that was logged.”
Wilderness Society’s Victorian forests campaigner Luke Chamberlain said clear felling - the type of logging done in parts of Yarra Ranges - was akin to vandalism. Mr Chamberlain said native forest logging was an unsustainable industry both environmentally and economically and that it was time to look to plantation logging.
On June 8 councillors voted to write to politicians and call for an immediate halt to logging and future logging on the Bicentennial Trail and Mt St Leonard.
Article source
Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader (aricle), 28 Jun 2010
Yarra Ranges Council is putting its weight behind a community push to stop native forest logging within the shire.
At a packed meeting on June 23, residents from Toolangi and Healesville heard from council representatives and environmental lobby and conservation groups.
Sarah Rees, Stephen Powell, Bernie Mace, Steven Meacher, Lorraine Leach, Adam Menary and Sera Blair
Lyster ward councillor Samantha Dunn told the audience of more than 300 at Healesville Memorial Hall that the forestry industry’s claim that it was a “significant driver of the Yarra Ranges economy” was a myth. She said the industry contributed $24 million annually - .02 per cent - to the local economy and accounted for 91 of the 35,000 jobs in the shire.
“Timber workers should have a job but it is time to (move) to plantation logging and get out of our native forests,” Cr Dunn said.
She was joined by councillors Tim Heenan, Jeanette McRae and Noel Cliff. Event organiser Steven Meacher said logging had already proceeded at sensitive sites that were approved after Black Saturday.
“The Department of Sustainability and Environment is considering VicForests’ application for 148 more coupes, with a decision expected soon,” Mr Meacher said.
Healesville resident Bernie Mace said he was concerned about an application for further logging coupes on Mt St Leonard.
“I want the profile of the mountain to be respected and retained by VicForests,” Mr Mace said.
He said the proposed logging was at the base of the mountain, which was at the start of the Bicentennial National Trail, a world-renowned 5330km trail.
“It would be a catastrophe if that was logged.”
Wilderness Society’s Victorian forests campaigner Luke Chamberlain said clear felling - the type of logging done in parts of Yarra Ranges - was akin to vandalism. Mr Chamberlain said native forest logging was an unsustainable industry both environmentally and economically and that it was time to look to plantation logging.
On June 8 councillors voted to write to politicians and call for an immediate halt to logging and future logging on the Bicentennial Trail and Mt St Leonard.
Article source
14 June, 2010
Something is knocking the state's owls off their perches
JOHN ELDER June 13, 2010
The Age, Article [link]
WHAT'S happened to Victoria's carnivorous owls? A significant number have vanished, and the Department of Sustainability and Environment isn't sure what's going on.
It's assumed the top end of the woodland food chain is either starving to death because its food source has been killed off by the drought and fires, or it is relocating to parts unknown, but it will take years to find an answer.
The DSE has been monitoring the owl populations - including that of the powerful owl, Australia's largest owl - since 2000. Since then, detection rates in South Gippsland and the Bunyip State Park have dropped by half.
In some areas of the Bunyip State Park - half of which was lost to the Black Saturday fires - detections of the sooty owl have dropped to a third.
DSE owl specialist Ed McNab says: ''We don't know what's happened to them. We can only assume that drought has played a major role. We noticed the downward trend before the fires. They're very mobile birds, but the fires would have had an impact on their prey.''
Powerful and sooty owls, both officially listed as vulnerable, mainly eat sugar gliders and ringtail possums. The possums in particular are known to have little resistance to chronic hot weather, and their failure to thrive in the drought is probably the main reason why owl numbers have dropped. While owls may have escaped the Black Saturday fires, many possums would have been incinerated.
Mr McNab says the smaller carnivorous birds, such as the barking owl, are able to sustain themselves on insects. Powerful and sooty owls can also eat rabbits and birds such as magpies and kookaburras, but they need to make the change in their diet before energy loss reduces their ability to effectively hunt.
''They'll either starve or take something else,'' said Mr McNab.
Equally disastrous for the owls was the loss of old trees with large hollows that they require for nesting. They might have shifted elsewhere to recolonise, but this would mean taking over an already occupied territory. ''And there tends to be a home-ground advantage in these battles,'' said Mr McNab.
The occupying bird has inside knowledge of the territory and a greater capacity to defend its patch, because it's energy store will be higher. Flying great distances in search of food saps the strength from large birds and even causes them to starve.
The DSE's biodiversity team leader for West Gippsland, Dr Rolf Willig, said the top order carnivores were ''an indicator species as to the well-being of the ecosystem. Theoretically, if they're happy, the rest are happy.''
For five years Dr Willig has been running a playback monitoring program in South Gippsland, where recordings of owl calls are played into the dark and answering calls are recorded. The number of birds answering calls have dropped significantly this year.
''The results indicate we may be having a delayed reaction from the fires,'' he said. ''The possums not actually killed in the fires might have been exposed afterward, and the owls picked them off, eating all the food that was left.''
It will take years to find out what's happened. ''And not just three or five years. We'll be out here for a long time,'' said Dr Willig.
The Age, Article [link]
It's assumed the top end of the woodland food chain is either starving to death because its food source has been killed off by the drought and fires, or it is relocating to parts unknown, but it will take years to find an answer.
The DSE has been monitoring the owl populations - including that of the powerful owl, Australia's largest owl - since 2000. Since then, detection rates in South Gippsland and the Bunyip State Park have dropped by half.
In some areas of the Bunyip State Park - half of which was lost to the Black Saturday fires - detections of the sooty owl have dropped to a third.
DSE owl specialist Ed McNab says: ''We don't know what's happened to them. We can only assume that drought has played a major role. We noticed the downward trend before the fires. They're very mobile birds, but the fires would have had an impact on their prey.''
Powerful and sooty owls, both officially listed as vulnerable, mainly eat sugar gliders and ringtail possums. The possums in particular are known to have little resistance to chronic hot weather, and their failure to thrive in the drought is probably the main reason why owl numbers have dropped. While owls may have escaped the Black Saturday fires, many possums would have been incinerated.
Mr McNab says the smaller carnivorous birds, such as the barking owl, are able to sustain themselves on insects. Powerful and sooty owls can also eat rabbits and birds such as magpies and kookaburras, but they need to make the change in their diet before energy loss reduces their ability to effectively hunt.
''They'll either starve or take something else,'' said Mr McNab.
Equally disastrous for the owls was the loss of old trees with large hollows that they require for nesting. They might have shifted elsewhere to recolonise, but this would mean taking over an already occupied territory. ''And there tends to be a home-ground advantage in these battles,'' said Mr McNab.
The occupying bird has inside knowledge of the territory and a greater capacity to defend its patch, because it's energy store will be higher. Flying great distances in search of food saps the strength from large birds and even causes them to starve.
The DSE's biodiversity team leader for West Gippsland, Dr Rolf Willig, said the top order carnivores were ''an indicator species as to the well-being of the ecosystem. Theoretically, if they're happy, the rest are happy.''
For five years Dr Willig has been running a playback monitoring program in South Gippsland, where recordings of owl calls are played into the dark and answering calls are recorded. The number of birds answering calls have dropped significantly this year.
''The results indicate we may be having a delayed reaction from the fires,'' he said. ''The possums not actually killed in the fires might have been exposed afterward, and the owls picked them off, eating all the food that was left.''
It will take years to find out what's happened. ''And not just three or five years. We'll be out here for a long time,'' said Dr Willig.
10 June, 2010
Australia accused of fudging emissions
JOHN VIDAL AND ADAM MORTON
June 10, 2010 AUSTRALIA has been accused of trying to cheat its way out of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by pushing for ''dishonest'' forestry accounting loopholes at the latest round of UN climate talks.
Along with Russia and the European Union, Australia is facing claims it is pushing to change rules so they could include offsets from planting trees but not count emissions created by land clearing.
Developing countries and environmental groups at the two-week meeting in Bonn, Germany, said rich nations were attempting to give the impression that they were tackling climate change when in reality they would be undermining genuine cuts.
The dispute centres on what year, or series of years, are chosen as a baseline to measure emissions from the land and forestry.
The Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than 500 environment and development groups, said a proposed revision of the land use, land use change and forestry rules would falsely exaggerate emission reductions. ''It's a disgraceful scandal. It would be disastrous for the climate,'' said Sean Cadman, an Australian spokesman for the climate network.
''This is a massive loophole. All rich countries except Switzerland are now trying to avoid the consequences of increasing the harvesting of forestry.''
The deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute, Erwin Jackson, said Australia's credibility was ''teetering on the edge of an abyss'' after the government's decision to delay emissions trading and the Coalition's outright opposition to a scheme.
''Obstinacy against reasonable calls for Australia to take responsibility for pollution from forestry is counterproductive and the government risks being perceived as trying to cook the books,'' he said.
A spokeswoman for the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, said the government measured and reported emissions from forestry and the land in accordance with international rules and reported them clearly every year. ''Australia recognises that the world needs smarter treatment of human-caused emissions from the land sector,'' she said.
''We have been pursuing this internationally for a long time because an effective global agreement will need to include human-caused emissions from all sectors.''
The climate network claims that loopholes could account for nearly 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, or nearly 5 per cent of the global total. Forest management is seen as key to the climate talks because it is the biggest source of carbon credits and potential mitigation.
- with Guardian News & Media
Source [link]
Along with Russia and the European Union, Australia is facing claims it is pushing to change rules so they could include offsets from planting trees but not count emissions created by land clearing.
Developing countries and environmental groups at the two-week meeting in Bonn, Germany, said rich nations were attempting to give the impression that they were tackling climate change when in reality they would be undermining genuine cuts.
The dispute centres on what year, or series of years, are chosen as a baseline to measure emissions from the land and forestry.
The Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than 500 environment and development groups, said a proposed revision of the land use, land use change and forestry rules would falsely exaggerate emission reductions. ''It's a disgraceful scandal. It would be disastrous for the climate,'' said Sean Cadman, an Australian spokesman for the climate network.
''This is a massive loophole. All rich countries except Switzerland are now trying to avoid the consequences of increasing the harvesting of forestry.''
The deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute, Erwin Jackson, said Australia's credibility was ''teetering on the edge of an abyss'' after the government's decision to delay emissions trading and the Coalition's outright opposition to a scheme.
''Obstinacy against reasonable calls for Australia to take responsibility for pollution from forestry is counterproductive and the government risks being perceived as trying to cook the books,'' he said.
A spokeswoman for the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, said the government measured and reported emissions from forestry and the land in accordance with international rules and reported them clearly every year. ''Australia recognises that the world needs smarter treatment of human-caused emissions from the land sector,'' she said.
''We have been pursuing this internationally for a long time because an effective global agreement will need to include human-caused emissions from all sectors.''
The climate network claims that loopholes could account for nearly 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, or nearly 5 per cent of the global total. Forest management is seen as key to the climate talks because it is the biggest source of carbon credits and potential mitigation.
- with Guardian News & Media
Source [link]
09 April, 2010
Motion sensing cameras are changing the fight over forests
Stateline Victoria
April 9, 2010
A five second film of an endangered potaroo could change the way environmental laws are applied to logging operations.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA, PRESENTER: The discovery of a Long-footed Potaroo in forest in East Gippsland has thrown Victoria's environmental laws into question and the future of logging operations into doubt.
Endangered species are given special protection whenever and wherever they're found, but angered by what they say is the Government's head-in-the-sand approach, environmental groups are using cameras to prove endangered animals like the Potaroo are living in forests that are due to be logged. Matthew Stanley reports.
MATTHEW STANLEY, REPORTER: These images are taken by a motion-sensing infrared camera. They capture the nocturnal comings and goings of Victoria's forests and are the latest weapon in the ongoing campaign by conservation groups to stop old growth logging.
ANDREW LINCOLN: We're parked here. We'll walk to this point here and then walk to the first camera there, then come over the ridgeline down to the gully there and then follow this old track down here to these two.
MATTHEW STANLEY: 24-year-old Andrew Lincoln's already an experienced hand in the art of the wildlife survey, techniques used to detect rare and endangered animals. Armed with a map and a GPS he spotlights for gliders and owls and searches creeks for native crayfish. But in East Gippsland, the main prize is the Long-footed Potaroo, an endangered species that triggers immediate protection of up to 150 hectares of forest, wherever one is found. The cameras are the perfect tool for finding the notoriously shy animals.
ANDREW LINCOLN: Most animals are nocturnal that we're looking for, so when an animal, we put out some bait and the animal comes to sniff it and sets off a motion sensor and then the infrared cameras so they can take night shots, and, yeah, hopefully we catch 'em on film.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The search focuses on areas due to be logged, in this case deep in thick bushland.
This camera's been in place for a month, silently recording any movement.
This is what they found: two long-footed potaroos, attracted by the smell of honey, oats and pistachio essence, hop in front of the camera. Their presence will throw plans to log this area in the Yalmi Forest into doubt and already has the government agency in charge of logging questioning the video's authenticity.
DAVID POLLARD, CEO, VICFORESTS: The only thing I could add to this dramatic nocturnal footage is that it has to be tested by independent third parties. I mean, if it's evidence, it has to be audited. And elements of the community that want to provide evidence, welcome as that is, need to consent to have their offerings interrogated by independent parties. Otherwise it's not evidence; it's mere assertion.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The latest film plays like a sequel to pictures at the centre of a court case that is testing the way Victoria's environmental protection laws are interpreted and enforced.
Last year a camera captured a Potaroo in the middle of one of the most hotly-contested forests in Victoria. Produced just days before logging was due to start in two stands of old growth forests at Brown Mountain, the five second film was also questioned by Vic Forests.
JILL REDWOOD, ENVIRONMENT EAST GIPPSLAND: The clock was certainly ticking, yes. So when we found the potaroo, we thought, "Right, this is it. They can't ignore this one." And sent the footage through and the report and they ignored it.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Environment East Gippsland then went to the Supreme Court and won a temporary injunction to stop the logging. After a four week hearing, the court's now deliberating on whether the area should be permanently protected.
JILL REDWOOD: The Government decided that it was fair game for logging. They hadn't done any surveys here of course because they didn't want to find the threatened species, which would then prevent them from logging if they'd abide by the law.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Ray Jamieson's both saw miller and logging contractor and was poised to begin logging Brown Mountain when the film of what became known in court as "Potaroo number one" forced a stop.
RAY JAMIESON, SAWMILLER: If the decision goes their way it will then just open up the floodgates, I'd say, and that'd just leave it open for all the other coops that we've got on the what's to do.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Mr Jamieson's had his fair of run-ins with environmental activists during forest blockades going back 20 years, but is scratching his head at the new tactics.
Are you surprised that one photo of one animal could do what it's done?
RAY JAMIESON: Yeah, I didn't realise it'd have such an impact, I s'pose. But - well, you know, see where it goes, I spose. See where it goes.
MATTHEW STANLEY: What started as an argument over evidence has snowballed into a test of how the law designed to protect endangered species, the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, is applied to logging operations. Vicforests says it follows the rules set down by the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
MIKE RYAN, FOREST SCIENTIST, VICFORESTS: Look, any of the threatened species are assessed on the basis of already pre-existing identification of where they are in the landscape and on the maps that are provided to us from Department of Sustainability and Environment.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Does Vicforests do any wildlife surveys, any assessments of pre-logging assessments of wildlife and so on?
MIKE RYAN: We don't currently do pre-logging surveys. Again, that falls under the responsibility of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The DSE stopped doing pre-logging wildlife surveys in the '90s. Their assessments are now based on what's referred to as desktop analysis, a review of forest types, preferred habitat and existing records.
DAVID POLLARD: They have a very big investment in resourcing field operations for the identification and protection of species. It's an enormous job. It's a very demanding job. I think they do it very professionally. I have enormous confidence in them.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The Department of Sustainability and Environment declined to be interviewed, but it says it's up to Vicforests to decide if pre-logging surveys are needed to comply with the law.
DAVID POLLARD: Only they would know the extent to which field operations would be necessary to establish that.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The DSE sought assurances from Vicforests that its staff would not be subpoenaed as expert witnesses in the Brown Mountain court case. But a DSE discussion paper tendered in evidence states, "The absence of pre-harvest survey process exposes DSE and Vicforests to the prospect of inadvertent damage or destruction of significant species sites, ... negative publicity and accusations of breaches of our own guidelines and possible legal challenges to timber harvesting."
In other words, according to Jill Redwood, you won't find what you don't look for.
JILL REDWOOD: The DSE have been pointing the finger at Vicforests. Vicforests have been pointing the finger back. We're doing work they should be doing.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The argument over just whose job it is has strained relations between DSE and Vicforests. David Pollard says he's hoping the court will decide.
DAVID POLLARD: We are all beginning to realise that the norms that have governed the identification and protection of wildlife could sustain greater clarity.
JILL REDWOOD: I think what's come up in evidence shows they have to do pre-logging surveys. And if nothing else, if that's the only thing that comes out of it, I think that'll be a huge win.
MATTHEW STANLEY: In the meantime activists like Andrew Lincoln continue to search the forests of East Gippsland for endangered animals that might otherwise go undetected and unprotected.
ANDREW LINCOLN: At least to know, let alone protect, what we're destroying.
Source
April 9, 2010
A five second film of an endangered potaroo could change the way environmental laws are applied to logging operations.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA, PRESENTER: The discovery of a Long-footed Potaroo in forest in East Gippsland has thrown Victoria's environmental laws into question and the future of logging operations into doubt.
Endangered species are given special protection whenever and wherever they're found, but angered by what they say is the Government's head-in-the-sand approach, environmental groups are using cameras to prove endangered animals like the Potaroo are living in forests that are due to be logged. Matthew Stanley reports.
MATTHEW STANLEY, REPORTER: These images are taken by a motion-sensing infrared camera. They capture the nocturnal comings and goings of Victoria's forests and are the latest weapon in the ongoing campaign by conservation groups to stop old growth logging.
ANDREW LINCOLN: We're parked here. We'll walk to this point here and then walk to the first camera there, then come over the ridgeline down to the gully there and then follow this old track down here to these two.
MATTHEW STANLEY: 24-year-old Andrew Lincoln's already an experienced hand in the art of the wildlife survey, techniques used to detect rare and endangered animals. Armed with a map and a GPS he spotlights for gliders and owls and searches creeks for native crayfish. But in East Gippsland, the main prize is the Long-footed Potaroo, an endangered species that triggers immediate protection of up to 150 hectares of forest, wherever one is found. The cameras are the perfect tool for finding the notoriously shy animals.
ANDREW LINCOLN: Most animals are nocturnal that we're looking for, so when an animal, we put out some bait and the animal comes to sniff it and sets off a motion sensor and then the infrared cameras so they can take night shots, and, yeah, hopefully we catch 'em on film.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The search focuses on areas due to be logged, in this case deep in thick bushland.
This camera's been in place for a month, silently recording any movement.
This is what they found: two long-footed potaroos, attracted by the smell of honey, oats and pistachio essence, hop in front of the camera. Their presence will throw plans to log this area in the Yalmi Forest into doubt and already has the government agency in charge of logging questioning the video's authenticity.
DAVID POLLARD, CEO, VICFORESTS: The only thing I could add to this dramatic nocturnal footage is that it has to be tested by independent third parties. I mean, if it's evidence, it has to be audited. And elements of the community that want to provide evidence, welcome as that is, need to consent to have their offerings interrogated by independent parties. Otherwise it's not evidence; it's mere assertion.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The latest film plays like a sequel to pictures at the centre of a court case that is testing the way Victoria's environmental protection laws are interpreted and enforced.
Last year a camera captured a Potaroo in the middle of one of the most hotly-contested forests in Victoria. Produced just days before logging was due to start in two stands of old growth forests at Brown Mountain, the five second film was also questioned by Vic Forests.
JILL REDWOOD, ENVIRONMENT EAST GIPPSLAND: The clock was certainly ticking, yes. So when we found the potaroo, we thought, "Right, this is it. They can't ignore this one." And sent the footage through and the report and they ignored it.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Environment East Gippsland then went to the Supreme Court and won a temporary injunction to stop the logging. After a four week hearing, the court's now deliberating on whether the area should be permanently protected.
JILL REDWOOD: The Government decided that it was fair game for logging. They hadn't done any surveys here of course because they didn't want to find the threatened species, which would then prevent them from logging if they'd abide by the law.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Ray Jamieson's both saw miller and logging contractor and was poised to begin logging Brown Mountain when the film of what became known in court as "Potaroo number one" forced a stop.
RAY JAMIESON, SAWMILLER: If the decision goes their way it will then just open up the floodgates, I'd say, and that'd just leave it open for all the other coops that we've got on the what's to do.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Mr Jamieson's had his fair of run-ins with environmental activists during forest blockades going back 20 years, but is scratching his head at the new tactics.
Are you surprised that one photo of one animal could do what it's done?
RAY JAMIESON: Yeah, I didn't realise it'd have such an impact, I s'pose. But - well, you know, see where it goes, I spose. See where it goes.
MATTHEW STANLEY: What started as an argument over evidence has snowballed into a test of how the law designed to protect endangered species, the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, is applied to logging operations. Vicforests says it follows the rules set down by the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
MIKE RYAN, FOREST SCIENTIST, VICFORESTS: Look, any of the threatened species are assessed on the basis of already pre-existing identification of where they are in the landscape and on the maps that are provided to us from Department of Sustainability and Environment.
MATTHEW STANLEY: Does Vicforests do any wildlife surveys, any assessments of pre-logging assessments of wildlife and so on?
MIKE RYAN: We don't currently do pre-logging surveys. Again, that falls under the responsibility of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The DSE stopped doing pre-logging wildlife surveys in the '90s. Their assessments are now based on what's referred to as desktop analysis, a review of forest types, preferred habitat and existing records.
DAVID POLLARD: They have a very big investment in resourcing field operations for the identification and protection of species. It's an enormous job. It's a very demanding job. I think they do it very professionally. I have enormous confidence in them.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The Department of Sustainability and Environment declined to be interviewed, but it says it's up to Vicforests to decide if pre-logging surveys are needed to comply with the law.
DAVID POLLARD: Only they would know the extent to which field operations would be necessary to establish that.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The DSE sought assurances from Vicforests that its staff would not be subpoenaed as expert witnesses in the Brown Mountain court case. But a DSE discussion paper tendered in evidence states, "The absence of pre-harvest survey process exposes DSE and Vicforests to the prospect of inadvertent damage or destruction of significant species sites, ... negative publicity and accusations of breaches of our own guidelines and possible legal challenges to timber harvesting."
In other words, according to Jill Redwood, you won't find what you don't look for.
JILL REDWOOD: The DSE have been pointing the finger at Vicforests. Vicforests have been pointing the finger back. We're doing work they should be doing.
MATTHEW STANLEY: The argument over just whose job it is has strained relations between DSE and Vicforests. David Pollard says he's hoping the court will decide.
DAVID POLLARD: We are all beginning to realise that the norms that have governed the identification and protection of wildlife could sustain greater clarity.
JILL REDWOOD: I think what's come up in evidence shows they have to do pre-logging surveys. And if nothing else, if that's the only thing that comes out of it, I think that'll be a huge win.
MATTHEW STANLEY: In the meantime activists like Andrew Lincoln continue to search the forests of East Gippsland for endangered animals that might otherwise go undetected and unprotected.
ANDREW LINCOLN: At least to know, let alone protect, what we're destroying.
Source
06 July, 2009
LETTER: Getting it all so wrong on water
Lyn Kennedy, Wesburn
Letter to the editor, The Age, 6/7/09
IT MUST be obvious to everyone that State Government water policy is an incoherent mess.
Continuing to allow logging in what remains of our forests has led to progressive drying out of the moisture-retaining regions in the wet forests. Our water catchments are drying out, which also makes them more vulnerable to fire.
Rejecting solutions such as subsidising tanks and recycling waste water looks like plain stupidity but may be no more than pandering to electoral fears of contamination.
Stealing (Goulburn) water from the Murray when that river is on the verge of collapse is irrational and wilfully irresponsible. Privatisation of our water delivery systems leads us further down a dangerous path towards lack of control over our most fundamental resource.
None of the Government's initiatives take appropriate account of the over-arching problem of climate change. Panicked by continuing drought, ministers have tried to take "strong" action to show they are "doing something".
Unfortunately, conflicting responsibilities between unco-ordinated bureaucracies, dominant unions and private lobby groups all reveal deficiencies in the Government's approach. In the end, it is lawyers who are left to argue over the allocation of costs for failed systems.
This Government may not like taking responsibility for the wellbeing of its citizens but that is what it was elected to do.
Letter to the editor, The Age, 6/7/09
IT MUST be obvious to everyone that State Government water policy is an incoherent mess.
Continuing to allow logging in what remains of our forests has led to progressive drying out of the moisture-retaining regions in the wet forests. Our water catchments are drying out, which also makes them more vulnerable to fire.
Rejecting solutions such as subsidising tanks and recycling waste water looks like plain stupidity but may be no more than pandering to electoral fears of contamination.
Stealing (Goulburn) water from the Murray when that river is on the verge of collapse is irrational and wilfully irresponsible. Privatisation of our water delivery systems leads us further down a dangerous path towards lack of control over our most fundamental resource.
None of the Government's initiatives take appropriate account of the over-arching problem of climate change. Panicked by continuing drought, ministers have tried to take "strong" action to show they are "doing something".
Unfortunately, conflicting responsibilities between unco-ordinated bureaucracies, dominant unions and private lobby groups all reveal deficiencies in the Government's approach. In the end, it is lawyers who are left to argue over the allocation of costs for failed systems.
This Government may not like taking responsibility for the wellbeing of its citizens but that is what it was elected to do.
24 June, 2009
LETTER: If a tree falls …
John Hayward, Weegena, Tasmania
Letter to the editor, The Age, 24 June 2009
WE WILL know the world is truly past the climate-change tipping point when we stop seeing letters from foresters claiming that their regrowth plantations are better carbon sinks than mountain ash forests (Letters, 23/6).
Also disappearing at that point will probably be their argument that old-growth forests need harvesting to save them from becoming merely ash, despite their obviously superior fire survival rates.
The last survivors will probably be ministers for forests, tucked safely down the deep pockets of the industry's lobbyists.
Letter to the editor, The Age, 24 June 2009
WE WILL know the world is truly past the climate-change tipping point when we stop seeing letters from foresters claiming that their regrowth plantations are better carbon sinks than mountain ash forests (Letters, 23/6).
Also disappearing at that point will probably be their argument that old-growth forests need harvesting to save them from becoming merely ash, despite their obviously superior fire survival rates.
The last survivors will probably be ministers for forests, tucked safely down the deep pockets of the industry's lobbyists.
23 June, 2009
LETTER: Mountain ash forests do their job well
Michael Ryan, forest scientist, VicForests Melbourne
Letter to the editor, The Age, 23 June 2009.
GAVAN McFadzean (Comment, 22/6) rightly points out that the old-growth mountain ash forests of the Central Highlands are important carbon stores. These are also relatively rare as much of this forest was killed during the 1939 fires. The old-growth forests remaining after 1939 were predominantly in Melbourne's water supply catchments. Unfortunately, they are far from fire resistant and many magnificent stands, including the state's top 10 tallest trees in the Wallaby Creek and O'Shannassy catchments, were killed in the February fires.
The small portion of the mountain ash forests that are harvested for timber production have, almost exclusively, originated from the wildfires of 1939. These regrowth forests form the basis of the Victorian hardwood sawmilling industry. Logs from the Central Highlands that are not suitable for sawing are predominantly used for paper production, creating value-added products and sustainable jobs in regional Victoria.
Sustainable timber production is greenhouse friendly, with harvested forests being regrown and becoming carbon sinks. As the trees grow they continue to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — at a greater rate than old-growth forests.
Letter to the editor, The Age, 23 June 2009.
GAVAN McFadzean (Comment, 22/6) rightly points out that the old-growth mountain ash forests of the Central Highlands are important carbon stores. These are also relatively rare as much of this forest was killed during the 1939 fires. The old-growth forests remaining after 1939 were predominantly in Melbourne's water supply catchments. Unfortunately, they are far from fire resistant and many magnificent stands, including the state's top 10 tallest trees in the Wallaby Creek and O'Shannassy catchments, were killed in the February fires.
The small portion of the mountain ash forests that are harvested for timber production have, almost exclusively, originated from the wildfires of 1939. These regrowth forests form the basis of the Victorian hardwood sawmilling industry. Logs from the Central Highlands that are not suitable for sawing are predominantly used for paper production, creating value-added products and sustainable jobs in regional Victoria.
Sustainable timber production is greenhouse friendly, with harvested forests being regrown and becoming carbon sinks. As the trees grow they continue to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — at a greater rate than old-growth forests.
22 June, 2009
THE AGE: Preserving old-growth forests is vital to saving the planet
Gavan McFadzean, The Wilderness Society
The Age, 22 June 2009
SO WHERE are the world's most carbon-rich forests? Not the tropical rainforests of the Amazon, Borneo or Africa's Congo Basin, according to research by the Australian National University. They are the tall, old-growth mountain ash forests of Victoria's Central Highlands — a 90-minute drive east of Melbourne.
The researchers studied 132 forests from around the world to discover the regions that stored the most carbon. Their findings, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world's most-cited scientific serials, is a surprise because conventional wisdom says that tropical forests store the most carbon.
So why our forests? The conditions are perfect. These forests occur at a confluence of environmental conditions that lead to high rates of plant growth and, because they are cooler, decay rates are slower. In short they grow fast but decay slowly. And they are very old — at least 350 years, growing dense heavy wood. That's important because the amount of carbon stored is due to volume and density. Also, these trees have not been subjected to logging.
The problem is, these very same forest types are being intensively logged for woodchips, mostly bound for Japan. These trees are not only the best at producing carbon; unfortunately for them, they are also some of the best for producing high-quality paper. To add insult to injury, several of Melbourne's water catchments are among those logged.
ANU science shows that for as long as these forests are logged, their carbon-carrying capacity is reduced by up to 60 per cent, not to mention the emissions from logging and post-logging regeneration burns. If we stopped logging all the forests of south-eastern Australia, and we now have enough wood in plantations to do that, we would avoid emissions equal to 24 per cent of the 2005 Australian net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors.
Ironically, the plantation-based timber industry is under great economic stress, with several major wood plantation growers in receivership. This is the right time for Premier John Brumby to develop an integrated industry rescue and climate package, which creates green jobs in the plantation sector and focuses management of our native forests on emissions reduction.
Another reason why these forests are so carbon dense is because they evolved with fire.
Yes, the Black Saturday fires did pass through some of these forests, but most of the carbon remains in the forest. This is because it is in big old trees and dead trunks, and in the soil. Therefore, the proportion of total carbon lost in the fire is surprisingly small compared with logging. Also, many trees survive fire in less intensely burnt patches, facilitating regeneration. But logging these forests makes them more vulnerable to fire because it fragments and dries out the landscape, replacing fire-resistant tall forests and a wet rainforest understorey with young eucalypts and a much drier understorey.
This research (combined with research released by ANU last year) demonstrates how important it is for the Federal Government to assess how much carbon could be stored in Australia's native forests, how much greenhouse gas could be prevented from entering the atmosphere if we protect them from logging, and what their long-term ability to keep on pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere actually is.
It also suggests that there is a serious new option to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
The Federal Government has made provision for complementary measures to be developed to supplement the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Clearly there is scope to develop a package to reduce emissions and protect and restore the carbon stored in our native forests. Such a package could prevent millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide being released.
We need to start recognising the value of these forests to climate change mitigation. The Government should provide incentives so that state governments and private land owners are rewarded for protecting and restoring the carbon stocks found in natural forests under their control.
Everyone is concerned with emissions from logging and tree clearing in developing countries, but the Government needs to ensure that the Copenhagen agreement also provides policies that give incentives to protect and restore carbon stocks in developed nations.
We knew these forests should be protected because they are our water catchments and habitat for endangered species such as the Leadbeater's Possum, Victoria's faunal emblem. Now it turns out they are the world's largest carbon banks and their protection should be a critical part of any response to climate change by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier John Brumby.
Will the public interest finally take precedence over that of the woodchippers? Surely these forests have put an irrefutable case for their protection.
Gavan McFadzean is the Wilderness Society Victorian campaigns manager.
Source
The Age, 22 June 2009
SO WHERE are the world's most carbon-rich forests? Not the tropical rainforests of the Amazon, Borneo or Africa's Congo Basin, according to research by the Australian National University. They are the tall, old-growth mountain ash forests of Victoria's Central Highlands — a 90-minute drive east of Melbourne.
The researchers studied 132 forests from around the world to discover the regions that stored the most carbon. Their findings, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world's most-cited scientific serials, is a surprise because conventional wisdom says that tropical forests store the most carbon.
So why our forests? The conditions are perfect. These forests occur at a confluence of environmental conditions that lead to high rates of plant growth and, because they are cooler, decay rates are slower. In short they grow fast but decay slowly. And they are very old — at least 350 years, growing dense heavy wood. That's important because the amount of carbon stored is due to volume and density. Also, these trees have not been subjected to logging.
The problem is, these very same forest types are being intensively logged for woodchips, mostly bound for Japan. These trees are not only the best at producing carbon; unfortunately for them, they are also some of the best for producing high-quality paper. To add insult to injury, several of Melbourne's water catchments are among those logged.
ANU science shows that for as long as these forests are logged, their carbon-carrying capacity is reduced by up to 60 per cent, not to mention the emissions from logging and post-logging regeneration burns. If we stopped logging all the forests of south-eastern Australia, and we now have enough wood in plantations to do that, we would avoid emissions equal to 24 per cent of the 2005 Australian net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors.
Ironically, the plantation-based timber industry is under great economic stress, with several major wood plantation growers in receivership. This is the right time for Premier John Brumby to develop an integrated industry rescue and climate package, which creates green jobs in the plantation sector and focuses management of our native forests on emissions reduction.
Another reason why these forests are so carbon dense is because they evolved with fire.
Yes, the Black Saturday fires did pass through some of these forests, but most of the carbon remains in the forest. This is because it is in big old trees and dead trunks, and in the soil. Therefore, the proportion of total carbon lost in the fire is surprisingly small compared with logging. Also, many trees survive fire in less intensely burnt patches, facilitating regeneration. But logging these forests makes them more vulnerable to fire because it fragments and dries out the landscape, replacing fire-resistant tall forests and a wet rainforest understorey with young eucalypts and a much drier understorey.
This research (combined with research released by ANU last year) demonstrates how important it is for the Federal Government to assess how much carbon could be stored in Australia's native forests, how much greenhouse gas could be prevented from entering the atmosphere if we protect them from logging, and what their long-term ability to keep on pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere actually is.
It also suggests that there is a serious new option to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
The Federal Government has made provision for complementary measures to be developed to supplement the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Clearly there is scope to develop a package to reduce emissions and protect and restore the carbon stored in our native forests. Such a package could prevent millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide being released.
We need to start recognising the value of these forests to climate change mitigation. The Government should provide incentives so that state governments and private land owners are rewarded for protecting and restoring the carbon stocks found in natural forests under their control.
Everyone is concerned with emissions from logging and tree clearing in developing countries, but the Government needs to ensure that the Copenhagen agreement also provides policies that give incentives to protect and restore carbon stocks in developed nations.
We knew these forests should be protected because they are our water catchments and habitat for endangered species such as the Leadbeater's Possum, Victoria's faunal emblem. Now it turns out they are the world's largest carbon banks and their protection should be a critical part of any response to climate change by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier John Brumby.
Will the public interest finally take precedence over that of the woodchippers? Surely these forests have put an irrefutable case for their protection.
Gavan McFadzean is the Wilderness Society Victorian campaigns manager.
Source
17 June, 2009
LETTER: Would you credit it?
Ken Browne, Wheelers Hill.
The Age, 17/6/09
IT'S good to know that Victoria's mountain ash forests are the best in the world for storing carbon. Does that mean that, sometime in the future, some industrial polluter will gain carbon credits for not chopping them down?
LETTER: Look at the evidence
Chris Clement, Carlton
The Age, 17/6/09
ISN'T it time evidence-based policy-making finally found its day in the Victorian Government and someone took note of our own scientists ("Mountain ash best for carbon", The Age, 16/6)?
The ANU is telling the world we have the best forests in the world for storing carbon, so why the heck are we chopping them down? Australia has been asking its neighbours to stop logging their "precious" forests"; well, let's get our own backyard in order before we rain down on those over the fence.
Seriously, we must be able to find alternative jobs among the mature plantations across Victoria to support the small groups that continue to log these essential ecosystems.
Everyone is entitled to a job but our drinking water supply, habitat for so many rare native animals and this vital system to reduce the causes of climate change are worth more than their small timber value. John Brumby, bump up your climate policy and get these forests off the loggers' radar.
16 June, 2009
CANBERRA TIMES: Massive carbon sink in Victoria
Rosslyn Beeby, The Canberra Times
16/06/2009
The world's most carbon-dense forests are not in the tropics, but in a protected mountain catchment that supplies Melbourne's drinking water, new research shows.
A five-year study by the Australian National University of more than 130 forest sites around the world found these wet mountain ash forests just over an hour's drive from the Melbourne Cricket Ground store twice the amount of carbon as a tropical rainforest.
The cool, moist temperate forests of the O'Shannassy catchment, which includes the headwaters of the Yarra River, store just under 2000 tonnes of carbon a hectare in their giant 300-year-old mountain ash eucalypts, lush understorey vegetation such as tree ferns, and in dead wood on the forest floor. But as the trees age, the figure rises, with trees more than 250 years old boosting the carbon sink capacity to just over 2800t a hectare.
The unexpected findings, published online today in a National Academy of Sciences journal in the United States, have critical implications for climate policy in the lead-up to the United Nations climate conference to be held in Copenhagen later this year.
The research paper, by ANU ecologists Heather Keith, Professor Brendan Mackey and Professor David Lindenmayer, over-turns conventional theories on the role of forests in carbon accounting.
Professor Mackey said, ''It identifies a gap in climate change policy that Australia needs to address.
''There has been a lot of talk about the need to address tropical deforestation in developing countries, but these results show we must start by recognising the carbon benefits to be gained from protecting our native forests,'' he said."
16/06/2009
The world's most carbon-dense forests are not in the tropics, but in a protected mountain catchment that supplies Melbourne's drinking water, new research shows.
A five-year study by the Australian National University of more than 130 forest sites around the world found these wet mountain ash forests just over an hour's drive from the Melbourne Cricket Ground store twice the amount of carbon as a tropical rainforest.
The cool, moist temperate forests of the O'Shannassy catchment, which includes the headwaters of the Yarra River, store just under 2000 tonnes of carbon a hectare in their giant 300-year-old mountain ash eucalypts, lush understorey vegetation such as tree ferns, and in dead wood on the forest floor. But as the trees age, the figure rises, with trees more than 250 years old boosting the carbon sink capacity to just over 2800t a hectare.
The unexpected findings, published online today in a National Academy of Sciences journal in the United States, have critical implications for climate policy in the lead-up to the United Nations climate conference to be held in Copenhagen later this year.
The research paper, by ANU ecologists Heather Keith, Professor Brendan Mackey and Professor David Lindenmayer, over-turns conventional theories on the role of forests in carbon accounting.
Professor Mackey said, ''It identifies a gap in climate change policy that Australia needs to address.
''There has been a lot of talk about the need to address tropical deforestation in developing countries, but these results show we must start by recognising the carbon benefits to be gained from protecting our native forests,'' he said."
ABC NEWS: Old growth forests store carbon best
Professor Mackey says the Government needs to provide incentives to stop logging. (ABC News: Fiona Breen)
There are renewed calls to stop logging in old growth forests after new research found they could be the most valuable source of carbon in the world.
Scientists at the Australian National University studied 132 forests around the globe and the surprising results show a forest in central Victoria was the most carbon dense of all.
It has been widely believed that rainforests around the world are the most effective at storing carbon.
But now scientists are questioning that belief after research has shown mountain ash forests in central Victoria hold the most carbon.
The study shows the Victorian forests hold 1,900 tonnes of carbon per hectare, which is up to four times higher than what is found in tropical forests.
Brendan Mackey, a professor of environment science at the Australian National University, says it is an important find.
"The trees in these forests can grow to a very old age - at least 350 years - and they can grow very large, very tall, and they grow very dense, heavy wood," he said.
"Most of the biomass carbon is in big, old trees, and these are large, old, dense trees. These particular stands have not been subject to intensive land use, such as logging, so ... they've been able to grow and reach their natural carbon-carrying capacity.
"And finally, it also reflects the way these forests have evolved and adapted in response to fire."
Some other scientists now say this is proof that logging should be stopped in mountain ash forests in Victoria.
Dr James Watson, from the University of Queensland, says this level of carbon is so significant that it could be a real help in fighting climate change.
"We know that logging actually really does impact the amount of carbon in a forest," he said.
"These forests are incredibly carbon dense. We're talking about 18 tonnes of carbon in a hectare of forest, which is extraordinary. When we log this forest, we lose up to two-thirds of the carbon."
Forest management
Around 9,000 hectares of forests are logged in Victoria each year. Dr Watson says given their significant carbon capacity, they should remain untouched.
But the National Association of Forest Industries chief executive, Allan Hansard, says logging is a tool in total forest management.
"One of the things that does come with the changing climate is the increasing risk of bushfires," he said.
"So if we have an approach where we lock up and leave these forests, what we're actually doing is increasing the risk that these forests will burn down.
"Now, this is important from a climate change perspective, because if you actually have a look at the amount of emissions that come from these fires, it's quite substantial."
Professor Mackey says the Federal Government needs to provide incentives to stop logging in these forests.
"Up until now we really haven't thought about the carbon value of these natural forests," he said.
"People have thought about their timber value, other people have thought about their habitat value for wildlife, but no-one has really given much attention to their carbon value."
Heraldsun: Aussie forests are top carbon hoarders
Herald Sun
June 16, 2009 07:08am
Australian forests are the world's best at storing carbon, a key weapon against climate change, researchers say.
All trees absorb carbon dioxide and store it as they grow, but some forests lock up more carbon than others.
The Australian National University scientists measured 132 forests around the planet and found that mountain ash forests in Victoria's central highlands were the most carbon-dense of all.
Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is one of the main causes of climate change.
Victoria's forests were so rich in carbon because they lived in a cool climate, which slowed down the decay of the trees, the researchers said.
The trees were very old - up to 350 years of age - which meant they grew heavy, dense wood, and the forests had not been logged.
Researcher Brendan Mackey said it had been thought that tropical forests were the richest in carbon.
"This is a real surprise ... instead its forests in the temperate region that have the most," Prof Mackey said.
The research is published this week in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
June 16, 2009 07:08am
Australian forests are the world's best at storing carbon, a key weapon against climate change, researchers say.
All trees absorb carbon dioxide and store it as they grow, but some forests lock up more carbon than others.
The Australian National University scientists measured 132 forests around the planet and found that mountain ash forests in Victoria's central highlands were the most carbon-dense of all.
Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is one of the main causes of climate change.
Victoria's forests were so rich in carbon because they lived in a cool climate, which slowed down the decay of the trees, the researchers said.
The trees were very old - up to 350 years of age - which meant they grew heavy, dense wood, and the forests had not been logged.
Researcher Brendan Mackey said it had been thought that tropical forests were the richest in carbon.
"This is a real surprise ... instead its forests in the temperate region that have the most," Prof Mackey said.
The research is published this week in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
26 May, 2009
LETTER: Better use for old trees
Peter Campbell, Surrey Hills
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
The continuation of old-growth forest logging after the State Government's commitment to protect them is a worrying failure of government.
It is incredible that cow paddocks may be protected when 500-year-old forest giants such as those in Brown Mountain and Delegate forests are still being killed, mainly for woodchips that nobody now wants to buy.
These forests contain many threatened species such as owls, gliders, quolls and even crayfish. They also provide valuable water for our river systems and communities.
These forests can also provide green jobs for local communities into the future through ecotourism that would attract thousands of local and international visitors.
The time has come for the Brumby Government to protect them immediately.
Source
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
The continuation of old-growth forest logging after the State Government's commitment to protect them is a worrying failure of government.
It is incredible that cow paddocks may be protected when 500-year-old forest giants such as those in Brown Mountain and Delegate forests are still being killed, mainly for woodchips that nobody now wants to buy.
These forests contain many threatened species such as owls, gliders, quolls and even crayfish. They also provide valuable water for our river systems and communities.
These forests can also provide green jobs for local communities into the future through ecotourism that would attract thousands of local and international visitors.
The time has come for the Brumby Government to protect them immediately.
Source
LETTER: A joke that wears thin
Chris Clement, Carlton
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
IT'S time we sent VicForests and the State Government to the knacker's yard for this lunacy of fobbed-off promises to protect the precious forests of Victoria, and delivering us only a handful of hay. Someone needs to remind VicForests of the definition of "old growth" and how essential these forests are to curbing climate change and supplying Victoria and Australia with drinking and irrigation water.
Its commitment is a joke, its motives extremely questionable and, with antics like this, my trust in my Government is running thin. Premier John Brumby, please prove your leadership and honour your Government's promise to immediately protect the real old-growth forests of Victoria.
Source
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
IT'S time we sent VicForests and the State Government to the knacker's yard for this lunacy of fobbed-off promises to protect the precious forests of Victoria, and delivering us only a handful of hay. Someone needs to remind VicForests of the definition of "old growth" and how essential these forests are to curbing climate change and supplying Victoria and Australia with drinking and irrigation water.
Its commitment is a joke, its motives extremely questionable and, with antics like this, my trust in my Government is running thin. Premier John Brumby, please prove your leadership and honour your Government's promise to immediately protect the real old-growth forests of Victoria.
Source
LETTER: The wrong questions
John Tucker, Montmorency
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
So, Lyall Johnson, we need more surveying to ensure that mapping boundaries protects the "greatest amount of old-growth forest available, while also protecting timber jobs". Then why is the Government continuing to allow logging in contentious areas, knowing that the maps upon which it relies, and which VicForests exploits (undue influence or not), are faulty? Given that such "logging" employs approximately six chaps on bulldozers and one bloke with a match for a few weeks, what jobs are actually being protected by prevaricating?
Perhaps it's time for all sides to remember that governing is meant to be done for the benefit of the people — not for the benefit of companies, in the hope that they will pass on some of this benefit to the people in the form of jobs.
We need an end to the false dichotomies of economy versus environment. We need a recognition that people do need to eat, but that they also need to breathe. We need the courage to ask not "how can we best protect jobs/trees/football?" but to ask "what do we need to do to ensure that we leave the world a better place, given what we know?".
If that means restructuring society or providing free retraining and income support for miners, wilderness society workers or anyone else, then bring it on.
Source
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
So, Lyall Johnson, we need more surveying to ensure that mapping boundaries protects the "greatest amount of old-growth forest available, while also protecting timber jobs". Then why is the Government continuing to allow logging in contentious areas, knowing that the maps upon which it relies, and which VicForests exploits (undue influence or not), are faulty? Given that such "logging" employs approximately six chaps on bulldozers and one bloke with a match for a few weeks, what jobs are actually being protected by prevaricating?
Perhaps it's time for all sides to remember that governing is meant to be done for the benefit of the people — not for the benefit of companies, in the hope that they will pass on some of this benefit to the people in the form of jobs.
We need an end to the false dichotomies of economy versus environment. We need a recognition that people do need to eat, but that they also need to breathe. We need the courage to ask not "how can we best protect jobs/trees/football?" but to ask "what do we need to do to ensure that we leave the world a better place, given what we know?".
If that means restructuring society or providing free retraining and income support for miners, wilderness society workers or anyone else, then bring it on.
Source
LETTER: Put an end to this forestry folly
Rosemary Glaisher, Axedale
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
Cutting down 500-year-old trees and selling them to Japan as woodchips is a bit like bulldozing superb, intact medieval castles and crushing their stones to make roads. A bit like, but actually much worse, because destroying these ancient forests kills entire ecosystems, driving threatened species closer to extinction.
Yet this is exactly what our State Government is allowing to happen, despite having promised in 2006 to protect our old-growth forests.
Your article ("Declared forests turn out to be paddocks", The Age, 25/5) raises interesting questions about how an iconic wilderness of forest giants like Brown Mountain in East Gippsland can be annihilated while areas of regrowth and "cow paddocks" can be earmarked for protection.
It does not take a hardened cynic to wonder whether these areas are selected more on the basis of their usefulness or otherwise to the timber industry than on their conservation value.
Source
Letter, The Age, 26/5/09
Cutting down 500-year-old trees and selling them to Japan as woodchips is a bit like bulldozing superb, intact medieval castles and crushing their stones to make roads. A bit like, but actually much worse, because destroying these ancient forests kills entire ecosystems, driving threatened species closer to extinction.
Yet this is exactly what our State Government is allowing to happen, despite having promised in 2006 to protect our old-growth forests.
Your article ("Declared forests turn out to be paddocks", The Age, 25/5) raises interesting questions about how an iconic wilderness of forest giants like Brown Mountain in East Gippsland can be annihilated while areas of regrowth and "cow paddocks" can be earmarked for protection.
It does not take a hardened cynic to wonder whether these areas are selected more on the basis of their usefulness or otherwise to the timber industry than on their conservation value.
Source
25 May, 2009
THE AGE: Declared forests turn out to be paddocks
Adam Morton
May 25, 2009
Nearly 40 per cent of old-growth forest earmarked for protection by the State Government since the 2006 election has been found instead to be young regrowth, poor quality vegetation and cleared paddocks.
A survey by green groups found that about 15,000 hectares of Gippsland forest that the Government planned to turn into national park and conservation reserves was of no value to the timber industry and had comparatively little environmental value.
The survey findings come as the Government engages in a protracted haggling exercise with conservationists and state-owned commercial logging agency VicForests over the final location of the protection areas.
A report to be released today claims the Government is "protecting" cleared and previously logged land, while allowing timber harvesting to continue in high-value old-growth forest areas, such as Brown Mountain in far east Gippsland.
This is despite its 2006 election promise to "immediately protect the remaining significant stands of old-growth forest in Victoria".
Victorian National Parks Association executive director Matt Ruchel said the Government's commitment to turn 41,000 hectares into national park and conservation reserves could be an important step, but that the maps it released before the election were based on flawed ecological advice.
The report, designed to pressure the Government to rethink its old-growth protection maps, says 10 of the 25 proposed protection areas in east Gippsland are not old growth forests.
An area cited in the report is at Mt Stewart, which was found to be "grassy dry and shrubby dry forest, including a large weed-infested cleared field, large areas that were prescribed burned in the 1990s and 2007".
Similarly, areas at Breakfast Creek, Boggy Creek and Yellow Waterholes are described as "largely burned areas from the 1980s, cleared land and logging coupe from 2006".
Mr Ruchel said it was unclear if the mapping errors were deliberate or a mistake.
But Wilderness Society forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain accused VicForests and "Government logging bureaucrats" of undermining the election pledge. "Two and a half years on from the election John Brumby must show leadership and honour his Government's commitment."
John Hermans, a forest ecologist who runs his own sawmill at Clifton Creek, said he believed the timber industry recommended forest that was not commercially viable for inclusion in state reserves.
"If more people knew what was happening here in Gippsland there is no way they would get away with it," he said.
The Government promised to protect 33,500 hectares of old growth plus 5000 hectares that link the Snowy River to Errinundra National Park and 2500 hectares of "icon sites" — mainly logged areas that were once battlegrounds between conservationists and the timber industry.
The protection areas are yet to be formalised in legislation, but have been off-limits to loggers since the election.
The State Government did not respond directly to the claims in the green groups' report, which was also backed by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Instead, a government spokesman said that finalising the park boundaries was still a work in progress.
"This process requires extensive survey and mapping work to ensure that, in line with election promises, the boundaries protect the greatest amount of old-growth forest available, while also protecting timber jobs," spokesman Lyall Johnson said.
VicForests spokesman Cameron McDonald said the agency was just one of several bodies talking to the Government about the old-growth protection maps. "Any suggestion that we exert undue influence is incorrect," he said.
Conflict over the protection areas has been heightened by summer logging at Brown Mountain, which green groups say is home to trees up to 500 years old. One coupe was felled and the remains burned, but further harvesting has been on hold since January, when conservationists claimed they had found threatened glider, owl and crayfish species.
This triggered a State Government investigation, which Mr Johnson said found no evidence of threatened species. But he said the moratorium on harvesting in the remaining Brown Mountain coupes scheduled for logging would continue while the survey results were considered for "further issues"."
May 25, 2009
Nearly 40 per cent of old-growth forest earmarked for protection by the State Government since the 2006 election has been found instead to be young regrowth, poor quality vegetation and cleared paddocks.
A survey by green groups found that about 15,000 hectares of Gippsland forest that the Government planned to turn into national park and conservation reserves was of no value to the timber industry and had comparatively little environmental value.
The survey findings come as the Government engages in a protracted haggling exercise with conservationists and state-owned commercial logging agency VicForests over the final location of the protection areas.
A report to be released today claims the Government is "protecting" cleared and previously logged land, while allowing timber harvesting to continue in high-value old-growth forest areas, such as Brown Mountain in far east Gippsland.
This is despite its 2006 election promise to "immediately protect the remaining significant stands of old-growth forest in Victoria".
Victorian National Parks Association executive director Matt Ruchel said the Government's commitment to turn 41,000 hectares into national park and conservation reserves could be an important step, but that the maps it released before the election were based on flawed ecological advice.
The report, designed to pressure the Government to rethink its old-growth protection maps, says 10 of the 25 proposed protection areas in east Gippsland are not old growth forests.
An area cited in the report is at Mt Stewart, which was found to be "grassy dry and shrubby dry forest, including a large weed-infested cleared field, large areas that were prescribed burned in the 1990s and 2007".
Similarly, areas at Breakfast Creek, Boggy Creek and Yellow Waterholes are described as "largely burned areas from the 1980s, cleared land and logging coupe from 2006".
Mr Ruchel said it was unclear if the mapping errors were deliberate or a mistake.
But Wilderness Society forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain accused VicForests and "Government logging bureaucrats" of undermining the election pledge. "Two and a half years on from the election John Brumby must show leadership and honour his Government's commitment."
John Hermans, a forest ecologist who runs his own sawmill at Clifton Creek, said he believed the timber industry recommended forest that was not commercially viable for inclusion in state reserves.
"If more people knew what was happening here in Gippsland there is no way they would get away with it," he said.
The Government promised to protect 33,500 hectares of old growth plus 5000 hectares that link the Snowy River to Errinundra National Park and 2500 hectares of "icon sites" — mainly logged areas that were once battlegrounds between conservationists and the timber industry.
The protection areas are yet to be formalised in legislation, but have been off-limits to loggers since the election.
The State Government did not respond directly to the claims in the green groups' report, which was also backed by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Instead, a government spokesman said that finalising the park boundaries was still a work in progress.
"This process requires extensive survey and mapping work to ensure that, in line with election promises, the boundaries protect the greatest amount of old-growth forest available, while also protecting timber jobs," spokesman Lyall Johnson said.
VicForests spokesman Cameron McDonald said the agency was just one of several bodies talking to the Government about the old-growth protection maps. "Any suggestion that we exert undue influence is incorrect," he said.
Conflict over the protection areas has been heightened by summer logging at Brown Mountain, which green groups say is home to trees up to 500 years old. One coupe was felled and the remains burned, but further harvesting has been on hold since January, when conservationists claimed they had found threatened glider, owl and crayfish species.
This triggered a State Government investigation, which Mr Johnson said found no evidence of threatened species. But he said the moratorium on harvesting in the remaining Brown Mountain coupes scheduled for logging would continue while the survey results were considered for "further issues"."
22 April, 2009
Politics of forestry
Peter Boyer
The Mercury (article), April 21, 2009 12:45pm
After mature forest has been clearfelled, net carbon loss from the operation is large.
Every now and then, a sharply focused image of a gum seedling or a finely crafted piece of furniture appears on my television screen, a reminder of how good it is to live in this place, at this time.
No one pays good advertising money just to show us nice images of life in Australia. In this case, the message is how lucky we are to have a timber industry, because when it comes to greenhouse emissions, wood is so much better than other materials, such as steel or aluminium.
That message was underscored on local TV news recently when Forestry Tasmania corporate relations manager Ken Jeffries, responding to complaints about smoke haze from forest operations, pointed to the industry's re-seeding program as evidence of its climate-friendly status.
It is true, as the forest industry says, that steel and aluminium are anything but climate-friendly products. A steel furnace consumes copious amounts of coal, and aluminium smelting uses so much electricity (usually coal-fired) it has sometimes been called "congealed electricity". And it is true that the 1997 Kyoto accord allowed special dispensation for forestry as practised here.
But it is disingenuous to claim that today's forest industry presents a sharp contrast to these alternative products; to suggest that because trees absorb carbon dioxide, the industry actually reduces our carbon footprint. That may accord with diplomatic definitions, but we have to get real here.
Human carbon pollution is a physical phenomenon, independent of any political or commercial agenda, and Tasmanian forestry emissions must never be quarantined from a comprehensive carbon accounting process.
I would happily accept the assurances of Mr Jeffries or anyone in the industry, if I could find the scientific evidence behind them, but try as I might, I can't.
I was well into my climate change work when I entered the debate about forest and climate in this column about a year ago.
I drew attention then to what forest science seemed to be telling us about how forests store carbon and what happens to this carbon when the forest is harvested.
I have consulted a wide range of forest science research work, including work done by Forestry Tasmania itself about a decade ago. The science has consistently said that under today's "slash and burn" clearfelling regimes, harvesting native forest in Australia is an emissions-intensive activity.
It says that each hectare of Australian native forest stores hundreds of tonnes of carbon and no matter how vigorous the regrowth after mature forest has been clearfelled, net carbon loss from the operation is so large that recovery would take many times the length of any subsequent
harvesting cycle. Full recovery could take centuries.
SCIENTIFIC studies of forest carbon in Australia and North America have consistently indicated that, of the carbon removed from a forest as a result of clearfell operations (either taken away in logs or lost to the atmosphere in burning or decay), only a tiny proportion is preserved long-term (over 75 years) in a product such as furniture or housing.
Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics tell us that in 2008 only 13.4 per cent of harvested "roundwood" (itself only part of the forest carbon that is removed during harvesting) ended up as sawn timber, of which only part is retained in long-term product.
My reading of the science and the ABARE statistics indicates that for every tonne of forest carbon that is saved in long-term product, there is a loss of more than 40 tonnes to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
At this rate, Australian forestry as it is practised today is anything, but a greenhouse-friendly activity.
Yet, despite all the contrary scientific evidence -- including evidence from within Tasmanian forestry circles -- the industry continues to cite Australian government figures based on the Kyoto agreement to "prove" that it is carbon-neutral, leading the way to a greener future.
If the forestry industry sincerely believed this, wouldn't it secure solid evidence by means of rigorous, peer-reviewed science?
Surely it would put aside the politically convenient, but illogical, accounting framework of the Kyoto accord and seek a more rational, transparent method of determining our real forestry footprint.
It won't serve anyone if we continue this politically-driven charade. We urgently need to review our greenhouse gas accounting in the AFOLU sector (diplomatic-speak for agriculture, forestry and land use), incorporating existing carbon storage as well as annual flows.
When our forest carbon accounting is based on science and physical reality instead of politics, we can confidently include forestry in a comprehensive national or international carbon regime.
Then, and only then, will we know the real cost of a piece of timber.
Peter Boyer is a Hobart-based science writer and a presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project.
pb@climatetasmania.com.au
Source: The Mercury
See also
The Mercury (article), April 21, 2009 12:45pm
After mature forest has been clearfelled, net carbon loss from the operation is large.
Every now and then, a sharply focused image of a gum seedling or a finely crafted piece of furniture appears on my television screen, a reminder of how good it is to live in this place, at this time.
No one pays good advertising money just to show us nice images of life in Australia. In this case, the message is how lucky we are to have a timber industry, because when it comes to greenhouse emissions, wood is so much better than other materials, such as steel or aluminium.
That message was underscored on local TV news recently when Forestry Tasmania corporate relations manager Ken Jeffries, responding to complaints about smoke haze from forest operations, pointed to the industry's re-seeding program as evidence of its climate-friendly status.
It is true, as the forest industry says, that steel and aluminium are anything but climate-friendly products. A steel furnace consumes copious amounts of coal, and aluminium smelting uses so much electricity (usually coal-fired) it has sometimes been called "congealed electricity". And it is true that the 1997 Kyoto accord allowed special dispensation for forestry as practised here.
But it is disingenuous to claim that today's forest industry presents a sharp contrast to these alternative products; to suggest that because trees absorb carbon dioxide, the industry actually reduces our carbon footprint. That may accord with diplomatic definitions, but we have to get real here.
Human carbon pollution is a physical phenomenon, independent of any political or commercial agenda, and Tasmanian forestry emissions must never be quarantined from a comprehensive carbon accounting process.
I would happily accept the assurances of Mr Jeffries or anyone in the industry, if I could find the scientific evidence behind them, but try as I might, I can't.
I was well into my climate change work when I entered the debate about forest and climate in this column about a year ago.
I drew attention then to what forest science seemed to be telling us about how forests store carbon and what happens to this carbon when the forest is harvested.
I have consulted a wide range of forest science research work, including work done by Forestry Tasmania itself about a decade ago. The science has consistently said that under today's "slash and burn" clearfelling regimes, harvesting native forest in Australia is an emissions-intensive activity.
It says that each hectare of Australian native forest stores hundreds of tonnes of carbon and no matter how vigorous the regrowth after mature forest has been clearfelled, net carbon loss from the operation is so large that recovery would take many times the length of any subsequent
harvesting cycle. Full recovery could take centuries.
SCIENTIFIC studies of forest carbon in Australia and North America have consistently indicated that, of the carbon removed from a forest as a result of clearfell operations (either taken away in logs or lost to the atmosphere in burning or decay), only a tiny proportion is preserved long-term (over 75 years) in a product such as furniture or housing.
Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics tell us that in 2008 only 13.4 per cent of harvested "roundwood" (itself only part of the forest carbon that is removed during harvesting) ended up as sawn timber, of which only part is retained in long-term product.
My reading of the science and the ABARE statistics indicates that for every tonne of forest carbon that is saved in long-term product, there is a loss of more than 40 tonnes to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
At this rate, Australian forestry as it is practised today is anything, but a greenhouse-friendly activity.
Yet, despite all the contrary scientific evidence -- including evidence from within Tasmanian forestry circles -- the industry continues to cite Australian government figures based on the Kyoto agreement to "prove" that it is carbon-neutral, leading the way to a greener future.
If the forestry industry sincerely believed this, wouldn't it secure solid evidence by means of rigorous, peer-reviewed science?
Surely it would put aside the politically convenient, but illogical, accounting framework of the Kyoto accord and seek a more rational, transparent method of determining our real forestry footprint.
It won't serve anyone if we continue this politically-driven charade. We urgently need to review our greenhouse gas accounting in the AFOLU sector (diplomatic-speak for agriculture, forestry and land use), incorporating existing carbon storage as well as annual flows.
When our forest carbon accounting is based on science and physical reality instead of politics, we can confidently include forestry in a comprehensive national or international carbon regime.
Then, and only then, will we know the real cost of a piece of timber.
Peter Boyer is a Hobart-based science writer and a presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project.
pb@climatetasmania.com.au
Source: The Mercury
See also
- Green carbon, Greenlivingpedia
17 April, 2009
LETTER: We cannot drink woodchips
Sarah Rees, MyEnvironment Inc, Healesville
Letter to the editor, The Age, 17/4/09
THE Thomson dam drops lower (The Age, 15/4), catchments have been burnt and still the logging machinery rolls into Victoria's last remaining healthy water catchment to woodchip them for as little as $8.50 a tonne. Roads for logging machinery are being cut into Cement Creek Catchment, one of the Yarra tributaries and part of Melbourne's water supply.
In the Thomson catchment, about 70 per cent of the area of highest rainfall is being logged, and the dam has reached epic lows: could there be a link? In 2004 the Government commissioned a four-year investigation and found that the best option for improving catchment water yields was to end all logging by 2009. But this option was omitted from the range of choices presented to the Government because it compromised woodchip arrangements with the now Japanese-owned paper giant Australian Paper.
What will it take to end such barbaric management of our water resources? Perhaps only when the last load of logs enters the pulp mill. Then we will know we cannot drink woodchips.
Source: theage.com.au
Letter to the editor, The Age, 17/4/09
THE Thomson dam drops lower (The Age, 15/4), catchments have been burnt and still the logging machinery rolls into Victoria's last remaining healthy water catchment to woodchip them for as little as $8.50 a tonne. Roads for logging machinery are being cut into Cement Creek Catchment, one of the Yarra tributaries and part of Melbourne's water supply.
In the Thomson catchment, about 70 per cent of the area of highest rainfall is being logged, and the dam has reached epic lows: could there be a link? In 2004 the Government commissioned a four-year investigation and found that the best option for improving catchment water yields was to end all logging by 2009. But this option was omitted from the range of choices presented to the Government because it compromised woodchip arrangements with the now Japanese-owned paper giant Australian Paper.
What will it take to end such barbaric management of our water resources? Perhaps only when the last load of logs enters the pulp mill. Then we will know we cannot drink woodchips.
Source: theage.com.au
13 April, 2009
LETTER: Unwarranted fears
Mark Poynter, Institute of Foresters of Australia, Doncaster East
Letter to the editor, The Age, 13//4/09
Letter to the editor, The Age, 13//4/09
PREDICTABLY, the Victorian Government's consideration of wood-based bioenergy production (The Age, 9/4) generated howls of protest based on inaccurate or ill-informed claims (Letters, 10-11/4).
Fears of "massive deforestation" and "ecological wastelands" are baseless given that regenerating harvested areas is a central tenet of forest management. Less than 10 per cent of Victoria's forests are legally available for timber harvesting. Salvaging of burnt timber is also restricted to these areas.
Aside from periodically available fire salvage material, the vast majority of waste wood that could be used for domestic bio-energy production is material that would otherwise be exported to offshore paper manufacturers.
Around the world, sustainable timber supplies are widely used as a source of carbon-neutral "green" power. Ironically, in Australia, the most passionate advocates of combating climate change tend to be the most strident opponents of one of the more achievable forms of renewable energy.
12 April, 2009
LETTER: Beyond belief
Jill Redwood, Orbost
Letter to the editor, The Age, 12 April 2009
Letter to the editor, The Age, 12 April 2009
Recently, the radio carbon dating of a 10-metre diameter, freshly cut tree stump in East Gippsland showed it to be almost 600 years old.
Last week's story of the Brumby Government selling off these ancient forests for as little as $2.50 a tonne compounds the crime into enormous proportions.
In 2009, we are still watching while the Government destroys ancient forests that were young in the days of Joan of Ark. These are immense carbon stores that we need right now, not in another 600 years. Economically and environmentally, this is an appalling act. So much for the claim of sustainability.
The rain follows the trees Mr Brumby, as sure as public revolt follows the clearfelling of our public forests.
10 April, 2009
Homes for critters
Dr Anna Boin, Castlemaine
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
"LOWER-quality" logs: they are the ones with the notches and holes, the ones that wildlife call "high-quality" housing. The bushfires have already left lots of critters homeless. And now we are going to burn their last few homes for electricity? Fire is naturally occurring, logging is not. Native forests are not a renewable resource if we interfere by salvaging what's left. They are ecosystems that can take hundreds of years to regenerate. There is nothing clean, green or smart about burning them.
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
"LOWER-quality" logs: they are the ones with the notches and holes, the ones that wildlife call "high-quality" housing. The bushfires have already left lots of critters homeless. And now we are going to burn their last few homes for electricity? Fire is naturally occurring, logging is not. Native forests are not a renewable resource if we interfere by salvaging what's left. They are ecosystems that can take hundreds of years to regenerate. There is nothing clean, green or smart about burning them.
Stand by promise
Scott Bilby, Kensington
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
MR DALIDAKIS' statement that the native timber industry is "focused on producing sawlogs" is wrong. When woodchipping began in the 1960s, it was justified on the basis that only "waste wood" from saw-logging would be used. However, woodchipping soon became the main focus.
As demand for woodchips falls, the "waste wood" argument is being used to justify burning native forests for electricity. Perversely, due to concern about greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, the native timber sector could get to emit even more greenhouse emissions and receive a renewable energy subsidy funded by the taxpayer.
Because of community opposition to burning native forest for electricity, the governments of Victoria, NSW and Queensland prohibited it. It is hoped that lobbying by the native timber industry won't weaken the Victorian Government's resolve to stand by a promise it made to the people who elected them.
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
MR DALIDAKIS' statement that the native timber industry is "focused on producing sawlogs" is wrong. When woodchipping began in the 1960s, it was justified on the basis that only "waste wood" from saw-logging would be used. However, woodchipping soon became the main focus.
As demand for woodchips falls, the "waste wood" argument is being used to justify burning native forests for electricity. Perversely, due to concern about greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, the native timber sector could get to emit even more greenhouse emissions and receive a renewable energy subsidy funded by the taxpayer.
Because of community opposition to burning native forest for electricity, the governments of Victoria, NSW and Queensland prohibited it. It is hoped that lobbying by the native timber industry won't weaken the Victorian Government's resolve to stand by a promise it made to the people who elected them.
In the dark ages
Glenn Osboldstone, East Malvern, Lawyers for Forests
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
JOE HELPER'S plan (The Age, 9/4) to burn native forest for electricity shows how out of touch he is. The vast majority of Australians want to keep our remaining ancient forests standing. This dark-ages technology, raised as a means of propping up our unsustainable logging industry, fails to acknowledge the downsides — massive deforestation and habitat destruction, loss of vital carbon storehouses, degradation of our water purifiers and transformation of beautiful forests into ecological wastelands.
The claims that only the "byproducts of sawlog harvesting" will be used are misleading because, as shown by Vicforests' own figures, barely 2 per cent of what is clear-felled ends up as a high-value product. Most, including sawlog-quality wood, is trucked to woodchip mills to end up either as paper or shipped off to Japan.
A far better approach would be to move logging workers into our extensive plantation estate and support real renewable energy projects such as huge solar thermal facilities and geothermal and wind plants.
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
JOE HELPER'S plan (The Age, 9/4) to burn native forest for electricity shows how out of touch he is. The vast majority of Australians want to keep our remaining ancient forests standing. This dark-ages technology, raised as a means of propping up our unsustainable logging industry, fails to acknowledge the downsides — massive deforestation and habitat destruction, loss of vital carbon storehouses, degradation of our water purifiers and transformation of beautiful forests into ecological wastelands.
The claims that only the "byproducts of sawlog harvesting" will be used are misleading because, as shown by Vicforests' own figures, barely 2 per cent of what is clear-felled ends up as a high-value product. Most, including sawlog-quality wood, is trucked to woodchip mills to end up either as paper or shipped off to Japan.
A far better approach would be to move logging workers into our extensive plantation estate and support real renewable energy projects such as huge solar thermal facilities and geothermal and wind plants.
Plantantion sector place for jobs
Bruce McGregor, Brunswick
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
IN JUSTIFYING the proposal to log native forests to save the forestry industry (The Age, 9/4), Philip Dalidakis continues to promote discredited myths.
For years the Victorian Association of Forest Industries has been in denial about the softwood plantation industry and the decline in real value of commodity woodchips of about 2 per cent a year.
Further, they claim they focus on native forest sawlog production for high-value timber products but these are only a tiny fraction of total timber harvested from softwood and hardwood plantations combined with native forest harvesting.
The real opportunity for employment is in the plantation sector, a sector undermined constantly by policies that price native forests so low to try to compete in the commodity export woodchip market.
The real value in native forests is in the water yield, which is reduced for decades following native forest clear-felling. Low water yields severely affect water supplies and Victoria's rivers.
The Age (letter), April 10, 2009
IN JUSTIFYING the proposal to log native forests to save the forestry industry (The Age, 9/4), Philip Dalidakis continues to promote discredited myths.
For years the Victorian Association of Forest Industries has been in denial about the softwood plantation industry and the decline in real value of commodity woodchips of about 2 per cent a year.
Further, they claim they focus on native forest sawlog production for high-value timber products but these are only a tiny fraction of total timber harvested from softwood and hardwood plantations combined with native forest harvesting.
The real opportunity for employment is in the plantation sector, a sector undermined constantly by policies that price native forests so low to try to compete in the commodity export woodchip market.
The real value in native forests is in the water yield, which is reduced for decades following native forest clear-felling. Low water yields severely affect water supplies and Victoria's rivers.
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