CFMEU declares forests war is over

Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondentThe Australian (article),  October 23, 2010

CFMEU forestry division national secretary Michael O'Connor in parklands in North Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: The Australian

The union representing forestry workers has conceded logging in the nation's natural forests must stop.

It has declared an armistice in its 30-year war with the environmental movement.

But the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union now wants the green lobby and governments to secure the industry's long-term survival by agreeing to a dramatic expansion of plantation forestry.

The CFMEU also wants a new focus on value-adding through investment in sectors such as pulp and paper, and veneer board. "Our industry is on the verge of collapse," CFMEU forestry division national secretary Michael O'Connor told The Weekend Australian yesterday.

"We've got to come up with a solution. The only way to do that was really to sit down with people we've been opposed to for 30 years and see if we could come up with one."


Mr O'Connor's comments, welcomed by the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Greens and the Gillard government, represent a fundamental shift after years of often physical conflict over logging in native forests, particularly in Tasmania.

They suggest his union will dig in over its support for the proposed Gunns pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, strongly opposed by conservationists.

Last week Tasmanian environmentalists and loggers agreed to begin talks over a moratorium on logging in high-conservation areas and, ultimately, a shift out of all native forests and into plantation timber.

Yesterday, Mr O'Connor broke with employer groups to call for the Tasmanian deal to be treated as a template for nation-wide reform to provide a lifeline for more than 100,000 Australians employed in the timber industry.

"The hard truth is that the native forest industry in every state is in crisis," he said in his first interview about the Tasmanian deal.

Mr O'Connor is well known for his union-first stance and came to prominence in 2004 by making a forestry deal with John Howard to protect jobs.

Yesterday, he said successful activism by the green lobby had "trashed" the Japanese wood chip market and the hardwood sector was in deep trouble. His union had decided the best way to help its members was to secure green backing for an expansion of plantation forestry and encourage investment in value-adding projects.

"If we require a comprehensive plantation strategy that's going to increase the amount of saw logs available to the industry, perhaps the environmental movement will support us in a proposal about that.

"Maybe we can harness their effective political machine for an outcome."

Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry welcomed the CFMEU's shift and promised to help.

"This is a unique opportunity to lay down our arms and work respectfully together to build a strong and sustainable value-adding industry based on plantations," he said.

"The ACF is a strong supporter of plantation forestry and value-adding at world's best practice."

Greens leader Bob Brown, a veteran of Tasmania's forest wars, was not available yesterday but deputy leader Christine Milne said Mr O'Connor's comments were a cause for celebration because it meant forests would be protected.

"The Greens have always supported an assisted transition for forestry workers out of native forest logging, and we have always been confident that the transition will bring benefits to workers, industry and community," Senator Milne said.

Sustainability Minister Tony Burke said he was not certain other states could mirror the Tasmanian agreement, which was linked to the building of a pulp mill and involved high-value forest areas such as the Styx and the Tarkine.

He said he was pleased the warring parties had found their own agreements rather than having deals imposed by the government, but warned change would not happen overnight.

Mr O'Connor called for an immediate change in the way logging volumes are determined. Under the existing regional forestry agreement process, governments took submissions from employers and unions as well as environmentalists and then acted as umpire.

"It didn't work," Mr O'Connor said. "We are saying why don't we see if we can get an agreed position with the environment movement and take that to government?"

Asked how his members would feel about the sudden change in tactics, Mr O'Connor said his job was to secure the best outcome for his members. "I think we've got a track record showing that we're not scared of a fight," he said.

"But if a better outcome can be achieved by negotiating or having dialogue with people we've traditionally been opposed to, then certainly we take that path.

"This next stage is going to be critical. But really the implementation of anything that comes out of it could be over a 15- or 20-year period. This will probably outlast the rest of my working life."

Mr O'Connor's comments come ahead of a union ballot next month to approve the Tasmanian deal.

The Magic Pudding industry?

Jill Redwood, Coordinator, Environment East Gippsland Inc
Letter to editor, Snowy River Mail (not published yet).

Regarding “Cuts remove six contractors” on last week’s front page.

In 1986, there was a strong warning given that unless the annual cut of sawlogs was reduced by four fifths the local industry would not survive. Overcutting was rife. The report by NIEIS was ignored by both government and industry.

The cut was then 370,000m3 a year. Through the 90s it was 280,000 m3 a year and about 110,000m3 this decade. This didn’t include about 300,000 m3 of woodchips a year that have fed the Japanese export mill at Eden.

Politicians like Craig Ingram and his rival, the National Party candidate Tim Bull, are repeating history. They proudly state they support the ever shrinking logging industry, righteously demanding more and more access to something that just isn’t there.

Rather than relying on Magic Pudding planning, to pander to a few voters, maybe our politicians should look to the recent Tasmanian solution.

VicForests own figures show that 85% of what is trucked out of our forests is now woodchipped (and sold for less that we are charged to cut our own firewood). Tasmania has suffered the same fate with overcutting and woodchipping.

The industry has always operated on a ‘cut-out and get-out’ basis. Yet conservationists and endangered wildlife cop the blame.

The recently declared 45,000 ha of forest for protection was almost entirely forest that was:

• Inaccessible or too steep,
• was already logged
• was already protected under the RFA, or
• too scruffy and degraded for even woodchipping.

 And as for Craig Ingram’s claim that the government is about to protect an additional 114,000 ha, our local pollie should do some basic homework.

These scattered patches of forest have been the minimal protection zones for rare and endangered wildlife since 1997. They are critical habitat for forest owls and marsupial quolls (which are almost extinct in Victoria now), rainforests and rare plants. But we were told by Craig Ingram that they are draft new reserves to “further restrict the industry”.

Thanks to the logging bosses and their political mates demanding that reserves be clearfelled, these patches are now in line to be sacrificed for clearfelling without any surveys or assessments. Hardly a deal being done with the Greens as claimed by Mr Ingram.

However, it reads well for a politician who only seems to value the votes of some of his constituents, and who works to protect the profit margins of the Japanese Nippon paper company. If he truly wanted to help this region and its future, it might be time he considered other options. Tasmania has finally seen the light. Will East Gippsland be next?

Irreplaceable wood

David Pollard, VicForests, Melbourne
The Age (letter), 22 October 2010

CINZIA Mariolini (Letters, 21/10) claims that plantations can already provide 98 per cent of Victoria's timber and paper products. Plantations in Victoria are grown primarily to produce pulp and paper products, or pine timber for light construction. Victoria's hardwood native forests are harvested and regenerated every 70 to 120 years to allow this timber to develop vital properties such as strength, durability and visual appearance.

This native hardwood can't be replaced by softwood or the short-rotation hardwood plantations that exist in Victoria.

The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Regional Economics says Australia already has a $2 billion trade deficit in wood and wood products.

To suggest we could lock up our native forests and not affect the supply of wood and wood products in Victoria is incorrect.

In forestry's future

Cinzia Mariolini, Marlo
The Age (article), 21 October 2010

A HISTORIC decision has just been made by the Tasmanian timber industry, with Gunns finally moving out of native forests and agreeing to process only plantation wood.

The industry also agreed not to use native forest wood ''waste'' to burn for electricity - another significant decision.

Let's now see how long it will take for its Victorian counterparts to show similar courage and long-term vision.

With proper management and careful placement, plantations in Victoria can already meet 98 per cent of the total timber and woodchip/paper market demand. So there is really no excuse to continue clear-felling and industrial-scale logging in native forests.

Given the irreversible (and incontrovertible) environmental damage caused by native forest clear-felling and the fact that just a fraction of the Victorian workforce is employed by the logging industry, there is no justification left for the government to allow the destruction of everyone's precious environmental assets for the exclusive profit of a minority group.

Stop the Chop - protest at Joe Helper's office

Please attend this action if you can.  Minister for VicForests Joe Helper and the Brumby government need to hear that we don't want VicForests to keep destroying our native forests.

Still wild, Tassie forest now also less threatened

Andrew Darby
The Age (article), October 20, 2010

IT'S been on for young and old in the Upper Florentine for so long now that activists find it hard to believe their battle could be won.

Surrounded on three sides by the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, this is a valley dominated by giant eucalypts, where a loose protest camp has run most of the past four years.

The camp has been been torn down, dozens of people arrested, protesters abused and assaulted, and their cars torched at night.

Yet the young people of Still Wild Still Threatened came back repeatedly to build intricate tree sits, protected by a spider's web of cables. And older local people who walked on to prohibited public forest coupes dubbed themselves ''Faces of the Florentine''.

Yesterday, with a road map unveiled to a final deal on protecting high-conservation-value forests, Bridie McEntee, 27, and Maggie Cashman Bailes, 70, went to the Upper Florentine to take stock.

Ms McEntee, a community worker, has spent two years with Still Wild Still Threatened, because she is moved by the Upper Florentine's environment.

''I love that it is a really intricate ecosystem, intact for thousands of years,'' she said.

She has blockaded, walked on to active clearfells to stop work, protested in Hobart, and been arrested for trespass. Yesterday she was hopeful the day of protection was close.

''To think in a few short months the Upper Florentine will be safe,'' she said. ''It would be a pretty amazing day.''

Ms Cashman Bailes, a bird expert alarmed at the rate nearby old-growth forests were being clearfelled, found herself increasingly immersed in a local residents' protest group.

She found it a ''scary thing'' to walk in to a coupe and meet a line of police. ''But it had to be done,'' Ms Cashman Bailes said.

Despite the agreement released yesterday, it gave her little comfort. ''I'm nervous about anything being signed, because a lot of those people I do not trust one bit.''

Without politicians

Ed McKinley, Thornbury

The Age (letter), 20 October 2010

YOUR story about the peace deal for wild forests in Tasmania offers the following gem: ''parties to the talks … all strenuously rejected the involvement of politicians in the negotiations''. This implies that they thought they would get a better result if they sorted it out among themselves. This issue has been so protracted and so bitter, yet they have found their own way forward.

I bet it was well facilitated, and I bet that all parties felt well heard - as opposed to what we see unfolding regarding the Murray-Darling Basin.

I would dearly love to hear more about why they were all so determined that it would go better without the politicians.

Tasmania leads, Victoria must follow

Justin Tutty, Darwin, NT
The Age (letter), 20 October 2010

THE end of Tasmania's forest wars comes down to nothing more bizarre than a hard-headed business decision by Gunns to switch to plantations (''Historic deal on forests'', The Age, 19/10).

The Tasmanian government has fallen into line because the economic argument is compelling. Global financial pressures have hit the contentious export of native forest woodchips, and the rise of demand for certified plantation timber combines to dictate that if there is to be a future for the industry, it must be in well-managed plantations.

Yet in Victoria, where the parameters are the same and the industry is in decline, policy makers have yet to heed the writing on the wall. Instead, we see further conflict provoked as diminishing native forest resources lead government to move loggers into contentious areas.

Victoria must follow Tasmania's lead, and put an end to native forest destruction. Rather than holding on until the last bitter woodchip, it's time for government to lead a transition out of our ancient native forests into existing plantations. By partnering with industry to fund retooling, retraining and relocation, the Brumby government has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save jobs and trees.

Greens seek quick start to logging ban

Andrew Darby, Hobart
The Age (article), October 20, 2010

THE Greens are pressing the Tasmanian government to begin rolling out a ban on logging in the island's old-growth forests, amid signs protection could still be some time away.

The moratorium is a cornerstone of the landmark forests peace plan unveiled yesterday, which is hoped to end a generation of conflict.

A statement of principles, negotiated in secret by industry and green groups over five months, includes a transition from native forest logging, and support for timber processing, including a pulp mill.

About 200,000 hectares of public forests eventually could be covered by the high-conservation-value ban, the Tasmanian Greens' forests spokesman, Kim Booth, said yesterday. But he said coupes about to be logged could be spared if the state agency Forestry Tasmania was prepared to reschedule its work.

''We are very strongly of the view that high-conservation-value forests are being deliberately targeted and they should be immediately withdrawn,'' Mr Booth said.

The deal between industry and environmentalists provides for ''immediate'' protection of high-conservation-value native forests, and outlines a means for a moratorium, commencing in 30 days and completed over three months.

But Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett said he believed the 30-day period had not yet started, and he might need to reach agreement first with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

''We will be moving as rapidly as possible to start that clock ticking,'' he said.

The deal, described by Mr Bartlett as a ''fragile foundation'', holds the promise of ending decades of bitter conflict in Tasmania, and restructuring a troubled industry.

Apart from protecting the state's ancient tall eucalypts, and other forests with high conservation value, it provides for a transition by ''commodity'' logging such as woodchipping out of another 450,000 hectares of public native forests.

Federal funding is being sought for the revamp, and Mr Bartlett said the Gillard government's help would be needed to vary the state's Regional Forests Agreement.

The industry will contest some of the green groups' demands for protection.

''Just because a forest is nominated doesn't by itself make it a high-conservation-value forest,'' said Terry Edwards, chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania.

He said it could take 30 years to complete the transition out of some native forests. But Forestry Tasmania is confident that it would be able to meet demands for sawlogs while introducing a moratorium on high-conservation-value trees.

Era of protest ends in a principled peace

Andrew Darby , Hobart
Sydney Morning Herald (article), October 19, 2010

A forests peace deal has finally been reached in Tasmania to shift loggers from wild forests into a sustainable plantation industry.

Marathon talks aimed at ending a generation of conflict will culminate in the handover today of a statement of principles, already signed by both sides, to the Premier, David Bartlett.

The industry bowed to environmentalist demands at the last stumbling block, a clause that restricts the burning of timber as biomass fuel, sources said. Green groups in turn agreed to recognise existing wood supply contracts.

The struggle between activists and loggers over Tasmania's old-growth tall eucalypt forests began in the mid 1980s.

Despite several federal government interventions that protected more forests and compensated industry, the logging and the protests continued as recently as last week.

The roundtable peace process began after a Labor-Green government was elected in Tasmania in April, and as international markets moved against the logging of native forests.

Held behind closed doors, the talks involved the National Association of Forest Industries, the Forest Industry Association of Tasmania and the CFMEU from the industry side. Green groups were led by the Australian Conservation Foundation, The Wilderness Society and Environment Tasmania.

At its core, the statement recognises the need to protect high conservation value forests and end ''industrial forestry'' of them in a timeframe to be agreed. It still allows for specialty timbers to be logged from these forests, for purposes such as craftwood.

It also calls for a move to ''a strong and sustainable industry based on a range of plantation-based industries including a pulp mill''.

No mention is made of the controversial $2.2 billion Gunns mill project, and there is no calculation of compensation required, or jobs that will be shed, or gained, by the transition.

But it says the state should call upon the Commonwealth to help rebuild the industry to ensure timber communities are able to be more economically resilient than they have been until now.

Yesterday another 120 jobs in the timber industry were lost when Gunns confirmed the long-feared closure of a pine sawmill at Scottsdale in the north-east.

"Sadly, this is more evidence that doing nothing is not an option," Mr Bartlett said. "Many, many commentators have said difficult change is coming to the forest industry, whether we like it or not.''

Historic deal on forests

Andrew Darby
The Age (article), October 19, 2010

A peace deal has been struck to save Tasmania's wild forests after a quarter of a century of conflict between the logging industry and the environmental movement.

Marathon talks between industry, union and green groups will culminate in the handover today of a statement of principles, already signed by both sides, to Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett.

The deal is designed to shift loggers out of Tasmania's ancient forests and into a sustainable plantation-based industry.

Under the deal, Tasmania is expected to go to Canberra to seek hundreds of millions of dollars compensation to secure the future of the timber industry.

The industry bowed to demands from environmentalists on the last stumbling block - a clause that restricts the burning of timber as biomass fuel - sources told The Age. Green groups, in turn, agreed to recognise existing wood supply contracts.

The struggle between activists and loggers over Tasmania's old growth forests began in the mid-1980s.

During the dispute, tens of thousands of hectares of tall eucalypt forests up to 400 years old have been clear-felled - mostly for low-value export woodchips - and hundreds of protesters have been arrested.

The dispute has claimed several political scalps, including then opposition leader Mark Latham in 2004. His offer to protect the Wilderness Society's list of high conservation value forests and give $800 million compensation to the industry was regarded as having contributed to his 2004 election loss.

Greens leader Bob Brown, who was dragged through the mud by loggers and later shot at in the 1986 Farmhouse Creek protests, said the agreement could represent a landmark in the dispute.

''Nothing like this is ever totally finalised,'' he said last night. ''But I have high hopes that this could be the greatest breakthrough since the promise Mark Latham held out.''

Despite several federal government interventions that protected more forests and compensated the industry, the logging and the protests continued as recently as last week.

The peace process began after a Labor-Green government was elected in Tasmania in April, and as the industry saw international markets moving against native forest logging and a slump in profits.

The peace ''road map'', as it has been described, recognises the need to stop ''industrial forestry'' of old-growth forests in a time frame to be agreed. It still allows for specialty timbers to be logged from these forests, for purposes such as craftwood.

It calls for a move to ''a strong and sustainable industry based on a range of plantation-based industries including a pulp mill''.

No mention is made of timber giant Gunns proposed $2.2 billion pulp mill project, and there is no calculation of compensation required, or jobs that will be shed or gained by the transition.

But it says the state should ask the Commonwealth to help rebuild the industry to ensure timber communities are able to be more economically resilient than they have been until now.

Last month, Gunns chief executive Greg L'Estrange conceded that the public relations battle over old-growth logging had been lost.

''We see that the conflict has to end,'' he said in a speech in Melbourne, adding that many good ideas came from ''the people we used to throw rocks and brickbats at''. ''The vast support of the Australian population is with the environmental non-government organisations.''

Yesterday, another 120 jobs in the timber industry were lost when Gunns confirmed the long-feared closure of a pine sawmill at Scottsdale in Tasmania's north-east.

''Sadly, this is more evidence that doing nothing is not an option,'' Mr Bartlett said. ''Many, many commentators have said difficult change is coming to the forest industry, whether we like it or not.

''That's exactly why the current negotiations between the forest industry and environment groups are so crucial for the industry's future, and jobs of our timber workers.''

Parties to the talks, who all strenuously rejected the involvement of politicians in the negotiations, refused to comment before today's announcement.

The Tasmanian deal will increase pressure on the Victorian government to boost protection of the state's native forests before next month's state election.

The government this month proclaimed the creation of 45,000 hectares of national park in Gippsland - the result of a commitment made before the 2006 election. Native forestry logging continues in eastern and central Victoria.

Environment East Gippsland spokeswoman Jill Redwood, who in August won a Supreme Court injunction to stop logging at Browns Mountain due to the threat to endangered potoroo and glider species, said Victoria should follow Tasmania's lead.

''If a forest annihilator such as Gunns can see the light over native forests, then it is time our government moved into the 21st century and followed suit,'' she said.

But Victorian Association of Forest Industries chief executive Philip Dalidakis said the Tasmanian situation was unique, and no parallels could be drawn.

With Adam Morton

Our old growth much too precious to be threatened by the axe

Irv Banman, steward of the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve.
Cowichan News Leader Pictorial - Opinion, October 18, 2010

Our old growth forests are of vital importance to bio-diversity and the well-being of all citizens.

They are not replaceable, logging them is not sustainable and they play an important role in carbon sequestration.

They are found nowhere else on earth and are subject to intense logging pressures dictated by world markets.

In an Oct. 6 News Leader Pictorial article we are informed that within North Cowichan, old growth accounts for less than one per cent of the 12,000-acre municipal forest. Anyone living within the Cowichan Valley would be hard-pressed to find a patch of old growth near where they live and likely have never seen an old growth forest of any size in the valley.

Rick Jeffery, president of Coast Forest Products Association, asserts there is plenty of old-growth left for harvesting, even within Cowichan.

It is well-known that on the south-east rain shadow coast of Vancouver Island the percentage of old growth left is roughly the same as what is left in North Cowichan, less than one per cent. Certainly this fraction cannot be what Mr. Jeffrey is referring to when he talks about plenty of old growth left for harvesting. Even if there were enough old growth somewhere to log for another 50 years, does it make sense to continue cutting until we are left with next to nothing?

A few jobs for today and profitable company margins, but something will be lost that can never be replaced within our lifetimes.

With continued logging however, even these shrunken forests will dwindle down to minuscule little patches or individual trees which will not serve to sustain the specially adapted species that live there. Exporting logs is the quickest and easiest way to turn trees into cash. Many are familiar with the closure of the mill at Youbou that left hundreds unemployed, while old growth and second growth logs continued to flow past unprocessed for export to foreign markets.

The monetary values of old growth forests are tremendous. Besides absorbing carbon, they provide the irreplaceable services of water and air quality purification and stabilization.

Visitors from around the world travel to B.C. to experience the exceptional forest, lake, mountain and ocean surroundings. Old growth B.C. coastal forests are world heritage sites even if not formally recognized as such.

Higher species diversity also means greater stability and old forests may be more resistant to disease.

We have the privilege and responsibility to steward these forests to ensure that they do not disappear. Thankfully there are groups that are working together to bring attention to the need to stop old growth logging on the B.C. coast.

Environmental organizations, unions, forestry workers, and First Nations have all voiced concern over the cutting of old growth trees, let’s give them our support.

Native-forest felling split

Leslie White
The Weekly Times (article), October 14, 2010

THE logging industry is split over the clear-felling of native forest.

Australia's biggest logging company says the future lies in plantations, while the nation's biggest mill will consider an exit from native forest products and Tasmanian workers will vote on a proposal to end native-forest logging next month.

And the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania appears set to sign a deal to end native forest logging by its members.

But state government-owned logging agencies VicForests and NSW Forests continue to clear-fell native forest, and peak Victorian native forest industry body, the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, argues native forest logging should continue.

Tasmanian Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union forestry division members will vote on "a transition out of native forests which is fair for workers" on November 9-10.

CFMEU forestry division national secretary Michael O'Connor said unless there was a "fundamental change in the way the industry operates, it won't just shrink - it will collapse".

A spokesman for the owner of Australia's biggest paper mill, Australian Paper, has confirmed the company is "considering" a move out of native forest.

Australian Paper sources large volumes of native forest from the Marysville region.

Gunns Forestry, which owns mills at Heyfield and Alexandra, has announced it will end native forest logging.

A spokesman for Victorian Government company VicForests would only say VicForests worked "within the rules and regulations we're given".

VAFI president Bob Humphreys said a ban on native-forest logging would mean imports from "less sustainable industries from other countries" would replace them.

He said the Victorian industry employed 25,000 people, a figure disputed by environmental groups.

Timber Workers for Forests president Frank Strie said he opposed clear-fell logging, "particularly on sloping terrain".

"Many places have run out of good timber," Mr Strie said.

"The industry says, 'blame the greenies', but the reality is the good timber is gone. They ran it (the forest resource) into the ground."

Managing the trees

Nathan Trushell and David Walsh, VicForests, Melbourne
The Age (letter), 12 October 2010

Judith Wakeman (Letters, 11/10) quotes from Victoria's State of Forest Report 2008, which stated that 9470 hectares of forest are harvested in Victoria each year. This figure is correct, but relates to harvesting between 2002 and 2006.

VicForests harvests and regenerates about 5500 hectares of forest each year. This significant reduction highlights the efforts of the native timber industry to ensure our forests are managed sustainably.

The letter also refers to figures in the Department of Sustainability and Environment's annual monitoring report of 2007-08. Since then, VicForests has regenerated almost 10,000 hectares across Victoria.

VicForests also completed its largest aerial-seeding program in 2009-10, aimed at regrowing forests, including areas affected by the Black Saturday bushfires.

VicForests appreciates more than anyone the need to harvest and regenerate our forests at levels that are sustainable.

It is the trees we plant today that will sustain our industry for future generations.

Peace over forests a precedent

The Australian, editorial
12 October 2010

AS environmentalists and irrigators dig in for a fight in the Murray-Darling Basin, they should look across Bass Strait, where the Tasmanian timber industry and green groups are on the verge of ending a generation of conflict over the logging of native forests.

Both sides say there are details to debate, in particular whether residue from native forests can count as fuel for renewable power generation. But for both sides to want peace at all is an achievement all but unimaginable six years ago, when the state split over the issue at the 2004 federal election. The green south backed Labor leader Mark Latham's promise to protect forests and the working-class electorates of the north supported John Howard, after he committed to the timber industry. It was the culmination of years of conflict, with timber workers demanding job security and activists arguing that clear-felling native forests was vandalism.

Now it appears the two sides are accepting the other has a point because economics has provided a solution that always eluded ideology. On the loggers' side, changes were forced on big timber company Gunns by institutional shareholders, worried by its tough tactics in fighting environmentalists and its controversial plan for a pulp mill. Gunns also took over 300,000ha of plantation blue gums from the failed Great Southern company this year, ensuring that the Tasmanian company no longer needs to exploit old-growth forest . While the Wilderness Society indulged in some unseemly crowing last week, saying Gunn's agreement was a "backdown", there is no doubting sober strategists among the environmentalists understand public opinion will never accept a ban on logging altogether, and that the timber company was never going to go away.

While it is far too long in coming, this outcome offers hope for the water debate. Despite decades of venom, the loggers and environmentalists both needed Tasmania's forests to survive. It is the same with the Murray-Darling. Nobody benefits if the river system is degraded, just as no one wins if the rivers run a banker but communities along their banks die for want of water. Like the fight over Tasmania's forests, the argument over river use is immensely complex and controversial and will take years to resolve. But the first step to a solution is for all sides to accept that ultimately they will have to compromise, so why waste time with non-negotiable claims?

Conflicting figures

Judith Wakeman, Templestowe
The Age (letter), 11 October 2010

Nathan Trushell assures us (Letters, 9/10) of the success of VicForests' regeneration program, but the latest Department of Sustainability and Environment report, Monitoring Annual Harvesting Performance in Victoria's State Forests, estimates that 19,000 hectares are overdue for regeneration surveys, and that a further 7191 hectares ''require additional effort for successful regeneration''. These figures do not include the effect of fires in 2006 or 2009.

Mr Trushell also assures us that the regeneration is maintaining biodiversity, yet on its website, under the headings of topics like ''monitoring change in species composition'', ''monitoring stocking survey success'' and ''monitoring root regenerating species'', it reports that ''results are still being collected''.

Furthermore, Mr Trushell states that VicForests harvests 5500 hectares of native forests each year but Victoria's State of the Forests 2008 reports that 9470 hectares of native forest are harvested each year. Who do we believe?

Support the supporters

Simon Birrell, Victorian Rainforest Network
The Age (letter), 10 October 2010

On October 1, I went to East Gippsland with former forest activists to see Environment Minister Gavin Jennings proclaim the protection of high conservation forest areas in East Gippsland. These forests included Goolengook, Yalmy and Dingo Creek. It was a great day for the thousands of people who worked very hard for well over a decade to finally see important rainforest and old-growth forest protected.

The sacrifices to achieve this have been huge. Between 1997 and 2002, about 250 people were arrested trying to stop clearfell logging at Goolengook. A bitter court case was successfully fought by a few individual activists to prove logging at Dingo Creek was unlawful. For the thousands of people who made a stand for the forests in East Gippsland, I say very well done.

However, some peak conservation groups are unhappy, as they want to see a total ban on all native forest logging. The Wilderness Society described the protection as ''a very good step'' but at the same time belittled the significance of the outcome with dubious arguments.

For example, the Wilderness Society claims a cow paddock has been protected. This is in reference to a field a bit bigger than just a few hectares included within the 45,000 hectares the state government has now added to the existing East Gippsland reserves. So what? Maybe a good location to have a picnic and kick a football?

The Wilderness Society also falsely claims that the forest within ''special protection zones'' is safe from logging. These informal reserves have no legal protection. They can be unlocked for logging based on a recommendation from the minister of the day. A review of the informal reserve system in East Gippsland is occurring right now. The loggers want more of the zones unlocked for logging and they have support from the Coalition to do just that.

It was also disappointing to hear MP Greg Barber, on behalf of the Victorian Greens, declare in Parliament that the legislation to protect Goolengook and Dingo Creek is nothing more than a broken promise. In his half-hour parliamentary speech last December, Mr Barber made no reference to the huge personal effort made by thousands of people to protect these areas. It would be nice if the Greens, every now and then, could give credit and recognition where it is due.

Forest harvest

Nathan Trushell, VicForests, Melbourne
The Age (letter), 8 October 2010

Contrary to Jill Sanguinetti's letter (7/10),VicForests harvests 5500 hectares of forest in total across Victoria each year. This equates to less than 0.1 of a percentage point of our state's 7.8 million hectares of native forest.

VicForests then re-sows every hectare with seeds from the local region to maintain diversity.

Rather than creating a monoculture, this process ensures the same mix of species present in each area grows back following harvesting.

The area permitted to be harvested in Victoria each year has reduced by more than 30 per cent over the past decade, further helping to ensure the sustainability of our forests.

For the chop

Jill Sanguinetti, Narbethong
The Age (letter), 7 October 2010

When will people understand that scouring our native forests and turning them into virtual silvicultural plantations through monocultural seeding amounts to permanent loss of habitat?

The .05 to 1 per cent of forests logged in any one year (Letters, 6/10) refers to all forested areas in Victoria - including privately owned land, degraded remnant forests, national parks and dry, open woodlands in the west of no interest to the timber industry.

It is small pockets of mature, biodiverse, wet forests where the endangered species actually live that are disappearing at an alarming rate.

VicForests focuses on mature mountain ash forests in the Central Highlands. It says that 66,000 hectares are available for logging there - and that it plans to clear-fell 5500 hectares of that next year. At this rate, it will all be gone in 11 years. How sustainable is that?

PNG rainforests reveal 200 new species

Emily Beament, London
The Age, October 7, 2010

A TINY, two-centimetre frog, a mouse with a white-tipped tail and a white-flowered rhododendron are among more than 200 new species discovered in remote mountain rainforests of Papua New Guinea.

The new species of animals and plants were found during two months of surveying in the rugged and little-explored Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges last year, Conservation International announced
yesterday.

A newly discovered katydid in Papua New Guinea. Photo: Piotr Naskrecki/iLCP

The findings included two new mammals, 24 species of frog, nine new plants, nearly 100 new insects and about 100 spiders.

The mouse with the white-tipped tail, at least one ant and several crickets, or katydids, are so different from other known species they each represent an entirely new genus, the scientists said.

Two scientific teams — co-ordinated by Conservation International's rapid assessment program, in partnership with Papua New Guinea's Institute for Biological Research and the conservation organisation A Rocha International — explored different altitudes of the forest-cloaked Nakanai mountains, which host cave systems and some of the world's largest underground rivers, and the Muller range.

In the Nakanai surveys, scientists discovered a yellow-spotted frog, found only high up in the mountains in the wet rainforests, the mouse, and the tiny ceratobatrachid frog, which is just two centimetres long and calls for a mate in the late afternoon — unlike most frogs in the area which call at night.

In the Muller range, researchers found what they described as a "spectacular variety" of insects, spiders and frogs.

The scientists hope the discoveries will help secure World Heritage status for the two areas, in the face of pressure on PNG's forests from subsistence agriculture, logging and oil palm production.

Conservation International has been working with the provincial government and local communities in the Nakanai range to protect a large tract of rainforest from logging.

PA

Smoke and mirrors

Timothy Cleary, Werribee
The Age (letter), 6 October 2010

I agree with Jill Redwood (Letters, 5/10) and her concern for our forests and their wildlife, but I disagree with the impact that she attributes to logging.

In the past seven years, about a third of Victoria's forests have gone up in smoke due to wildfire. In the same period, less than 0.5 of 1 per cent has been logged. Minister Gavan Jennings may be making more national parks to ''save'' our forests (and marginal Labor seats in inner Melbourne), but this is not the same as fireproofing them.

Criminal behaviour

Jill Redwood, co-ordinator, Environment East Gippsland, Goongerah

The Age (letter), 5 October 2010

THE Central Highlands forests and endangered wildlife are being hammered by the same ruthless management that is destroying East Gippsland's forests (''Hello, possum - you're an emblem of extinction'', The Age, 2/10). This story shows how close to extinction these small possums have become under our government's close watch, with expert advice. It shows what a stranglehold the logging industry has on the Brumby government.

We're supposed to believe VicForests searches for hollows before logging starts. What an insult to the public's intelligence. This industry and its pimps in government need to be hauled up before an environmental crimes commission.

Parks with pleasure

John Fraser, Downer, ACT

The Age (letter), 5 October 2010

Last Friday the state government declared a set of national park extensions in East Gippsland. The inclusion of Goolengook is particularly welcome after a 15-year campaign for its protection that included a five-year forest blockade.

Also welcome is the inclusion of a link between the Errinundra and Snowy River national parks. It's a relief to see a national park created with the aim of linking areas, rather than another set of tiny islands of protected forest that won't survive long term.

Credit is also due to the main groups that provided support to this campaign, namely the Goongerah Environment Centre, Friends of the Earth Forest Network and its successors, and the Victorian Rainforest Network.

As always, not everything we hoped for was included. Like many, I grieve for the huge areas on the Errinundra Plateau that have already been logged, and the parts of Goolengook logged in 1997 and 2002. But given the impossibility of changing the past, Gavin Jennings has made a wise decision. I thank him for it.

Leadbeaters Possum needs protection

Barry Jackson, Clifton Creek

The Age (letter), 5 October 2010

The Leadbeaters Possum and Victoria’s other amazing wildlife have been evolving on this small patch of the Earth for millions of years. The lifespan of a logging industry or government is a blink in comparison. How sad Mr Brumby seems happy to let our state emblem become extinct. What hope for the rest of Victoria’s rare and threatened wildlife?        

Easy to miss

John Hayward, Weegena, Tas
The Age (letter), 4 October 2010

As dismaying as the critically endangered status of Leadbeater's possum is the fact that VicForests has been entrusted with its protection.

Like many extraction industries, forestry has been successful in cultivating its regulatory bodies, as well as politicians, even to the disastrous extent of gaining formal self-regulation in Tasmania. To loggers, the avoidance of threatened species habitat is a costly nuisance.

A nocturnal animal as discreet as this possum is easy to miss, particularly by those who don't really want to find it.

Management helps our state icon

Max Rheese, Victorian Lands Alliance, Benalla
The Age (letter), 4 October 2010

HIS zeal for an end to sustainable catchment timber harvesting obscures the facts for David Lindenmayer (''Hello possum, you're an emblem of extinction'', The Age, 2/10), who states ''forestry is the key threatening process'' endangering habitat for Leadbeater's possum.

As the article states, Leadbeater's possum was rediscovered in 1961, in Central Highlands forests ravaged by fires in 1939, recovering to a population of 8000 despite 150 years of timber harvesting.

Lindenmayer and many others have previously identified fire as the ultimate determinant of forest structure in Victoria, while arguing for an end to timber harvesting in native forests. They have thus identified a supposed solution that will have no effect on fire as the primary cause of habitat change.

In his book On Borrowed Time, Lindenmayer argues for improved fire management to protect our forests, a commonsense argument recently accepted by the Victorian government.

Leadbeater's possum and other forest species will benefit enormously if their habitat is managed for the primary risk potentially affecting tens of thousands of hectares of habitat on a single day, as we saw on Black Saturday, rather than campaigns against socially beneficial timber production spread over a few hundred hectares in an entire year.

Uneasy truce carved from log wars

Maris Beck
The Age, (article), October 3, 2010

East Gippsland Tree and Tama Green

Tama Green, a protester in the Goolengook logging dispute, admires a mighty eucalypt. Photo: Ken Irwin (right)

AT 5am the loggers would roll in. The activists were ready: locked to bulldozers, lying on platforms in the giant trees, waiting for the headlights, deep in the Goolengook forest in East Gippsland.

"The adrenalin!'' recalled protest leader Stuart Paton, who lived in the forest for five long years. "It was kind of like a war mentality.''

Another activist, Tama Green, said that offsetting the hardships were the sunny days, good friends and small wins that kept them going. Ms Green remembers mornings waking up: ''It's all crisp and clear and the birds are singing … and you're like, 'Yep, they can't log this.' ''

The decades-long struggle over the Goolengook, which raged between environmentalists, the state government and loggers, culminated on Friday in a kind of coming together.

On one of those dazzlingly crisp days, Environment Minister Gavin Jennings, surrounded by former protesters and traditional owners - but no loggers - officially launched the new East Gippsland National Park.

The park covers 45,000 hectares, including the contested Goolengook that is home to 400-year-old trees and rare and threatened species such as the long-footed potoroo, spot-tailed quoll, powerful owl and slender tree fern.

Traditional owner Aunty Rachel Mullett thought the park declaration would never happen.

''You talk about it and think about it and it never happens,'' she said. "Today has blown us away a little bit.''

Mr Jennings said the government had threaded "the eye of a needle" in balancing the interests of loggers and environmentalists.

But, of course, compromise also means everyone is left a little unhappy. The government estimates 63 per cent of the new park is old-growth forest; the Wilderness Society claims it is only 33 per cent.

Forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain of the Wilderness Society said the park was "a very good step in the right direction". But many areas included in the park had already been logged, other areas were already protected from logging as "special protection zones", and the reserved land included a cow paddock.

Mr Jennings said the so-called paddock was ''a meadow of rare and endangered vegetation that has high conservation value''.

He also said national park status was more permanent than special protection zones and suggested that activists were remaining critical as a tactic so that they could lobby for more areas to be protected.

The government has promised the logging industry that the East Gippsland park will not mean a loss of timber resources or jobs, with Mr Jennings claiming the area is "not necessarily that great for logging" - but loggers beg to differ.

Victorian Association of Forest Industries chief executive Philip Dalidakis said it was "environmental hypocrisy" that society demanded parks but was not willing to cut its consumption of paper and wood.

He said that as the timber industry was pushed out of Victoria, it went overseas to countries with far fewer regulatory controls.

"I'm not sure that jumping up and down celebrating a reserve in Victoria benefits the orang-utans in Indonesia."

A co-ordinator at Timber Communities Australia, Trevor Brown, was sceptical about the promise of no job losses. He said the park area was valuable for saw logs and pulpwood, "the eye fillet and the mince meat" of the timber business. "It is just another kick in the guts for the industry."

Mr Brown said the Gippsland activists had endangered loggers' lives for years and stopped them from earning a lawful living.

But that was all history now. "I think you can only look forward to the future and hope there is one," he said.

On that point, the environmentalists and loggers agree.

Hello possum, you're an emblem of extinction

Adam Morton
The Age, October 2, 2010

IT IS not every day you get a chance to make an animal extinct twice. According to scientists, Victoria is steadily working on it.

Leadbeater's possum, a marsupial endemic to native forest on Melbourne's fringe, was declared extinct in the 1950s, apparently wiped out by agricultural land-clearing around the Bass River in South Gippsland.

It was rediscovered near Marysville in 1961 - an event considered so momentous it was chosen as one of the state's two faunal emblems.

Its population peaked at about 8000 in the 1980s, but the last possum in captivity in Victoria died in 2006, and last year's Black Saturday bushfires devastated its main home in the central highlands, burning 42 per cent of the permanent reserve system in which it lives.

Leading scientists say its survival is now at risk from the state's forestry industry, particularly the ongoing "salvage logging" operation aimed at maximising timber yields from blackened areas.

Six weeks after Black Saturday, in a report seen by The Age, a US Burned Area Emergency Response team and Victorian bureaucrats advised the Brumby government that extreme care was needed during the salvage logging of large hollow-bearing trees that give the possum its home.

It said: ''It is recommended that none be removed from fire-affected areas known to contain Leadbeater's possum, powerful and sooty owls, and within Leadbeater's possum reserves.''

Scientists working in the central highlands claim this advice has not been followed. David Lindenmayer, an Australian National University ecologist who has spent 25 years studying the possum, says that trees are regularly felled in areas important to the survival of Leadbeater's possum and other threatened species of possum, glider and bird.

While fire can be an effective way of creating the old-tree hollows that the possum thrives in, Professor Lindenmayer says some have been removed - at times through breaches of the Central Highlands Forestry Management Plan, which prohibits logging of pre-1900 trees.

He says the animal is being pushed ''incredibly close to extinction'' by the removal of its habitat through a combination of fire and salvage logging, and 40 years of clear-felling of unburnt forest.

''Forestry is the key threatening process,'' he says. ''Basically you have a part of the landscape that is non-functional for an animal, and then you add another one and another one. You may reach a stage where the entire landscape is essentially non-functional for animals to live in.

''I really think we need to revisit clear-fell logging of green forest in the central highlands, because after the fire its impact on the possum is being magnified.''

Professor Lindenmayer's concern is shared by Melbourne Zoo threatened species biologist Dan Harley, who earned a PhD studying a relic population of possums in Yellingbo Conservation Nature Reserve. "Tree hollows suitable for Leadbeater's take more than 200 years to form," Dr Harley says.

These claims are vigorously contested by VicForests, the state government forestry agency. It has rejected a claim by environmentalists, formalised in a complaint to the state Ombudsman, that it has illegally logged pre-1900 mountain ash, putting the possum at risk.

Michael Ryan, a VicForests forest scientist, says field surveys are carried out to check for potential Leadbeater's possum habitat before logging, and an exclusion zone created where necessary. He says there is also ''an extensive conservation reserve system'' designed to protect the possum.

VicForests is required by law to leave untouched any three-hectare area with more than 12 hollow trees, and retain four to five trees a hectare in all logged areas. Mr Ryan says clear-felling is used to replicate the natural regeneration process only.

The debate over the impact of salvage logging comes amid a bigger argument about the future of the native forest industry - and whether an impending decision on Tasmania's forests could put pressure on the Victorian government to consider a similar commitment.

Dr Harley estimates the population of Leadbeater's possum outside the central highlands would total fewer than 100, restricted to tiny pockets at risk from the next major bushfire.

''We've got a second chance, but the possum's entire distribution is confined to a 70 by 80 kilometre area. We don't have much margin for error.''

Government recycles announcements and logged forest

Jill Redwood, Environment East Gippsland
Media release, Friday 1st October 2010

For at least the third time, the Government today announced the new additions to the reserve system in East Gippsland. The ALP’s 2006 election promise was to protect ‘the last significant stands of old growth planned for logging’.

But environment groups say that most of what has been protected was either in existing protection zones, had already been logged or was degraded forest unwanted for logs or woodchips anyway.

“We’re pleased some areas of old growth have been put into National Park, but they account for only about one quarter to a third of what the state government is claiming has been saved from logging”, said Jill Redwood from Environment East Gippsland.

“The government is to be praised on its clever recycling of protected zones back into protected zones, and logged forest into National Park. It’s mostly been a creative game of swaps.”

“However the protection of Yalmy’s forests and Goolengook’s magnificent old growth and rainforest is very welcome, despite Goolengook’s heart having been logged out.”

“The areas have taken four years to be finalised, while DSE accommodated the logging industry’s demands over this election promise. Meanwhile thousands of hectares of old growth and mature forests were clearfelled in the interim. Like an extinct species, they will never return.”

“This includes forests at Brown Mountain, which had recognised old growth values and supported endangered wildlife. If the government didn’t consider Brown Mountain ‘significant old growth’ it shows how many other equally magnificent forests have been condemned to clearfelling.”

“The new parks announcement today is at least a start.

For comment: Jill Redwood 03 5154 0145

Jill Redwood

Coordinator
Environment East Gippsland Inc
(6800 Bonang Rd Goongerah)
Locked Bag 3
ORBOST Vic 3888

Ph (03) 5154 0145
www.eastgippsland.net.au

Reclaiming the old rhetoric on Oregon's forests

David Moskowitz
Oregonlive, September 17, 2010, 7:00 AM

Ben Shelton's tired rallying cry for the wood products industry to take back "what is ours" fails to acknowledge what has transpired in the industry and on the forest landscape since the 1980s.

The forest industry and forest communities barely survived Oregon's recession in the 1980s, while rampant over-harvesting of federal forests was institutionalized through congressional riders. The subsequent realization that only about 5 percent of federally managed old-growth remained, and that less than 1 percent of old-growth remained on state forests was startling to people across the country. This led to a sea change in public opinion about the value of old-growth forests from what precious little remained. Scientific understanding about the affects of timber harvest on watershed health came of age at the same time. These two forces were joined by the Clinton-era Northwest Forest Plan, which finally did what Teddy Roosevelt had tried to do – and what The Oregonian predicted in 1907 – protect the nation's forest from ultimate annihilation.

At the same time, the timber industry was undergoing major changes through corporate mergers and acquisitions, a changing tax structure that led to corporate restructuring, mill closures and mill "make-overs" for the switch from the nearly extinct big logs to today's even-aged 40- and 50-year-old logs. Ben Shelton pines for the days of yore that were actually more like Hollywood-created facades of prosperity propped up by unsustainable logging levels and favorable corporate tax structures. The days of the locally headquartered and vertically integrated timber industry around which entire communities relied are over and they "ain't coming back."

No single factor is to blame for these changes, and no single factor will solve forest health issues, rural community stability and the need for cross-boundary management decisions (something former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has championed). The future that Shelton desires will not be delivered by sounding a battle cry. Oregon's forests can, will and do provide multiple benefits and values to communities and individuals across Oregon and the nation in the form of clean water, carbon storage, recreational opportunity, native plants, a place for solace, a hedge against the uncertain effects of climate change and, yes, even wood products. All of these forest resources – whether from federal, state or private forestland – can be produced by collaborative management, by understanding and using the best available scientific information and by complying with existing environmental regulations. And if all of these products from "our" forests (in the broadest national sense) are properly valued, they will produce benefits for "our" communities (in the Oregon sense).

This can, and is happening without the meaningless hue and cry to "reclaim our forests and manage what is ours." That's what happened in the early 1990s when citizens across the nation demanded that the forest service stop over-harvesting a national treasure – Oregon's old-growth forests.

David A. Moskowitz of Northeast Portland is director of development for WaterWatch of Oregon.


Source

Trees die, life stays

Chris Owens, Lysterfield South

The Age (letter), 16 November 2010

MAX Rheese's assertion (Letters, 14/9) that species could be pushed to the edge of extinction by current logging policies is ''drawing a long bow'', noting Leadbeater's possum was discovered in regrowth forest burnt in the 1939 bushfires.

Abundant research exists on this possum that reveals it requires hollows for shelter and nesting and, while the 1939 bushfire may have killed the trees, the stumps remained with their hollows to provide a habitat for this and associated hollow-dependent fauna.

Hollows have been proven to take between 100 and 200 years to develop. Current logging practice revolves around clearfell of coups that are logged on 30-to-40-years rotations and therefore hollow-dependent fauna are essentially permanently excluded from these areas.

After 150 years of logging, the remaining old growth and high-conservation-value forests are the last of the last where species such as Leadbeater's possum, sooty owl and spot-tailed quoll cling to existence. Given that this logging of a public asset occurs at a loss to the taxpayer and against the wishes of 80 per cent of the population and sufficient plantation resources exist, why do we not follow the precautionary principle and protect these areas?

Brown Mountain - final court orders

Jill Redwood, Coordinator Environment East Gippsland Inc

Media Release 15 September 2010

Environment East Gippsland has welcomed the final orders in the Brown Mountain landmark trial handed down in the Supreme Court on the 14th September.

“VicForests must pay 90% of our costs, as well as all their own costs, for this very long and expensive trial.

"DSE will need to undertake a series of surveys for two species of frogs and the spot tailed quoll in the coupes, there must be a review of protection areas for Sooty and Powerful owls and special conservation zones must be created for two species of gliders and the potoroo.

The Court has ordered that EEG receive copies of all these surveys and conservation measures once they are completed.  Only once all this is done to the satisfaction of DSE, can VicForests even contemplate logging in the coupes. It remains to be seen if all this is undertaken in good faith by DSE, whether any areas will remain available for logging.

“In a victory for an open and transparent conservation process quite unlike what has occurred in the past, the Court has ordered that all these surveys, maps of new protection zones and conservation measures be notified to EEG.

That way we and the public of Victoria  we can see whether his Honour’s orders have been carried out.”

“It really is a very strong judgment for us.  We have been vindicated in taking on the big boys of logging.”

“If we had not risked everything in defence of our forests, VicForests would have logged Brown Mountain’s old growth forests by now.  The logging would have been illegal, and it would have killed a range of protected wildlife that they denied was there.”

Jill Redwood
Coordinator
Environment East Gippsland Inc
(6800 Bonang Rd Goongerah)
Locked Bag 3
ORBOST Vic 3888

Ph (03) 5154 0145
www.eastgippsland.net.au

Hardly a danger

Max Rheese, Victorian Lands Alliance, Benalla
The Age (letter), 14 September 2010 

Sarah Rees and Jill Redwood (Letters, 11/9) ignore that native timber harvesting occurs on less than one tenth of 1 per cent of public forest in Victoria by claiming this contributes to the decline of species such as Leadbeater's possum. Get real.

Asserting any species is in danger from such a minuscule activity, thinly dispersed over thousands of square kilometres of bush, is really drawing a long bow, particularly when the once-thought-extinct Leadbeater's possum was rediscovered in 1966 in regrowth forest from the 1939 fires.

The small area of timber harvesting occurring in Victoria does not result in any net loss of forest, as all areas harvested are required to be regenerated. Rees and Redwood cannot see the forest for the trees as the ultimate determinant of forest structure in Australia is bushfire, not timber harvesting.

Industry shortfall

Gordon Bradbury, forester, Hobart
The Age (letter), 14 September 2010

The Victorian native-forest-based industry may like to think it is a sawlog-driven industry (The Age, 12/9), but VicForests' own reports show that this is not accurate.

VicForests is clearly reluctant to show this, as the relevant numbers are spread around many reports. The 2009 Annual Report (page 40) shows that for the past two years pulpwood sales have comprised 58 per cent of total revenue, while the 2009 Sustainability Report (page 24) shows for the same period pulpwood comprised 70 per cent of total wood volume sold.

This tells us two things: the average price paid by the forest industry for native forest sawlogs is little more than the price paid for pulpwood (based on prices, there is little difference in quality between hardwood sawlog and hardwood pulpwood); and without pulpwood harvesting, VicForests and the hardwood sawlog forest industry would not exist.

Based on these figures, the Victorian hardwood sawmilling industry doesn't seem to have a very commercial, profitable future without continuing government support and subsidy.

Gunns announcement turns activists to Eden

ABC Online, Monday 13 September 2010

Mumbulla State Forest logging site, north of Eden. (News Online: Thomas Oriti)

Environmentalists say a recent announcement by the Tasmanian company Gunns shows the days are numbered for a chipmill in South East New South Wales.

The timber giant says the forest industry has lost the debate on native logging, and the company plans to become a solely plantation-based business.

The anti-logging group Chip Busters says environmental activists will now shift their focus to other operations, starting with South East Fibre Exports at Eden.

The group's spokesman, Noel Plumb, says local MPs should assist the transition to plantations.

"It's critical that our local MPs step up here, and demand a share of the $20m currently available for industry restructuring," he said.

"Because there will be contractors who will now realise that the writing is on the wall."

Mr Plumb says the operation at Twofold Bay will be hit next.

"Native forest logging and woodchipping is not sustainable, and the future is in a plantation-based industry," he said.

"The pressure and the focus on woodchipping around the country will now move to other operations such as the Eden woodchip mill."

Source

Victoria no longer in Gunns' sights

Melissa Fyfe
The Age (article), September 12, 2010

Timber giant Gunns, a major player in Victoria's $3billion native forest industry, has confirmed it will move out of logging operations in state-owned forests.

Gunns chief executive officer Greg L'Estrange - responsible for 40 per cent of Victoria's native forest industry - told The Sunday Age that while moving out of Tasmania's native forests was the priority, the principle also applied long-term to Victoria.

The Victorian Greens have seized on the move and called on the Brumby Government to immediately end native forest logging and transfer the industry into plantations. The party will be campaigning on the issue in the lead-up to November's state poll. ''It should have stopped ages ago,'' said Greens candidate for Melbourne Brian Walters. ''There's no reason it can't stop immediately.''

But the Victorian Association of Forest Industries vowed to fight the Greens on native forest logging, making the issue a key battleground in the lead-up to November. Executive director Philip Dalidakis conceded that the Gunns decision had ''the potential to establish a precedent in the public mind''.

But he said the company was pursuing its own corporate strategy, which had little to do with a broader industry strategy, appropriate government policy or responsible forest management.

Shutting down Victoria's native forest logging would increase imports of timber products harvested under irresponsible environmental regimes, he said. ''This is environmental hypocrisy at its worst. The Greens have argued against native forestry and recently against plantation development, which makes me wonder which magic potion will appear to produce the wood and paper products consumers demand,'' said Mr Dalidakis.

The Sunday Age understands the Brumby Government is keen to bolster its environmental credentials before the state election by announcing a small reduction in native forest logging. Party strategists are believed to be currently looking at some of the controversial logging operations in Melbourne's water catchments.

Both Labor and the Coalition back Victoria's native forest industry, which is managed, on behalf of the taxpayer, by VicForests and provides one third of the state's timber. Government spokeswoman Emma Tyner said yesterday that any bans on the industry would mean unsustainable options such as ''steel, aluminium or illegal timber from overseas'' and that was ''unacceptable''.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said the Coalition supported a vibrant logging industry. She said the party believed it was not possible for native forest logging operations to move entirely into plantations because there were simply not enough plantations to support the industry.

In the past few years, Tasmanian-based Gunns has built up its stake in Victoria's logging industry, with large sawmilling assets at Heyfield and Alexandra. Mr L'Estrange said it was difficult in Victoria to transfer to plantations because the plantation trees are mostly in the state's south-west, far from its sawmills.

Nevertheless, the company had taken on a broad policy of removing itself from native forests. ''There are no immediate plans for Victoria, but what we are saying is that we are progressively moving out of native forest logging. The first thing on the agenda, however, is to deal with what is happening in Tasmania,'' he said.

Mr L'Estrange stressed that no decision had been taken on Gunns' Victorian assets, and the broader fate of native forest logging would remain in the hands of the community and the government. Mr L'Estrange shocked the Australian logging industry last week when he announced that ''native forest is not part of our future''.

The new-look Gunns, following the departure of controversial leader John Gay, is keen to reduce the conflict around its operations in Tasmania to satisfy overseas investors and customers and to ensure its controversial pulp mill goes ahead.

The environment movement have long argued that woodchips for paper - and not the high-quality sawlog products - drive the Victorian industry. The industry says that while woodchips make up 65 per cent of products from the state's forests, sawlogs drive the industry and woodchips are largely a by-product.

Plantations in Victoria are growing every year, but the industry says there are not enough sawlog plantations - as opposed to woodchip plantations for paper production - to allow the move out of native forests into plantations. According to the government's timber strategy, about 730,000 hectares in eastern Victoria, or 9 per cent of the public native forests estate, is available for timber production.

There are 229,000 hectares of hardwood plantations in Victoria for short-rotation, high-quality woodchips and 222,000 hectares of plantation for sawlogs and woodchips.

Source.

External links

• Time for loggers to leave Victoria's forests, Brian Walters

Loggers' assault a 'rampage'

Andrew Darby
The Age, September 11, 2010


THREE forest workers have been convicted of a violent assault that marked a low point in Tasmania's old growth logging dispute.

The assault on blockaders in the contentious Upper Florentine Valley made global internet viewing when it was captured by a hidden camera. A Hobart magistrate yesterday described the assault, using a sledgehammer and steel-capped boots, as akin to a rampage.

Peter Barker, counsel for logging contractor Rodney Howells, 51, said Howells ''lost it'' when he found a disabled car blockading the road into a Florentine Valley logging coupe, with two protesters inside.

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A video of the incident, shot from a concealed position by another protester, was described by magistrate Olivia McTaggart as confronting in its violence.

Howells beat the car with a sledgehammer, smashing its windows, as he demanded the protesters inside get out of his way. When Nishant Datt, 22, and Miranda Gibson, 27, got out of the car Jeremy Eizell, 36, grabbed Datt and threw him to the ground, and Terrence Pearce, 34, kicked him to the head. Both men worked for Howells.

Ms McTaggart said the protest was carefully staged to stop workers proceeding with their legitimate activities, and she accepted that Howells was very remorseful.

But she said they were not entitled to deliver their remedy, which was a frightening experience for the protesters. Convictions were recorded on assault charges for all three, and each was ordered to carry out 70 hours of community service.

The court heard that Howells was the victim of an unsolved 2002 sabotage, when five of his machines, worth up to $3 million, were wrecked and burnt in a logging coupe.

Mr Barker said Howells and his work crew had been repeatedly prevented by environmentalists from carrying out their job under contract to timber company Gunns before the October 21, 2008, assault.

''He and other contractors have become pawns in a dispute between environmentalists and the timber industry,'' he said.

A spokeswoman for the protest group, Still Wild Still Threatened, Ula Majewski, said it was time to move on from the case.

''This was really symptomatic of the conflict that has dogged Tasmanian forests for decades,'' Ms Majewski said. ''We are now on the threshold of agreement on a sustainable industry that preserves our truly beautiful wild forests.''

The court decision came just a day after Gunns's chief executive, Greg L'Estrange, declared loggers had lost the public battle for the right to log native forests.

''We will find joint solutions to age-old conflicts and move beyond [to] a real, sustainable forest industry,'' Mr L'Estrange told a trade conference in Melbourne.

Source

Time of reckoning

Jill Redwood, co-ordinator, Environment East Gippsland Inc, Goongerah
The Age (Letter), 11 September 2010

WHY have governments fought so hard against public opinion on logging and woodchipping native forests? Gunns has finally succumbed to the moral argument and the demands of the market, but will Mr Brumby also move into the security of plantations and into the 21st century? He will look terribly backward if his government resists.

To continue to support forest destruction at a time of extreme climate conditions and carbon constraint is backward.

In the Supreme Court last month, logging was shown to be a threat to Victoria's endangered wildlife. It has also been shown to dry out water catchments, require subsidies, be unpopular and account for 20 per cent of our annual greenhouse pollution. Now that the logging union and Gunns are happy to move out of native forests, will our Labor government stop supporting the conflict and do what 80 per cent of the voters want - get out of native forests.

No hollows and no food left for wildlife

Sarah Rees, MyEnvironment Inc, Healesville
The Age (Letter), 11 September 2010

AS SPECIES reach extinction point in the fire-affected forests of the Central Highlands, 80 kilometres from Melbourne, timber giant Gunns has conceded it's finally over (''Timber giant concedes defeat in decades-old logging war'', The Age, 10/9).

Gunns will rebuild its brand with new ventures in plantations but for the species whose future they robbed, surviving in post-fire, salvage-logged landscapes, the trajectory is not so positive. No hollows, no homes, no food.

The logging has scraped the last of the Leadbeater's possum's fragmented habitat into piles of poor sawlog and pulp logs that has, with gross subsidy, won a profit for the state's loggers, VicForests.

Well done, Gunns, for exiting, but now the real work begins for John Brumby, as it has been under his policy that Victoria's faunal emblem, the Leadbeater's possum, has been committed to likely extinction.

Gunns exits native forests, they should now be protected in Tasmania, NSW and Victoria

Peter Campbell

Letter submitted to The Age, 10 September 2010

Gunns has exited from logging native forests in Tasmania, and have stated that "native forest is not part of our future" and that they are moving to a plantation-based business.

Gunns acknowledged that the vast majority of Australians want their native forests protected.

However, Tasmanian native forests, and native forests in Victoria and New South Wales, are not protected from logging as a result of this.

The Victorian Labor government promised in 2006 to "immediately protect remaining significant stands of old growth forest currently available for timber harvesting" but they have not yet done so.

The 40,000 hectares of "forest" they did commit to protect included low quality regrowth forest and even some cow paddocks.  They did not protect other designated old growth forests such as Brown Mountain.

Following legal action by Environment East Gippsland, the Victorian Supreme Court ruled that Brown Mountain forest must be protected due to the presence of endangered species and the requirements of the law, and found the Victorian Government and Vicforests to be at fault.

It is now up to state and federal governments to recognised the will of the people and ensure that remaining native forests are protected and that the logging and woodchip industries fully transition to plantation resources.

The very significant benefits in protecting our remaining native forests include preserving their biodiversity, safeguarding the carbon they store and the water they produce, and providing an excellent resource for local and international eco-tourism.

Links

• Timber giant concedes defeat in decades-old logging war, The Age

Timber giant concedes defeat in decades-old logging war

Paddy Manning and Andrew Darby

The Age (article), September 10, 2010


TIMBER giant Gunns has broken ranks with Tasmania's forest industry and confirmed it will pull out of native forest logging altogether.

In a massive win for the environmental movement, Gunns revealed it would quit the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, which was arguing for a continuation of native forest logging in the state.

Gunns chief executive Greg L'Estrange told The Age the company's future lay in plantation hardwoods and softwoods and processing of forest products.

"Native forest is not part of our future," he said. "We see that the conflict largely has to end. Our employees and the communities we operate in have been collateral damage to this process. We want to move our business to a plantation-based business."

Mr L'Estrange said Gunns wanted a constructive outcome to the forestry negotiations and the company would take in ideas from "all parties". "A lot of good ideas can come from the people we used to throw rocks and brickbats at," he said.

The announcement was made at a conference in Melbourne yesterday, where Mr L'Estrange effectively conceded defeat in the decades-old war over Tasmania's native forests.

"The vast support of the Australian population is with the environmental non-government organisations," he said.

Gunns and Tasmania's environment movement have been long-time foes, culminating in a bitter five-year lawsuit brought by the company against 20 conservationists, including Greens leader Bob Brown. The case was finally settled early this year.

Mr L'Estrange has been repositioning Gunns since taking over from predecessor John Gay. Mr Gay was ousted earlier this year after he lost investor confidence when he sold $2 million worth of Gunns shares just weeks before unveiling a 98 per cent drop in profit in the six months to December 2009. Mr Gay has since resigned from the company's board and has also ceased his involvement with Gunns's controversial $2 billion Bell Bay pulp mill.

To finance the proposed mill, Gunns needs to attract foreign investment and has partnered with Swedish forest company Sodra, which is insisting the mill meet world's best practice environmental standards and rely on plantation timber. The mill, which requires federal approval, is still opposed in Tasmania on environmental grounds.

Australian Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said Gunns should receive compensation if it pulled out of wood supply deals with state agency Forestry Tasmania. "If Gunns pulls out there is potential to save a huge amount of forest," she said. "We want that forest protected, not on-sold."

Senator Milne said Gunns's move left Forestry Tasmania and the rest of the native forest logging industry "far behind".

Source

Gunns breaks silence on FIAT split

9 September 2010, ABC online

The head of timber giant Gunns Limited has spoken publicly about why the company is severing its ties with the state's most influential forest industry lobby group.

It has been revealed Gunns is quitting the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania.

The company's departure undermines the association's finances and powerbase, as forestry peace talks continue with environmentalists.

Gunns chief executive Greg L'Estrange was asked about the spilt at a forest industry conference in Melbourne today.

"It's one of those things you normally do quietly and have those conversations with the industry," he said.

"As you would have heard today we have a certain path that we are taking our organisation on and we've made those decisions taking all of those things into account."

Mr L'Estrange says the forest industry has lost the public debate on logging.

He has called for an end to the so-called war between the industry and environmentalists.

He said there had been a decline in the public demand for wood products and he reiterated Gunns' intention to become a plantation only business, urging others to follow suit.

He told the conference that most Australians now support the environmental lobby.

"The vast support of the Australian population is with the environmental non-government organisations," he said.

"This commands them to work with them to create a future without this conflict that moves them from being in opposition for our products and processes, to being supportive.

"This may well mean transitioning to plantation but move we must.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/09/3007304.htm