VicForests investigates timber claim

Jared Lynch and Ben Butler
The Age, June 11, 2011

Harvested from Victoria's bushfire-damaged native forests, these valuable logs have been stored in a Brooklyn timber yard.

A TIMBER merchant has been accused of putting Victorian jobs at risk by sending thousands of tonnes of wood salvaged after the deadly Black Saturday fires overseas for processing.

The state government's commercial forestry arm, VicForests, confirmed yesterday it was investigating Robert Brudenell, of Pinex Logging, over a suspected breach of contract.

VicForests initially agreed to supply Mr Brudenell 145,000 tonnes of bushfire-affected timber on its standard contract condition that the logs be processed in Victoria to protect the state's timber industry, which is battling softening demand from manufacturing and construction, and the high Australian dollar.

VicForests spokesman David Walsh said yesterday Mr Brudenell's contract had been slashed to fewer than 50,000 tonnes by ''mutual agreement''.

''The implication potentially is that we've caught this guy out doing the wrong thing and we have stopped supplying him the volume of timber that we said we'd do in the first place,'' Mr Walsh said. ''But I can assure you that this was not the case.''

Mr Walsh declined to reveal the exact reason why the contract was reduced, citing confidentiality.

Mr Brudenell could not be reached for comment.

He will be asked to prove that he is processing the logs in Victoria when he faces representatives from VicForests on Tuesday.

Mr Walsh said VicForests received evidence of a potential contract breach on Thursday after having earlier visited Mr Brudenell's operations.

The logs have been sawed to length in a timber yard behind a woolshed in Brooklyn before being loaded into shipping containers.

Wilderness Society spokesman Richard Hughes claimed Mr Brudenell was shipping the logs overseas, probably to China.

''To have thousands of tonnes of logs out of native forests being exported is a disaster for the environment, it's a disaster for the timber industry and jobs, and it's a disaster for the local communities,'' he said.

''All it's doing is creating a quick buck for a few people trading in logging. There is no value-adding; there is no real Australian employment being created.''

Under VicForests' contract rules, timber harvested from native forests must be processed in Victoria by being peeled, sliced, chipped or sawed on four sides.

The timber supplied to Mr Brudenell is for high-end use, such as quality laminate timber for furniture or flooring, which attracts a high price.

If he is found to have breached his contract, VicForests will cease supply to Mr Brudenell.

Mr Walsh said the 50,000 tonnes supplied represents 2 per cent of VicForests' annual production.

He said the wood would have otherwise been left to rot, from trees that were killed or severely damaged by the 2009 fires.

''These operations have taken place in approximately 3000 hectares of the 400,000 hectares burnt by the fires,'' he said.

Victoria accused of secretly exporting timber

Australian Broadcasting Commission, 11 June 2011

The Wilderness Society says whole Victorian sawlogs are being secretly exported to China in breach of State Government policy.

The society claims timber is being taken from bushfire-affected areas around Healesville, loaded into shipping containers at Tottenham in Melbourne's west, and then shipped overseas.

Campaign manager Richard Hughes says the Victorian Timber Industry Strategy requires sawlogs to be processed locally.

"For years, governments of all stripes have been saying that these forests needed to be logged for sawn timber and for the jobs that they provided," he said.

"And now we're seeing whole saw logs being exported overseas without any processing in Australia, so there is no value to the Australian timber industry."

Mr Hughes says thousands of tonnes of sawlogs have been shipped to China in recent months.

"This is the first time we're seeing whole logs being exported out of Victoria," he said.

"The agency that was responsible for overseeing that ban on log exports, VicForests, has utterly failed in that duty."

VicForests spokesman David Walsh says it has one contract that allows unprocessed logs to be exported and the practice has economic benefits.

"There are a number of jobs which are associated with the production of this timber, from harvesting jobs, haulage jobs, processing jobs and exporting jobs," he said.

Mr Walsh says nothing secretive is going on but it is being investigated.

"This is basically the only customer VicForests has that is undertaking this kind of operation at the moment," he said.

"This contract is winding down at this stage of the game and there are no other contracts with other customers along these lines."

See also 
Controversial exports of Victorian timber (link to video)

Green paper needs Reflex action

Ben Butler
The Age,  May 30, 2011

Wilderness Society protesters dressed in ‘Victoria’s Secret’ lingerie earlier this month to expose Victoria’s 'dirty little secret' – woodchipping native forests to make Reflex Paper that is sold in Officeworks. Photo: Edwina Pickles

REFLEX, Australia's best-known brand of paper, is set to lose its international green accreditation within the next two months unless its manufacturer can strike an unlikely deal with some of its fiercest enemies.

The loss of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification would force Australian Paper, which makes Reflex, to either abandon its public commitment to the FSC process or shift its sourcing from native forests to more expensive plantation timber.

News that Australian Paper's international certification is at risk will come as an embarrassment to Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh, who recently threatened to take forestry jobs away from the Yarra Ranges Council unless it ends a boycott of Reflex paper.

It also threatens Victoria's state-owned logger VicForests, a key supplier of native forest woodchips to Australian Paper.

Australian Paper's problem arises because FSC rules have been tightened since its certificate was issued five years ago. Under the new rules, the company must consult with stakeholders over logging in ''high conservation value'' areas.

Australian Paper's certificate expires on July 26, leaving it little time to reach consensus with environment groups, many of whom oppose logging in forests containing endangered species.

Complicating the process, one of the groups, Central Highlands-based MyEnvironment, has lodged a complaint about Australian Paper's auditor, Smartwood, with the FSC head office in Germany.

The complaint has sparked an international review of Smartwood, a division of environmental standards body Rainforest Alliance, that could lead to its authority to audit wood supply being revoked.

''My understanding is that we could, in theory, be suspended, but we're a long way from that,'' said Smartwood spokeswoman Anita Neville.

''If they find flaws in the system, corrective action is required.''

She said that under the ''annex 3'' system, which governs consultations over high conservation areas, ''100 per cent agreement'' between Australian Paper and environment groups was not required.

''You have to eliminate the worst cases of disagreement, and that's not always easy,'' she said.

FSC Australia chief executive Michael Spencer said that under the organisation's rules, Australian Paper needed to consult with all stakeholders with an interest in the forest, including environmental groups.

Asked what would happen if no deal had been struck by July 27, he said: ''My understanding would be, and I haven't dealt with this in the past, their certificate would lapse if it hasn't been renewed.''

MyEnvironment director Sarah Rees said Australian Paper had made contact with her on Thursday. ''We're really receptive to helping the company move its wood supply from native forest to the burgeoning plantation sector,'' she said.

In any case, she said, the Black Saturday bushfires had slashed the amount of wood left in native forests to about two years worth of supply.

''The real opportunity for the company is to get the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Wilderness Society and local environment groups standing by them saying, 'Job well done'.''

Australian Paper spokesman John Rider did not return calls.

Last year, chief executive Jim Henneberry publicly committed the company to FSC principles, including not obtaining wood from high conservation areas.

In a statement, VicForests spokesman David Walsh said the logging company ''supports Australian Paper's work to achieve certification to a range of industry standards - including its efforts to maintain FSC certification''.

Spring Street continued to bully uni over grazing

Melissa Fyfe
The Age, May 29, 2011


THE Baillieu government continued to bully Melbourne University over the controversial alpine grazing trial even after The Sunday Age exposed its threatening behaviour.

Emails tabled in Parliament show that weeks after it was revealed the Department of Sustainability and Environment had threatened the university's funding, senior government official Peter Appleford demanded action on a letter from two university academics to Environment Minister Ryan Smith.
The emails also reveal the university hit back, saying the academics were ''within their rights of academic freedom''.

The letter, signed by 110 scientists, was written by School of Botany scientists Libby Rumpff and Georgia Garrard using their university email addresses. It raised concerns about the trial's independence and methodology.

At the time the emails were written, the university was finalising a funding contract with the department for the now-stalled trial and was negotiating an extension of a long-term research agreement. The trial overturned Labor's ban on cattle in the Alpine National Park and was designed to explore how grazing may reduce fires.

In an email to Rick Roush, dean of the school of land and environment, Mr Appleford, an executive director of the department, said he was considering bringing the letter to the attention of Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis. The letter, Mr Appleford wrote, was ''inaccurate, insulting, accusing and closed minded''.

He wrote: ''Clearly the Department cannot let this go unchallenged. I am interested in your views about how I should proceed.'' In another email, department colleague Lee Miezis forwarded the academics' letter to Mr Appleford with the note: ''Perhaps Melb Uni needs to manage this person.''

Professor Roush replied to Mr Appleford the next day, March 18, saying the ''unanimous consensus'' of four senior members of the university's executive was the university could do nothing.

Professor Roush wrote: ''The signatories are legally entitled to affix their employment status on a letter about their area of expertise, and there is no claim about a university position. They are all within their rights of academic freedom.''

The emails, tabled in the upper house recently, were requested by Greens member Sue Pennicuik. The request followed The Sunday Age reporting that Mr Appleford had tried to blackmail the university. Mr Appleford urged the university to reconsider its concerns over the trial in light of a government contract ''worth millions of dollars annually''.

The government denied it had threatened the university and issued a statement saying The Sunday Age had ''misrepresented and taken out of context comments by a departmental officer''.

Ms Pennicuik told Parliament last week that, after reading the tabled documents, she believed The Sunday Age had reported the emails accurately. She said she was concerned about the continuation of threats.
The documents also show a flurry of emails the night The Sunday Age was writing the story. In several emails, Mr Appleford asks the university to deny any threats were made. In one email that he ''hopes stays between us'', he tells Professor Roush and Associate Professor Gerd Bossinger that ''depending on what type of article appears and what quotes are provided from university staff, if any, the department may be requiring an explanation''.

The state government has not indicated when the trial will resume. Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke ordered the cattle out of the park in April.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/spring-street-continued-to-bully-uni-over-grazing-20110528-1f9s7.html#ixzz1NjWTJlFe

Lingerie-clad protesters strip down for a cause

Nathan Mawby

Herald Sun , May 24, 2011

Cheeky wilderness warriors showed plenty of skin as they hit the streets of Melbourne in a chilly protest this morning.

Wearing nothing but lingerie, the group from the Wilderness Society braved temperatures of just 14.2C to spruik their cause at 9.30am today.

Protesters clad in Victoria's Secret lingerie outside Officeworks in Elizabeth Street. Picture: Bruce Magilton, Herald Sun

The protesters were voicing their opposition to the wood-chipping of Victorian native forests to make Reflex paper.

Spokesman Sean Vagg said the stunt was a chilly way to get the point across, but a lot of fun.

"It was very chilly, there was a lot of dancing to stay warm," he said.

Mr Vagg said many had asked if the group hired models.

"People had thought we hired professional models, but it was just us," he said.

Forest logging a big carbon culprit

Ben Cubby
The Age, May 24, 2011

STOPPING logging in old-growth forests, particularly in southern Australia, is one of the best ways of making timely cuts to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Climate Commission's first report.

Established forests store much more carbon dioxide than plantations, so cutting them down releases more heat-trapping gases, it concluded.

''In general, forests with high carbon storage capacities are those in relatively cool, moist climates that have fast growth coupled with low decomposition rates, and older, complex, multi-aged and layered forests with minimal human disturbance,'' the report said.

''This framework underscores the importance of eliminating harvesting of old-growth forests as perhaps the most important policy measure that can be taken to reduce emissions from land ecosystems.''

If Australia is to stabilise and reduce its emissions in time to make a contribution to global efforts to slow climate change, storing more carbon in the landscape is classified as a useful interim measure while the nation weans itself off fossil fuel-based electricity production. Ending logging ''yields some quick gains while the slower process of transforming energy and transport systems unfolds''.

Over the past century, between 15 and 20 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions were released by chopping down forests and clearing scrub, the report notes, citing the CSIRO and international research.

In Australia, recent estimates show that eucalyptus forests in cooler regions such as southern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania have a carbon-carrying capacity of about 640 tonnes a hectare. In their natural condition, about 33 billion tonnes of CO2 can be stored in these forests, but about 56 er cent of them have been logged.

If the logged areas were allowed to grow undisturbed again, about 7.5 billion tonnes of additional carbon dioxide could be stored in them again.

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Yarra Valley loses potential 80 jobs after Reflex boycott

Alex Munro
Leader Newspapers, 23 May 2011

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Yarra Valley loses potential 80 jobs after Reflex boycott - Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader - News - Leader News : http://leader-news.whereilive.com.au/news/story/paper-stand-fallout/


THE state’s peak timber industry body has pulled out of plans to move their head office and 80 potential jobs to the Yarra Valley because of council’s decision to boycott Reflex paper.

The revelation came as Cr Chris Templer broke ranks to attack Yarra Ranges Council’s April 27 decision to sign the Wilderness Society’s ethical paper pledge, calling it a mistake based on an ideological opinion.

Agriculture and Food Security Minister Peter Walsh confirmed last week that an offer to move VicForests’ main office to either Yarra Glen or Healesville had been withdrawn because of council’s support of the pledge.

“The proposal was under active consideration, however in light of the council’s recent decision to take the so-called ethical paper pledge I have since written advising them that the relocation is off the table,” Mr Walsh said.

“The council has been hypocritical in seeking to attract VicForests while actively campaigning against a product that forms part of its core business.”

It is believed councillors discussed the pledge again at a meeting last week and re-affirmed their support for it.

Mayor Terry Avery said relocating VicForests to the valley would have demonstrated commitment to expanding employment and stimulating economies directly affected by Black Saturday. “We are disappointed that Minister Walsh has chosen to establish a direct link between the two unrelated issues,” Cr Avery said.

Yarra Glen Chamber of Commerce and Tourism president Bob Curtis furiously condemned signing the pledge, saying the town would welcome VicForests with open arms.

“The council needs to revoke this decision immediately, and then beg the government and VicForests to bring the office out here,” Mr Curtis said.

“Their green protest has just cost 80 potential jobs for towns that are in absolute need of them.”

MyEnvironment director Sarah Rees said it was deplorable for the State Government to blackmail the council over its decision to represent the rights of its constituents.

Has the council made a mistake? Tell us what you think at the end of this page.

Council gags on Reflex vow

Anne Wright
Herald Sun,  May 21, 2011

A COUNCIL has been warned to lift its ban on a brand of paper or risk losing 45 new jobs.

The State Government said a proposal to move the VicForests corporate offices into the Yarra Range Council's area would be "off the table", unless it started using Reflex paper.

A letter from Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh to Yarra Ranges Council chief executive Glenn Patterson, seen by the Herald Sun, commended the proposal for the VicForests corporate office to move, which would create 45 jobs.

Mr Walsh then says the proposal will be "off the table" unless the council stopped its Reflex boycott.

The threat originated from the council's signing an environmental pledge to stop using the brand because it is made from native forest, which is against the council's policy.

But Mr Walsh said Reflex was a product of Australian Paper, an "important client" of VicForests, and any council signing the "so-called ethical paper pledge" from the Wilderness Society would miss out on the move of the VicForest jobs.

"In my view, council has been hypocritical in seeking to attract VicForests while actively campaigning against a product that forms part of its core business," he said.

But Yarra Ranges mayor Terry Avery said the council joined the Wilderness Society's pledge to not use Reflex paper, and opted for an Australian product line also manufactured by the Australian Paper.

"We feel strongly that the pledge is an accurate reflection of our commitment to sustainability, protection of the environment, corporate social responsibility and local community needs," Cr Avery said.

He said the council would not back down.

"We are disappointed that Minister Walsh has chosen to establish a direct link between the two unrelated issues," he said.

Opposition resources spokesman John Lenders said the Government was threatening jobs in the local community.

wrighta@heraldsun.com.au

Forest peace deal shaky

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 18 May 2011

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard has rejected suggestions the Federal Government has not done enough to further Tasmania's forest peace talks.

There is concern the fragile talks to ban almost all native forest logging in Tasmania are on the brink of collapse.

The Wilderness Society has temporarily walked away from the negotiations.

It is demanding clear funding commitments from both the Federal and State Governments to aid the process, saying they have been lax for not already doing so.

But Julia Gillard disagrees.

"I certainly believe the federal government has done enough," she said.

The State Opposition's Peter Gutwein claims government commitment to the process has been a farce.

The single litmus test for money from the Federal Government was brought down last week.

Only $300,000 was earmarked in the federal budget to keep negotiations running.

Meanwhile the Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim has admitted he shares the frustrations of the Wilderness Society.

He says the Greens still support the negotiations but aren't happy with the level of progress.

"From the Greens point of view the frustrations, and we share the frustrations, are in part from the Wilderness Society relate to the fact that the moratorium that was proposed in the original statement of principles is yet to be fully implemented and I think that's a frustration of many people," he said.

And Environment Tasmania says it also blames government inaction for the Wilderness Society's decision to walk away from the forest peace talks.

Phil Pullinger, from Environment Tasmania, says he is not surprised by the move.

"We share the frustrations of the Wilderness Society and some of the other organisations that are involved in this process at the lack of government action to date, we do think its now time for government action and strong government action to turn this set of principles and this opportunity that exists into reality."

Forest Peace Undermined

Reporter: Martin Cuddihy
ABC 7:30 Report Transcript, Broadcast: 18/05/2011

The historic peace deal between Tasmanian loggers and conservationists appears to be on the brink of possible collapse.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The historic peace deal between Tasmanian loggers and conservationists appears to be on the brink of possible collapse. One of the key players, the Wilderness Society, has suspended its involvement in the negotiations meant to end the decades-old conflict. The green groups' blaming both the state and federal governments for its withdrawal, as Martin Cuddihy reports from Tasmania.

TERRY EDWARDS, FOREST INDUSTRIES ASSOC (to Vica Bayley): You bloody caused all the trouble, you mongrel.

MARTIN CUDDIHY, REPORTER: There's no love lost between the timber industry and green groups. Today was no different. The latest confrontation stems from a decision by the Wilderness Society to suspend its involvement in peace talks.

VICA BAYLEY, WILDERNESS SOCIETY: We are expressing our frustration by stepping back from the process, by suspending our involvement in these talks.

TERRY EDWARDS: The whole thing may blow up in everyone's faces and we may end up without a forest peace process at all.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Forestry is more than a polarising industry. It's a decades-old dispute, one that has seen mass protests and rallies, arrests and even violence.

Last year's peace deal was hailed as a breakthrough. It was meant to ban all work in high conservation value forests and phase out logging in native forests.

The agreement was brokered by Our Common Ground, a new player that helped bring together loggers and greenies. In truth, it was more like a cease-fire than a peace treaty. But at the time there was a mood of optimism.

DAVID BARTLETT, TASMANIAN PREMIER (Oct. 2010): They have persisted and have made this once-in-a-generation opportunity come to fruition.

PHILL PULLINGER, ENVIRONMENT TASMANIA (Oct. 2010): We do believe that we've now got a unique opportunity to move beyond the decades of conflict over our native forests.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: But despite the opportunity, the Wilderness Society pulled out late yesterday. It believes federal and state governments are dragging the chain.

VICA BAYLEY: What we need to see is a clear commitment from government that they are on board, that they will back this agreement, that they make serious commitments about protecting our forests and restructuring an ailing industry.

TERRY EDWARDS: There's no doubt the Wilderness Society position makes the reaching of an agreement that much more difficult than it was before their withdrawal.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Other signatories, particularly the Forest Industries Association, are fuming at the decision to suspend involvement.

TERRY EDWARDS: This seems to be much more about the Wilderness Society wanting to pursue their agenda outside of the negotiations process.

LARA GIDDINGS, TASMANIAN PREMIER: What it shows is when the going gets tough, the Wilderness Society walk out.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: It's not the first time the Wilderness Society has pulled out of a forestry peace deal. Twice in the 1980s and '90s, with the Salamanca agreement and the regional forests agreement, both similar sorts of peace deals, the organisation withdrew when negotiations weren't progressing favourably.

With respect, you didn't actually address the question there. I said you have pulled out of two of these agreements previously. Is this just simply a stunt?

VICA BAYLEY: We make our decisions based on what we believe are going to deliver real outcomes.

NICK MCKIM, TASMANIA GREENS LEADER: I think the Wilderness Society's genuinely frustrated about the lack of progress and I understand that frustration, but the Greens still do support this process.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Six weeks ago, the facilitator of the talks Bill Keelty handed down an interim report, but as yet there's been no response from either government. In a fortnight, some of the peace delegates are scheduled to meet with the Government in Canberra. The Prime Minister insists she's upheld her end of the bargain.

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: Well, I certainly believe the Federal Government has done enough. What I would say to the people in Tasmania, the representatives who have been sitting around a table, is: now is not the right time to walk away from that table.

PHILL PULLINGER: Despite today's setback, remaining players are vowing to continue the peace process. This agreement is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Tasmania to both protect our native forests and to get a strong future for the timber industry.

TERRY EDWARDS: We remain committed to trying to produce an outcome from that process and we will continue to participate positively in that process with a view to trying to achieve an outcome.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: And there remains the looming threat that the whole peace deal could fall over, meaning a return to the days of conflict in Tasmania's forests.

LARA GIDDINGS: If there's any danger of it falling apart, it's because parties at the table walk away, just like the Wilderness Society have now.

TERRY EDWARDS: It's very tempting for the other signatories to now decide to walk in and out of the process whenever we feel like it. If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander.

Tasmanian logging pact hits hurdle

Andrew Darby

The Age, May 18, 2011

Tasmania's once-in-a-generation forest peace talks have been rocked by the decision of a key green group, The Wilderness Society, to suspend its involvement citing a lack of action.

Talks eight months ago reached agreement on a historic blueprint to end conflict over the island's contentious wild forests, but a logging moratorium is yet to be fully implemented, months after it was due.

It is the first loss of a central participant from the year-old talks between industry, unions and green groups.

Environment Minister Tony Burke warned last night that now was not the time to be leaving the table, and federal government help would only be possible if the groups kept working together.

''The only reason that we have an opportunity for an outcome that works for jobs and conservation is because of the goodwill that's been shown in the community-led agreement,'' Mr Burke said.

The peace talks have identified 570,000 hectares of high conservation value forests in Tasmania up for protection as the biggest timber company, Gunns Limited, ends native forest logging.
Premier Lara Giddings said the state government had protected 98 per cent of contentious high conservation value forests, with just 2 per cent remaining to fill legally binding contracts and to keep forest workers employed.

But The Wilderness Society's Tasmanian campaigns manager, Vica Bayley, yesterday showed reporters a logging access road into public old growth forests of the Esperance Valley in the island's south-east.
Mr Bayley said the road was built this year, while the moratorium was supposed to be in place.

''This is a classic case of what we've been seeing across the high conservation value reserve proposals in Tasmania,'' he said of the road, which pushed through tall eucalypt dominated wet forest, ending about 100 metres from the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

''A moratorium is always about the 2 per cent that was going to be logged, not the 98 per cent that wasn't being logged,'' he said.

''Despite aspirations for a moratorium, we still have roading operations, we still have logging operations, and of course we've still got resultant conflict in the forests.''

Mr Bayley said the government's proposed carbon tax could be used to ensure protection of these forests, which were some of the country's largest carbon stores.

Small Tasmanian green groups have made increasingly strident protests against continued logging, including disrupting the loading of ships, and shutting down the state's timber agency, Forestry Tasmania.

The suspension of involvement by The Wilderness Society comes only six weeks before independent facilitator Bill Kelty is due to deliver a final report from the peace talks to the Gillard government, which will attempt to balance the protection of wild forests with timber business sustainability.

Mr Kelty could not be reached for comment.

Fears for possum's fate

CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
Maroondah Weekly, 03 May, 2011

AN ecology expert has warned that Victoria's fauna emblem, the Leadbeater's possum, is under threat from proposed logging in some Yarra Ranges forests.
Australian National University ecology professor, David Lindenmayer, said he "can't believe" that areas across central Victoria with significant numbers of the threatened possum were being targeted for logging.

He backed Yarra Ranges Council's opposition to VicForests' plans to log 20coupes near conservation reserves that protected threatened species.

The plan outlines 144 logging coupes including Toolangi, Powelltown, Noojee and Marysville in the east of Yarra Ranges Shire.

"Surprisingly there is some small patches of old forest important to the animal being targeted by VicForests for harvesting - a couple of areas have significant numbers of Leadbeater's possum," Professor Lindenmayer said.

He is part of an ANU team monitoring the possums in the region. He estimates about 1000 Leadbeater's possums remain in Victoria - the possum's only known address in the world.

Small numbers lived in Toolangi, despite the area being "belted" by bushfires and logging in the past 100 years, he said.

The species faced a high probability of extinction within 30-50 years unless logging stopped in its ever-shrinking habitat.

The council last week also voted to sign The Wilderness Society's ethical paper pledge not to use native-forest sourced paper.

The society's ethical paper campaign allows groups to pledge not to support Australian Paper and its Reflex product until the company stops using native-forest timber pulp.

Cr Samantha Dunn, who moved the motion, said the pledge wouldn't cost the council, which already uses paper from recycled and plantation timber sources.

VicForests spokesman David Walsh said about a third of timber from Victoria's forests was sold for furniture and flooring, but not parts of a tree that could be used for high-value products.

"Much of the wood that does not meet the high standards required for sawlog is utilised to produce quality writing and office paper."

Do you agree with Yarra Ranges Council ban of Reflex paper?

Kimberley Seedy
Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader, 2 May 2011

YARRA Ranges Council is encouraging consumers and other councils to follow their lead in boycotting Reflex paper.

Councillors agreed last week to sign the Ethical Paper Pledge to encourage consumers of paper not to buy Reflex until its makers stop using native forest timber pulp in their products.

At last week’s meeting, Cr Samantha Dunn proposed the council support the ban.

The campaign against Reflex, started by the Wilderness Society in February, encourages organisations to sign a pledge “to protect Melbourne’s water supply, prevent the extinction of iconic species, and halt the daily release of large amounts of carbon dioxide in Victoria’s forests”.

Cr Dunn said the decision would have no financial impact on the council because it did not use Reflex.

But Cr Chris Templer said it wasn’t appropriate to target a specific company.

Cr Len Cox backed the campaign, saying: “The fact that old growth forests are being logged at all is a disgrace.”

Australian Paper, manufacturer of Reflex, has started a website defending its practices.

It states more than half of total fibre needs are met from plantation wood, recycled pulp and wastepaper from kerbside collections, and the rest is sourced through VicForests, a State Government enterprise responsible for the sustainable harvest and commercial sale of wood from state forests.

Do you agree with Yarra Ranges decision to ban Reflex paper?

Logging exit grants under fire

Weekly Times via AAP, April 29, 2011

A SCHEME to lure loggers out of Tasmania is under renewed fire over claims companies are pocketing cash to resume logging on the mainland.

One logging company was granted $825,000 in Federal Government exit assistance last year but green groups say it's simply shifted its operations to Gulaga National Park on the NSW South Coast.

South East Forest Rescue says the $17 million government scheme, aimed at downsizing Tasmania's logging industry, is a rort if it allows loggers to simply pull up stumps and go elsewhere.

Gunns plantation fires put out

The Examiner, 28 Apr, 2011 04:32 PM

Tasmanian timber company Gunns has announced it would no longer burn its plantation forest floor wood residue from today.

In a statement from the company, it said it would virtually eliminate Gunns' contribution to smoke pollution from this practice.  Company managing director Greg L'Estrange said the change was in response to community and environmental group concerns.

He said the policy would apply to all of its Tasmanian plantations.

Forest protests tighten woodchip pressure

Graham Lloyd, Environment editor
The Australian April 23, 2011 12:00AM

NATIVE forest campaigners have stepped up pressure on woodchipping operations in a bid to stop logging in state reserves and force the industry to follow Gunns in Tasmania and restructure around plantation timber.

Mock funerals were held in Sydney and Melbourne this week to mourn the demise of the Leadbeater's possum, Victoria's animal emblem, which is threatened with extinction by the logging of forests to produce Reflex Paper.

Protest groups in NSW seized on the release of the South East Fibre Exports accounts for the Eden chip mill to argue that the industry was marginal financially and that forest operations were environmentally unsustainable.

Conservation groups have also put their case to federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet to stop logging and have native forests included in an emissions trading scheme.

NSW forest campaigner Harriett Swift said the South East Fibre Exports financial accounts showed the Japanese-owned Eden mill had dramatically increased its forest harvest to maintain a small profit.

The profit from NSW woodchips was still less than the loss recorded by taxpayers in supplying the timber through Forests NSW, Ms Swift said.

The company, which employs 75 people, said demand for the company's products waned in the first half of the year and then recovered strongly in the second half. The high value of the dollar had also reduced profitability.

Accounts lodged with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission for last calendar year show South East Fibre exported 1.03 million tonnes of woodchips (up 29.6 per cent) to make a profit of $4.33 million (up 11.4 per cent).

In 2007, the company exported a similar quantity of woodchips, 1.07 million tonnes, but made more than twice its latest profit, $9.06m.

"The problem is made worse by the fact that official figures from Forests NSW show that the productivity of the forests has also been steadily declining, with bigger areas of forest being logged to produce the same amount of wood," Ms Swift said.

"This all means that SEFE must export more and more chips to get the same financial return."

Counting up the carbon captured

Paddy Manning
Sydney Morning Herald, April 23, 2011

Redd Forests, a little company 20 per cent-owned by the Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron, is proving that threatened native forest in Tasmania can have more value standing than if it was logged, by generating carbon credits from it.

Next week the first 55,549 verified carbon units approved in this country, each representing a tonne of greenhouse gas emissions saved, will pop up on a register maintained by the Verified Carbon Standard in Washington.

The units would be worth about $600,000 at current market prices of about $15 each, because 15 per cent are withheld as a buffer by VCS to cover risks including fire, pest and the chance that some owners will log the forest at the end of the 25-year project.

The units are owned by Peter Downie, a sixth-generation cattle and sheep farmer from Tasmania's central highlands, who for the past 40 years has also logged his private native forest for sawlogs and woodchip - much of it sold to the forestry giant Gunns.

Downie paid $130,000 to Redd Forests to generate the verified carbon units by analysing and monitoring the carbon to be stored on 7666 hectares of his own land, which otherwise would have been selectively logged or converted to pasture.

It's not the highest conservation value forest on his property - that's already protected by a voluntary covenant, part-funded by the federal government. But the forest stores carbon nonetheless and, purely by fluke, the value of each tonne of carbon is about the same as the price of a tonne of woodchip.

"It's pretty much line ball," Downie told GBiz, but that's for now. Downie reckons the value of a tonne of carbon is going to rise significantly, unlike a tonne of woodchip.

For the first few years Downie will sit tight as he collects his verified carbon units - they will roll in each year, after a validator checks his forest is standing.

At the end of 25 years Downie could choose to log his forest completely - even after pocketing the units generated over that period - and get a premium for the mature eucalypt timber (he's got Forest Stewardship Council certification for that). But his plan, for now, is only to harvest the forest growth that occurs after the project finishes.

You would expect Downie to be enthusiastic about Redd Forests - he was impressed enough with the business model to buy into the company and has joined the board. But, with the federal government's Carbon Farming Initiative starting in July and verified carbon units likely to be saleable under the National Carbon Offset Standard, it is easy to see the potential contribution such carbon credits could make to tackling climate change.

The managing director of Redd Forests, Stephen Dickey, believes the model could be introduced nationally, even, potentially, to include public land. VCUs generated here should attract a market premium, he says, because they are "risk-free … this is Australia doing it, not the Congo".

The campaign director of GetUp!, Paul Oosting, who was until recently closely involved in Tasmania's forest negotiations and helped steer the Gunns campaign for the Wilderness Society, says carbon credits could help save much of the private native forest around Australia.

The threshold for proving that the forest is threatened, he says, is not onerous. Inclusion of land in a regional forest agreement, for example, would be enough. "You just need to demonstrate the possibility of logging.''

Oosting says conservation of private native forest is often neglected.

"Typically it's much more difficult because obviously the government isn't going to wade in and stop farmers and landholders doing what they want on their land. Money has been available to put covenants on property, but that doesn't really appeal to farmers and landholders whereas this approach provides another income stream, an opportunity to diversify their properties."

Over the past two years Stephen Dickey has brokered six similar deals in Tasmania covering 22,000 hectares. This week he was close to inking a seventh, taking the total to 25,000 hectares.

His aim is to get 150,000 hectares of native forest under management by the end of next year. That will save an estimated 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 75,000 homes.

After almost four years slogging away, it is only in the past month that Dickey and his team have been able to start selling verified carbon units and earning commission.

"It's an arbitrage between the price of pulp and the price of carbon," he says. "All we ever do is take the merchantable volume of timber they would take off their land, based on historical logging patterns, and we generate the equivalent carbon credits for that. You can manage it, you can thin it. The only thing you can't do is log it. We can say to the farmer, 'Hold on to your asset; let it grow into a really valuable hardwood timber'."

Downie sees carbon credits ushering in a new phase of the forests debate, which has shifted from rampant exploitation to locking forest up, as native forest logging became "politically incorrect".

Next up, he says, we will see a shift from green to ''orange … you harvest from natural resources but ensure your productive base and ecological base is maintained or improved.

"The green agenda has been presented as the be all and end all, but it's just a stepping stone.

"Forests can create enormous wealth. The argument should be not whether you harvest native forest or not but how you do it. A well-harvested native forest is superior to a plantation."

paddy.manning@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Twitter: @gpaddymanning

Timber decline `inevitable' Triabunna operations suspended

ALISON ANDREWS CHIEF REPORTER
The Examiner, 02 Apr 2011

Tasmanian timber company Gunns this week shut its last two major woodchip mills in a move described yesterday as the inevitable decline of the industry.
Gunns notified the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday that it would suspend woodchip operations at its Triabunna mill for eight weeks from the middle of this month.

A Gunns spokesman said that between 40 and 50 workers would be affected by the temporary shutdown.

The news came the day after the company shut its woodchip mill at Long Reach permanently, with the loss of about 50 jobs.

The Tamar Valley mill has been gradually scaled back since its closure was announced last year.

This came after Gunns shut its Hampshire woodchip facility.

Gunns managing director Greg L'Estrange told the ASX that the Triabunna closure had been in response to the volatile nature of Japanese markets since the earthquake in that country.

Australian Forest Contractors Association Tasmanian spokesman Ken Padgett said that those left in the industry in Tasmania would feel both moves keenly.

He said that many of the 74 contractors remaining after government exit packages had planned to relocate south to work at the Triabunna mill.

"Members are gutted," Mr Padgett said.

"I don't know how much more they can stand."

Mr Padgett said that the closures were due mainly to a Tasmanian industry made uncompetitive by the value of the Australian dollar.

"I don't see how anyone can sustain an industry in these circumstances - I think we are seeing its inevitable decline," he said.

He was concerned that the Triabunna mill would not reopen.

Opposition forests spokesman Peter Gutwein said that the closure of the Long Reach mill this week and Hampshire late last year came with the loss of more than 570 jobs.

"And that comes on top of a loss of 120 jobs from the Scottsdale sawmill this week," Mr Gutwein said.

Forestry Tasmania would review the Gunns decision to suspend operations at Triabunna, FT managing director Bob Gordon said.

"It will cause considerable hardship in the forest sector," he said.

"We will continue to harvest high- quality sawlog and solid wood for the rotary-peeled veneer market, but the challenge is to find an alternative market for the residues."

Hold Lara accountable for every forest logged

Jenny Weber, Huon Valley Environment Centre.
Tasmanian Times, 16 March 2011.

15 March 2011 passes and there is not a moratorium;  sadly forests are still being lost ...  forests that are endangered species habitat, rural communities water catchments, ecosystems that are contiguous with the TWWHA, and the iconic tall eucalyptus and rainforests of Southern Tasmania.

To mark the passing of the deadline for the forests moratorium community members gathered at Hobart’s Executive Building. Still Wild Still Threatened and Huon Valley Environment Centre have launched a ten day campaign to pressure the State Government to place an immediate moratorium on all high conservation value forests.

We claim that the misleading announcement by Premier Lara Giddings last week suggests a moratorium is in place. Sadly forests that today could have been saved as national parks and world heritage areas are still falling. The State Government failed to take action over the past three months to implement a full and true moratorium, and now the promised protection of our forests is overdue. The failure to have a full forest moratorium in place amounts to a complete bungle by the State Government.

Join the ten day campaign to give a voice to these forests that have missed out on protection due to the failure of the State Government to protect all of Tasmania’s high conservation value forests.

Come along to the vigil at the Executive Building every weekday until Friday 25 March from 12 noon – 1 pm, 15 Murray st Hobart.

An online blog ‘Moratorium Now’ will be at http://www.nativeforest.net and will document the stories from around Tasmania to give a voice to the forests that are falling.

You can share your stories by emailing us your stories, and pictures about forests that are still falling around Tasmania that would have been saved had the moratorium been met. Submit a story or photograph of a forest in your part of Tasmania that is being logged.

Our plan is to collate these stories and produce a book to be delivered to Premier Lara Giddings at the end of the ten days.

Our presence outside Premier Lara Giddings office is to bring the voice for the forests to her and hold her accountable for every forest that falls as each day passes and a full moratorium is not in place.

Contact us to join the roster for the vigil, or submit your story or photograph from your corner of Tasmania.

huonenvironmentcentre@gmail.com or call the Huon Valley Environment Centre on 03 6264 1286 The State and Federal Government announced a moratorium and then failed to implement it. This worked well for the logging industry, as they were able to keep logging. It buys the industry more time. It will see more forest getting logged.

Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened have been campaigning to highlight the ongoing loss of the high conservation value forests and we have aimed to raise awareness about the hypocrisy and the failure of actual implementation for a proposed moratorium.

Activists in the forests in the Derwent, Huon and Bass districts have witnessed new roads being built in to old growth forest, and large areas of forest logged over this three month period that could have been saved. New logging areas have been started since December. And as recently as the last fortnight, new logging areas started in many parts of the state.

Since February, HVEC and SWST have been conducting peaceful campaigns from the forests to the cities.  Forest actions have been held in the Esperance in the far south of Tasmania, the old growth forests of the Picton and Styx Valleys, the water catchment forests of the West Wellington and Tyenna regions, to the Counsel area, an area of diverse pristine forest in the west.

Since January six conservationists have been arrested since our campaign has been reignited around bringing attention to the ongoing logging of high conservation value forests.

Two people were arrested in the Picton Valley. One person was arrested on a log truck taking logs to the wharf in Hobart for export to China.

One person was arrested at Ta Ann after a community walk in. Two people were arrested hanging a banner off the Parliament House calling for a moratorium now.

The high conservation value forests still being logged deserve an immediate moratorium. The State government has lagged behind in this process, and the point we are at now is the point we should have been in December. Once again through this bureaucratic bungling the forests are again the loser.

This current process secures temporary protection for coupes that weren’t scheduled to be logged, and for the continuation of wood supply security. We are disappointed that the moratorium is not in place, and until it is we will continue to act in the best interest for the forests.

It’s a second rate result for forests. It is not good enough, and we will continue to highlight the plight of our precious forests and ancient ecosystems. Every endangered species habitat that is lost over this time is due to the failure to deliver a full moratorium on all high conservation value forests and refusal to extinguish wood supply quotas.

Forests and Climate Change - A Convenient Truth?

Fears for forest pact

Danielle McKay
The Mercury (article), March 13, 2011


AUSTRALIAN Greens leader Bob Brown says hopes for a Tasmanian forestry peace deal are in danger of being derailed.

Senator Brown's concerns followed an agreement that would allow high-conservation forests to be logged for six months, despite an initial draft moratorium of 30 days. Senator Brown said he was also concerned that the deal called for a second Federal Government buyout of some existing native forest logging contracts, which could mean millions to timber company Gunns Ltd.

The Senator was also worried by reports that former union boss Bill Kelty, who brokered the deal between environmentalists and forestry industry groups, believed that the only way to end forestry wars was if the pulp mill at Bell Bay proceeded.

"It appears that the rate of logging is going to continue, there's going to be an injection of public funds and the first environment pillar in this proposed agreement, which was for a complete moratorium after 30 days in the iconic forests, has been broken," he said.

"It's in danger of being corrupted by the vested interest of the logging industry."

Standing alongside Senator Brown yesterday was Tasmania Greens Leader Nick McKim, who reassured that there was no difference of opinion between the state Greens and their federal counterparts.

Mr McKim said he would meet with the Premier Lara Giddings tomorrow to discuss his concerns and said he believed the moratorium could be brought back to its original March 15 deadline. On Friday Forestry Tasmania Chief Bob Gordon warned against unrealistic expectations.

Forestry confirmed that some high-conservation forest areas designated by environment organisations to be "locked up" and "saved" under the deal would undoubtedly be logged before the September 11 moratorium deadline expired.

Forest deal breaks public trust: Brown

Senator Bob Brown
Media Release, 12 March 2011

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today that the deal
struck between Forestry Tasmania CEO Bob Gordon and federal independent
facilitator Bill Kelty was a breach of public trust in the forest
principles process.

"Mr Kelty says 'let me place on record our appreciation of Bob Gordon
and Forestry Tasmania for your support in this difficult process' - no
mention of environmentalists."

"Mr Gordon says 'Mr Kelty believes an agreement may be possible, if a
proposed pulp mill at Bell Bay proceeds', and to add insult to injury
adds that 'by necessity, some coupes in the area proposed by ENGOs for
reservation will be logged over the next six months'. That is, the
proposed moratorium has been dumped."

"The Australian Greens saw that the iconic forests of Tasmania had
become too expensive for the industry to continue logging. The industry
came to environmentalists to help rescue it, not the forests."

"But now the industry is calling the shots and going for a massive
taxpayer funded injection of funds to keep logging in native forests, on
a broad scale, for the next 16 years at least. That's not on. We will
oppose the public purse being robbed to fund further forest destruction
or the Gunns pulp mill," Senator Brown said.

Marion Rae
Director of Media/Senior Media Adviser
Senator Bob Brown | Leader of the Australian Greens
Suite SG-112 Parliament House, Canberra ACT
P: 02 6277 3577 | M: 0438 376 082| F: 02 6277 3185

http://bob-brown.greensmps.org.au/

Green MP threatens Tas Government over mill

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 4 March 2011

Tasmanian Greens MP Kim Booth is threatening to bring down the state's Labor-Green Government over the Gunns pulp mill.

The Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke has delayed a decision on whether to issue a final permit needed for the mill until next week.

Bass Greens MHA, Kim Booth says he will withdraw support for the Government if it offers to underwrite the project, or seeks to support it in other ways using public money.

"I would no longer have confidence in the government, I would do everything I could to ensure that the government fell on that basis," he said.

"Were Lara Giddings, for example, as Premier to provide support for the mill either covertly or overtly by legislation or funding for that project then that government would be a Dead Man Walking because ultimately a no-confidence motion ..I would support a no confidence motion in that government because I could no longer support them," he said.

In a statement, Premier Lara Giddings says finance for the pulp mill is a matter for Gunns and not the State Government.

Ms Giddings says while she supports the project, she respects that the Tasmanian Greens will have a different view.

Tougher conditions

The Tasmanian timber giant says it wants stricter environmental permits for its $2.5 billion pulp mill, after consulting community and environment groups.

Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, has deferred his decision on the mill's marine modules for a week, to give his department time to consider Gunns' request.

But Tasmanian Greens spokeswoman Cassy O'Connor is unmoved.

"The bottom line is it's the wrong mill in the wrong location," she said.

"We are concerned for Tasmania's environment and we are concerned for Tasmania's marine environment and we are hopeful that the Federal Minister will respect these concerns when he makes this decision next week."

Environment Tasmania's Phill Pullinger welcomes the news, but is reserving his judgement.

"As to whether or not these are changes that are just going to be tweaking around the edges," he said.

Tasmania's forest industry groups hope stricter environmental permits for Gunns' pulp mill will make the project more attractive to a potential joint venture partner.

The company is yet to announce a financial backer, but Barry Chipman from Timber Communities Australia says the changes to the permit conditions should be viewed positively by potential investors.

"That will be a big green light, we believe, for the financial closure to come very very quick and then we can see the final phase of the journey and that is the development and commissioning of the Bell Bay pulp mill," he said.

The final Federal assessment is now due next Thursday.

Gunns shares closed at 53.5 cents after a trading halt, down one per cent on the opening.

Gunns spokesman Matthew Horan says the share price was stable after the announcement.

Pulp mill decision postponed

Nick Clark
The Mercury (article),  March 03, 2011

ENVIRONMENT Minister Tony Burke has postponed for a week an announcement about the final environmental approval for the Gunns Limited $2.5 billion pulp mill.

Mr Burke said the extension to the March 3 deadline for approval of Gunns hydrodynamic modelling had been extended at the request of Gunns.

It is understood Gunns wants regulatory approval for changes to the mill design foreshadowed at the company's annual meeting in October.

The improvements were sought after discussions with pulp mill opponents.

"Today I am extending that deadline for a further week until March 10, 2011," he said.

"Yesterday, representatives from Gunns contacted my department and indicated that the company was seeking tougher environmental controls than were contained in the original application.

"The company further sought that these more stringent environmental controls be incorporated with the other decisions I am to make on the environmental impact management plan.

"My department needs to assess these proposed variations to the original pulp mill proposal and allow the Independent Expert Group to examine these variations.

"I expect these processes will be complete, and I will be in a position to consider updated advice from my department, next week.

Shares in Gunns Limited have been placed in a trading halt pending an announcement about the environmental changes to the mill design.

Forest talks unravel

Matthew Denholm, Tasmania correspondent 
The Australian (article), March 01, 2011 12:00AM

TALKS to fix the conflict over Tasmania's forests appear to be unravelling, with splits over the timing of a moratorium in key forests.

The Tasmanian government and sections of the timber industry are defying conservationists' demands that the moratorium be in place by March 15.

State Resources Minister Bryan Green yesterday said his government was not prepared to implement the moratorium until a final deal was in place to restructure the timber industry. This is despite the state and federal governments on December 15 endorsing a moratorium on logging in high conservation value forests within three months.

Conservationists warn that if this moratorium is not in place by March 15 - three months from both governments endorsing it - the talks will collapse.

"On behalf of the green groups, if the moratorium is not there (by March 15) these talks -- which we all support -- will collapse," Wilderness Society campaign director Lyndon Schneiders told The Australian.


But Mr Green said the state government did not support a moratorium on logging in all high conservation value forests until it was part of a comprehensive industry restructuring and regional development package.

Timber industry groups last night insisted the moratorium deadline was three months from last Friday, when independent negotiator Bill Kelty held talks with industry and green groups.

This would provide a deadline of May 25, but green groups say this is completely false, and that March 15 is the deadline as "clearly" outlined by federal Environment Minister Tony Burke and then-premier David Bartlett on December 15.

Mr Green said he had not instructed the state-owned forestry company, Forestry Tasmania, to implement the moratorium at all, let alone by March 15. Mr Green said the government had shown "good will" by taking an initial 39 logging coupes out of production and was "thinking about" how to protect the remaining high conservation value forests.

However, he insisted this would only be done "on the back of an agreement" including an industry restructure and regional development package.

"We can't do anything in respect to a moratorium unless forest becomes available to be reserved, if people hand back their contracts," Mr Green said.

"The amount of area that we're talking about is a significant area and it requires us to think about regional development opportunities (and) to have a package so that we are not putting people on the scrapheap."

Mr Schneiders said there was unlikely to be a future for the peace process, designed to end 30 years of conflict over forestry, if Mr Green was reneging on the moratorium deadline.

The moratorium was the "first test" of the interim "principles" agreement last year that set the parameters for the current negotiations, Mr Schneiders said, and it was difficult to see a future for them if it was not met.

VicForests operations condemned

Ben Butler
The Age (article), February 23, 2011

THE government-owned company that logs Victoria's native forests is running out of timber, has failed to keep track of how much forest is left to log and cannot manage its costs, a damning Treasury report has found.

VicForests has also twice breached Department of Sustainability and Environment rules by logging too much and its backlog of forest that needs replanting has nearly tripled, according to the report by forestry expert URS.

Released to The Age after a freedom-of-information application, the report portrays an industry in decline, with jobs on the line as the supply of trees dries up. Its early leak to another media outlet has embarrassed the Baillieu government, under pressure because of divisions between the Liberals and Nationals over conservation issues.

In the key forestry battleground of East Gippsland, where Vicforests has repeatedly clashed with environmentalists, the number of quality logs suitable for sawn timber is ''expected to decline significantly within about 10 years and impact adversely on businesses directly involved'', URS said.

''Assuming forecasts are correct, it may not be possible to supply sawmills located in the East Gippsland area with sufficient sawlogs from the region,'' URS said. Those mills might have to ''reduce their operations''.

The report found Vicforests wrongly logged 87 hectares in the Central Highlands and East Gippsland.

''The dispute could have material financial consequences, especially if DSE pursues legal action,'' URS said.

But VicForests spokesman David Walsh said the organisation had reached a settlement with DSE over the breaches.

URS said VicForests' estimates of still-standing timber were up to 65 per cent too high, although Mr Walsh disputed the calculation.

In addition, the amount of forest that has been harvested but not regenerated and handed back to DSE has blown out from about 5100 hectares in 2004-05, VicForests' first year of operation, to more than 15,900 hectares in 2008-09, URS said.

The organisation's inability to manage its cash flow led to what was described by URS as an ''emergency increase of the credit line'' from Treasury of $16.6 million last year.

VicForests also failed to collect money from customers quickly enough and was not fully considering the impact decisions would have on its cash reserves, URS said.

URS said it was critical that VicForests rein in the cost of harvest and haulage, which it underestimated by about $8.5 million last year.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh blamed VicForests' problems on bushfires and the former Labor government's logging restrictions. He said the government would work with the company to implement the recommendations.

VicForests chief executive David Pollard said the report recognised the company's significant achievements and it was addressing issues ''where appropriate''.

Forest region covers wider area

David Pollard, VicForests, Melbourne
The Age (letter), 4 Feb 2011

JILL Sanguinetti's letter (31/1) includes some highly misleading statistics. It points out there are 66,000 hectares of forest available for timber harvesting in the central forest management area (FMA). However, VicForests' Central Highlands region covers this area plus the North East, Benalla/Mansfield, Dandenong and Central Gippsland FMAs - which contain 210,000 hectares of available forest. Less than 2000 hectares is harvested and regenerated across this region each year.

Further, almost 90 per cent of the 7.8 million hectares of native forest in Victoria is unavailable or unsuitable for timber harvesting; some 4.8 million hectares of forest are in national parks and conservation reserves where no timber harvesting is permitted; and trees are retained in every area harvested by VicForests to provide habitat for native fauna.

Google under fire for dumping paper ad

Julian Lee
Sydney Morning Herald, February 1, 2011

GOOGLE has been accused of stifling free speech after it banned an ad attacking a paper manufacturer over its environmental record.

The Wilderness Society paid to have its ad on Google promoting a boycott against a paper manufacturer that uses wood sourced from Australian old growth forests.

When web users typed ''office paper'', ''office stationery'' or the brand names Australian Paper and Reflex into Google, a link to the Wilderness Society's website, Ethical Paper, would appear at the top of the search engine's listings.

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But after a complaint by the company at the centre of the boycott, Australian Paper, Google removed the ads saying that because the society did not own the trademark for the popular paper brand, Reflex, it could not use the name in its ads.

Google says it introduced the policy in 2002 to protect the intellectual copyright of advertisers.

But the Wilderness Society's Sydney campaigner Peter Cooper said Google's policy did not apply as his organisation was not trying to sell anything but rather to bring an issue to the public's attention.

''The internet is a very important place for debate in our society and an issue as important as this needs to discussed in a public forum and a policy such as this prevents that,'' he said.

The society's Google ads have since been replaced by one for an Australian Paper website defending its environmental policies. Turning the table on the society, the paper manufacturer has bought the search terms ''ethical paper'' in order to generate traffic to its site rather than the society's. However by yesterday afternoon the ads had disappeared from Google.

Freedom of speech campaigners said Google was using its muscle - more than 90 per cent of online searches in Australia are on Google - to prevent a balanced debate.

The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy, said Google's behaviour was similar to that of other internet businesses such as Amazon and PayPal which, in the wake of the diplomatic cables dump last year, cited violations of their terms of service to sever ties with WikiLeaks.

''I am concerned Google is allowing a trademark policy to prevent one side of the debate from being heard,'' Mr Murphy said.

Google said it encouraged disputing parties to settle the differences between themselves. ''Google is not an arbiter of these disputes,'' a spokeswoman said.

Activists ramp up blitz on Reflex paper

Ben Butler

The Age, January 31, 2011

Activists ramp up blitz on Reflex paper : http://www.theage.com.au/business/activists-ramp-up-blitz-on-reflex-paper-20110130-1a9si.html

A GREEN group has made corporate Australia its No.1 target, ramping up pressure on the makers of paper brand Reflex to stop using timber logged from native forests.

The Wilderness Society's battle with Australian Paper has already spilled over into cyberspace, with the company last week convincing internet giant Google to stop showing advertisements for the green group's ''Ethical Paper'' campaign.

Now the activists plan to target Reflex stockists including Wesfarmers subsidiaries Officeworks and Coles and new US entrant Staples, which took over Corporate Express last year.

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The green group is also considering taking legal action against Australian Paper under the Trade Practices Act, because a company website appears to endorse allegedly misleading facts created by state-owned logger VicForests.

Wilderness Society campaigner Luke Chamberlain said woodchips from state-owned native forests received a subsidy worth hundreds of millions of dollars, creating an unfair price advantage over plantation-sourced chips.

''It's not an even playing field here - this is corporate socialism whereby VicForests is acting as a middleman, handing over a public asset for private profit,'' he said.

''The question to Australian Paper is: why do we continue to rip out a public resource, extinguish a public asset, when there's perfectly good alternatives?''

He said his group had sent letters to corporate social responsibility officers at 2500 Australian companies and on Thursday began a phone campaign with the top 400.

Feedback from companies was ''incredibly positive'', Mr Chamberlain said. ''Obviously we're dealing with some of the major distributors of Australian Paper. They don't want to have environment groups on their back - they spruik their environmental credentials and I think their branding is potentially at risk if we target them.''

Wesfarmers, Australia's eighth-biggest company, already bears the scars of an earlier battle with the Wilderness Society. After a long campaign including embarrassing protests outside its Bunnings hardware stores, the chain switched from native to plantation wood.

The stoush flared up online last week, with Google pulling down Wilderness Society ads that appeared above search results for Reflex, after a complaint from Australian Paper.

The paper company, a subsidiary of Japan's Nippon Paper Group, has hit back with a website, ''Ethical Paper - The Facts'', saying more than half its fibre needs come from plantation timber and recycled paper. ''The remainder is sourced through VicForests,'' it said.

On Friday, the company, with 1200 employees, said it ''welcomes open discussion from all stakeholders'' about its performance.

Activists attack sustainability claim

Ben Butler
Sydney Morning Herald, January 31, 2011

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have made corporate Australia their number one target as they ramp up pressure on the producers of the top paper brand Reflex to stop using timber logged from native forests.

The battle between the Wilderness Society and Australian Paper has spilled into cyberspace: last week the company convinced Google to stop showing advertisements for the environmental organisation's ''ethical paper'' campaign.

Wilderness Society activists are planning to target Reflex stockists, including Wesfarmers' subsidiaries Officeworks and Coles and new US entrant Staples, which took over Corporate Express last year.

The organisation is also considering legal action against Australian Paper under the Trade Practices Act because a company website appears to endorse allegedly misleading fact sheets created by the Victorian government-owned logger, VicForests.

Luke Chamberlain, the Wilderness Society's Victorian forest campaigner, said woodchips from state-owned native forests received a government subsidy worth hundreds of millions of dollars, creating an unfair price advantage over plantation-sourced chips.

''It's not an even playing field here - this is corporate socialism whereby VicForests is acting as a middleman handing over a public asset for private profit,'' he said.

''The question to Australian Paper is why do we continue to rip out a public resource, extinguish a public asset, when [there are] perfectly good alternatives?''

He said the Wilderness Society had sent letters to corporate social responsibility officers at 2500 leading companies, and on Thursday began a phone campaign to follow up with the top 400 companies.

Fund managers will be the campaign's next targets, and the organisation is considering a print media advertising campaign.

Feedback from corporates so far had been ''incredibly positive'', Mr Chamberlain said. ''Obviously we're dealing with some of the major distributors of Australian Paper,'' he said. ''They don't want to have environment groups on their back - they spruik their environmental credentials and I think their branding is potentially at risk if we target them.''

Wesfarmers, Australia's eighth biggest company, already bears the scars of an earlier battle with the Wilderness Society. After a long campaign that included embarrassing protests outside its Bunnings hardware stores, the chain switched from native forest timber to plantation wood.

Mr Chamberlain said the Wilderness Society had been talking with Australian Paper about moving away from native forests for ''probably five to six years''.

''So far Australian Paper has buried its head in the sand,'' he said. The stoush flared up online last week with Google pulling down Wilderness Society advertisements that appeared above search results for Reflex, after a complaint from Australian Paper. The company, a subsidiary of Japan's Nippon Paper Group, has hit back with a website entitled ''Ethical paper - the facts'' that mimics features of the Wilderness Society's ethical paper campaign site.

On that website, its says more than half its total fibre needs come from plantation timber and recycled paper. ''The remainder is sourced through VicForests which is a Victorian government enterprise responsible for the sustainable harvest and commercial sale of wood from state forests,'' the company said.

In a separate statement issued on Friday, Australian Paper said it ''welcomes open discussion from all stakeholders about our performance''. It said it employed about 1200 people and the industry had been hit by the closure of two Tasmanian mills last year at a cost of 300 jobs.

''Our plight is not unlike that of Kimberly-Clark whose Millicent tissue mill in South Australia faces closure and the loss of 170 jobs in May,'' the company said. ''Our statements and claims are independently checked and comply with Australian Competition and Consumer Commission guidelines.''

Mr Chamberlain said VicForests fact sheets on the company's ethical paper - the facts website were ''mythology and propaganda''.

''We'll be taking that up now with the ACCC as part of this campaign.'' He said it was practical for Australian Paper to use only recycled paper and plantation-sourced timber.

''We're looking for Australian paper to show leadership in true sustainability and create a much greater recycled paper industry.''

Grand ash forests face destruction

Jill Sanguinetti, Narbethong
The Age (letter), 31 Jan 2011

VICFORESTS' misleading claims have been swallowed whole by the government. According to VicForests' website, 66,000 hectares of merchantable timber is available to it in the Central Highlands and 2500 of this is being clear-felled there annually. At this rate, it will all be gone in 26 years.

Yet the minister plans to grant security of access at the current rate for 20 years. By then there would be nothing left of our grand ash forests but regrowth (depleted of tree ferns, hollow-dwelling fauna and countless floral species) outside of national parks. With predicted climatic instability and the likelihood of increasing droughts and bushfires, even the survival of regrowth is uncertain.

Moreover, the claim that the annual harvest is "less than .01 per cent of Victoria's native forests" is a furphy: this is a percentage of the total forestry estate of 78 million hectares, including dry, open woodland forests in the north and west, degraded forests that are past logging, forests on private land and in national parks.

So the 0.01 per cent figure is irrelevant to the sustainability of logging in particular locations but is intended to deceive us into accepting the intensive logging of remaining old-growth, species-rich forests in the Central Highlands.

Forestry is solution

Shaun Ratcliff, Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Melbourne
The Age (letter), 26 Jan 2011

MURRAY Barson is right (Letters, 25/1): our public forests should be managed on a scientific basis. However, Peter Walsh is correct: Victorian forestry is conducted on a sustainable scale. About 5000 hectares of native forest was harvested last year: 0.07 per cent of the 7.8 million hectares of public native forest in Victoria. Areas are also reserved to protect endangered or threatened species.

The greatest threat to our forests is fire, not forestry. The three landscape-scale fires of the past decade - 2002-03, 2006-07 and 2009 - burnt about 3 million hectares of land. Much of this was native forest.

Forestry is not the problem but part of the solution to managing fire risk. Forestry workers, particularly those in the native forest sector, are based on-location and are skilled and experienced in fire management (thinning, and maintaining fire breaks and roads to ease access to fires) and suppression, and most forestry equipment is useful in firefighting.

Numbers add up

Sarah Rees, Healesville
The Age (letter), 26 Jan 2011

IN THE article ''Minister challenges logging advice'' (The Age, 24/1), Forestry Minister Peter Walsh gives a welcome commitment to examine the status of endangered species in areas exposed to logging.

While the minister appears unaware of the Department of Sustainability and Environment's science up until his appointment, basic skills in maths should make light work of this investigation. Mr Walsh says he ''find(s) it hard to understand how such a small area of logging can have such a big impact''.

Some 70 per cent of the ash forests in this state - the wood the chippers are after and home to many of Victoria's endangered species - is available for logging. Logging is taking out between 2 and 3 per cent of these forests each year.

Given that intensive ash logging has taken place since the 1950s, how many years of logging will it take to reduce 70 per cent of the old ash forest to young saplings incapable of housing hollow-dependent mammals?

Couple this with fires in an average of 40 per cent of the ash forest in national parks and, bingo, you have an extinction crisis.

Extinction state

Phil Alexander, Eltham
The Age (letter), 26 Jan 2011

YOU have to admire Ted Baillieu's environmental credentials: a climate change denier, he puts cattle back in sensitive Alpine habitats and appoints an Agriculture Minister who holds the view that cutting down forests has minimal impact on plants and animals. Maybe our number plates should read: Victoria, the Extinction State.

Mind the habitat

Murray Barson, Hurstbridge
The Age (letter), 26 Jan 2011

AGRICULTURE Minister Peter Walsh ''find[s] it hard to understand how such a small area of logging can have such a big impact'' on state forest biodiversity (''Minister challenges logging advice'', 24/1). (One wonders if he is a climate-change sceptic too.)

The man admits his ignorance and should take the scientific advice offered, not hide behind the wasteful procrastination of a departmental study. Habitat destruction is not an easily reversible process.

If the state's timber industry is indeed financially unviable, ''20 years' access … to timber'' only prolongs the agony, but may irrevocably damage the forests.

Vested interests, factional pressures and marginal electorate sensitivities must not be allowed to warp the decision process.

Minister challenges logging advice

Adam Morton
The Age (article), January 24, 2011

VICTORIA'S new forestry minister has challenged scientific warnings that the timber industry is putting endangered species at risk of extinction, arguing that only a fraction of the state's forest habitat is logged.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh, whose portfolio includes responsibility for state forests, denied claims the forest industry was in crisis, but said it was ailing, after years of gradual cuts to timber allocation from state forests stymied investment. The Coalition has promised to restore industry confidence by guaranteeing access to current levels of state forest timber for up to 20 years.

The commitment comes amid warnings from scientists led by David Lindenmayer, an Australian National University ecologist who has worked in Victorian forests since the 1980s, that the combination of bushfires and aggressive logging in the central highlands is putting threatened species such as Leadbeater's Possum, the state faunal emblem, at risk. But Mr Walsh said he was not persuaded the timber industry was a significant threat.

"I find it hard to understand how such a small area of logging can have such a big impact as some people are saying when you consider the totality of the forest area that's never ever touched,'' he said.

''The Department of Sustainability and Environment has never carried out any survey work on threatened species outside of these small areas of production forest. It's difficult to quantify the impacts of the timber industry if you don't actually know against what you are making a comparison. We have asked the department to do this work.''

Professor Lindenmayer said Mr Walsh's comments were those of a minister still getting on top of his brief, and offered to give him a briefing and a tour of central highlands forests.

He said dozens of books and hundreds of scientific papers had been written showing the threat that clear-fell logging in the state's 171,000 hectares of mountain ash forest posed to endangered species.

''We're logging in a way that is very intense and sets back the forest many centuries,'' he said.

Coalition support for state forests logging was a point of difference with Labor, which had promised to sponsor Tasmanian-style "peace talks" between the industry, unions and environmental groups.

Environmentalists say logging in state forests is economically unviable and being propped up by government subsidies.

Mr Walsh said he had no problem with talks being held over the industry's future, but the government should not be involved.

"If the unions and the industry and whatever want to sit down and have discussions I think that's appropriate that they do it, but by government being in there when we've said what we want to do would not necessarily be the most productive thing,'' he said.

He said his office was considering results of a Treasury review into the state's logging agency VicForests, which received a multimillion dollar bailout from taxpayers last financial year. But he was dismissive of a Brumby government plan to replace the agency with a body that had a broader remit also to allocate water and carbon rights.

"I really think they [Labor] were trying to be all things to all people and I really don't know how it was going to actually have a meaningful role - it just seems such a broad brush thing with no detail," he said.

State-owned VicForests logging firm 'non-viable'

Ben Butler
The Age (article), 2 Jan 2010

TAXPAYERS have been forced to fund a multimillion-dollar bailout of VicForests, with severe financial pressure putting the future of the government-owned company that logs state forests under a cloud.

VicForests' operations are now being reviewed by the new Liberal-National coalition government, which says it will explore ''all management options'' for the Victorian native timber industry.

Set up by the former Labor government six years ago, VicForests bled out more than $16 million in cash over the the 2009-10 financial year.

To cover the shortfall, VicForests needed an extra $16.6 million in the form of a low cost loan from the Victorian Treasury, according to the logging company's latest accounts.

VicForests would not have been able to declare a profit of $3.6 million if not for a $10.8 million government grant to cover the costs of salvage logging after the Black Saturday bushfires, and made a complex change to the way it accounts for logged areas that are returned to the state.

A senior analyst with a major financial institution, who asked not to be named, said VicForests was ''very much running out of cash''.

''It's a business that's completely non-viable and if it was a business that was standing on its own two feet without government support it would either be long-gone or guilty of insolvent trading,'' the analyst said.  ''Notwithstanding their cheap access to forests, there's not enough cash flow to keep this merry-go-round going.''

Dr Judith Ajani, a resource economist with the Australian National University, said state-owned loggers such as VicForests had been left behind by a structural change caused by a move from native forests to plantation timber.  ''What we're dealing with here is state governments that simply won't deal with an industry problem,'' she said. ''They are propping up a fundamentally dead business.''

VicForests' annual report shows that it has removed millions in expenditure from its operating statement by changing the way it accounts for regeneration - the cost of replanting logged coupes with seedlings.  While, in 2008-09, replanting cost $4.8 million, the latest set of accounts list regeneration expenses as $0.

But the company's summary of financial results note ''substantial regeneration activities'' among factors that ''contributed further to the negative cash flow from operating activities''.

''It is anticipated that this will return to a positive level in 2011,'' the company says.  The report, one of more than 200 tabled by the former Brumby government on the same day in September last year, also shows that borrowings from the Treasury Corporation of Victoria blew out from $2.3 million to $19 million.

All of the money is payable in the current financial year, but the terms of the loan can be extended by the Treasurer.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh, the National Party member for Swan Hill, said the government was ''committed to providing long-term security to the timber industry within a framework of world standard forest management practices''.

He said the Coalition would carry out its pre-election promise to reduce from three to one the number of government departments to which VicForests reports.

''The government is committed to implementing these promises and to exploring all management options that lead to an efficient and sustainable future for the timber industry,'' he said.

''The government will review VicForests' operations and it would not be appropriate to pre-empt the outcome of that investigation.''

Armed with a critical Treasury report into VicForests - which is yet to be made public - the former Labor Party had promised to abolish the company and replace it with a new entity.

Under the ALP plan the new body would have retained a commercial focus, but in addition to logging timber it would have been responsible for allocating water and carbon rights.