This year’s approved carnage
DSE logging plans from July 2004 to June 2005 show 4,700 ha to be clearfelled in East Gippsland. Much of this is old growth or mature forest. This will supply 149,000 m3 of sawlogs and 385,000 m3 of chip logs.
Consider that a saw log averages 30% recovery (at least 60% is chipped as round edges, hollow bits, knots etc), which increases the pulp ratio to about 9:1 (485,000 chipped to 50,000 sawn).
From 4,700 hectares to be cleared and burnt (for turning into intensively managed fast growing pulp plantations), there will be about 50,000 m3 of recovered sawn timber taken. That’s about 10 m3 of sawn wood for every hectare of forest knocked down. This is a good figure to remember if you know friends who are planning to buy hardwood timber.
| District |
Hectares
|
Sawlogs (D+)
|
Pulplogs (RL)
|
| Nowa Nowa |
549
|
8,621
|
48,621
|
| Orbost |
1,274
|
59,901
|
157,057
|
| Bendoc |
84
|
7,660
|
18,405
|
| Cann River |
2,807
|
72,380
|
160,899
|
|
TOTALS |
4,714
|
148,562 m3
|
384,982 m3
|