Old growth forests store massive amounts of carbon but have been accused of just ‘stagnating’ and not actively absorbing any. Quite the opposite is true. Old-growth forests continue to remove far more carbon than previously thought, making their protection a high priority in tackling global warming. A new study found that a 400-year-old forest in …
Despite a promise to protect old growth forests that link the Errinundra and Snowy parks, logging crews were clearfelling 30ha of giant trees in a protected area that Premier Bracks had promised would get “immediate protection”. Environment Minister John Thwaites was not willing to comment on the issue at first but later said that any …
LIBERAL Party leader Ted Baillieu has been linked to one of Victoria’s most damaging environmental debacles through his shareholding in a collapsed mining company. The company, Denehurst, went bust in 1998, leaving the state government with a $6.9million clean-up bill at the Benambra Mine, in Victoria’s far east. News of Mr Baillieu’s involvement in the …
For years now, governments and water authorities have determined that offshore oil and gas operations are causing groundwater in Gippsland to drop. But nothing has been done to solve the problem. The all-powerful oil and gas industry is well known as a major string puller of governments of every colour. The Commonwealth Government pockets $1.6 …
In October last year, a group of timber workers started a lobby group called Loggers for Forests. The group wants to stop woodchipping in old growth forests and to use trees taken from forests more efficiently. Mick Harris is a timber contractor from Fernbank in East Gippsland and he says most loggers think woodchipping is …
The Exclusive Brethren’s manipulation of election campaigns has been a major influence in politics. Now it’s been revealed how companies infiltrate the political sphere to direct major decisions in their favour. Multinational packaging company Amcor who owned the PaperlinX woodchip and paper mill in the Latrobe Valley, were involved in corporate spying on green groups …
The public relations elite are brainstorming ways to keep what they call the “crazy little old ladies” and “gays who do naughty things to whales” quiet. Industry and government representatives have paid $600 each to learn the tricks of the trade from Canadian PR consultant, Ross Irvine, the self-styled Svengali of anti-activist activism. Irvine graced …
Timber yards just don’t bother stocking hardwood timber any more. Why? It is because no one wants to buy hardwood timber. There are no uses for native forest hardwoods which pine and other plantation products cannot replace, and at a lower price. Many sawmills that cut native forest logs are teetering on the brink of …
The latest porky to come from the makers of Reflex paper, is that their product is now 100% forest sensitive, in fact it’s so eco-friendly it is bursting with endangered species. Australia’s biggest paper company, PaperlinX in the Latrobe Valley, is congratulating itself for this bodgie eco-label given by the normally reliable Forest Stewardship Council …
A recent scientific survey of the impact of the 2003 fire in the upper Snowy River on Tiger Quolls calculates a reduction in the quoll population of between 67.5-90%. The impact of this loss on the state population (without taking into account the impact of the 2003 fires from the north-east through the Alps and …
