According to a new report from Wood Resource Quarterly Overseas shipments account for about 70% of global wood chip trade, with pulp mills in Japan and China being the major destinations, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ). This trade is handled by specialty made wood chip carriers predominantly built in Japan and China. Many of …
Achieving biodiversity objectives can be a challenging aspect of fire management because different flora and fauna species may require varied fire regimes in order to maintain viable populations, and trade-offs may be needed to satisfy other objectives. This report describes major findings of a project investigating the relationships between aspects of fire regimes on selected …
West Australian researchers spent 10 years developing bait of poison mixed with kangaroo mince and chicken fat to appeal to notoriously fussy feline palates New baits targeting feral cats could aid the recovery of 53 threatened species covered under Western Australia’s largest conservation project, according to the state’s environment minister, Albert Jacob. The West Australian …
Scientists have found the number of animals moved to make way for building projects far outnumber science-led relocations to recover populations The relocation of animals to make way for land development rarely succeeds and could be driving some species towards extinction, according to a new study. An international team of scientists found that “mitigation …
Stopping logging in Victoria’s central highlands would drive tens of millions of dollars into state coffers if the move was included under the Abbott government’s emissions reduction fund. Fairfax Media has seen a confidential brief prepared for the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, which found ending logging in the highland forests, north-east of Melbourne, would …
Victoria’s frogs are facing a conservation crisis according to biologists, who warn that some of the state’s amphibians have “passed a tipping point”, while others have become extinct. Nick Clemann, program leader (threatened fauna) at the state government’s biodiversity research arm, the Arthur Rylah Institute, said the prospects for the Baw Baw frog, Victoria’s only …
Fresh legal action has been launched against Victorian energy provider Ausnet over the Black Saturday bushfires. VicForests is seeking unspecified damages from Ausnet, and also maintenance company Utility Asset Management (UAM), over a timber yard that was razed in the devastating 2009 bushfires. Documents lodged with the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday claim Ausnet, and …
Bill Gammage’s popular book ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia’ contains many fundamental flaws and represents ‘blind advocacy’ for repeated burning’ because ‘Aboriginal people did it’. Like Keith Windshuttle’s ‘Fabrication of Aboriginal History’, Bill Gammage only pursued references – and interpretation of references – that supported his ‘hypothesis’. For Gammage that hypothesis …
VICTORIA’S environment minister will visit the high country as cattlemen continue lobbying the government over alpine grazing. The State Government last month shelved a three-year trial which looked at the role of cattle grazing in preventing fire risk at the Alpine National Park. Environment Minister Lisa Neville at the time said “science is clear” that …
