A tailings dam near the head of the Tambo River in Victoria’s east would be dramatically expanded under plans for a new copper and zinc mine, prompting fears from environmentalists about potential long-term impacts on waterways. The proposed mine is expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of tailings – waste from mining – a year, with …
VicForests turns 10 today. In that time it has received $25million in grants and subsidies to help it haul $300million worth of free logs from public forest which it still owes Victorians $74million in unpaid dividends for. This debt to the public could build 10 new schools, pay for 96 additional teachers or deploy five …
The export woodchip mill at Eden, SEFE, reneged on its deal to let iron ore transported from Nowa Nowa in East Gippsland be shipped from their woodchip loading facilties. This is a sign that it’s not looking good for either nasty project now. Eastern Iron’s media release says:“SEFE has now advised that its Japanese shareholders, …
VicForests has a snowball’s hope in hell of gaining the green tick of approval from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international wood certification body. It had a preliminary audit carried out on its logging management and it failed dismally. This didn’t stop it from claiming in a media release that the auditors recognised the …
VicForests needs to ”significantly” improve its care of the state’s forests if it wants international accreditation of its timber products, according to an unflattering audit. VicForests, a Victorian government-owned business, is seeking certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), based in Germany, to demonstrate that its harvesting of the state’s timber is sustainable, ethical, and …
The appointment of a Threatened Species Commissioner should represent a move forward. However, it may be merely a distraction from the environmental crisis unfolding. GREG HUNT, the Federal Minister for the Environment, today announced what appears to be one of the only environmental promises kept from the Coalition’s election campaign in 2013: to appoint a …
A lethal bait called “curiosity”, designed to kill feral cats, will be a priorityof a new national commissioner to save threatened species. On Wednesday Environment Minister Greg Hunt announced the new commissioner would be Gregory Andrews – a former diplomat who currently works for the federal Environment Department – as part of a CSIRO-backed review …
The smell of smoke in the autumn and spring air is an increasingly familiar one to many Australians. It signifies that time of year when land management agencies in southern Australia feverishly try to meet their burning targets. But what are the consequences for biodiversity of setting such targets in Australia’s ecosystems? In recent research …
The tiny marsupials who spend their nights digging for truffles on the forest floor could be holding together ecosystems in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. TAKING AN EARLY MORNING walk through the scrubby forest in Tasmania’s south-east, Professor Chris Johnson from the University of Tasmania can tell if the local bandicoots and bettongs …
The Abbott government has given $15 million to AID THE BURNING OF FORESTS. Tasmanian Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) has set up a ‘National Bushfire Mitigation Program’ supposedly for more deliberate burning of the forest understorey and midstorey. It will kill off huge areas of ground level wildlife and …
