UNWANTED burnt logs – damaged roads
The DSE tender process to find buyers for burnt trees has had “insufficient take up of the resource through expressions of interest”. They are quickly trying to sell off – at a good price we’d hope – half a million m3 of alpine ash sawlog trees and 750,000 m3 of chip log trees over the next two years.
The Dept is claiming it will benefit many of the smaller rural communities to have the trees cut down and used. However, a string of letters in the local paper showed a large number of people are annoyed by the dangerous number of log trucks on local roads that were never meant to take large trucks. The Shire Mayor, Harvey Bates, has also made media comments saying the salvage operations are causing huge damage to local roads. He said the Shire is not able to cover repairs in its normal roading budget. Does this mean Shire rates will be channelled from other uses to repair roads and pay the damage bill of the logging industry yet again?