They never give up. Our logging industry is now saying it needs to be a major player to help solve Australia’s climate change problems. They claim our forests – that they plan to keep cutting down – could absorb 20% of the planned 60% target to cut emissions by 2050. How so? A confidential document …
In mid 2008, a positive move by the Brumby government could see plantation companies have to pay for the water their thirsty trees soak up which would otherwise flow into streams and rivers. The idea is worrying plantation growers across the state, from the Strzelekis to south west Victoria. Charging for the rain that is …
State government projects to secure the basic stuff of life – water – include an estimated $3.1 billion Wonthaggi Desalination Project, a $1 billion Food Bowl Modernisation program and the $625 million north-south pipeline, which will take water from the Eildon Reservoir to Melbourne (plus the recent Federal plans to have a plan). As we …
There are 1,000 jobs vacancies on offer in logging that are secure, well paid and conflict free. Labourers, fallers, truckies, admin. staff, logistics, mechanics, engineers and supply staff are all needed to get the plantation industry running in Western Victoria. Trees are now mature and screaming to be processed but there is a shortage of …
You might have seen the government telling us they protected 20,000 ha of South Gippsland’s long-suffering forests. There are only tiny remnants left of this once vast expanse of tall wet forest that supported the tallest trees on earth. Conservationists down that way mapped out what they call the Cores and Links in 2001 – …
The Brumby government is playing the walnut and pea trick with our reserves. After protection was offered to some areas of old growth in the lead up to the ’06 state elections, our government might now be offering other reserves as a trade off for their protection. We wrote to the Environment Minister Jennings, asking …
There have traditionally been very few women in the halls of power, influence and industry. To fit into the blokey power culture some have had to be as tough as. Many started out spruiking for the logging industry or had close associations with logging heavyweights like Michael O’Connor. Our most famous woodchippers apprentice is Julia …
MOST of the trees logged in Victoria’s native forests last year ended up as pulp, much of it exported to Japan to become photocopying paper. More than 85% of the 1.59 million cubic metres of the state’s native forest logged last financial year, the equivalent of 4745 MCGs, was turned into woodchips, sawdust and waste. …
Recently, a Freedom of Information request of VicForests showed that at least 85% of our native forests are used for cheap throw-away paper and cardboard. The last VicForests Annual Report revealed that we tax payers are aiding the industry to log our native forests. This is on top of their existing subsidies. Now we learn …
Brown Mountain was assessed and listed as an old growth National Estate area by the Commonwealth Heritage Commission in the 1980s. That means it has the same values as a National Park. The management of these areas were handed to the state government which promptly set about clearfelling them in 1989. The protests on Brown …
