On the 3rd February 1997, the $830 million Regional Forest Agreement process signed over its first casualty – the much sought after forests of East Gippsland. Other areas around Australia followed suit. Gazillions of dollars profit have gone into the pockets of overseas woodchip and paper companies and a few of their middlemen here in …
Before the election the Bracks government made a quiet little offering to get rid of the niggling pressure they were under regarding their long time promise to protect the Gippsland Strzelecki forests. Their offer was a compromise to protect the important central sites and its connecting links (called ‘cores and links’) but if you read …
Two hundred years ago the Sooty owl was abundant and fed on about 18 species of ground prey in Gippsland. Today they have only two or three to chose from. Other species are under similar pressure. Many of our native animals have become sparser in numbers and their range has shrunk. Some, like the Southern …
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 …
After Beazley bit the dust in 2006, the shiny new Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd travelled to Tasmania. He stated that Mark Latham’s rescue package for the forests back in 2004 was all wrong and Mark didn’t properly take on board the loggers wants. Rudd rewarded Peter Garrett for lying about Greens preferences by making …
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 …
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 …
‘If the logging industry was an irrigator they would be charged millions for using this water’ Melbourne’s catchments are empty, so we’re looking at the skies searching for rain. Right idea, but wrong direction. Look at the Thomson dam, and ask why we still allow clearfell logging in its catchment, then look at Steve Bracks …
