Widespread salvage logging for 30 years after the 1939 fires had huge ecological impacts. It favoured cutting fire damaged (but living) larger diameter trees. After a fire, generally there will be a return of a healthy multi-staged forest required to provide maximum habitat. Bushfires usually leave a high level of this structural complexity in the …
Investigations by Lawyers For Forests (LFF), have shown that the Code of Forest Practices is vague, unenforceable and needs reform. Recently the Bracks government put the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in charge of overseeing auditing of the Code, instead of government foresters. This is still a worry. For example, the EPA needs funding and powers …
Before the election, Bracks promised a moratorium on logging the Goolengook forest while the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC) carried out an investigation. This is better than what we had, but the terms of reference proposed are very limited. They will focus only on swapping already reserved high value forests for Goolengook. A leaked Government …
At the log truck blockade in Melbourne earlier this year, our independent MP, Craig Ingram, made mention of the vast area of good Alpine Ash locked up in the Snowy National Park and how it could have kept the logging industry afloat a while longer. More recently he gained front page attention in the local …
In late August, Minister in charge of logging, Sherryl Garbutt, announced the intention to offer Victorias 58 sawmill owners money in return for their promised allocation of logs (didnt we hear this same thing six months ago?). However, the offer ignores the woodchip licences. The government is still operating under the illusion that chips are …
New figures from ABARE released in mid August, show a huge glut of existing plantation wood that was previously underestimated. This is due to vast areas of plantations having been established in the 60s and 70s. By 2006, 75% of timber will be taken from plantations rather than the 62% which was previously forecast. The …
Up until March 14th, the RFAs were merely an agreement, not legally binding documents. Labor and Liberals worked like best mates to railroad this legislation through in an early morning Canberra sitting. Its passage was met by a huge cheer from both parties. It successfully allows the Feds to wash their hands of any responsibility …
Two out of three East Gippsland residents want an end to old growth logging.This was the sentiment expressed when an opinion poll was carried out in April after the Goolengook camp was raided and the forests logged. East Gippsland has traditionally been a very conservative region. Politicians have cultivated and pandered to this image for …
Once upon a time, people thought that the logging industry was the big economic winner for a place called East Gippsland. Without it, the people were told, families would be starving in the gutters. The reality nowadays – at most, only 2.9% of the regions employment relies on logging.1 Those employed in the logging industry …
Did you know that the Commonwealth Bank has a 17% share-holding in Gunns? Gunns is the largest woodchipper of hardwood forests in the world, destroying Tasmanias old growth at a rate of knots. So the Commonwealth Bank is effectively responsible for about one sixth of the export woodchipping, clearfelling, burning, poisoning and old growth logging …
