he possible merger of three East Gippsland sawmills, Terra Timbers, Auswest and Austimbers, was announced in mid-November. This is rather good news for forests as it reflects the ever-increasing difficulty in selling native forest hardwood in a market now dominated by pine. These mills are unable to stay afloat unless they cut back on costs …
Whistle blower exposes corruption in Tasmania A greying Tasmanian forester of 32 years experience has spilt the beans on broad-scale illegal destruction of the state’s public forests. He claims corruption and collusion by and between the logging industry and Tasmanian Government has been rampant since the signing of the RFA five years ago. Bill Manning …
The Bracks government is set to usher one of Victoria’s most globally significant and threatened species into extinction. The Baw Baw frog is set to be carefully experimented upon with D4s! With less than 250 Baw Baw frogs remaining in the wild, this species’ extinction is imminent. It is only one of many species dependent …
Premier Steve Bracks’ new proposed law would make forest destruction invisible to the public. It would be illegal for anyone to witness or gather information on the logging. The law would ensure clearfelling was done in secret. One of the basic skills of forest campaigning is to learn to “read between the lines” of Government …
Federal assistance to help dairy farmers and regions affected by dairy deregulation has been given to a Noojee sawmill. $350,000 of public money was handed to the mill which is planning to install kilns and produce veneer laminates. They claim they might create 10 jobs from the money.
We’ve all tried to digest and analyse what happened and why – tried to make sense of the senseless results to the point of depression. Despite our species priding itself on being a complex and intelligent creature, we’re still an animal that has two basic drivers – fear and greed. Those in power know this …
Our dogged pursuit of the crooks involved in the opportunistic logging of a large strip of the Snowy National Park during the January ’03 fires is starting to pay off. Auditor General to scrutinise DSE. Firstly, in mid-July we received a response from the Auditor General’s Office confirming that they had decided to investigate the …
In his environment speech on May 27th, Opposition Leader Mark Latham squibbed on protecting Tasmania’s threatened forests and wildlife. Greens Senator Bob Brown said Labor is set to endorse Prime Minister Howard’s agreement to cut down, burn and poison the grandest forests in the southern hemisphere at the fastest rate in history. Bob Brown welcomed …
The brazen illegal logging of the Snowy National Park, along 60 km of its boundary during the January 2003 fires, shocked many people – even DSE personnel. An investigation was carried out into how this happened and where the logs went. The report has now been officially swept under the carpet. At the time of …
Will loggers define a big tree? The Bracks Government is now drawing up prescriptions for protecting giant trees. This is after Forestry Tasmania torched El Grande recently (which made world news), and the discovery in East Gippsland of a massive tree in a planned logging area (see front page item, Autumn ’04 Potoroo). There has …
