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 …
The latest proposed changes to the Forests Act makes the Bracks Government less accountable and less obliged to consider biodiversity. A new Bill is ready to be passed that will set up an arm of DSE called Vicforests to manage the commercial side of logging. Premier Bracks made a pre-election promise that the Department of …
New legislative measures for Tiger Quolls are coming in thick and fast, with upgraded “protection” at both State and Federal level. Following the new Action Statement at State level last year, the Feds announced on May 17 that Tiger Quolls are in deep trouble and should be upgraded to “endangered”. I tell you what, if …
The more important anniversary for the nation wasn’t PM Howard’s 30 years on the taxpayers’ teat that was celebrated recently in Sydney, but his eight years as PM and the 6 million tonnes of native forest chips per year he’s approved since 1996. Conservatively, that’s 45 million tonnes during that time as PM (refer ABARE …
APM, AMCOR, Australian Paper, Paperlinx, whatever you want to call this huge Latrobe Valley pulp and paper mill, they clearly have very close connections with the state and federal governments. Donations and gifts flow freely between them (see the article here on political donations from woodchip companies). In April, while touring Gippsland’s now marginal seat …
Despite last year’s 43% cutbacks, there was still a serious overcutting by the industry – with the full approval of DSE foresters. This year is supposed to see a reduction to make up for it. However, this year’s draft logging plan (called Wood Utilisation Plans or WUPs) has shown again how slap dash the whole …
The damning results of the Environment Protection Authority audit of logging practices in East Gippsland was released in January. Never daunted by criticism, the DSE crowed about its ‘continuous improvement’! The results show a worsening of adherence to many environmental protection codes – not an improvement. In past internal DSE audits, loggers and foresters scored …
Figures released by the Electoral Commission show the usual donations from the usual logging crowd to their usual political floosies. The CFMEU has apparently not yet submitted most of its returns, so it’s too early to say whether this union retains its position as pre-eminent woodchipping benefactor of the Labor Party. However, there is a …
When Mark Latham’s travels took him to Gippsland in February he was quizzed by students about his forthcoming trip to Tasmania. His reply was that he would keep logging old growth: “Well in Tasmania we wouldn’t want to see an end to logging in the old growth forests and I don’t think Bob Brown himself …
‘Timber Towns’ an industry PR group, funded by the logging industry, has set up its own group of logging advisors to help those wanting to log private land. They call them “Forest Practitioners” (nice). The State Government gave yet more of our money to this mob to train a few people to oversee logging on …
