TWS Vic and MyEnvironment Inc. have played private eye for the last 12 weeks to study a supply chain of logs that have been leaving our fire ravaged forest and ending up in Footscray. The forest were once home to the endangered faunal emblem of Vic – the Leadbeaters Possum. The supply chain is a …
THE financial woes of the state government’s commercial forestry arm VicForests have deepened, with it forced to go back to Treasury for a bigger loan. VicForests’ line of credit with Treasury has doubled in three years, from $12.5 million in 2009 to $25 million this year, as the company struggles with cash-flow problems. The deepening …
The report to Treasury on the performance of VicForests was revealed in late February via an FOI by the Age newspaper. >Read it here. . It details much of their mismanagement and appalling behaviour. They have illegally logged forests, not adhered to their charter, not regenerated thousands of hectares of logged forest, lost millions of …
Bob Humphreys, a saw miller from Cann River and President the of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, says “I’ve seen the writing on the wall myself for quite a long time. As far as I’m concerned the industry is as good as dead in the water.” http://www.abc.net.au/rural/vic/content/2010/11/s3066516.htm
With the late 2010 state election out of the way, VicForests released its 2010 Sustainability report, a classic piece of Spin from the last days of the Brumby era. This year VicForests appears to be more concerned with hosing down community concerns over salvage logging and biodiversity protection than providing any information about its performance …
It looks like the Coalition is well and truly home and hosed, as they say. They’ll have a majority in both houses of parliament. Their forest policy includes commitments to ”review harvesting rotations for faster growing native species such as mountain ash” which can be read as converting native forests into even more intensively managed …
In 1999, Steve Bracks’ Labor Party won government in Victoria on a commitment to return 28% mean annual natural flow (MANF) to the Snowy River below Jindabyne Dam. Legislation was passed in 2002 to return 21% by 2012. “However, more than ten years on the Snowy River is still running on empty,” said Mr. John …
The 11/11; Armistice Day, the day Gough Whitlam was sacked and the day they hung Ned Kelly. In 2010 it was also the day the ALP released its forest policy before the election. It’s business as usual dressed in drag. It includes:A round table meeting process, that won’t meet until after the election. We’d much …
On 19th October, an historic Tasmanian forest agreement showed the way that eastern Victoria’s long-running logging conflict can be solved. One of the country’s most battle-worn states has seen the logging industry, Gunns and conservation groups agree to settle the conflict in a way that keeps everyone happy. “This is a courageous move by the …
For at least the third time, the Government today announced the new additions to the reserve system in East Gippsland. The ALP’s 2006 election promise was to protect ‘the last significant stands of old growth planned for logging’. But environment groups say that most of what has been protected was either in existing protection zones, …
