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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
