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"LORDS OF THE FORESTS" (4
Corners media release)
FOUR CORNERS on ABC TV - 8.30 pm MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2004
In the slashing blades of the woodchipper, it takes just
seconds to reduce a 500-year old forest giant into a small
hill of chips.
Up to 90 per cent of the hardwood trees taken from Tasmania's
forests - myrtle, blackwood, sassafras and huon pine, some
of them old even before white men first came - end up as
woodchips destined for Japanese pulp mills.
Only a minority of these sought after timbers are cut into
sawlogs and made into higher value furniture, flooring or
building materials.
Other, smaller trees that get in the way of clearfelling
operations are left on the forest floor to be burnt.
Native animals tempted by newly planted seedlings are poisoned
with 1080-laced carrots. By this time the cycle is nearly
complete; the forest is replanted with native trees, or
it may be turned into a single species plantation with,
as one scientist put it, "all the biodiversity of a
car park".
If this seems a strange way to treat a national forest treasure,
consider this: your super contributions may be funding it.
At the heart of these practices is Gunns Limited, a billion
dollar company which now dominates Tasmania's forest industry
and cuts an imposing figure on the nation's stock market.
Gunns' share price - driven by soaring profits fuelled by
woodchips - has surged 900 per cent in just five years.
Underpinning Gunns' prosperity is a unique political alliance
which ensures that Tasmania remains the only state to clearfell
native forest. Gunns is the prize client and close partner
of the government's forestry arm, Forestry Tasmania.
Forestry Tasmania dismisses claims that it is selling public
assets - timber - on the cheap. But then there is not a
lot of criticism for Forestry Tasmania to deal with...
The main political parties are in lock-step on the aggressive
forestry policy. People who do question it are labelled
anti-jobs. Reliable information - how many trees are cut,
where, for how much - is shrouded by a lack of accountability
and a raft of secrecy provisions.
In this analysis of an extraordinary company and the culture
which nurtures it, reporter Ticky Fullerton puts the hard
questions to the small group of men who run Tasmania's forests
- such as Gunns' boss John Gay, Forestry Tasmania chief
Evan Rolley and Deputy Premier Paul Lennon...
"Lords of the Forests" - Four Corners, 8.30
pm Monday February 16, ABC TV (repeated 1 pm Tuesday).
FOUR
CORNERS - LORDS OF THE FORESTS...
============
Join the live forum after the program airs, on Monday 16
February at 9.30pm AEST.
Reporter Ticky Fullerton and special guests will be online
to answer your questions and discuss the issues raised in
the program.
============ |
PM protesters arrested
February 13, 2004
TWO protesters were arrested by Tasmania police today ahead
of Prime Minister John Howard's arrival at a community function
in Launceston..... The anti-logging protesters had gathered
at Launceston's Tram Shed, where Mr Howard was to host a
community morning tea before visiting a nearby marina.
THE
AUSTRALIAN...
Arrests at PM's visit
TWO protesters were arrested yesterday as Prime Minister
John Howard made a flying visit to the Northern Tasmanian
electorate of Bass. .......Mr Howard arrived minutes later,
striding cheerfully past a pile of woodchips dumped near
the doorway and waving to the noisy but peaceful protesters.
Inside, he embarked on a 30-minute "grip and grin",
shaking hands and chatting with about 100 invited guests,
mostly older people from community organisations.......
HOBART
MERCURY... |
Japanese activist still living in Tasmania
tree after 3 months
Friday 13 February 2004
SYDNEY — After three months living in an 83-meter-tall
hardwood tree in Tasmania to protest the logging of ancient
forests for Japan's wood-chip market, Japanese environmental
activist Sakyo Noda said Thursday he feels as he has become
"part of the forest."..... "After spending
three months here, I realize there is a lot of biodiversity
in these forests and they are very special. I saw a rare
wedge-tail eagle just this morning," Noda said.
JAPAN
TODAY...
Activist protests against paper firms by
making home in tree....
JAPAN
TIMES... |
| LATEST CON JOB BY GOVERNMENT
FORESTRY VANDALS |
Parties reject logging trickery
13 February 2004
FORESTRY DEBATE - Forestry Tasmania and the State
Government have rejected claims of a confidence trick
over their review of old-growth clearfelling. The
Tasmanian Greens, Wilderness Society, Tarkine National
Coalition, Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors
for Forests said yesterday that forestry industry
sources had informed them the Government would make
an announcement to end clearfelling in old- growth
next week. Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt said the
announcement would be a confidence
trick as the method of strip clearfelling
would be redefined as selective logging. Strip clearfelling
refers to the method of clearing 20m to 50m passages
of forest in a zebra stripe pattern......
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER... |
Forestry clearfelling language,
say Greens
13 February 2004
THE Government plans to reinvent the meaning of selective
logging to include the clearfelling of large strips
of land, according to the Greens. Using a leaked e-mail
from Forestry Tasmania to support their claims, the
Greens and representatives from four environmental
organisations said yesterday Forestry Tasmania was
planning to rename "strip clearfelling"
as "selective logging". The group released
photographs of an area known as the Warra, near the
Weld Valley in the southern forests, showing strips
of land clearfelled....... They
said the move was designed to trick people into thinking
the State Government was making an effort to reduce
clearfelling in old-growth forests......
HOBART
MERCURY... |
Greens unimpressed by clear-felling
report
Forestry Tasmania has been accused of a "con
job" in finding alternatives to old-growth
clear-felling. The Tasmanian Greens and conservationists
claim Forestry is planning smaller-scale, clear-felling
in strips and calling it selective logging. Greens
leader Peg Putt says Forestry plans to fell parallel
strips of old-growth each 50 metres wide. "What
this is, is a goal post moving exercise from the Government
and Forestry Tasmania,"......
ABC
TASMANIA... |
Strip Clearfelling = ‘Selective
Logging’ Confidence Trick
As High Conservation Value Forests Targeted in Forestry
Tasmania ‘Solution.’ The Greens today flagged
a major confidence trick
coming down the line from the logging industry and
government who are desperate to deflect mounting community
pressure over rampant forest destruction in Tasmania,
but who will not make any significant changes to their
business as usual logging agenda......
TASMANIAN
GREENS... |
|
'Funeral march' in forest demo
13 February 2004
A PROTEST against logging in the Huon Valley moved to the
city yesterday, with activists taking their message to Forestry
Tasmania's Hobart headquarters. Protesters spent two days
this week at the 43ha Denison 10F coupe near Lonnavale,
west of Huonville, before Forestry Tasmania threatened police
action when two activists attached themselves to logging
machinery on Tuesday. After leading a "funeral procession
for trees" to the Forestry Tasmania headquarters yesterday,
protesters used blue ribbon to mark out a 43ha "forestry
coupe" in the city......
HOBART
MERCURY... |
PM to face green demos
13 February 2004
PRIME Minister John Howard is expected to face protest action
from environmental groups when he flies into Tasmania today.
Mr Howard is on a whistle-stop tour of the North to promote
the Liberals' two new candidates in Bass and Braddon, Michael
Ferguson and Mark Baker, respectdhively. It is believed
green groups may be planning protest action to highlight
concerns about logging practices in Tasmania......
HOBART
MERCURY... |
Outrage As Forestry
Gates Locked On Council And Community
12 February 2004
But Video Evidence Shows a Catchment Beset by Erosion, Poisoning
and Cable Logging
The Tasmanian Greens this afternoon expressed their outrage
at the extraordinary behaviour of Forestry Tasmania that
saw a community fact finding tour of Launceston’s water
catchment, led by Mayor Janie Dickenson, locked out of inspecting
the headwaters of the North Esk by an Forestry Tasmania
boom gate leading to State forest. .....“Fortunately
local residents have had the courage and foresight to capture
video footage of the kind of appalling practices that have
been occurring and we saw images
of dead deer and other wildlife rotting in the waterways
that supply Launceston with it’s drinking water.”
“The damage and distress caused by the clear felling
of this area highlights the total failure of the RFA to
bring security to anyone but the woodchip barons,”
Mr Booth said. “I am putting Forestry
Tasmania on notice that the Greens will not cease until
such wilful disregard for the catchment, the community and
the environment is halted.”
TASMANIAN
GREENS...
Council locked out of water inspection
12 February 2004
An inspection of the condition of part of Launceston's water
catchment was thwarted yesterday when a locked Forestry
Tasmania gate stopped a planned tour group from entering
the forestry operations along the North Esk. ..... Ald.
Dickenson believed all arrangements had been made for the
North Esk Water Catchment Group to host the tour and voice
concerns about the way in which water quality was being
affected by logging. Mr Booth claimed it was an obstructive
attempt by Forestry to stop inspection of the catchment.
.....logging on steep slopes and insufficient buffers between
logging and streams had resulted in severe erosion in some
areas and the silting up of waterways. 1080 poison had been
laid too close to streams and hundreds of animals had died,
many in the waterways, he claimed. The group showed video
evidence of dead deer, wallabies and possums in just one
of the coupes in the Ben Nevis area. Mr Rousell
said that the water quality of the area had changed so much
that those residents who could afford to had given up taking
water from the North Esk and had installed more tanks at
their homes. "However, some residents simply can't
afford to put in new water storage," he said.
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER (by subsciption)...
Rolley Naïve On Community Crisis
Locked Gate Was The Last Straw. The Tasmanian Greens today
branded Forestry Tasmania managing director Evan Rolley,
naïve and ignorant of community feeling, in the face
of his claims that the frustration over a community tour
locked out of an inspection site in the upper North Esk
on Wednesday, was ‘ridiculous’. Greens Member
for Bass, Kim Booth MHA, said that the locked gate was the
last straw for the North Esk residents who have seen the
surrounding hills cleared, their water quality adversely
affected and wildlife destroyed without a single second
of community consultation from Forestry Tasmania. Mr Booth
also said that Mr Rolley’s attempts to trivialise the
depth of feeling about the incident was an attempt to deflect
the fact that Forestry’s rhetoric claiming they are
committed to transparent community consultation, does not
live up to their actions.....
TASMANIAN
GREENS... |
4 CORNERS
The rampant clearfelling and woodchipping of our high conservation
value native forests in Tasmania is receiving world wild
attention and is now at ignition point! Hopefully, we may
at last have some more decent investigative journalism on
the subject, courtesy of an ABC tv 4-Corners team who recently
spent extended time in Tasmania investigating this issue.
As a result, the long anticipated ABC 4-Corners story on
Tasmanian forestry will go on air next Monday
the 16th of February at 8:30pm. There will then
be a live feedback forum from 9:30pm on the website: www.abc.net.au/4corners
The programme will then be replayed on the ABC tv the next
day at 1pm on Tuesday the 17th of February. Please send
this news far and wide, it is hoped that the report will
further expose the vile parasite that is Labor and Liberal's
woodchipping dream!
Cheers and keep smiling.
Neil Cremasco - 12 February 2004 |
Discover Tasmania going strong
12 February 2004
• Despite a recent DoS attack on one of our servers
and the continuance of receiving hundreds of dedicated emails
per week containing viruses, Discover Tasmania remains unaffected
and we enjoy the assumed disgust of those vandals who are
trying to knobble us.
• AND due to the Today Show on Channel Nine television
featuring Tasmania this week and plugging Discover Tasmania,
the Discover
Tasmania websites are currently enjoying a larger than
usual audience. Thankyou Sami Lukis, Steve Liebmann, Tracy
Grimshaw, Sharyn Ghidella, Richard Wilkins and all the team
at the Channel 9 Today Show; http://sites.ninemsn.com.au/minisite/today/default.asp |
Parliament of Australia - MATTERS OF PUBLIC
INTEREST
Forestry: Timber Communities Australia (TCA)
....Timber Communities Australia
is, in fact, an astroturf organisation, to use its own public
relations jargon—fake grassroots ..... Timber
Communities Australia will front prominently in the campaign
to provide an `authentic' or `genuine' veneer of credibility.
For Timber Communities Australia, read Kate Carnell, John
Gay and, indeed, as you will, their supporters in the Premier
Jim Bacon and Deputy Premier Paul Lennon. As Ron Arnold
said way back, `Facts don't matter; in politics perception
is reality.' This anticonservation
woodchip industry strategy, fronted by Timber Communities
Australia, is an abuse of truth, a manipulation of public
opinion and so an undermining of democracy, which
depends on credible and properly attributed information.....
SENATOR
BOB BROWN - HANSARD 11 Feb 04... |
Police may be called to end logging protest
11 February 2004
FORESTRY Tasmania will ask police to remove two activists
from logging equipment today if a protest in the Denison
Valley continues. Activists disrupted logging operations
near Lonnavale yesterday by attaching themselves with a
special device to logging machinery. They have demanded
detailed information on logging plans for Tasmania's southern
forests and said they were prepared to stay overnight. Lonnavale
resident Louise Morris said two activists would remain attached
to machinery unless the information was provided. "Logging
impacts on residents so we want to list what coupes will
be logged and exactly when coupes will be logged and a map
with drawn borders -- not just a global positioning system
reference in the centre of a coupe," Ms Morris said.....
HOBART
MERCURY... |
Logging Halted
in Denison Valley
Activists today stopped work in the Denison Valley
by attaching themselves to logging machinery in
order to highlight the close proximity of logging
operations to the Southwest World heritage Area.
The group is demanding detailed information on the
logging plans for the Southern Forests of Tasmania......
WEBCAST
NEWS...
|
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Protesters, loggers at loggerheads over
forest work
February 10, 2004
Protesters in southern Tasmania say they have stopped logging
work in the Denison Valley near Huonville. They say two
people have attached themselves to logging equipment. Protester
Juile Fielder says the group wants to highlight the proximity
of the logging to the south-west world heritage area. "A
group of people have gone out into the bush and two people
have attached themselves to machinery with metal pipe,"
she said. "This morning the timber workers have arrived
to work and there's been no conflict between the timber
workers and the people in the forest and basically they've
prevented work happening in the coupe, Denison 10 F, which
is in the Denison Forest just next to the snowy range in
southern Tasmania."
ABC
ONLINE... |
INVITATION to PLANTATION / FORESTRY AWARENESS
WALK
SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2004 * STARTS AT 10 A.M. * BURNIE
CIVIC CENTRE PLAZA
SPEAKERS include:
• Graham Green, Timber Workers for Forests;
• John Hayward, Legal rights & valuation
issues;
• David Leaman, Hydrologist;
• Julian Wolfhagen, President, Tasmanian Beekeepers;
• plus local organisers;
'Let's remind the government and local councils about
the land, the resources and the community wealth we have
lost.'
Bring your mops, homemade signs and remember: we did this
in 2000.
for details CONTACT: Dave Reid 6438 1197 • Malcolm
Ryan 6433 4899 • Colleen Dibley 6445 9141 |
Forestry industry told to clean up its
act
7 February 2004
One of Australia's leading campaigners for a clean
environment has urged Tasmania's forestry industry to stop
harvesting old-growth timber. Ian Kiernan used the launch
of this year's Clean Up Australia Day campaign in Hobart
to condemn the harvesting of the timber. Mr Kiernan says
he does not like to criticise Tasmanians while he is in
the state but felt compelled to do so yesterday. He
says the logging of Tasmania's old-growth forests to supply
woodchip markets has become an international talking point.
"I am constantly, in my role at Clean Up the World,
receiving very strong criticism from around the world about
the destruction of the forests down here, and the impact
it is having on the environment that is not sustainable,"
he said. Mr Kiernan believes Tasmania is destroying its
future by logging ancient forests like the Styx. He says
people can help to restore the state's green image by nominating
a site to clean up on March 7, or volunteering to collect
rubbish.
ABC
ONLINE...
Clean Up Australia founder joins anti-logging camp
Another high profile Australian has added his voice to criticism
of old-growth logging in Tasmania. The founder of the Clean
Up Australia campaign says it is harming the state's international
image. Ian Kiernan was in Hobart to launch the 15th annual
Clean Up Australia Day. Mr Kiernan says the theme this year
is "let's make Tassie shine", but he warns the
state is losing its shine overseas where many are questioning
the use of old-growth timber for woodchips. "But
it is of world concern and it is the destruction of your
future as far as I can see," he said.....
ABC
ONLINE...
ABC
TASMANIA... |
Quest for forest facts takes Libs into
the Styx
7 February 2004
THE State Opposition broke the ice and visited the Styx
Valley yesterday as another prominent Australian spoke out
against logging old-growth forests. Liberal leader Rene
Hidding described his fact-finding mission trekking through
the Styx as a "great day" and even praised tree-sitting
protesters at the Global Earth Station site. "We went
to the heart of the Styx, a terrific part of Tasmania, and
the Global Earth Station site is impressive," Mr Hidding
said.......Mr Kiernan said old-growth logging was harming
Tasmania's image overseas. "I am constantly, in my
role at Clean Up the World, receiving very strong criticism
from around the world about the destruction of the forests
down here and the impact that's having on the environment,"
Mr Kiernan said. "That is not sustainable.".....
HOBART
MERCURY...
Hidding keeps options open on old-growth
felling
Tasmanian Opposition leader Rene Hidding insists
he is keeping an open mind on the practice of clearfelling
old-growth forest.......Liberal backbencher and Bass MHA
Peter Gutwein, says he is glad the party is at least seeing
the issues first-hand. "The view that I took 12 months
ago was that I'd like to see a stop to clearfelling of old-growth
and that a review should be undertaken of the Liberals'
position," he said....
ABC
ONLINE... |
Power of people to prevail: Brown
Saturday, 7 February 2004
Greens Senator Bob Brown speaks to CHRIS JOHNSON as part
of The Examiner's continuing series on Tasmania's forestry
debate. Senator sees forest parallel with uprising against
Franklin dam `The woodchip industry is driven by greed.
I have no dollars depending on this but the big players
do '. It is the Franklin dam debate all over again, says
Greens Senator Bob Brown of Tasmania's contentious forestry
issue.
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER (Subscription)...
Related story 7 Feb 04 - Visit won't
assure preference deal. Greens Senator Bob Brown said yesterday
that his invitation to Mr Latham to visit Tasmania's forests
next month did not mean that a preference deal was in the
making.
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER (Free)... |
LENNON used scare
tactics, Putt says
TASMANIAN Greens leader Peg Putt yesterday accused
deputy Premier Paul Lennon of using "hysterical scare
tactics" over the end of old-growth logging in Western
Australia. Ms Putt, who is in WA studying the Gallop Labor
Government's forest policy changes, wants
Mr Lennon to immediately apologise for misleading Tasmanians
on the effects of ending logging in timber towns including
Manjimup.....
HOBART
MERCURY 7 Feb 04...
Greens Leader’s Study Tour Of WA To End Old Growth
Forests Logging
6 February 2004
The Tasmanian Greens today condemned as a total fabrication
statements made last year by Deputy Premier Paul Lennon
over the supposed impacts of the cessation of logging Western
Australia’s old growth forests, as they revealed that
their Parliamentary Leader has spent this week in Western
Australia studying the Labor government’s forest policy
changes...... Ms Putt, still in WA, called on the Deputy
Premier to immediately apologise for misleading Tasmanians
by grossly over-stating the impacts on jobs and businesses
in an attempt to scare Tasmanians out of moving to protect
high conservation value forests and refocus the remaining
native forests industry into high-end value-adding.....
TASMANIAN
GREENS...
AND WA Report that includes Lennon's
Statement to Parliament
THE
REPORT FROM DR. GEOFF COUSER Dec 03 WHO VISITED WA LAST
YEAR (PDF 262k)...
AND >>>>>>>
• John Lennon said: "Well, crying for it wasn't
enough. The thing the sixties did was show us the possibilities
and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer.
It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.";
• And Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: "There are no
morals in politics, there is only expedience. A scoundrel
may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.";
"Fascism is capitalism in decay.";
• And then there was the Forests Minister, Paul
Lennon, denying that the forest industry poisons Australian
native wildlife, but, rather, that they 'regulate the populations
of browsing mammals'. (A Current Affair, September 2002). |
Giant
crayfish face chop from loggers
February 06, 2004
A TASMANIAN landowner is fighting to stop logging that he
says endangers the local habitat of the largest freshwater
crustacean in the world. Paul Clark, a professional track
worker, lives on a 12ha property surrounded by tall timber
in the Duck River upper catchment in the state's northwest
corner, home to the giant freshwater crayfish that is a
native of Tasmania. Mr Clark yesterday met Forestry Tasmania
officers on his remote property to try to convince them
not to clearfell a 96ha area near his land which is part
of a habitat that supports not only the giant crayfish,
but also wedge-tail eagles, goshawks, the rare velvet worm
and the keeled snail. The giant crayfish, or Astacopsis
gouldi, is listed as vulnerable on state and national registers.
Larger specimens are particularly rare.....
THE
AUSTRALIAN...
GIANT
FRESHWATER LOBSTER (Astacopsis gouldi) GOVERNMENT FACT SHEET...
MORE
ON LOBSTER... Cray stream fury at Calder River
MORE
ON LOBSTER... Delays kill crays in forestry deadlock |
Styx logging foes to meet at point of
conflict
5 February 2004
TASMANIA'S Liberals will visit the Styx Valley with the
Wilderness Society's national campaign director Alec Marr.
Liberals leader Rene Hidding confirmed yesterday that the
Liberals would spend tomorrow in the Styx Valley.....It
is expected they will meet with tree-sitters who have been
perched 65m from the ground in eucalypt trees since November
as a protest against logging in the valley....
HOBART
MERCURY...
STYX
WEBLOG...
QUESTION - I wonder if
Forestry Tasmania will be opening the road for Hidding &
Co, when it's closed to mere mortals?
DETAILS
of how to get to the Global Rescue Station & road closures |
DOCTORS FOR FORESTS
VINDICATED:
TASMANIAN WOODCHIPS ARE PREDOMINANTLY FROM OLD-GROWTH FORESTS
4 February 2004
....“I have been amazed by the response of the industry
and government…they have done everything to duck and
weave around the fact that 85.4% of Australians were in
favour of protecting Tasmania’s old growth forests
from woodchipping. Critics have been trying to invalidate
the question, hoping that the resounding result will be
ignored.”....
DOCTORS
FOR FORESTS...
AND THE
DFF ANALYSIS (PDF)...
So.... Woodchips are largely sourced from Old
Growth Forests!!
4 February 2004
Forestry Tasmania's managing director says that his organisation
shares the view with most Tasmanians that there
should be a transition away from the timber industry relying
predominantly on the State's old-growth forests.......But
he adds that the task is not as simple as some might suggest........"To
move the industry from predominantly
old forests into regrowth and hardwood plantations,
you've actually got to have a market driver......"The
whole of this business is about getting out of old-growth
and into regrowth and plantation.....
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER - "Forestry future out in the open" -
(by subsciption)...
Vindicated! Rolley’s
comments blow Tas forests poll critics out of the water...
...."The Doctors for Forests poll said that
woodchips exported from Tasmania are 'largely from oldgrowth
forests'. Mr Rolley has now confirmed that most forests
logged are oldgrowth. As over 90% of logs from each oldgrowth
forest logged is turned into woodchips, that means Tasmania's
woodchips come largely from oldgrowth."
4 FEBRUARY 2004
FROM
THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY...
>>>>>>>>>>
NEXT QUESTION...
What is the definition of "Re-growth", considering
that Old Growth Forests, re-grow all the time?
As Forestry Tasmania does not respond to questions from
NEWS TASMANIA....
SUBMIT
YOUR DEFINITION HERE... |
Greenpeace prediction.... A message for
Tasmania?
When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, it was said that
lawyers not yet born would argue the case. Those lawyers
are 15-year-olds today. We'll make another prediction: lawyers
not yet born will be taking Exxon to court again in the
future. The charge will be negligent asphyxiation of our
planet....
MORE...
|
Gunns salvo for Europe protest
4 February 2004
TASMANIA'S contentious forestry debate was exported to Europe
yesterday when Greenpeace members demonstrated outside a
Belgian importer of timber products from Gunns Ltd [about
Gunns]....Twenty Greenpeace members held up banners
saying "Save the ancient forest, stop buying Gunns
Ltd" at the Bomaco timber yard. Bomaco [about
Bomaco] imports hardwood known as Tasmanian oak. Greenpeace
claimed the timber was clearfelled from the world's tallest
hardwood forests. It claimed a total of 90 per cent was
exported to Japan as woodchips. The timber yard entrance
was blocked with mock dead wallabies to illustrate the use
of poison to kill native wildlife.....
HOBART
MERCURY...
| Giving it to Gunns in
Belgium |
|
|
 |
Tasmanian ancient timber trade to Belgium
exposed
Hobart Friday, 30 January, 2004 : Greenpeace and
the Wilderness Society continue their campaign to expose
and stop the international export of Tasmania’s ancient
forest as timber and woodchips by Tasmanian logging company
Gunns Ltd. The world’s tallest hardwood trees, Eucalyptus
regnans, along with other tall tree species Eucalyptus delegatensis
and Eucalyptus obliqua, are being clearfelled, sold to Gunns,
and some of it exported to Europe as ‘Tasmanian Oak’.
Currently the buyers of Tasmanian oak products do not know
that these products are sourced from Tasmania’s ancient
forests and trees aged up to 400 years old. These products
include framing timbers, beams, flooring and veneer.....
GREENPEACE
AUSTRALIA PACIFIC... |
Crikey says....
on Dodgy Donations
3 February 2004
POLLIE DONATIONS PAYING OFF IN TASSIE....What a pity
that Tasmania has no donations disclosure requirements,
and that Tasmanians must continue to wait for the Federal
disclosures to find out who is purchasing influence in the
island state......
CRIKEY.com.au...
Political Donations Tell Interesting Story
2 February 2004
.....“Is it just a coincidence that Labor got big donations
from Gunns Ltd, the Federal Group and Philip Morris Ltd
and have presided over increased woodchip exports, an expanded
pokies rollout and further exclusive deal with Federal Hotels,
and went to water on a full smoking ban in pubs and clubs?”.....
TASMANIAN
GREENS... |
Billions set to flow into plantations
February 2, 2004
Industry and government have agreed on a strategy that is
likely to pump billions of dollars of investment into the
plantation sector in the next 15 years. The Federal and
State Governments and the plantation timber industry have
relaunched the 2020 Vision, a blueprint that aims to treble
the area of commercial tree crops by 2020.....
THE
MELBOURNE AGE... |
Tree farms won't halt climate change
CO2 surge- The problem is soils. Forest soils and the organic
matter buried in them typically contain three to four times
as much carbon as the vegetation above. CarboEurope's researchers
have discovered that when ground
is cleared for forest planting, rotting organic
matter in the soil releases a surge of CO2 into the air.
This release will exceed the CO2 absorbed by growing trees
for at least the first 10 years, they say. Only later will
the uptake of carbon by the trees begin to offset the losses
from soils. In fact, says CarboEurope chairman Han Dolman
of the Free University Amsterdam, some new forests planted
on wet, peaty soils will never absorb as much carbon as
they spit out....
NEWSCIENTIST.com...
|
A film is not to be missed!! -
posted 1 Feb 04
It's another chance to see the most talked about Tasmanian
films in years:
"The Battle of Baker's Creek"
It was filmed over 8 months by Tasmanian film maker Brian
Dimmick, who was part of the action, as locals mobilised
against woodchip giant Gunns Ltd. Footage
includes a number of arrests and the alleged assault on
Brian by a logger.
The residents of Lucaston are still planning to fight the
logging of their beautiful valley this month, and the woodchippers
look like moving in soon. This film tells their story and
will inspire others to stand against inappropriate development
in their area. A short film about logging in Badja State
Forest in NSW will also be screened.
Where: Huon Valley Environment Centre
- 17 Wilmot Rd Huonville (turn right @ the roundabout if
coming from North)
When: This Friday 6th Feb - 6:30pm
Cost: $10 includes supper
It might pay to BYO folding chair & cushions too, just
in case there's a big rollup!!
More info: The Huon Valley Environment
Centre, Tasmania (03) 6264 1286 |
Conservative Sportsmen turn against Bush
Hunting and Fishing Conservation ~V~ Resource Development
on Public Lands is a Growing Issue.
As things stand now, this place is doomed. Late last month,
the [Bush] administration announced it would exempt the
Tongass National Forest from the roadless rule, set in place
by former president Bill Clinton, which protected 58 million
acres of public land nationwide. Former timber lobbyist
Mark Rey, now undersecretary of Agriculture, spearheaded
the rollback. Fifty industrial clear-cutting operations
in untouched areas of the Tongass are set to move forward...
The "right thing" as far as the Northern Sportsmen
are concerned is protecting the Tongass against the damage
wreaked by clear-cutting and the encroachment of road into
some of the nations largest remaining chunks of Wilderness......
"We want to make this an election
issue".....
USA
TODAY..... A Subscription Article |
Greens critical
of tree line
January 30, 2004
Labor's attempts at a clean and green image took a battering
yesterday as environmental leaders criticised the party
for not moving fast enough to protect Tasmania's old growth
forests. Protesters with banners urging the party to change
its policy on forestry greeted Mark Latham as he entered
the conference. At the end of the first day the party recommended
no change to the regional forestry agreements negotiated
between state and federal governments. Although the spokesman
on the environment, Kelvin Thomson, began his speech with
an anecdote about visiting Tasmania's forests, he named
climate change, not logging, as the biggest threat to their
long-term future. "I visited Tasmania last week, and
I saw thousands of dead trees in the Midlands," Mr
Thomson said. "The principal reason they died is from
moisture stress, caused by the lower rainfall and higher
temperatures which constitute the changing climate of Tasmania's
Midlands.".......
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD...
------------
Logging in Tasmania, a climate change issue.
....The clearance of mature forests (sometimes called ‘old
growth forests’) is a form of land clearance that contributes
to greenhouse. This has been drawn to the attention of the
Prime Minister by the Wentworth Group of distinguished scientists.
It has also been drawn to the attention of the governments
of the world in the recent report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prepared by 300 world scientists,
some of whom are members of Doctors for the Environment
Australia. This clearance releases carbon dioxide not replaced
by replanting and destroys ecological communities that will
be resistant to climate change. There are additional health
impacts in terms of loss of biodiversity.....
DOCTORS
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, AUSTRALIA...
Recognizing Forests' Role
in Climate Change
The world's forests provide many important benefits: Home
to more than half of all species living on land, forests
also help slow global warming by storing and sequestering
carbon. Forests are sources of wood products. They help
regulate local and regional rainfall. And forests are crucial
sources of food, medicine, clean drinking water, and immense
recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits for millions
of people......
UNION
OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS... |
NEWS TASMANIA COMMENT - ON THE COMPONENT
OF OLD GROWTH FORESTS THAT ARE WOODCHIPPED
ACCORDING to Forestry
Tasmania (a Tasmanian Government Business Enterprise)
in its annual report 2002-2003, 16,900 hectares of Native
Forest were harvested that year. Of this figure according
to Bob Gordon of Forestry Tasmania (Financial Times 9 Jan
04), there is included a component of 1,500 hectares of
Old Growth Forests. Up to date facts and figures other than
what they want you to hear, are difficult or virtually impossible
to obtain from Forestry Tasmania and they are exempt from
Freedom of Information laws due to the mafia like secrecy
installed by the Tasmanian Government which does nothing
to dispel the beliefs and perception of distrust and corruption.
It is believed the Forestry Tasmania definition of an "Old
Growth Forest" is a forest that has not seen an axe,
chainsaw or fire for at least 100 years, which perhaps explains
the reason for the large amount of unnatural forest fires
that Tasmania has and apparently ignores the fact that a
natural wildfire can be an intrinsic component of an Old
Growth Forest at some time in its life. The wash up here
is, if any sort of fire happens to Old Growth...
it becomes outside the Forestry Tasmania definition of Old
Growth Forest.
Also outside the Forestry Tasmania definition,
is the type of "Styx Valley" Old Growth, as is
has been selectively logged for generations. Because of
this established activity, which most people have no problem
with, Forestry Tasmania now claims a right to clearfell,
burn and poison, thus setting the precedent which is often
referred to as vandalism.
If the above Forestry Tasmania definition is accurate (true
to form Forestry Tasmania does not respond to NEWS TASMANIA'S
email request for a non ambiguous definition), what legislation
gives Forestry Tasmania the right to put such a biased and
onerous definition to the phrase, "Old Growth Forest"?
As soon as its disturbed, which is the very thing vandals
do, it's not high conservation Old Growth anymore.
ACCORDING to The Wilderness Society (at
this page) there it is currently 22,000 hectares of
Native Forest being logged every year in Tasmania of which
9,000 hectares is the Old Growth Forest component.
ACCORDING to The Wilderness Society (at
this page) the vast majority of so-called Forestry Tasmania's
'Mixed-age Native Forests' are, in fact, Old Growth Forests.
ACCORDING to a FIAT (Forest Industry Association
of Tasmania) and Federal Forest Minister Ian Macdonald's
quotations in the media (The
Age, The
Mercury, The
Examiner):
~ 80 per cent of woodchips is from Mixed Age Forest &
Old Growth Forests;
~ 20 per cent is from plantations.
AS USUAL, Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon refused through
a spokesman to be approached for comment. Perhaps if it
were possible, he could be asked how he sees:
the distinction between the Forestry Tasmania definition
of Old Growth and the Wilderness Society definition;
OR the distinction between Mixed Age Forests and Old Growth
Forests;
OR why a 400 year Old Growth tree is no longer Old Growth
if another tree within "X" number of metres or
kilometres is selectively logged;
but of course when things are not going too good... he hides,
and the ridiculous quest for a definition of the term "Old
Growth Forest" continues, to the delight of the vandals.
WHICHEVER figure one takes (Forestry Tasmania or
Wilderness Society or FIAT/Minister Macdonald), it is a
fact that the forest industry is chipping away at the remaining
13% (or whatever figure it may be) of what is left of Old
Growth Forest in Tasmania in comparison to what was there
pre-European settlement, much of that being converted to
plantation already.
The Tasmanian Government argument for logging Old Growth
Forests is that it provides sawmill timber, and gives this
as a predominant reason that Old Growth Forests must be
cut down as the plantation timber is inadequate or immature.
Well the writer of this article and many others, have seen
log truck after log truck after log truck after log truck
after log truck carting huge Old Growth Forest logs (exhibiting
the fact that they are "OLD" by virtue of their
massive size) on Tasmania's roads that have been purposely
and illegally split to make them unsuitable as sawmill timber.
Thus they are not on their way to the sawmill or some sort
of value adding as they are purportedly cut down for, but
on their way to the chipper instead.
These beautiful old trees which are home to a vast range
of wildlife from eagles to possums, are being clearfelled
under the scam of sawmill timber purposes, when they
are really cut down for woodchips in order to make the land
available for the land baron plantations and gain the benefit
of vastly lower royalties payable for woodchip timber over
sawmill timber thus defrauding the Tasmania community
out of the Old Growth Forest resource and the true value
of the royalties as
well as limiting supply of timber to the market thus hiking
the cost of timber products for the benefit of the timber
barons to the detriment of consumers.
Tasmanians should not be marching
to Parliament House or Forestry Tasmania, they should
be marching to the Police station.
Here are some of the current stories touching on the subject:
THE
AUSTRALIAN...
THE
MELBOURNE AGE...
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER 29 Jan 04...
THE
MERCURY 29 Jan 04...
THE
MERCURY 30 Jan 04...
THE
WILDERNESS SOCIETY...
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER 31 Jan 04...
• AND MORE
ON THE SCAM HERE...(UPDATED 1 Feb 04) |
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