WA: Archbishop says timber workers are mischief making
Copyright 2000 AAP Information Services Pty Ltd
October 19, 2000
By Selina Day
PERTH, Oct 19 AAP
The head of the Anglican church in Australia has rejected as mischief-making attempts by timber workers in Western Australia to embroil him in a logging debate.
Mill workers in the small WA timber town of Nannup have accused Archbishop Peter Carnley of double standards over what they say are anti-logging comments he made about a forest management plan for Nannup, 280km south of Perth.
Select trees are to be logged this summer on a block along the Blackwood River, which runs through Nannup, as part of Conservation and Land Management department (CALM) forest management plans.
Dr Carnley, who is building his retirement house on land he owns at Nannup, near the block to be managed by CALM, yesterday expressed concerns about the effect of logging on salinity.
He told ABC radio that the plans to "chop down trees close to the river" came at a time when Prime Minister John Howard was trying to address salinity issues through a national tree-planting program.
Timber workers said yesterday's remarks came as workers prepared to process an order of old-growth jarrah placed personally by Dr Carnley at the Nannup mill last Monday.
"Dr Carnley has been caught out with double standards on his views about forest management," said Trish Townsend, WA coordinator of timber community lobby group, Timber Communities Australia.
But Archbishop Carnley said timber industry representatives had mischievously tried to make out that he was opposed to all logging.
"It's not a matter of logging as such, but precisely where and how much and for what purposes," Dr Carnley said.
"We obviously need some timber for construction purposes. Almost every house has some timber in it."
He said his Nannup house, which would have a steel frame and Hardie board construction, would nonetheless contain "a modest amount of timber".
However, Dr Carnley said, this was not the point.
"Picking over the huge area of previously logged forests is one thing; the devastation of pristine areas is quite another," he said.
"Similarly, indiscriminate logging, which ends up as woodchip, railway sleepers and charcoal, is quite a different thing from selective logging for the construction industry and furniture."
Dr Carnley said logging on the banks of the Blackwood, at the same time as increasing concern over salinity, was "alarming and offensive".
"There is growing concern that salination in the river will rise if the timber on its banks is cut down," he said.
But Ms Townsend said scientific studies had shown that forest management had no impact on salinity.
She also disputed Dr Carnley's claim that his house would use only a modest amount of timber, saying he had ordered at least 9.667 cubic metres, which equated to about 238.6 square metres.