Economic future sees native forests upstanding, not woodchipped/burnt in greenhouse furnaces
Friends of the Earth Sydney
August 17, 2000
To NSW and Federal Parliamentarians
The following letter is a response to the grossly misleading letter writing campaign by the native forest logging industry representative, Mr Colin Dorber, in NSW newspapers lately. As usual he is promoting a false, cynical message by suggesting that greens are always negative for opposing native forest woodchipping to feed power station furnaces.
Similarly he says native forests should be burned for charcoal production - yet WA mallee eucalypt species grown in plantations can produce this charcoal, a sideline in eucalyptus oil, and reduce salinity problems, according to Dr Paul Fung of the CSIRO.
In fact the economic case for logging native forests at all has been soundly rebutted by the amazing domination of the wood products industry by commercially more successful existing plantation stockpiles, and the multi-million dollar investment going into processing this stockpile in NSW.
Green groups have advocated for many years a tranfer to existing plantation resources to take pressue of native forests, with some important qualifications. As this is happening with thousands of jobs being created, the desperate troglodytes in the diminishing native forest sector as they lose their traditional market share, want to clearfell the unprotected native forest to feed power stations. This gives a whole new meaning to the term "fire sale" of our natural heritage.
Rumour has it that both the Federal Labor and NSW Labor Party, along with the Coalition, support this short sighted, irresponsible burning of forests for energy. The truth is the proposition should be ruled out as a dangerous nonesense likely to destroy precious and rare natural heritage forever. Only 5% of Australia's land mass has forest cover with less than one fifth protected.
Yours truly,
Tom McLoughlin, forest policy
Friends of the Earth, Sydney
Letter to the editor, Daily Telegraph - 16/8/2000
- Economic future sees native forests upstanding, not woodchipped/burnt in greenhouse furnaces
I refer to the letter by one representative of the logging industry spruiking for native forests to be burnt in power station furnaces ("Stalled by the Greens" Letters 16/8) , and complaining that environmentalists are always negative on economic matters.
Firstly in the last 3 weeks alone $74 million ($50 million private funds) and many new jobs have been invested in processing the plantation stockpile in regional NSW (Tumut, Bombala and Oberon). Another unrelated plantation company has just posted a 141% increase in profit. The plantation resource, one million hectares nationally, is the modern reality of the timber industry as predicted by environmentalists, but they also caution against new plantations without proper land planning.
So there is simply no economic justification for burning 800,000 tonnes a year of NSW native forests for forest destroying "renewable" energy. Industry reports show this so called "waste wood" makes up 9 out of every 10 native trees logged in south east NSW and woodchipped at Eden. That's 130 truck deliveries a day. Do coastal communities really want more destruction of their water catchments and wildlife? The truth is native forest woodchipping must stop completely and be replaced by environmentally planned tree farms on existing cleared land.
Tom McLoughlin, forest policy officer tel. 9517 3900, 0410 558838.
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, SYDNEY