Dr Hans Drielsma (Mercury Letters, February 22) has again taken it upon himself to try to bamboozle the people of Tasmania with plausible-sounding numbers describing hundreds of thousands of hectares of state leatherwood forest left for beekeepers by Forestry Tasmania.
The facts are that these figures are incorrect, not least because the map from which they were calculated has large, landscape-sized errors.
For example, in the south the Styx Valley is shown as being rich with leatherwood but there aren’t any hive sites there because beekeepers know there is almost no leatherwood there.
Even if the map was better, the quoted figures would be meaningless because they have been arrived at by counting up all the little bits and pieces of phantom leatherwood in streamside reserves or high altitudes or other areas that are useless to commercial beekeepers.
Old RFA trick
This is an old RFA trick which should be exposed for what it is!
Dr Drielsma would also know that Forestry Tasmania’s leatherwood map is not good enough to be used by his planners (they’ve told us that themselves). After all, why were the helicopter flights necessary if the leatherwood map was good enough?
Dr Drielsma is also well aware that research is underway to produce a new leatherwood map which will hopefully better represent the beekeepers’ view of the resource!
Then there is the old state of the forests trick about the number of sites increasing under the clearfell and burn management of Forestry Tasmania. What Dr Drielsma has forgotten to tell us is that the leatherwood around all of the 64 sites in the Huon district (south of Huonville) has been badly damaged or almost completely destroyed by clearfelling and burning!
Indeed the only commercial sites left there are those around the edges where the bees can fly to leatherwood in the World Heritage Area! That’s why beekeepers are so anxious to protect the leatherwood in the Wedge forest block near Lake Gordon.
Relentless tide of clearfelling
It’s the most remote and far-flung corner of Forestry Tasmania’s southern empire: the place where commercial beekeepers like John Duncombe, David Henry, Roland Heese and others have been pushed to by the relentless tide of clearfelling and burning which is not stopping!
Evidence of this is the beekeepers’ estimate that 25 per cent of their capacity in this area is threatened by smash and burn cable harvesting in Forestry Tasmania’s current three-year wood production plan!
Had Dr Drielsma or other forest industry representatives attended the meeting, which was advertised twice in The Mercury beforehand, they would’ve heard southern beekeepers talking about the issues outlined above and giving personal testimony about their experiences in the forests of Tasmania.
They would’ve been most welcome to comment and contribute in the same way that many others did on the night.
As it is, the public meeting passed an important resolution: that there be an (immediate) end to the clearfelling and burning of leatherwood. That is what beekeepers will be working to achieve in the coming weeks.
Hedley Hoskinson (President), Eric Cave (Secretary), Laurie Cowen, John Duncombe, Roland Heese, Dominic Mulder, Peter Norris, Simon Pigot – Southern Beekeepers’ Executive. This was first published in The Mercury.
Justa Bloke
March 17, 2005 at 05:52
Whereas honey, and especially leatherwood honey, is a crucial element of all that we want Tasmania’s economy and image to be, and whereas it is economically irrational to destroy a unique and valuable resource, the fact remains that the image and economy of Tasmania must take second (or third or lower) place to the profits of woodchippers.
If we vary from this principle we (meaning the directors and shareholders of such companies) are committing economic suicide.
Beekeepers do not have the interests of woodchipping at heart, which makes them ipso facto traitors to Tasmania.
Rick pilkington
March 20, 2005 at 13:33
Yet another casualty of the all consuming forestry industry and it doesn’t make pleasant reading.
The harsh reality is that beekeepers and other smaller players who are getting in the way of the RFA gravy train should probably cut and run now, because it’s all aboard the woodchip express and no stops till we reach the bank.
The federal govt. is now 4 months overdue with its plan to save the forests and the silence from CFMEU & Tas forest industry is deafening. I imagine they are probably very busy and just trusting that their new friend Mr. Howard will do the right thing!
So are the people with the power to change things in Tasmania listening to folks like beekeepers? Hearing maybe? Not listening it would seem.
When questioned by Peg Putt at a recent Government business estimates committee, Minister for Infrastructure, Energy and Resources Bryan Green, continually argued that all is well in the Tasmanian beekeeping industry. Greater production, more sites!
Green argued that this was mainly due to the wonderful relationship that now exists between Forestry Tasmania and the apiarian industry.
Yet this seems to be at odds with what we are hearing from the SBA at the very least.
During questioning Green was also made aware of the effects of cable logging in the Wedge bloc. Green went on record as saying he should meet with those people who had photographic evidence of the alleged breaches of the FP code. I hope these folks have taken him up on this.
For those who are interested in reading this revealing exchange.
http://www.hansard.parliament.tas.gov.au/ISYSquery/IRL86D.tmp/2/doc
It is abundantly clear from the experiences of Tasmanian people documented on this website, let alone other print and electronic media, that forest industry representatives including the company that cannot be named and members of the present administration have no genuine interest in smaller players like Beekeepers, small farmers, saw millers, budding tourist operators or folks worried about water issues, concerned residents of the Blue Tier, South Sister, Launceston, Lucaston, Middleton or any other Tasmanian town whose interests in our ‘multiple use’ forests conflict in any way threaten potential profits for the RFA boys! The level of disregard those who desire to share our forests, ie beekeepers, are held in, is evidenced by the continual breaches of those sections of the forest practices code designed to protect the interests of other users. This has also extensively documented.
The fact is, the industry has the rubber stamp in the RFA and that’s all that matters. They can bend the rules as much as they can get away with, whilst you and I must abide by the RFA, respecting it as a sacred agreement whose integrity must never be compromised
The other problem for smaller players like beekepers is 100% uncritical state and federal Govt support . Pollies will never be seen, to be not defending those so-called 10,000 or so forestry ‘jobs’ in Tasmania.
Then of course there is a for-profit print media that is historically very timid, conservative and ultimately supportive of the woodchip industry, particularly in my home town Launceston.
The great body of forestry industry related reports, opinion pieces and editorials published in The Examiner over the years, has overwhelmingly privileged and often uncritically presented pro-industry views whilst marginalising its critics. Of this there is no question. Don’t make me do another media analysis of this paper. Life’s too short!
The Examiner has always been happy to publish the Industry’s strategically timed “advertising features†and “special reportsâ€.
Indeed the Examiner must never again expect to be taken seriously as a publication of journalistic repute after the debacle that was page 5 of the “Pulp Mill – the opportunities†a “A Special Report (let alone the rest of the Jan 30th, 40 page “industry feature”). The editor himself Mr. Southwell acknowledged my criticisms of the infamous page 5 stating “You’re right about page 5, which was in fact an advertisement and should have carried information indicating thatâ€.
No Mr. Southwell, it was a disgrace. You let many readers down badly. It reflects badly on you and your newspaper that you let it through!
But I digress.
Mr Hoskinson, Cave, Cowen, Duncombe, Heese, Mulder, Norris and Pigot, I wish you luck, but I fear that the more you speak out the more suspiciously you will be regarded by Lennon and his band of gifted, well-informed ministers. Eventually you will probably be dismissed, as others have, as having an “anti-forestry bias†and that you are only using your beekeeper sob-story as an excuse to undermine the good name of the Industry and indeed Tasmania.
Who knows, if you push your luck too far you may end up getting a date with the judge.