TWO days after the election the police moved into the Styx Valley to apprehend a small band of protesters. An arrest was made and a 70-metre-tall tree holding a protest platform was blown up. Cable logging was set to resume in the Styx Valley of the Giants.
Yet last year both the state and federal Governments claimed that they had saved the giant trees of the Styx. Indeed, they claimed to have resolved the entire forests debate.
This week’s developments have given the lie to those claims. Not only is logging making a comeback in the Styx; it is also about to start in parts of the Weld and Upper Florentine that have never before seen a chainsaw. Other key areas are likely to follow, from the Tarkine in the far north-west, where there are still 400 square kilometres of threatened oldgrowth forest, to South Sister on the East Coast, Bruny Island in the south and the beleagured north-east highlands.
The Styx case is a classic example of how the governments deal with forest issues. One of the new reserves they have promised to create is the 336-hectare Styx Tall Trees Forest Reserve. This reserve occurs on either side of Skeleton Road, the road up which 4000 people marched on a cold, drizzly day in July 2003 to protest at logging.
The Reserve’s southern boundary occurs very close to the huge stump on which speakers at the rally delivered their speeches. The reserve contains several well-known giants, including the Chapel Tree — an 85-metre-tall giant which is the second most massive known living thing in Tasmania. It also contains the Mount Tree and Icarus Dream, which, at 96 and 97 metres respectively, are the tallest known trees in the Southern Hemisphere. The Two Towers, Gothmog, the Perfect Tree and the Andromeda Twins are other registered giants within the reserve.
Declaration of this reserve will be very welcome. However, cold hard scrutiny reveals that very little loggable forest has been conceded by the industry here. About 20 hectares were already in the informal Andromeda Reserve, which contains some of the tall trees mentioned above. In addition, Forestry Tasmania’s Giant Trees policy and protocols, adopted in the wake of the El Grande debacle, require the establishment of buffers of at least 100 metres radius around each registered giant. The abundance of giant trees in this patch of forest means that logging had already been severely curtailed.
In essence, the creation of the Styx Tall Trees Reserve is a minimalist recognition that little logging could have proceeded amongst these statuesque giants anyway.
Protected the bare minimum area
A look at the mapped boundaries of the reserve shows them to be very convoluted. That’s because the reserve has been designed to accommodate areas planned for logging.
Last year, Forestry Tasmania scheduled 26-hectare coupe SX 18F. This created a cable-logged cut on the steep slopes immediately south-east of the Reserve. The imminent destruction of the tall oldgrowth forests in coupe SX 15A will mark the southern edge of the reserve. Immediately west of the reserve is the already-logged SX 13D and the scheduled SX 13K. Later in the logging schedule come SX 18E and SX 13J.
The conclusions to be drawn from this are simple.
Forestry Tasmania protected the absolute bare minimum area of tall-eucalypt forest in the Styx Tall Trees Forest Reserve. It is now embarking on a program of ringing the reserve with new coupes. This appears to be an obvious bid to pre-empt any future expansion of the reserve. This strategy will have the effect of isolating the giants from adjacent protective forest. The reserve will become increasingly prone to the ‘edge effects’ of fire, wind and disease. This situation is not assisted by the messy design of the reserve.
Forestry Tasmania will claim that it has protected these giants and met all of its legislated obligations. In fact, Forestry Tasmania has still failed to meet the targets set in the RFA for the protection of oldgrowth Eucalyptus regnans — the tallest flowering plant on Earth.
The Howard Government has been a party to this sham, providing millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds to the logging industry and state government as ‘compensation’.
Log truck photo taken, 1st March in Coupe SX 15A.
And,
MEDIA RELEASE 24 March 2006
NEW LOOKOUT PLATFORM CONSTRUCTED IN THREATENED VALLEY
Open Day in Florentine on Sunday
The Wilderness Society has constructed a new lookout platform in the threatened Upper Florentine Valley in readiness for Sunday’s open day.
The platform is constructed of wood salvaged from a nearby logged area and gives visitors views of the spectacular surrounding World-Heritage-listed mountains.
“We’re encouraging people to experience the magnificent views in this part of the Florentine, which is under threat from new forestry roads and logging operations,” said Geoff Law, Wilderness Society Campaign Coordinator.
The Open Day is on Sunday 26 March from 11 am until 4 pm. The Upper Florentine is on the Gordon River Road about 20 kilometres west of Maydena. There will be signs in place to tell visitors where to park and where to walk.
The new viewing platform is at Tiger Valley Lookout on the Timbs Track, a traditional bushwalking gateway into Tasmania’s Southwest wilderness.
Dave Groves
March 27, 2006 at 06:16
We love tourists, but stay off our roads and out of our forests.
You can go into our forests, but we have special things for tourists like “slippery dips “and “airwalks”.
Don’t look for our tall trees, ‘cos we need them for high value woodchips. Well, they are high value for a couple of folks.
Don’t go drinking from our creeks, ‘cos they be full of dead wombats, wallabies and others.
They fall in there ‘cos we have to poison them ‘cos they are eatin’ all our little trees and anyway there are too many of them anyway.
We love trees, we are growin’ a heap for the pulp mill so we don’t havta cut down anymore trees, not one single tree are we gonna cut down for the pulp mill ‘cos we not gonna be woodchippin’ no more, just need ’em for pulpin’.
We love tourists so much we are gonna build another special attraction-a great big thumping great big pulp mill thing-they are gonna come from all over just to see how smart we are in Tassie.
Show ’em we can build a dirty great pulp mill and whack all them chips in her.
If I was a tourist that’s what I’d wanna do. Go for a slippery dip ride and then check the pulp mill!
We could have souv’neers like “fart in jar” and “stinky egg cushions”.
I’d buy one.
Take a little bit of Tassie back overseas and all the profit stays here in Tassie while the stinky stuff goes away and saves mother nature a job.
It a win win win situation. As long as the win win wind blows from the south we are okey dokey.
Anyhow just watch it….ok.