“The truth is no state forest is being converted”

Vica Bayley Wilderness Society MR
Forestry Tasmania’s annual report, released last week, has revealed its critical attack on media reporters and the Wilderness Society is unfounded and had exposed its claims to have ceased converting native forest to plantation as blatant spin. The report shows that 3,179 ha of state forest were planted to new plantation in the past financial year.

ANNUAL REPORT EXPOSES FORESTRY TASMANIA’S SPIN AND SCAPEGOAT SEARCHING

Conversion of state forest to plantation continues despite FT claims and attack on media

Forestry Tasmania’s annual report, released last week, has revealed its critical attack on media reporters and the Wilderness Society is unfounded and had exposed its claims to have ceased converting native forest to plantation as blatant spin. The report shows that 3,179 ha of state forest were planted to new plantation in the past financial year.

In a statement released on September 10th, Forestry Tasmania went looking for a scapegoat to explain public confusion about landclearing, attacking the media by claiming its ‘performance needs to be examined’ and criticising The Wilderness Society for campaigns that led the public to believe that ‘native forest is…converted to plantation.’ In the statement, FT claimed that ‘the truth is no state forest is being converted to plantation. The Practice of conversion ended in 2006.’

“It appears FT wish to convince the public that they have ended landclearing when in reality, thousands of hectares of native forest, including high conservation value forest has been converted to plantations, breaking the set deadline and making a mockery of its credibility,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for The Wilderness Society.

The current 3 year plan listed on FT’s website also lists at least 48 coupes for logging and conversion to plantation in the future.

The Wilderness Society has written to FT seeking an explanation and asking questions under FOI. This correspondence, an analysis of the 3 year plan and images of coupes converted post the claimed deadline are available.