Tarkine Vandalism: More Forestry Untruths Exposed …

For almost half a century Tasmanians have heard little variation to the monotonous theme that woodchipping is merely cleaning up the logging residue.

The real truth is as we know it, is that Forestry Tas is an unviable woodchip-driven business which primarily logs old-growth native forests and continues to burden the state’s coffers to a sum of near $50 million a year.

A recent investigation to a Tarkine coupe in the Bertha/Trias Creek catchment irrefutably exposes FT’s inexorable, rapacious and insensitive methodology.

The Bertha coupe without doubt proves nothing has changed in the past 40+ years, either in the bush or within shallow minds of the philistine forestry hierarchy who congregate the impregnable cells of the Melville Street ivory tower.

Despite FT’s claim that they are pursuing FSC accreditation, the Bertha logged coupe clearly demonstrates that their ideology hasn’t changed, and that old growth forests of very high conservation value are still being targeted for harvesting.

This is why FT should never be granted FSC, and probably won’t!

The Bertha coupe is within the remote area of the Dempster Valley, which is particularly rich in a matrix of diverse forest biota that strongly represents an expressive example of ongoing ecological processes. This is one of the tangible references in the IUCN World Heritage natural assessment criteria.

The coupe itself probably contained a relatively low volume of harvestable timber per hectare. Yet somehow this large coupe has been almost entirely clearfelled.

This old-growth mixed forest would have provided very little sawlog, and judging by the trashed final state of the area, very little minor species were likely harvested also, if any?

The above images depict what massive amounts of waste and residue remains on site, with much of the timber crushed and piled awaiting incineration at some stage.

How does such a coupe that was primarily rainforest dominated get to become harvested?

Well … Forestry Tas has a hard-line definition whereby if an area has 5% or more eucalypt canopy it is classified to be a mixed forest and therefore allocated to potential harvesting.

This simply means a coupe that could be up to 95% rainforest can be clearfelled, burned and re-sown back as mono-cultured eucalypt. That is exactly what has been happening in Tasmania for the past 50 years, and there seems no end to it!

Also in the Bertha area there is new road construction to access a coupe west of West Beckett Falls in the north Dempster region.

This coupe is a young eucalyptus transitional forest, and is undoubtedly aimed at peeler log supply. Such timber sources could easily be harvested well outside the internal zones of the Tarkine.

Both the proposed logging areas north and south of the Rapid River indicate there is a deliberate attempt to target high conservation areas.

Long-distance roadworks to access such coupes often mean that overhead costs generally outweigh the resource extraction revenue.

In other words, it’s a subsidised industry, which is repeatedly wasting an estimated $10 million of taxpayers’ money a year just to transport so-called residue (old-growth logs) from the south of the state to the northern chip mills.

So why is this madness continuing … ?

Because FT remains a deeply entrenched woodchip-driven business, and a well-failed business model at that, which is supported by myopic and conservative bipartisan politicians who simply can’t think, and don’t want to think, outside the square!

• phil Parsons in Comments: Specialty timber users are making a push in the media for access to forests they showed little interest in protecting when the industry made wood available even though any fool could see they were mining out the timber. It’s over, its effectively gone, scarce as Madagascar rosewood, Chilean alerce or Brazilian parana.

• Robert Middleton, USA, in Comments: Mr Mead has shared with us some very powerful photographs, so powerful that here at my desk, thousands of miles away, I am overcome by grief, shock, disbelief and nausea. Tomorrow, my friends will immediately recognize that I am once again in a state of pronounced mourning. They’ve grown accustomed to it but will renew their pleas that I should stop caring about what happens on the other side of the world. “I can’t stop caring,” I tell them. I’ve seen Forestry Tasmania’s work first hand and the images above clearly show their trademark style. I believe these folks would cut the last tree standing, even if it meant the end of the world. I’ve seen clearcuts in many other parts of the world as well and I would recognize a Forestry Tasmania operation anywhere. It’s not just about cutting trees – it’s about evil, subhuman and depraved destruction, leaving behind the stench of death and a feeling of hopelessness and desolation. Images come to mind of flogging a poor convict until his blood and the flesh of his back are splattered all around …