Statements
Forestry Tasmania’s careless insect spraying threatens to bring forest silence
Plans by Forestry Tasmania (FT) to undertake further broad scale spraying of
insecticides in its coupes are a step backwards, and should be halted,
according to BirdLife Tasmania.
The plans detailed by FT will knock down and kill all insects in the spray’s
path, turning swathes of forests into impoverished deserts for insect-eating
native woodland birds, BirdLife Tasmania convenor Dr Eric Woehler said
today.
“We will also see further environmental impacts downwind and downstream
of the spray paths, with impacts to freshwater ecosystems.”
“This is a poor response by FT to the problem they have with some leaf
beetles,” Dr Woehler said. “For these particular forests, it threatens a return to
the kind of Silent Spring we were warned about with the use and abuse of
pesticides in the 1960s.”
Forestry Tasmania has disclosed that it is monitoring a long list of coupes
across the state for, “potential silvicultural chemical use” between now and
February 2017: ( http://www.forestrytas.com.au/news/2016/11/proposedchemical-use-in-summer-2015-2016 )
To give an indication of the likely actual extent of chemical application, it
listed as a comparison the 16 coupes where spraying actually took place in
the past season.
An FT interactive map shows these coupes lie in the Florentine Valley,
northwest of Mount Field, bordering the Tasmanian Wilderness World
Heritage Area: http://www.forestrytas.com.au/operations/interactive-mapviewer
BirdLife Tasmania has investigated the commonly used forestry insecticide,
alpha-cypermethrin.
“It’s highly toxic to good insects including honeybees, dragonflies, mayflies
and gadflies,” he said. “Many of these insects and aquatic invertebrates
constitute the basis of aquatic and terrestrial food chains.”
“This is a serious water pollutant, moderately persistent in soil, and has a very
low degradation rate in sunlight. It’s even moderately toxic to earthworms.”
“Our insect-eating woodland birds area already under increasing and widespread
pressures from land clearing, invasive species and climate change.
We believe that they should find refuge in our State’s forests – not be starved
out in their refugia.”
“The use of alpha-cypermethrin by FT will see large areas of our State’s
forests become silent, with no woodland birds calling” Dr Woehler noted with
concern.
Last year FT sought an exemption to continue the use of alpha-cypermethrin
under Forest Stewardship Council certification, a move that BirdLife
Tasmania opposed at the time, and continues to oppose.
The limited FSC Controlled Wood certificate that has been granted to FT for
its plantation estate recently does not cover environmental indicators. Under
this certificate, FT cannot make promotional claims that it is “FSC certified”.
http://www.forestrytas.com.au/news/2016/11/ft-receives-fsc-controlledwood-certification-for-its-plantation-estate
Download …
Three MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) – user information for
hazardous products, and BirdLife Tasmania summary sheet on alphacypermethrin
• Rayfull Chemicals, China (Manufacturer)
http://www.rayfull.com/UploadFiles/PDF/20136992883.pdf
• BASF Australia (Manufacturer) x 2 MSDS
http://www.herbiguide.com.au/MSDS/MALPA100_51858.PDF
http://www.pestcontrol.basf.com.au/assets/Pest-Control-Solutions/MSDS/Fendona-15-
SC-Insecticide-AU-MSDS1.pdf
• BirdLife Tasmania summary sheet
Alpha-cypermethrin_BirdLife_Tas_synthesis.pdf
BirdLife Tasmania convenor Dr Eric Woehler