Sustainable Timber Tasmania has removed two controversial logging coupes on Quamby Bluff––HU304A and HU304Y––from its three year wood production plan but has stated in correspondence to concerned community members that it can add them back onto the logging schedule at any time.
Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) – Forestry Tasmania’s trading name as of 2017 – lost its social license with local communities after it clearfelled and burnt over 20 hectares of mixed aged native forest on the slopes of Quamby Bluff.
Despite community opposition, STT plans to log over 125 hectares of native forests in two logging coupes on Quamby Bluff. 80 hectares are being slated for logging inside coupe HU304A and the remaining 26 hectares are planned to be logged inside the partially clearfelled logging coupe HU304Y.
Local residents and members of Hands Off Quamby Bluff continue to call for the permanent protection of high conservation value forests on Quamby Bluff from logging destruction.
“The recent move by Sustainable Timber Tasmania to remove the logging coupes on Quamby Bluff from its plans, but not rule out further clearfelling, is another example of its failure to uphold best practice forestry standards that require a meaningful approach to community consultation,” said John Kane, a member of Hands Off Quamby Bluff.
“We are not backing down. We are calling on the Federal Labor Government, State Liberal Government, and members of the Parliament of Tasmania to ensure the permanent removal of logging coupes HU304A and HU304Y from Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s wood production plans.”
Blatant violations of forestry certification standards have been documented and submitted to the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) scheme that certifies STT’s operations, and its auditing firm the British Standards Institution (BSI) Group.
Despite these complaints, the damage caused to local water soaks and visual amenity has not been remedied by STT. Regeneration efforts are also failing due to the damage caused by clearfelling the forested slopes and igniting a high intensity burn which fried the soil beyond repair.
Up in smoke.
To date STT, PEFC and BSI Group have all failed to announce a Corrective Action Plan to address the violations of the logging standards and the damage caused on Quamby Bluff. This inaction makes a mockery of the so-called ‘Responsible Wood’ claims that are made by STT and are endorsed by the PEFC’s Australian certifying body (which purports to conform to the Australian Standard for sustainable forestry).
STT have failed to issue a public statement that acknowledges community concerns over the disastrous clearfell logging and high-intensity burn that was undertaken in HU304Y and announce a decision to cancel all future logging plans on Quamby Bluff in the kooparoona niara / Great Western Tiers region.
The forests of Quamby Bluff and the wider kooparoona niara region are a vital refuge for threatened species such as Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles, eastern quolls and Tasmanian devils, and vulnerable species like spotted-tail quolls, masked owls and eastern barred bandicoots.
The kooparoona niara region is particularly significant for the palawa / Tasmanian Aboriginal community and is the subject of a ground-breaking proposal that could see it returned to its rightful owners and become the first palawa-owned and -managed national park in lutruwita / Tasmania.
The forests that have been logged are also an important buffer for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area – including areas that were protected under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement by the former federal and state Labor governments.
Background
Quamby Bluff is a large dolerite monolith–a standout feature of the Great Western Tiers and Central Plateau World Heritage Area. Quamby Bluff is a powerful presence in the towns of Deloraine and Meander, and is visible for dozens of kilometers beyond.
Smaller villages flank the mountain, where it dominates the landscape. The Hands Off Quamby Bluff community group is raising awareness of the destructive logging of the forests of Quamby Bluff.
After scarifying and helicopter seeding.
Ted Mead
September 1, 2024 at 12:21
One wonders why STT backed off as it knew these forest areas were highly contentious in the local community well before they began their plundering. Surely STT isn’t clinging to the fantasy that it will obtain Forest Stewardship Certification someday! A social license is just one of the criteria for FSC, and it’s only one of the many criteria that STT can’t, and never will, fulfil.
History shows PEFC stands for very little, but STT continues to wave it around knowing that it’s the only Forestry certification they will ever get! It’s baffling to try to understand its motives and objectives when it comes to their harvesting intentions, as they constantly vacillate and oscillate, pretending to project an image between being a pure reckless industry from the last century, and being a conscientious resource manager for future sustainability.
It’s always been about $$$ on the well-oiled gravy train for very few individuals, and about polling votes for dubious parties in marginal electorates! Yet Tasmanians continue to condone this ongoing destruction of nature at the loss of $ millions each year.
It just doesn’t make sense, and it never has!
Duncan Mills
September 12, 2024 at 21:03
Please everyone, if you care for future generations, keep asking for selective logging using ProSilva international standards that put the ecological diversity and hydrological functions of a site first – or otherwise don’t extract timber at all.
A job at the expense of future generations is intergenerational theft.