FRANK STRIE
Hello Brenda and all,
it is time to explain my position and hope you will understand why I am not after cheap short term gains or petty wins of the moment…
Frank Strie explains what he believes in…

Hello Brenda and all,

it is time to explain my position and hope you will understand why I am not after cheap short term gains or petty wins of the moment.

It would be great Brenda if I had that ‘magic wand’ and I would stop any clearfelling or area conversion of our forests and catchments. This means that the way I see the future of responsible forest, carbon, catchment and habitat management in our landscape should be very site specific.

The future should be in restoration management by having the optimum in mind as the guiding principle.

Every 4 to 6 years a patch of forest and existing plantation would be revisited and assessed for its situation matching it to the goal of the optimum picture and objective. Stock take of all values and situations would be recorded and the plans would advise what should happen each time.

This is not rocket science, it is responsible silviculture as it can and is practiced in many places around the world. The monoculture tree crops (clearfelled / ‘shut down’) converted in area rotations simply do not fulfil the true holistic role within the world’s catchments.

They are depending on heavy energy input including chemicals in combat with nature.

I have learned about such inter-generationally responsible forest management in the early 1980s, about two years before I ever discovered Tasmania on a map.

This was part of my education, training and learning process of forestry that had began in 1975.

There was only so much what would be taught in the Forestry Schools and within the Forestry Commission. It was the uniformity of tree growing as it was practiced since about the 1850s.

I was very lucky and fortunate that I went on numerous excursions, either over weekends and / or formally on organised tours by our German Forestry Union – a big difference to the CFMEU.

We visited larger Private Forest properties that had been in individual family ownership and management for some 300 to even 500 years!

Yes, that kind of training beats any institution, any classroom, and any book!

There we were guided through the development and the recordings of forest harvest and management over generations before the present.

The mistakes, faults and excellent issues have been discussed on site, in the forests.

I can see that the pathway that the Australian Forest Industry chose will change, sadly the mistakes and the deliberate conversions that were initiated through short term calculations, narrow mindedness, greed and vested interests, will be noticeable for centuries to come.

The silt in the estuaries ( a result of erosion in the upper catchments) are evidence of land management practices. The steepness of creek and river banks highlights the speed of erosion. Massive reduction of the ‘surface area’ / green solar panels of the multi species, mixed age forests through clearfelling and what I call stop – start management, is not responsible management.

The simplistic tree cropping in large near sterile monocultures is not forest management. Especially problematic if such practices are done in sloping country like we see it in most of Tasmania.

I would like to see that we can find common ground to make a healthy, happy living on this island by using site specific management practices with total quality as the guiding principle.

Continued response to Brenda Rosser’s questions:

That all said, frankly speaking:

1. NO Brenda, I am not getting any income from FSC, (or have in the past), in fact I pay $US100.- per year in membership fee to be part of FSC International.

2. Timber Workers For Forests Inc. – TWFF is a group member / a foundation member of Responsible Forest Management Australia Limited, trading as the FSC Australia. www.fscaustralia.org .

I was a Board Member / Director of FSC Australia until May this year as I had decided to give someone else the opportunity and not stand for re-election.

I am working on carbon issues incl. forest carbon issues and therefore will participate in the honorary / unpaid FSC Forest Carbon -Advisory Committee to the newly appointed FSC Forest Carbon Working Group. You can find a lot of info on the www.fsc.org website.

Now, regarding FSC watch and the obvious shortcomings of forest management practices under the FSC logo. I am glad that Chris Lang and others pointing out the problems and shortcomings of companies and organizations that are not following the true meaning of the Principles and Criteria of FSC.

Yes it saddens me as much as you that there are businesses and organizations that think they can get away with bad practice and at the same time claim they are Forest Stewards. They will be exposed and they will not get away with such dishonest practices over times. There are procedures in place that will deal with such culprits.

If I had my way, there would be a Forest Stewardship Council dealing with the responsible management of (real) forests and there could also be a separate body, let’s call it here the PSC, Plantation Stewardship Council or call it RPMC – Responsible Plantation Management Council.

For myself and for my TWFF group we would suggest that in reality Plantation and Forests are like Oil and Water, as soon as the share up stops, they begin to separate.

Because there is no better alternative to the system that FSC offers I will and we have continued to make our position very clear.

Plantation’s of the future must play a multiple use role, based on responsible management practices.

I am happy to discuss this with you Brenda and anyone in a face to face situation, we need to tackle the issues with better examples, real operations that demonstrate that one can do well by doing good. Tasmania is one of the few places where we should at least give it our best shot to demonstrate that we can find real solutions and good management practices.

I call on you and all to come up with positive ideas and examples how we can make quality management in our forested catchments a reality.

Pro Silva – Frank Strie