KIM BOOTH, Greens forestry spokesperson MR
Valuable Myrtle, Celery Pine, Blackwood and Sassafras Logs Head for the Chipper…AGAIN !!!!.
The Tasmanian Greens today raised concerns that hundreds of tonnes of specialty timber logs, such as Sassafras, Myrtle, Blackwood and Celery Pine, have been consigned to be woodchipped, and called for the Bartlett government to intervene immediately.
Greens Forestry spokesperson Kim Booth MP, who previously built and operated his own sawmill, spotted a load of these logs going through Hobart on the weekend, and as a result has uncovered the chilling reality of Forestry’s flagrant waste and has called on Premier David Bartlett to demand answers from his Forestry Minister, David Llewellyn.
Mr Booth also described how he had seen a log truck travelling through Hobart recently carrying what appeared to be specialty timbers, and upon further investigation discovered that this timber was apparently stored at Forestry Tasmania’s Island Specialty Timbers yard at Cemetery Road, Geeveston.
“Following the sighting of a log truck full of greyed off minor species logs in Hobart on Friday I have now discovered to my horror that some hundreds of tonnes of what were highly valuable rare and exotic timbers had been consigned to the chipper by Forestry,” Mr Booth said.
“Myrtle, Blackwood, Celery Pine and Blackheart Sassafras, its all going to the woodchippers up north and some to be burnt down south as we speak.”
“It is obvious that clearfelling of our native forests is driven by the woodchipping industry, and these highly valuable specialty timbers are being treated as if they are surplus worthless ‘by-catch’, which Forestry Tasmania have allowed to split up in the sun and are now sending them off to the chippers.”
“The Premier must stop this wasteful operation now.”
“I am calling on the Premier to stand up to his recalcitrant Forestry Minister David Llewellyn, who is so pathologically committed to wood chipping that he cannot see the wood for the trees and order him to stop this wasteful vandalism.”
“All Tasmanians deserve an answer from Premier Bartlett as to how he has allowed this appalling waste on his watch.”
“And just in case the Ministers’ spinners wind themselves up like whirling dervishes and try and say the logs were of no value that will not wash.”
“The load I saw going through Hobart had plenty of wood that was perfect for furniture, craft and sculpture.”
“The Premier must also explain why the forest has once again been over-cut to supply wood chipping.”
“David Bartlett is driving the chainsaws into the Florentine and other high conservation forests on the pretext that it is for high value minor species and sawlogs.”
“The sad reality is that these high conservation value forests have been slaughtered on the altar of woodchipping and jobs and a future industry lost.”
“Bartlett Labor was chipping sawlogs at Christmas and now they have been caught out chipping some of the most valuable timbers on the planet, because Forestry Tasmania has been captured by Gunns woodchip needs rather than rational wise and careful logging to maximise value and jobs in the industry,” Mr Booth said.
