TAP Into A Better Tasmania welcomes Mr. Gay’s retirement as an opportunity to replace an outdated modus operandi with a more enlightened and acceptable approach to forestry and fibre plantations business. This is essential if the company is ever to achieve its much desired “social license”.
TAP Into A Better Tasmania does not endorse the gushing valedictions of Mr. Lennon, the Labor Government, the Liberal opposition and a range of Forestry Industry spokesmen in recent statements about Mr Gay’s contribution to Tasmania.
The positive initial growth of the company and the industry has been totally destroyed by the debts hanging over the industry, the contractors and the investors. Tasmanians also have not been able to accept the wilful waste that has occurred for years in our forests or the decimation of our bio-diversity and the destruction of our farmlands and communities by this industry.
Community concerns have not been considered, or have been sidelined; government promises have been repeatedly broken; as have alternative views or warnings, together with an industry wide failure to recognise changing market demands. Forestry Tasmania and the industry are, as a result, in a very poor condition to face the future.
It has been almost six years since the pulp mill project was first mooted and opposition to the project itself and the debauched manner of its procurement is as strong as ever. This is unlikely to change until true common ground is found between the community, the Government, the industry and the company.
Community members are still under considerable duress because uncertainty still surrounds the project and they do not have the confidence or will to grow or, in some cases, continue their businesses. They are unable to live their lives unfettered while there is a possibility that this still-proposed project could be commenced at any time.
Successive Labor Governments supported by the Liberal Party have blindly provided justifications, support, and subsidies for the still-proposed project. No company or industry should receive so much assistance, at the expense of providing basic public services to all Tasmanians. All assistance to industries or companies should be subject to an independent and fully holistic review before undertakings are given.
TAP Into A Better Tasmania recognises that the Forestry Round table is a generational opportunity to rebuild values, transparency and of course set up the industry for the future growth in opportunities for jobs and businesses. As well as Industry and Environmental representation, it is imperative that community groups have a direct input and equal say at the Round Table.
Community groups are concerned about the long term resource management values that government, Forestry Tasmania and the industry must adopt; to minimise the adverse effects on communities as it faces the current position and as it changes to meet future opportunities and challenges. All Tasmanians must be able to benefit without favour from our forest and fibre plantation resources, and we should be assisting those who want to progress all types of businesses and enterprises.
The community is concerned that:
• The Forestry Round Table ( with direct community input) must start by undertaking an audit of all the existing aspects; including financial, subsidies and support, forest management and practices, planning approvals of our forestry related resources and timber processing and manufacturing industry. It must establish what demand and type of opportunities are available for our forest resource and industries, in Tasmania and in the world wide market place. This will require far more skills and input than the forestry industry representatives and environmental groups can provide. Plus there must be a community input. Only then can the impact, benefit and the financial and business opportunities be evaluated, to successfully plan for the future. Without this holistic approach, the successful future and true sustainable growth of our forest related industries and the innovation potential of all Tasmanian will not be realised. Conflict will continue. This process could be undertaken and completed within 12 months.
• $2billion worth of processed timber is already being imported into Australia each year. It is cheaper to buy overseas timber from our local hardwood stores than local timber. Almost all processed timber products (ply, mdf, beams, flooring, doors and window frames) are supplied from imported processed timber. Why is this when our forestry and timber industry receives huge grants and subsidies?
• “Common ground” – legal, moral and for all benefits must be provided equally for all Tasmanians now and in the future.
• Complete revision of management practices of our forests, short and long term, to ensure true long term sustainability, in every respect.
• Establishment of an open tendering scheme for the use of all forest resources.
• Additional fibre and timber plantations must receive planning approval taking into account council and community concerns, viability of regional community and services, water resources, bio- diversity, smoke generation, road and traffic conditions protection of food production land and landscape values.
• Future Government and industry policy, all development proposals, management and work practises must be based upon the Equator Principles and Forest Stewardship Council guidelines.
• All Ministers, Government departments, government businesses and authorities, to establish a public register of all matters raised by the community. This would register concerns, questions and complaints, with answers provided within 30 days on the public register.
• Establishment of a register of all purchases, stock holding, usage and disposal of all hazardous chemicals to be held by users and the government.
• To ensure that the establishment of the Integrity Commission is not delayed or diluted in anyway.
If the Government, the industry and the environmental groups proceed with the Round Table without direct community input, then another generation of polarisation and opposition will certainly ensue.
Earlier on Tasmanian Times:
Bryan Green’s $3.6 million likely to hinder constructive forestry negotiations, HERE
Innovative plan to support forestry jobs, HERE
Where has your money gone? HERE
Monday, Mercury: Stoush over forestry map, HERE
MICHAEL STEDMAN
June 07, 2010 07:57am
CLEARFELLED forests are included in a list of “high conservation value” areas green groups want protected.
An artillery range and pine plantations are also in the list.
A map drafted by conservation groups, including the Greens, the Wilderness Society and Still Wild Still Threatened, is expected to be used as a starting point in round-table discussions about the future of the forest industry.
It has also been used to determine coupes that cannot be harvested for woodchip exports to Japanese customers who have obtained Forest Stewardship Council “controlled wood status”.
But Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon said the list was deeply flawed.
When overlaid with Forestry Tasmania’s existing coupes, the proposed reserves cover 12,000 hectares of plantations, including radiata pine and eucalyptus nitens.
The list also takes in 93 coupes that have been clear-felled, burned and regenerated in the past 30 years.
It also includes the Buckland Military Range in the South-East, which is used for grenade training, small-arms fire and marksmanship training.
“In many ways it is an endorsement for our activities,” Mr Gordon said.
“The Wilderness Society claims we have destroyed these forests but, after managing them for 30 years, they are now being described as high-conservation value.”
Wilderness Society campaigner Vica Bayley blamed Forestry Tasmania for the map’s apparent shortcomings.
“It must be said that FT has withheld significant amounts of data that would aid the public and scientists to identify high conservation value forests,” he said.
Mr Bayley called on FT to work with conservation groups as part of a long-term solution to the forestry debate.
Forest Stewardship Council chief executive Michael Spencer denied the list could damage the credibility of the certification standard.
etc
Stateline, from HERE
Plantation timber up to the task?
Source: Stateline Tasmania
Published: Friday, June 4, 2010 9:11 AEST
Expires: Thursday, September 2, 2010 9:11 AEST
A high-end furniture maker tests the mettle of plantation timber.
AIRLIE WARD, PRESENTER: There’s little doubt Tasmania’s forest industry is on the cusp of a new era.
While it’s yet to be constituted, a roundtable involving conservationists and industry is meant to map the future to respond to the demand for greener products.
But there’s a lot of debate about whether plantation timber is up to the task of fine and high end pieces.
Long time fine furniture maker Phillip Blacklow has been testing its mettle.
PHILLIP BLACKLOW, UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA SCHOOL OF ART: I’ve been working for about five years on plantation eucalypt, regrowth eucalypt and applying that into high end furniture. And part of the research has been pushing the boundaries of it, steam bending, lamination, all those sorts of things. And I’ve carried that over from a masters degree that I just finished, into a PhD.
AIRLIE WARD: Phillip Blacklow has never been afraid of a challenge.
23 years ago he made the central piece of furniture for the Senate.
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: It’s just everything on a bigger scale basically, it’s a big table, and the same processes go to making a small table.
AIRLIE WARD: The table, which was almost entirely handmade, took over 600 hours to complete and weighed almost a tonne.
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: All of the framework for the Senate table and president’s desk and so on, was actually out of Tas oak or eucalypt, mainly because of its strength characteristics.
We were limited to using, you know, in that particular job we were limited to using the red shades of material such as myrtle, because of where it went, because the whole chamber had to be red, being Senate.
AIRLIE WARD: But unlike the Senate centrepiece and president’s desk which used old growth species, Blacklow has turned his attention to more pedestrian timber from eucalypt plantations.
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: There’s a lot of misnomers, a lot of false accusations, if you like, against the material.
AIRLIE WARD: One of the arguments for continuing native forest logging is that the quality of saw logs capable of being got out of plantation timber is simply not there, do you agree with that?
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: Given, given the amount of time, as in if the tree’s around the 35 to 40 year mark they are beautiful. Now there’s no ifs, butts or maybes, but if they’re cut prior to that they are basically useless for the high end furniture market, because the grain structure’s not tight enough.
When it gets to 30 odd years, 30 to 35 years range, it is a beautiful piece of material.
AIRLIE WARD: Blacklow says plantation timber can be used for making high end pieces, but it must be left to mature.
One of the criticisms of plantation timber is that it’s very twisty and bendy, but this, I gather, didn’t in fact come all twisted and bended?
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: Far from it. It was actually flat and actually resisted being bent in this way. It’s actually an old fashioned boat building technique that I’m using of bending planks and so on.
AIRLIE WARD: But it was straight?
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: Oh yes, very, and it didn’t want to be curved.
Plantations are one of the things that it’s easier to get a uniform output on. So I can go, I will see a much wider range of good material, out of my experience with plantation, than I will out of the variation from tree to tree in plantation, ah in native forest.
AIRLIE WARD: Despite this success, it’s been a major experiment.
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: Given a choice, most people would say, “Well, ok I’m going to plough an awful lot of time, an awful lot of effort into building a piece of furniture”, if the material is going to fail in the end you’ve wasted your time.
So you fall back on the known species; myrtle, huon, sassafras, all the rest of those, because we’ve worked up so many years of knowledge about those.
AIRLIE WARD: Is there anything that you’ve found that you can’t do with the plantation that you could do with the traditional myrtles and sassafras and so on?
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: No, not as yet, that’s part of the PhD is pushing it til it breaks.
Ok, how are we going, alright?
AIRLIE WARD: Timber selection is a skill Phillip Blacklow teaches at the Centre for the Arts, but he says consumers also need to change their thinking.
PHILLIP BLACKLOW: I can and have been working for five years on pushing the boundaries of eucalypt, but knowing full well at the end of it that I would be making furniture that would not be anywhere near as saleable as if I’d built it out of any of the traditional species, because of the barrier that everyone immediately goes “It’s eucalypt, it’s not as good as any of the other species”, but it is.
