After the fire …
… and what it looked like before …
This article is a statement on the sustainability of Tasmanian Forestry and the logging operations that are carried on here.
This place is so beautiful and such a rare gem. The only way to keep it that way is for us all to do what we can to help to preserve the beauty of this land.
My interest is in forestry, I have owned my own portable sawmill that I built and used it to salvage timber and build houses for myself. I lived next to an old time forester, who had his own sawmill and cut timber off his own land for a living.
During the 18 years I lived next to Jim I spent many days with him helping, cutting fence posts for him and going surfing. He explained his methodology of forestry to me at length. I also knew a couple of other bushies who had mills and milled timber for themselves and friends.
All of these men logged their own land in a sustainable, single stem extraction way. They would choose trees not just on how good a sawlog it was but also on its future effect on their forest. If two trees were growing close together they would take one and leave the other to grow on. In this way they were assured a continuous supply of good quality logs.
I spend about 3 hours a night and at least one day of my weekend working on my passion which is bringing to light the mismanagement of our forests. The industry and government spin doctors statements that “our forests are being
logged primarily for sawlog and pulp is a by product” is just that spin.
One only needs to think about it a little to see how ridiculous it is.
The RFA requires Forestry Tas to supply 300,000 cubic metres of sawlogs to the mills in Tasmania each year. So to get this we would only have to cut down about 200,000 trees maximum. Instead we cut down at least 8 million tons and burn about 2 million tons of that.
The figures do not add up. Especially when jobs in the industry are getting less, profits for the woodchippers are going up, and Forestry Tas are making less and less. It would seem that the our trees, remember that Crown Land and Tasmania belongs to the people of Tasmania not the government or industry, are being given away for no real benefit to us or the future people of Tasmania.
There is also the arrogance and species centric attitude that the forests are mankind’s to do with what we want. I believe that the animals that we share the land with have just as much right as us to expect to be respected and cared for and to have their homes protected as well. This may be a bit radical to some folk but that is how I feel and I can only talk for myself. So this report is my statement.
Pete Godfrey
Golden Valley
Download PDF here: sustainability.pdf
• Pete Godfrey: Download the words by Graham Wilkinson – Chief Forest Practices Officer – of what was then the Forest Practices Board (written Nov 2004). Presented by Pete Godfrey for the information of the Tasmanian People …
