How Clear Felling Damages the Forestry in Tasmania

Two particular forestry practices alarming campaigners are: large-scale clear felling and monoculture plantations. Clear felling involves cutting down every tree and then burning the forest floor.

How Clear Felling Damages the Forestry in Tasmania Correspondent: It seems like this for polarized public opinion it’s called clear felling. Every tree is felled about a million tons a year is left as waste and 96% of the rest is turned into wood chips. As far as forestry Tasmania is concerned this is sustainable development. He claims that if left to its own demises the forest comes back. Our guys took us to the very spot of the conservation movement used at the start of its campaign 20 years ago to stop the practice. Hans Drielsma (General Manager, Forestry Tasmania): here just a few meters away we got myrtle also a very signature species for Tasmania or valuable fruits furniture and craft uses coming back happily on this regenerated forest area. Correspondent: But in Tasmania a sizable chunk of the clear felled forest will be turned into fast growing Eucalyptus plantations. The state allows the logging companies first to firebomb with petroleum jelly and then to poison the burned clear felled areas with 1080 an chemical ban virtually everywhere else in the world. Senator Bob Brown: Two summers ago I was here when the loggers moved in. They logged the forest removed it as wood chips and what’s left a lot of it wsa then fire bombed. Cross drops ping pong balls full of napalm likle material which explodes on creating intense firestorm and everything died. The forest industry comes a long puts some – down and then comes alittle way with – which are being dipped in 1080 poison. The wildlife coming in to feed on these young eucalyptus eats the poison and dies a horrible death. Loss of sphincter control, terrible internal distraction coughing at the male and some hours later the wildlife is dead in most plantations. Correspondent: The forestry people claim there has been no impact on wildlife but even they would make clear felling as an image problem. Hans Drielsma (General Manager, Forestry Tasmania): Clear felling doesn’t look very pretty and there are some ecological concerns rise to be a biodiversity so they are the sort of things that we’re looking to improve through our own forest practices. Male: One scenario is all many, many years and it has burnt its. It is not a pretty site its you know there’s nothing you can do to make it look nice but you know given time and it does take time many, many years and in fact if this area was clear felled now when put back in the native forest we ourselves wouldn’t seen it. We get the benefits of it in terms of wood production but our children’s children might. Correspondent: This is the new space age headquarters at the state forestry service. It’s a bold affirmation in the future of logging more harvesting as they prefer to call it and this is another and air bridge built for tourist destroyed safely through the canopy. With the forested areas concealed by leaving ribbons of trees along the roads and rivers the state government is confident it can keep forestry going along side the tourist boom but there’s a floor. The tourist on the charted jumbos from Singapore and elsewhere don’t come from – river or the night life. They come to see and experience wilderness and in the hilly areas there’s no way to hide the stars in the landscape. Forestry public relations described this as a quilted landscape. Nor did they want to see this, native forests converted to regimented groves of trees forestry Tasmania says 8,000 people get a living form forestry, according to Australia’s Bureau statistics is less than half that number. Senator Bob Brown: In Tasmania there’s I think 20,000 people employed in tourism and 3,000 of those are employed by the forest or wood in these areas and the tourism that generates. On the other hand when you get to the logging of the forest and the cutting of the trees to the sawmills or to the woodchip mills it’s between 2 and 3,000 with tourism the numbers increasing with logging the number is falling. Correspondent: Government support of the timber industry runs at about 35 million U.S dollars a year the green say that’s evidence the state government is in the pockets of the timber companies and only way you look at it there does seem to be a bias. The forest practices board is run by the timber interest to administer the self regulating code of practice. Only a forestry company can appeal a decision when Tasmania gets anymore timber friendly than that you can’t get an accurate figure and the wood chip production rates because the dominant company is allowed to keep this rate secret. Senator Bob Brown: Now behind that is patronage, the logging industry is putting money into the coffers the election coffers of the big political parties in this country and around it goes in the circle at 70 to 80% of people in all the opinion polls 70 to 80% of Australians want the destruction stopped. Senator Shayne Murphy: It was true primarily because the program because the forest practice was seriously out of the industry that has been operating it and then most of them nominated and come out of the industry and why would they want to then prosecute the industry that they have been involved in. It’s like asking – when a conductor review of the original forest prices or you got the same people that put it together were doing it. It’s not likely that they’re going to come out with a critical about its success or otherwise. Correspondent: It’s the kind of thing you would expect the greens to see for Senator Murphy is from a different mold he’s a former secretary of the timber workers union. Frustrated over what he saw is an established political parties blind commitment to each of them he has handed in his membership the labor party. Senator Shayne Murphy: The forestry of Tasmania has got itself stuck in a supply cycle and it needs to keep increasing the volume of wooded – the wood chipping company so they can generate income that it needs. I mean it is in dire financial trouble and so it will require some significant change to get it out of that. There are going to be a lot of job losses in this but in the long turn will end up with a better system and we’ll end up with more jobs.