Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Forestry

Forestry deal sinks Tasmanian wooden boat building

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THE future of Tasmania’s valuable wooden boat building industry is directly threatened by the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on future use of Tasmania’s forests according to the following media release…

“Locking up the remaining sources of timber used by Tasmania’s wooden boat builders will destroy what is currently a very valuable, viable and iconic industry,” Coalition Forestry Spokesman Senator Richard Colbeck said.

“Details of the sham agreement are spreading far and wide and I am now being contacted by boat builders who fear Tasmania’s wooden boat building industry will be ruined.

“Discussion on the impending disaster for the sector has global reach through industry blogs.

“Despite the fact that 90 per cent of two key iconic species, Celery Top Pine and King Bill Pine, are already in reserves the Greens are still not satisfied.

“More than 70 per cent of remaining sources of these timbers are in the 430,000 hectares rubber stamped by former Wilderness Society director Jonathan West in his flimsy advice accepted by the Prime Minister and the Premier last week.

[Read more…] about Forestry deal sinks Tasmanian wooden boat building

Agroforestry out of Carbon Tax Smells like Snake Oil

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SOMEONE needs to tell the Prime Minister that global warming and agroforestry are yesterdays failed fads.

According to an ongoing media study by Max Boykoff and Maria Mansfield interest in anthropogenic global warming is on the wane.[1] It is difficult to see the situation turning around unless there is a climate catastrophe of some sort that can be blamed on carbon dioxide emissions.

Indeed issues come and go, and anthropogenic climate change is likely to be one of those issues that are eventually forgotten; a fad that passes with the passing of time.

In Europe and the US, legislative initiatives are being shelves, yet the Australian government seems determined to push on with its carbon tax.

As part of a package of sweeteners to accompany the new carbon tax to be announced tomorrow by the Australian Prime Minister, farmers are likely to be encouraged to invest in carbon sequestration schemes in particular to plant trees and store carbon in the soil. [2]

Investing in soil carbon makes good sense, but investing in agroforestry… Such schemes were pushed hard a decade or so ago with lots of promise and lots of subsidises but many have already ended with financial ruin.

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[1] http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/media_coverage/

[2] http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/riverland-unearths-carbon-pilot-plan/story-e6fredel-1226070406388

Already Lost the Forests, Lost the Election, Waiting for the Beer

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Faye O’Brien, from O’Brien Sawmills in Barham, has not seen John Williams, Chair of the Natural Resources Commission (NRC), since the Red Gum forests started to flood in August last year. 

During 2009, Dr Williams was a regular visitor to the central Murray Valley and his team at the NRC prepared a report for the New South Wales Labour government with recommendations for the future management of the red gum forests.

Implementation of the recommendations   in Dr William’s final report, Riverina Bioregion Regional Forest Assessment: River Red Gums and Woodland Forests, has seen the decimation of a once thriving timber community with the closure of the five largest saw mills and many small operations. 

I visited the forests early March 2011 with Mrs O’Brien and saw the red gum forests still underwater – forests Dr Williams claimed faced a “water scarce future”.

[Read more…] about Already Lost the Forests, Lost the Election, Waiting for the Beer

Britain’s Forests for Sale

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In Australia the general trend is for governments to lock-up more and more forest often through the conversion of land managed as forest reserve into national park.   The conversion of land into national park is often accompanied by a reduction in the level of active management of the area.

Australia has vast areas of both forest reserve and forest in national parks.    Not so in the United Kingdom where there are only 15 national parks and a relatively small area of state owned forest commission. 

Now, in the UK, the new conservative government is planning to sell-off the state-owned forest commission estate and apparently without placing caveats on how this land is used after its sale.

According to The Guardian’s environment blog late last year:

“We now know, thanks to the junior environment minister Jim Paice’s frank evidence to a recent House of Lords select committee, that the government is considering the sale of not just “some”, or even “substantial”, amounts of woodland as the public was originally led to believe, but of all state-owned English trees across the commission’s 635,000-acre Forestry Commission estate. This includes many royal forests, state-owned ancient woodlands, sites of special scientific interest, heathland, campsites, farms and sporting estates.”

Various campaigns have sprung up and it was recently report that the National Trust is planning to buy much or the forest:

“The initiative, says the trust’s director, Dame Fiona Reynolds, could protect in perpetuity not just large areas of heritage areas such as the Forest of Dean and the New Forest, but other woodland expected to be offered for sale to communities and commercial enterprises in the biggest change in land ownership for more than 80 years.”

What is it that governments in Australia and the UK no longer want a part in forestry – they don’t want to be involved in active land management – perhaps reflecting the popular mood which sees such areas as either wilderness or with commercial potential – but not able to reconcile that they can be a source of income and recreation and wildlife refuges and have historically been successfully managed as such by government forestry services?

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/dec/22/tory-privatisation-all-state-forests 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/28/national-trust-save-english-woodlands

Red Gum Forests Need Water and Thinning: Not Bob Carr

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Nick Ashwin 001 copyFORMER New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr, obviously has no idea when it comes to the history and ecology of river red gum forests in south western NSW. His misguided comments in The Land one week ago (“Forests or fenceposts”, July 30, pg 19) reflect the prejudices of someone born and breed in Sydney and trained as a journalist before becoming a career Labor politician, and more recently a handsomely paid roving representative for Macquarie Bank.

Mr Carr may have a deep knowledge of US political history, but he clearly doesn’t understand the history of the forests in his own land – Australia. [Read more…] about Red Gum Forests Need Water and Thinning: Not Bob Carr

Defining the Greens (Part 16) and Bushfires

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canberra 2003 croppedIN 1994, Ray Evans bought a cottage at Marysville (Victoria, Australia) which he and his wife subsequently renovated and extended.   The cottage and its extensive garden were destroyed by fire on the night of Saturday February 7 – now known as Black Saturday.    In the following provocative and political article Mr Evans blames the fire “on green doctrine” and the Victorian government wilfully ignoring the advice of a previous inquiry because it did not want to “offend the sensitivities of the Greens”.

[Read more…] about Defining the Greens (Part 16) and Bushfires