Forestry

Save the Forests: they are crucial to reducing CO2

This is the call to arms which we get from Professor Brendan Mackey, Professor of Environmental Science at the ANU, in the Opinion Section of the Melbourne’s The Age of August 7, 2007. The heading was followed by a sub-heading which makes the unequivocal assertion that “Stopping Logging Will Help Solve the Global Warming Problem”.

He gives us a farrago of nonsense about the capability of the world’s forests in turning back the tide of man-made CO2 emissions, provided mankind will but leave those forests alone, without fire protection, unmanaged, un-logged, unharvested, and un-regenerated.

He focuses on Tasmania, and complains about the recent Labor endorsement of the status quo, wherein the Forest Management Agency (Forestry Tasmania) manages Tasmania’s public forests on Multiple Use and Sustainable bases.

On August 1st, Jon Faine who conducts ABC’s popular morning talkback radio programme, anticipated the doomsday scenario of Prof. Mackey concerning Tasmania and CO2 emissions. In an interview with Kevin Rudd on Labor policy, he accused Rudd of propounding a contradictory policy – on the one hand supporting the Government’s stand against Global Warming, and on the other hand commending the forestry status quo in Tasmania.

Professor Mackey and Jon Faine have acquired the same mindset, most likely from such sources as the Greens and the Wilderness Society, with all the accompanying anti-forestry baggage.

I will endeavour to tease out some of the falsehoods embedded in the Mackey article.

These are my counter-arguments:

(1) Tasmanian land-use statistics, present and past, indicate that today’s forest boundaries embrace land which stands at 66% of the hectares of forest that existed in 1803. Virtually no forest diminution occurred in the 20th century or later

(2) Furthermore, within Tasmania’s late 20th and early 21st centuries we have seen a prodigious area of Public Forest landscape dedicated as National Parks, Wilderness, Valleys of the Giants, so-called “Old Growth Forests”, Cool Temperate Rainforests, and “Forests of High ConservationValue”, also forests with romantic-sounding names, like “Tarkine”. These areas have been excluded from timber utilization in perpetuity.

(3) These swashbuckling logging exclusions occurred under the auspices of the Helsham Enquiry , the RFA Agreement, Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement 2005, and the 2004 pre-Federal Election horse-trading between Howard, Latham & Paul Lennon . This all happened within the span of a couple of decades. The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania has produced a set of progress maps which show the cumulative extent of reservations, as percentages of total forest. The cumulative % figures are : 1982 – 14%, 1992 – 21%, 2001 – 40%, 2006 – 47%.

Considering the situation on mainland Australia :

(4) If Prof.Mackey is advocating a vast Australia-wide plantation programme, as a supplement to the “saved” native forest, where is the productive land to be found? From compulsorily acquired farmland? If so, has he studied the problems of agricultural macro-economics on the national scale?

(5) Prof. Mackey claims that one hectare of mature, tall,wet forest can store the equivalent of 5,500 tonnes of CO2. This seems an extraordinarily large figure, and takes a lot of believing., especially as he blithely tosses it into the ring seemingly as an Australia-wide average. Probably he has this figure embedded in one or more published peer-reviewed “scientific” papers. If so, one would be interested to see how such an enormous figure matches up with the fact that cool temperate rain forest with a tall eucalypt overstory is seriously atypical of Australia’s forest landscapes. The land occupied by our overall forests is generally much less propitious to biomass production than his model. Low and unreliable rainfall( less than 800 mm), shallow and infertile soils (less than one metre depth) and low productivity are the norm. He further confuses the lay community by comparing all this with 1300 cars emitting exhaust fumes over one year, presumably continuously.

(6) Has Dr Mackey compiled a stratified map of Australian forests and potential forest areas, giving himself guidance in factoring hectares and biomass productivity classes into his computations? That would seem to be a sine qua non, to an expert on this subject.

(7) He does not appear to give any credit to the foresters of our country in their pursuit of Multiple Use and Sustainability. To him, their mission in life is simply to flog woodchips off to Japan.

(8) He manages to convey to us that the diminution of a forest is a greenhouse crime, but to do so with the alleged objective of producing pulpwood or woodchips would seem to be infinitely more reprehensible than any other usage. This gratuitous and unfavourable mention of woodchips divulges his covert philosophical linkages with green activist groups.

(9) In his baseless conviction that UNDISTURBED Australian forests are the answer to Australia’s alleged greenhouse problem, Prof. Mackey has lost the ecological plot and fails to grasp the myriad of complexities, constraints , limitations , roadblocks, perils , even stubbornness of Nature,which stand in the way of his masterly “green solution”.

Any forester worth his or her salt, is familiar with the manner in which a tree or forest stand passes through its life cycle (or in forester’s jargon, it’s rotation). Here are the stages in the cycle, starting from the initiation of an Australian afforestation event (natural or artificial), assuming eucalypts, and focussing on biomass (carbon) accumulation :

a) Juvenile phase – insignificant biomass production, grading through to significant and accelerating.

b) Sapling/ Pole phase – rapid growth in height volume and carbon content

c) Middle Age phase – maximum rate of growth in biomass

d) Mature phase – plateau effect, extending over decades.

e) Overmature phase – rate of growth of biomass in decline, verging on the static

f)Senescent phase- absolutely static growth, and tree health now a consideration, plus attack by insect and fungal parasites and saprophytes, leading inevitably to the forest giving up its store of organic matter to the atmosphere as CO2.

g) The first symptom of this disintegration of the forest overstory is the progressive shedding of the dead branches. The last stage is gravity consigning the mortal remains to the forest floor, to join the invertebrates, microbes, and of course the CO2 stream.

h) The question arises – what does Nature have in store for this “residual” forest area, which will have bitterly disappointed Professor Mackey by not retaining its carbon store and forest cover for more than a miserable couple of hundred years. No mention of the word “PERPETUITY” anywhere . That concept seems to be the preserve of Foresters !

i) If we search diligently for the evidence of this failure of our forests to perform to Prof. Mackey’s greenhouse aspirations, we could find the above ecological drama playing itself out in its final phase, in some veteran Eucalyptus regnans stands in Victorian Central Highlands, or Tasmania’s Florentine, Styx & Weld Valleys.

Norman Endacott.
(Retired Forester)

High profile Sydney business man Geoffrey Cousins is running a campaign against a new pulp mill proposed for the Tamar Valley in Tasmania. His campaign appears to haver resulted in the federal government deciding to delay their decision by at least six weeks. But how much does Geoffrey Cousins really know about the forestry industry?

Timber Communities Australia extends a public invited to Mr Geoffrey Cousins to visit and meet with Tasmanian timber dependent families.

Tasmanian timber families are only to willing to share with Mr Cousins their pride in being part of Tasmania’s sustainable forest and timber industries and provide him with the opportunity to see both sides of the picture.

“Mr Cousins admitted on local talk back radio this morning that he had not meet with timber dependent communities and we what to help him over come this failing” Barry Chipman Tasmanian State Manager Timber Communities Australia said today

“So far he has only heard outrageous claims, and we are very willing to assist him in seeing for him self just where the proposed pulp mill will be and how well our forests are managed”.

Mr Cousins Insurance Company sponsors the WWF Climate Change program, and this will be an opportunity to learn how Tasmanian forests are removing greenhouse gasses and that the proposed pulp mill will reduce greenhouse gasses.

“If Mr Cousins is prepared to meet with both sides, we are convinced he will be a supporter not a critic of the proposed pulp mill”

As a businessman he should know how important it is for Australia to reduce its deficit in trade of timber products.

“The Bell Bay Pulp Mill has the potential to reduce this balance of trade deficit by $400 to $450 million each year (20 to 25%).”

TCA would endeavour to assist him to visit Five Mile Bluff the site of the ocean outfall, as we wonder if he is aware that the Federal Department of Environment and Water “has not identified any likely significant impacts on the marine environment in Commonwealth waters from the proposed pulp mill.” [Recommendations Report Paragraph 36]

TCA also wonders if he is aware of how ECF pulp mills and for example wineries, co-exist in harmony in other parts of the world including France, Portugal and British Columbia, in fact right around the world with no adverse impacts.”

“We hope Mr Cousins will accept our invitation before he further puts at risk the social and economic well being of timber dependent families throughout Tasmania.” Mr Chipman concluded.

If you were planning a pulp mill there could hardly be a better spot [than the Tamar Valley in Tasmania]. What’s more, the area is so settled that only an idiot, or someone who hadn’t even bothered with the minimum of research, could call it “pristine”…

Read the full blog post here which shows that the proposed site for the pulp mill in Tasmania is next to an established aluminium smelter in the supposedly pristine Tamar valley: http://ambit-gambit.nationalforum.com.au/archives/002259.html

Just when the ALP Leader Kevin Rudd and his Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett AM, MP, are being urged to bury the Ghost of former Environment Minister Graham “Richo” Richardson we see for Liberal leader John Hewson enter the fray.

Rudd and Garrett have been warned that the preference deal stitched up by Richo with the greens came at a huge cost to the Nation including “Two of the most noticeable Labor government pay-offs were the banning of a promising mining project at Coronation Hill, an area located within the boundaries of Kakadu National Park but in reality a patch of rubbishy wasteland, and of a paper pulp mill in southern Tasmania, opposed by a NIMBY coalition including hobby farmers who joined Bob Brown’s burgeoning state Green party temporarily to push their interests:.:

The Australian Article quoted warned that the ALP must not fall into the same trap.

Now on the ABC’s 7.30 report told of how former Liberal leader John Hewson thinks “Turnbull’s mad not to just set up an inquiry that kicks the issue off the election agenda.”

He of course is referring to Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in effect he is urging John Howard’s Liberal Government to do a “Richo” when the ALP “killed off “ the Wesley Vale pulp mil just before the 1990 Federal Election. By doing so according to the Institute of Public Affairs he created sovereign risk and economic hardship in Tasmania.

Let’s hope Minister Turnbull will take notice as the greens will never give their preferences to the Liberal National Party coalition as their state aim for this election is to defeat the Government.

Of course the 7.30 report couldn’t resist the misty vision of the Tamar Valley to portray it as ‘wonderful, beautiful wine growing area, wonderful sort of tourist area, and so on’. They did not show that the proposed mill is to be located in Tasmania’s largest industrial estate.

But perhaps that just par for the course for the National Broadcaster on the 5th of July they claimed the pulp would taint fish (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200706/r148708_526664.asx) that featured vision of scallops being caught when the ABC was aware the vision was from 1999. That the fact scallops had not been caught in Bass Strait west of Flinders island since then is confirmed in public government /fishing industry reports.

More myths are flying about but will history repeat itself?

Cinders

According to Caroline Overington from The Australian, political aspirant Geoffrey Cousins’ inspiration is attributed to The Monthly’s Out of Control – The tragedy of Tasmania’s forests, by Richard Flanagan.

It is certainly a powerful lot of words that draw heavily on reader-environmentalism. Reference to Tasmania mortgaging its future to the woodchipping industry, reminded me of a contrary allegation from the Prime Minister in 2005, who described his offence to the idea that the extreme greens have a mortgage on concern and compassion for the forests or for the environment of this country.

No doubt there is as much cynicism from both sides of the debate, but in this mounting electoral issue: of national conservation significance versus state economic opportunity, Australia will be further divided unless political integrity prevails.

In matters such as these there is no doubt that corruption represents the greatest obstacle to the achievement of political propriety. Whether the iconic forests of Tasmania are quarantined from logging or their availability for woodchipping is secured, federal and state intervention is vulnerable to corruption without:
• the effective integration of economic and environmental considerations;
• maintaining or enhancing the productivity of environmental assets, as well as their health and diversity,
• ensuring that environmental actions are cost-effective and not disproportionate to the significance of identified problems, and
• ensuring that consumer pricing is consistent with the full life cycle costs of providing environmental goods and services.

The Australian media has been in a frenzy over a proposed pulp mill for the Tamar Valley in Tasmania. Most recent objections have included the idea that the mill should be located away from wineries. Yesterday, Barry Chipman from the NGO Timber Communities Australia had the following response:

Following claims that the proposed Bell Bay pulp mill could impact upon the Tamar Valley’s valued wineries Timber Communities Australia conducted its own research looking at the economic make up of other major wine producing regions.

“That research commenced at what TCA saw as the top of the tree in wine producing regions; being the Bordeaux region in South West France, The region is promoted as the Fine Wine Capital of the World and our findings where quite amazing in light of what’s being claimed here.” Barry Chipman Tasmanian State Manager Timber Communities Australia said today

The Bordeaux region produces 800 million litres of the highest quality wine annually, the region also attracts 3 million tourists annually.

Along side of this world leading fine wine and tourist industry is a very devise cultivated forest industry producing, Kraft pulp (Smurfit Kappa Cellulose de Pin pulp mill) glazed Kraft paper, Liner Kraft paper, Fluff pulp, and the full range of sawn timber products. (Including many wine crates) This wood products industry generates 2.5 billon EUR annually.

The Bordeaux region is also internationally recognised as a major scientific and technical centre for wood, product research including a major focus upon pulp and paper in particular ECF technology, the centre employs 200 researchers.

Then over in the neighbouring North East is another major fine wine and tourist region of Probence, and within the region surrounded by fine wine vineyards, is the Tarscon-sur-Rhone ECF pulp mill. (This is the same technology as the proposed Bell Bay pulp mill.)

Upon learning how, French wine producers and wood and paper products producers appear to prosper in harmony with each other it is hoped that this can also translate to Tamar Valley.

Perhaps those that seem to have doubts about this could just as a starter follow TCA’s lead and “Goggle” Bordeaux then follow up with ECF pulp mills Bordeaux France

Tasmania should not be left behind by the French we to can be a world leader in demonstrating harmony between all industries. Mr Chipman concluded