UNSUSTAINABLE WOOD FROM NSW PUBLIC HARDWOOD FORESTS

According to the official corporate ‘blurb’, our state forest manager, Forestry Corporation (FC), claims, among other things, to produce sustainable hardwood timber from native forests.

This message has long been projected by the industry, but what does it really mean by “sustainable”? Certainly, their hardwood operations in state forests fail to sustain biodiversity, despite their being responsible for managing a million hectares of NSW’s state forests for conservation.

The term managing in this case is fairly loose, and essentially means they no longer plan to log those forests. There is no physical management of any note, such as weed or feral animal control, so much of that million-hectare estate is currently clogged with exotic weeds.

Is the hardwood division economically sustainable? Again, with that division recording multi-million-dollar losses annually for the last 20 years, the answer again has to be no.

Is the quantity of timber supplied sustainable? In that respect the industry’s record over the past 230 years is abysmal. It took only 50 years to drive the majestic Red Cedar to virtual extinction, then another 50 years to do likewise to the iconic Hoop Pine, using them for box wood, and they were only saved from further exploitation by the development of cardboard cartons and plastic crates.

 At Gibberagee State Forest, where the government is currently allowing FC to log koala feed trees by the hundreds, the harvest plan’s estimated yield makes for interesting reading.

 From the 325 hectares of available forest, FC expects to harvest a mere 1,118m³ of high-quality large sawlogs; 956m³ of high-quality small sawlogs, and  31m³ of “poles, piles, and girders. However, by far the largest component of the expected yield is 1,388m³ described as “low-quality salvage”. I imagine that’s wood which is only good for woodchip or burning to generate electricity.

Over the decades log sizes have progressively decreased and for small logs today, 15cm diameter at the small end, less than 30% of that wood is salvaged.

 Native forest logging has never been sustainable, and it’s time to put an end to it.

 

-        John Edwards

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent  21st June 2023 under the title "Unsustainable Wood".

 

ENDING PUBLIC NATIVE FOREST LOGGING IN NSW

Calls for an end to logging NSW’s public native forests are growing. One of the reasons for this call relates to threats to our biodiversity.  Healthy native forests ecosystems provide essential habitat for native species including threatened species like koalas.  Also forests with mature trees provide the hollows needed for a range of threatened birds such as parrots and large owls and arboreal mammals including gliders.  Current logging practices destroy this important habitat value at a time when we are experiencing a growing biodiversity crisis. 

Another reason is that our State Forests are vitally important in our efforts to mitigate climate change by providing an important store of carbon.  Destroying forests releases carbon that has been stored over the trees’ lifetimes and contributes to climate change. Ceasing native forest logging will be a key component in successfully meeting our 2050 net zero emissions target.

Logging these important publicly-owned natural resources is unsustainable now – let alone in the long term – because of the damage it causes. 

Having recognised this problem in their states, Victoria and Western Australia have decided to phase out native forestry logging.  While their decisions were influenced by science, strong community campaigns eventually encouraged them to act.  In NSW there is increasing community support for our government to take this action and many conservationists and others are urging the NSW Government to follow their example and phase out logging our public forests.  Obviously a comprehensive transition plan for the current public forests industry will need to be developed as the plantation-based industry is expanded.  Expansion of the plantations must only be on land that is currently cleared. 

Public native forest logging is also economically unsustainable. The Forestry Corporation loses money each year with a loss of $20 million last year.  A recent study by ANU’s Professor Andrew Macintosh and Frontier Economics found that ceasing native forestry logging in the south of NSW could produce over the period 2022-2041 a net economic benefit of about $60 million while reducing net greenhouse emissions by about 1 million tonnes per year. 

            - Leonie Blain

 Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , June 22, 2022.

 

RALLY IN COFFS HARBOUR TO PROTECT PUBLIC FORESTS ON FRIDAY APRIL 29

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) is holding a rally in Coffs Harbour to highlight important issues around the NSW Legislative Council inquiry into the long term sustainability and future of the timber and forest products industry.

NEFA's media on the rally is posted below.

 

NEFA will be holding a rally from 10.30 - 11.30am on Friday 29 April , outside the Coffs Harbour Council Chambers, before the Coffs Harbour hearing of NSW Upper House, Portfolio Committee 4, 'Inquiry into the long term sustainability and future of the timber and forest products industry'.

NEFA want to emphasise to the Committee that there is no social licence for the continued logging of public native forests and that in the midst of the developing climate and extinction crises we need to take urgent action, with the most effective action we can take immediately to begin to address the problems is to stop logging public native forests, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“Through logging we have halved the carbon stored in our forests, by stopping logging the recovering forests will be able to regain the lost carbon from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks and soils, taking up a significant amount of what NSW releases every year.

“While we need to reduce our emissions, if we are ever to reach net zero we need to increase carbon capture and storage, and trees are the only proven way to make a significant difference.

“As the forests recover so too will the resources needed by our threatened fauna, giving them a better chance of withstanding the increasing intensity and frequency of droughts, heatwaves and wildfires.

“The Committee needs to recognise that the public have had enough of seeing our public forests progressively degraded and turned into pseudo-plantations. They provide a higher return to the community from tourism, carbon storage, water and habitat.

“A 2016 survey for Forestry and Wood Products Australia of 12,000 people throughout Australia found that native forest logging was considered unacceptable by 65% of rural residents and acceptable by only 17%.

“The Committee needs to focus on identifying a just and equitable transition strategy for the 500 workers across north-east NSW that will be affected by protecting public native forests, Mr. Pugh said.

 

28th April 2022

More information on Inquiry into the long term sustainability and future of the timber and forest products  industry is available on the Committee's inquiry page

LOGGING OF PUBLIC NATIVE FORESTS IN NSW HAS NO SOCIAL LICENCE

In a Media Release on November 14, North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) stated that logging of native forests was unacceptable and  had no social licence.  Part of the release is printed below:

The evidence is clear from a recent industry survey of over 12,000 Australians that the logging of public native forests has no social license and rather than logging of public native forests being entrenched for a further 20 years it must be phased out as soon as possible according to the North East Forest Alliance.

The Forestry and Wood Products report "Community perceptions of Australia’s forest, wood and paper industries: implications for social license to operate" surveyed  over 12,000 people from throughout Australia and found 70% of urban, and 65% of rural Australians find logging of native forests unacceptable, compared to just 10% of urban, and 17% of rural Australians finding it acceptable.

This reaffirms polling by Reachtel in northern NSW (Ballina and Lismore) late last year that showed that over 48% of people believe the most important value of State forests are the protection of wildlife, nature and trees, with another 23% considering it is the protection of water supplies, 10% carbon storage and 9% recreation. Only around 10% considered the best use was for logging, woodchiping or burning for electricity.

Continued logging of public native forests clearly does not have a social license and must be phased out as soon as possible, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

"Logging of native forests is a dinosaur industry, and with 87% of our sawn timber now coming from plantations there is no excuse to go on logging public native forests,

"Native forests are far more important for tourism jobs, recreation, water yields, mitigating climate change and saving our declining wildlife, such as Koalas.

"The NSW and Commonwealth Governments need to start listening to the community rather than the National Party, and refrain from the imminent intent to entrench logging of public native forests for a further 20 years in new Regional Forest Agreements while further increasing logging intensity and slashing environmental protections.

"Instead of increasing logging the Governments need to implement a strategy to rapidly phase it out, and begin repairing the damage they have inflicted on our irreplaceable public forests", Mr. Pugh said.