Reserve logging alarm
THE Government was ignoring expert advice by running a ruler over conservation reserves as a potential source of timber, the Wilderness Society has revealed.
The conservation group says 420,000 hectares of oldgrowth rainforest in conservation reserves — some of which date back to the Howard-era forest deal — are now under threat of logging for special species timber.
Among the well-known areas at risk are the Tarkine in the North-West and the Blue Tier in the North-East and a range of other formal and informal reserves statewide.
Wilderness Society campaigner Vica Bayley says Sustainable Timber Tasmania had told the State Government it could not log in the longstanding conservation reserves but the Tasmanian Special Species Management Plan has counted the large swatches of forest as a potential source of timber.
“We’ve got a Government that’s actually thinking of logging inside 420,000 hectares of old-growth rainforest that are part of the Tasmanian reserve estate,” Mr Bayley said.
“These are reserves the Hodgman Government wants to kick off logging in, even though its experts — whether it’s Forestry Tasmania or the National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Committee — say it is not possible or it will have a great impact.”
In submissions to the Advisory Committee, Sustainable Timber Tasmania said harvesting was specifically excluded from its informal reserves.
The Wilderness Society is rolling out an advertising campaign suggesting that the reserves are as precious and unique an asset to Tasmania as living elephants are to Africa.
“In the 21st century, where Tasmania’s identity is embedded in conservation, it’s lunacy for government to log oldgrowth rainforest in listed conservation reserves and think people are going to buy the wood,” Mr Bayley said.
Mr Bayley pointed to a letter from Resources Minister Guy Barnett to a constituent as further evidence of the Government’s intentions. “Special species harvesting was previously permitted in every area covered by the plan,” Mr Barnett said in the letter.
A government spokesman said nothing had changed.
“Applications to harvest special species on Permanent Timber Production Zone land are a matter for STT as the land manager. The plan does not change the current obligations or requirements on STT as the relevant land owner.”