Processors may lose in supply decision

Timber processors at Longwarry, Noojee and Powelltown may lose more wood supply after the State Government announced a halving of the native timber sold by VicForests by 2024 under the Victorian Forestry Plan.

The immediate catalyst for cutbacks was the government’s release of the Threatened Species and Communities Risk Assessment, which outlines further new protection areas that will affect forest areas set aside for timber harvesting.

This is on top of the extra 100,000 hectares of protection areas put in place in 2019, much of which has since burnt.

The major review of the Victorian regional forest agreements noted that the 95,000 hectares of immediate protection area for the Greater Glider and Leadbeater’s Possum was half burnt in the 2019-20 bushfires, with more than 31,000 hectares severely burnt.

With the latest cutbacks, the area available for timber harvesting is now less than two per cent of Victoria’s public forests.

Currently, VicForests is supplying 253,000 cubic metres of D+ saw logs per annum until 2023-24.

Under the plan, this will reduce to 185,000m3 in 2024-25 and to 140,000m3 from 2025-26 until 2029-30, when all harvesting will cease.

The amount of Vic Ash timber that will be harvested over this period is 85,000m3, while the annual harvest of mixed species will go from 100,000m3 in 2024-25 to 55,000m3 from 2025 until 2030.

Australian Sustainable Hardwoods at Heyfield is a major user of Vic Ash timber, while Radial Timber sources timber from VicForests until its own plantations are mature. Many of these, however, will not be mature by 2030, leaving Radial short of timber.

Along with the risk assessment cutbacks, the government delayed the release of VicForests’ next Timber Release Plan until after the November

26 state election. It also announced a new tranche of its ‘sawmill opt-out scheme’ for processors who may want compensation to leave the industry.

The government is offering up to $250,000 as a redundancy payment for plant and equipment, and up to $150,000 for the safe retirement and repurposing of mill sites.

Victorian Forest Products Association chief executive Deb Kerr said the state government’s actions were undermining any industry confidence that it would be able to guarantee supply timber until 2030, as promised.

“On the face of it, it appears to be forcing mills to leave the industry they love - all right before the November election,” she said.

“The government’s exit package has come at a time when many mills have been operating with very little timber supplies for months, with some mills mothballing operations due to lack of supply.”

She said the government had confirmed it was reducing saw log supply by 24 per cent and further reducing the effective harvest area by expanding protection zones for threatened species.

“Victoria’s sustainable native forest industry operates on just 0.04 per cent of the forest each year and for most of 2022 has been held to ransom through the courts by litigious green groups. Mills and their workers are stressed about their future and have little confidence in the government’s promise to guarantee supply until 2030,” she said

The risk assessment report, produced by DELWP, found 61 species of flora and fauna that it considered to be affected, or potentially affected, by forestry operations. Of these, 19 species were recommended for interim protections relating to forestry operations.

Key hazard themes assessed across the 61 species were climate chan.ge, fire, forestry operations, habitat modification, invasive species and threats to population health and resilience.