The ENGO’s are only half of the problem – even if we had their support for native forest harvesting, imports would still outcompete the local product. The industry lost house framing to softwood plantations, and furniture has been lost to Ikea and others from Vietnam, Malaysia and China. Furniture, toilet paper, aluminium window frames, you name it – are all cheaper alternatives when imported. The real problem is the economic and ecological madness that passes for freemarket salvation in the minds of our political and academic establishment. They have made it easier for ENGOs to be lazy and argue that the local industry is already on its death bed due to market forces.

So, a central question is this: If foresters can and do maintain a sustainable resource in Australia - for who and for what?

"for who and for what?"

For the planet mate.

Good article Simon.

David

Some fair enough points in the article, but it would best be taken with a bex, a good lie down in company of David Lindenmayer’s Forest Pattern and Ecological Process (A synthesis of 25 years of research)

David Lindenmayer is nothing but an anti-logging green activist. He lacks any sense of perspective or proportionality.

This well argued article goes to the crux of the problem, which is the unsustainable campaign to end native forest timber harvesting resulting in perverse environmental outcomes. The minor amount of forest available for harvesting in Victoria and Tasmania poses little threat to conservation values. In return we receive a renewable forest product that lessens our impact on forests overseas that are not managed to worlds best practice.

The proposed forestry agreement will serve no useful purpose, given most Tasmanian forests are already protected, will cost a bucketload of taxpayer dollars and remove professional management from the forest.

About 20 years ago I belonged to a Bush Walking group which included a ranger from DSE who gave us some good instruction in how logging worked. Because I grew up in the bush, I already had a good idea how the ecology of the forest worked and I wrote a piece to be included in the Victorian Association of Bushwalking Clubs' Newsletter. The greenies of the association refused to publish it, so I sent it to the individual clubs. After that the article appeared in the Association's newsletter. I tried to explain to them that old growth forest doesn't last forever, ultimately is burnt in a forest wild fire, or else it dies, produces debris on the forest floor and rots away. If the forest is logged while the timber is still useful, good practice demands that the old hollow stags are left as a haven for the wildlife. After the logging coops are tidied up and the rubbish burnt, new plants grow and these produce vast amounts of food for the animals, so that we get a win, win situation, both for the foresters and the ecology. Greenies, bah - Humbug.

David