Well blow me down with a feather - Bob Brown and the Greens support anti-logging activism in Tasmania! So does the Wilderness Society! Concerned individuals fund independent docos about environmental destruction!

Duh.

While I am not entirely opposed to logging the way it is currently practiced leaves a lot to be desired. Only an industry with the status of a sacred cow can cause respiratory distress to so many people during the autumn burnoff periods; a factory would be shut down if it made thousands of people sick. Occasionally you see a giant log on the back of a truck on its way to be chipped. Anywhere but Tasmania a giant tree would be regarded as part of the local heritage, not a cheap commodity. I don't know so much about eagles but I can point to a spot where a lyrebird stamping ground has been bulldozed prior to logging.

Finally a number of bushwalkers (who admittedly use log tracks) are convinced climate change is steadily transforming the forest ecology to warmer, drier and slower growing. I doubt whether this has been factored in to the industry's 'sustainable' yield calculations.

The Wilderness Society is not a business. It is an activist group that needs $12 million to mount its campaigns. Almost all of its workers are highly educated who could earn much bigger incomes elsewhere. They are struggling to save an environment that has taken thousands of years to establish its present ecological balance.

They want future generations to inherit that environment. These crusaders will be long dead and will not be there to be thanked by the beneficiaries. Church-based welfare workers who believe in Heavenly rewards cannot claim to be truly selfless. The non-religious crusaders for the environment are probably the only truly selfless people in our society.

On the other hand what are the forestry people essentially interested in? Answer; money! The accusation is that the Wilderness Society manufactures crises. Starting with the year 1788 as a baseline of 100% now look at how much unspoiled natural area is left. The crisis does not have to be manufactured.

This article describes guerrilla tactics by the greenies. If that is what it takes to oppose destructive greed - fair enough.

We cannot believe the wilderness people BUT can we believe you who has a vested interest in the timber industry? One just one photo of acres of clearfelled once natural bushland with animals, birds, insects and plants all destroyed is enough to make you and your company a pariah and to make you a money driven liar. When a decent caring person sees this freefelling it is hard for us to imagin anyone so foolish and greedy agreeing to it - almost in or un-human. I'm afraid you have a lot more work to do yet and Gunn's which comes across as a devious no standards company who allegedly bribes politicians is your worst enemy. You could have told us just where all this timber goes as I understand most is turned into woodchips.
Regards, a non-convinced - numbat

Ken’s article is spot on; its relevance can be seen by the latest effort by protestors in the Styx Valley. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22046773-29277,00.html

These are the same protestors that signed a MOU to halt illegal protests in the Florentine Valley.

What is amazing is that the Styx Valley has been subject to industrial harvesting since the 1940s when our great media barons got together to use the forests to make newsprint.

It was the birth place of clear fell burn and sow silviculture in the early 1960’s.
The forest management is so good and the regeneration so successful that the protestors still think of the Valley as pristine wilderness with awe inspiring old growth.

The Wilderness Society used photos of the Styx to campaign against the Howard Government at the last Election and to convince Mark Latham to lock up Tasmanian forests, a loopy policy that most commentators’ state cost the ALP government.

There is strong evidence that the protestors receive advice from the office of Greens Senator Bob Brown who is in a desperate battle to retain his Senate seat in the next Federal election.

The Wilderness Society appears to be flat out trying to get him publicity. This is hardly surprising when the Society was created in Bob’s lounge room and its Tasmanian spokesperson is a former Brown staff member.

Funds donated to the Wilderness Society are tax deductible as they are supposed to promote wilderness protection, yet you never hear from this group that 97.5% of high quality wilderness is protected in Tasmania.

Forestry Tasmania has made significant concessions yet the protests and the campaigning against Tasmanian forest management goes on unabated.

Yep ban all timber exports, is the only answer to the rape of our ogygen generators. Houses used to be made from native wood once, now they are made out of very small pieces of wood glued together onto plantation pine, and the native timber gets mulched for export.
The beautiful native timber in old homes, instead of having maintenance and restoration subsidised by govt, is either bulldozed or dismantled to build new homes, and the irreplaceable timber cut up for foot lockers coffee tables etc, all pathetic uses for now rare native timber.
Ban Timber Exports.
Cheers Neil