Forestry

Roger Underwood. I had an email from a Queensland mate the other day. “I recently took a train trip from Brisbane to Charleville” he told me, “and there were huge piles of concrete sleepers beside the line to the Toowoomba Range and elsewhere.” I knew exactly what he was talking about. In September 2024 I travelled by train from Perth to Adelaide, from Ballarat to Melbourne and from Melbourne to Sydney. Alongside every railway line along this trip were piles of “used” concrete sleepers.

The transcript of proceedings of the Independent Forestry Panel in teleconference with the Independent Koala Expert Panel on 1 November 2024 was released on Friday 20 December, at the end of the last working week before Christmas. The Forestry Panel will oversee the destruction of sustainable forestry in NSW to ‘save’ koalas.

Scott O’Keeffe. Around 15 years ago, people living in the Maleny area of Southeast Queensland noticed a decline in the health of some large mature bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii). The crowns of the trees began turning brown, quickly followed by foliage well below the crown. Within a short time, all foliage would be shed, branches cast, and the affected tree would be dead ... Araucarian Dieback (AD) is on the move.

Forestry Australia has welcomed a new study published in Australian Forestry peer-reviewed journal by the former chief research scientist at the CSIRO, Dr John Raison. The paper, titled "A review of the impacts of sustainable harvesting, non-harvest management and wildfire on net carbon emissions from Australian native forests", investigates the science behind claims that timber harvesting increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Nationals MPs are urging the Premier to immediately intervene and pause the assessment process for the Great Koala National Park, until claims of serious conflicts of interest are investigated. NSW Nationals Leader Dugald Saunders, Shadow Minister for the North Coast Gurmesh Singh, Member for Clarence Richie Williamson, and Member for Oxley Michael Kemp made the calls in a letter sent to Chris Minns on Thursday.

Vic Jurskis. No matter what the cost of the Great Koala National Park it’s a scam and NSW’s Environment Minister has real numbers which prove it. Unfortunately, the numbers will no longer be politically dangerous once the Park has been legislated and the renewable timber industry has been destroyed to appease the Greens.

The Western Bundjalung community’s Ngullingah Jugun Aboriginal Corporation is working with Forestry Corporation to bring together knowledge of cultural burning with government bushfire management. A fire training course has been held in Jubullum Village, near Tabulam … the fire training will improve both the community and government response to wildfires.

“All the Bureau of Meteorology’s predictors in the western part of Victoria are showing a drier than usual lead up to the fire season , with soil moisture low, and a high fuel load ringing alarm bells for the next few months,” said Andrew White, CEO of the Victorian Forest Products Association.

Forestry Australia is calling on the Australian Government to ensure that new ACCU Scheme carbon methods developed for managing native forests are truly ‘nature positive’ ... “The proposed method, Enhancing Native Forest Resilience, is focussed on improving the health and resilience of native forests and encouraging active, adaptive management of native forests across all land tenures to assist Australia in meeting its Paris Agreement targets": Dr Bill Jackson.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has today released Australia’s State of the Forests Report: Synthesis 2023. ABARES Executive Director, Dr Jared Greenville, said the five-yearly report covered all areas of Australia’s forests—public and private forests, forests managed for production and forests managed for conservation…

A cross-section of the nation’s leading minds have converged in Ballarat, to discuss the goal of creating a healthy and resilient future for Australia’s forests and share knowledge and ideas to ensure forests can provide a wide range of benefits for generations to come. Approximately 300 scientists, researchers, forestry professionals and foresters will gather at Forestry Australia’s National Symposium…

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has completed a timber testing trial investigating the best ways to implement technologies verifying claims of species and harvest origin of regulated timber and timber products ... Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Policy Matt Lowe said globally, it has been estimated that about 15-30 per cent of all wood traded is a product of illegal logging and illicit wood.

The ABARES National Wood Processing Survey 2021–22 shows that in 2021-22 there were a total of 252 mills operating. This is a fall of 47 mills since 2016-17, continuing a downward trend in the number of sawmills operating over the past 30 years.

Virtual reality is set to revolutionise Australia’s $24 billion forestry industry by training workers risk-free, remotely, and much faster. A VR immersive training tool developed by the University of South Australia with the support of the Green Triangle Forest Industry Hub is also expected to save the industry millions of dollars in the long term.

Peter Walsh MP. All roads led to Barmah at the weekend as hundreds of people scrambled for access to hundreds of tonnes of flood-damaged fallen trees rescued for use as firewood. Coming out of the Barmah Forest, the wood was originally pushed into 70 large piles and was going to be burnt by Parks Victoria staff.

Dr Gary Bacon AM. Rare it is to have a definitive historical date and place for the discovery of a natural renewable resource that is the foundation of an industry which prospers to the present day. Tuesday 21 September 1824 is that note-worthy date and we have a precise record of that discovery on the banks of the Brisbane River.

Cattle Australia (CA) has launched its Land Management Commitment (LMC) strategic policy, which emphasises the primacy of agricultural land and includes definitions of deforestation and forest in the Australian context, along with four recommendations for implementation.

Gavin Butcher. Forest sustainability has taken on different meanings in Western Australia – changing depending on the audience. In one corner the Minister for Forestry, Jackie Jarvis, has repeatedly claimed the closure of the native forest industry was necessary because it was unsustainable. In the other corner is Stuart West, the General Manager of the Minister’s agency, the Forest Products Commission, overseeing harvesting operations in the jarrah and karri forests which have been independently certified as being sustainable.

Logging has been stopped by the NSW Forestry Corporation in a Clarence Valley state forest after eggs found in an endangered Coastal Emu nest hatched last week, prompting calls for a wider exclusion zone to protect the species ... The FCNSW spokesperson said SoS program team members have seen the male emu and the chicks in the state forest.

The State Government will invest $250,000, in partnership with the South Australian Forest Products Association (SAFPA) to launch a new forest and timber industries career campaign, titled ‘This Is Wood Work’. Wood Work is a powerful tool promoting the broad diversity of career pathways and job options within the forest and timber industries...