Sprol Again: UPDATED to emphasize those responsible
You’re looking at clear-cut logging of the oldest growth rainforest in the world. In Tasmania, the largest of the 600 species of Eucalyptus trees found in Australia, and some of the tallest standing hardwood trees in the world, are being felled. The timber is ground up into wood chips, and the wood chips are sold to make paper in Asia. Pulped.
The resulting paper and cardboard then eventually goes into a landfill somewhere. Maybe into one near you.
These huge trees will be ground up in machines that are owned and operated by Gunns Ltd, the world’s largest hardwood-chip company. They are also in the business of suing 20 environmental activists and organizations. This is often likened to the "McLibel" case, where McDonald’s Corporation sued Helen Steel and Dave Morris, two British activists. The lawsuit turned out to be a public relations disaster for McDonald’s Corporation.
"Gunns receives the overwhelming majority of logs destined for sawmills and woodchip mills from Tasmania. It owns all four export-woodchip mills in Tasmania. It exports more woodchips from Tasmania than are exported from all mainland states combined. Gunns exports over four million tonnes of native-forest woodchips each year." Wilderness Society
Only the California Redwood is known to grow taller, and at an average height of 85 meters, these huge trees are called Eucalyptus regnans, the "king of the gum tree." They can live longer than 450 years.
People seem to have a hard time with time spans longer than their own lifetimes.
Picture a seedling in the year 1555. The English were burning clergymen at the stake at that time. Back then, in South America, Brazil — which was named for the Portuguese word for the red color of brazilwood, which the early visitors would clear cut — Brazil was being settled by the French. That’s how long ago it was.
That seedling, grown and felled yesterday, to make a product manual that no one is going to read, and cardboard for boxes to ship it, and cardboard for that extra printed marketing sleeve that comes around the box. To make paper for laser printed documents that people will forget to pick up at the workgroup printer.
So far, over 75% of Tasmanian old-growth forests of these trees have been felled, the majority being made into woodchips for shipment to Asian markets.
Since Tasmania is part of Australia, where only .5% of the landmass consists of rainforest, you would think that they would protect the remaining trees. But like the megafauna, and trees on Easter Island, on this trendline the forest cover goes to zero.
The people living in Tasmania would prefer that the forests be harvested in a sustainable way, and made into hardwood furniture, for example, or any other use of the timber that doesn’t throw the island’s ecosystem down the woodchipper for two cents a ton.
Tasmanian politicians will tell you how much of Tasmanian forest is protected, but the problem with that argument is that these laws are not enforced. Forestry Tasmania continues to log protected reserves in Tasmania, making it the only state in Australia that is still clear cutting rainforest.
In clearing the forests they are also being poisoned. Pesticides are used on the converted plantations, which then leaks into the watershed and is distributed through the land.
According to Geoff Law of Wilderness Society, 23% of all the poison used in Tasmania is used on state forests. The so-called 1080 pesticide poisons native animals in one of the world’s most delicate ecosystems.
Yielding to pressure such as the World heritage Status, Tasmanian government is working on a Forest Plan, but it won’t end pulp logging. It protects a few sites and condemns many more to the wood chipper.
From this height you can see just how little of Australia is covered by forest, and how the larger landmass dominates the smaller island.
Thank you for bringing important info to light. I’m not one to read papers, has this been brought out in a public forum (besides here)? Could you do so?
Thanks, again.
There’s no better way to support this important issue than with your stunning satellite images of the stripped forests. No-one I know is aware of this (I’m writing from England), and ye gods, they should be!
If anyone can give me the email address of a reporter who might care about this situation, I will gladly notify them.
It’s not right for the Australians to do this to Tasmania’s forests, that’s clear.
Then they are using the cash from woodchipping the native trees to pay lawyers to sue the people who live there and are trying to stop them from stealing their old native trees and poisoning their island.
I understand that the justice system in Australia is even more skewed towards big business than in America, if that’s possible.
Please lead with Gunns, Ltd. The “who” needs to be upfront for information gathering and coalition building to germinate.
Where did Sprol get this patently garbage information from? Extensive rainforest next to Hobart? Eucalyptus isn’t a rainforest species. Satellite image clearly shows great regrowth. Without harvest, if you wait around a hundred years you’ll be able to display an image of an amazing blackened landscape as the ancient cycle of wildfire cleans out everything.
There are plans to push an ECF pulp mill onto the banks of the magnificent Tamar River Estuary in Northern Tasmania.
The proponent has declared they require 650 Hectares for the mill site.
They will process up to 5.2 million tonnes of woodchips per annum, comprising 90% native forest, 10% plantation.
For all the facts, visit
http://www.tamar-trac.com
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures for the year 2000, the latest available, show that Tasmania wood chipped 5.5 million metric tons for the year, the highest ever recorded.
An average of 20,000 hectares of Tasmanian native forest are clearcut and burned each year, and Tasmania has one of the highest rates of land clearing in the developed world, with 80,000 hectares of native forest converted to plantations in the last seven years, according to a policy paper issued by the Wilderness Society and other conservation groups in August.
forests.org
Made up of eucalyptus trees, the Tasmanian Temperate Forests ecoregion covers northeastern Tasmania and the islands of the Bass Strait. The vegetation here varies depending on soil type and rainfall distribution, with open forest growing in dry areas and closed forest in wet habitat.While eucalyptus trees burn frequently, they tend to regenerate quickly as a result of several adaptations. For example, capsules protect their seeds from the heat of fire, but the seeds are shed at an accelerated rate after the fire. Eucalyptus trees are harvested for log, paper, pulp, and wood chip exports. The forest re-growth that occurs after clear-cutting is not suitable habitat for many species. Agricultural development and the clearing of land are also concerns, as is the introduction of invasive weeds and animals.
nationalgeographic.com
Some of these comments indicate the authours have a dubious definition of “land clearing”.
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.”
19th century Cree Indian saying.
LEST WE FORGET!!!!!
Sonia & Jesse – Brisbane, Qld
land:an area of the earth
clearing:To rid of objects or obstructions.
I don’t think it could be more clear.
However, while the iconic old trees have been saved, both Governments have taken the symbolic easy option rather than confront the real and complex environmental problem facing Tasmania – the massive clearing of our native vegetation.
“It’s more than the forests,†Mr Bourne said. “Most threatened species do not inhabit old growth forests, tall wet eucalypt forests or rainforests. They inhabit open woodlands, streamside vegetation, dry forests, heathlands, rocky and stony habitat, native grasslands, coastal scrub, wetlands and semi-improved grasslands – this is the very land that will be cleared.
http://www.wwf.org.au
I am one of the people sued by Gunns for exposing the rape of the Tasmanian forests. However, please note that not all the “Gunns 20″ are activists. I am a television cameraman who made a film about activists. People of all walks of life are horrified at the theft of our natural heritage to profit a greedy few.
It is sad to see the lie that the forests are regrown (anonymously) on this site. The truth is that native forest, a mix of rainforest and tall eucalypts, takes thousands of years to form, with its rich ecosystems brimming with biodiversity. These are being destroyed and replaced by crops, by plantations of eucalypt designed to feed the woodchippers. The ancient, diverse forest does not grow back. It is gone forever. Many species are threatened by extinction.
There is a campaign of intimidation, misinformation, violence and slander directed at those who expose this appalling, irreversible destruction. Please everybody, wherever you are, pressure the Tasmanian and Australian governments to stop this industrial horror.
[...] From the comments about Pulping The World, Part 2: [...]
It is a matter of proportion. If one puts the area harvested in relationship to the total area, logging is pretty minimal. From the pictures shown in the middle of the series (which is North West of Geeveston) it is clear that logging is by far not the main alteration to the landscape.
The text is also misleading, because most of the harvested area in Tasmania is regenerated as native forest, not plantations. The text does not inform the readers that over 40% of the area of forests in Tasmania is already protected (over 1.2 million ha, over 3 million acres), so comparisons with Easter Island are absolutely exaggerated.
The 4 July comment (again anonymous) is a perfect example of the misleading spin campaign waged by the industry.
The truth is that no forests are regenerated to their original state. Sure there are sometimes native trees planted, but these are still essentially plantations. They consist of trees of identical age and very limited range of species. These places will never be allowed to develop into natural forest, they will be logged again in perhaps thirty years to feed the woodchippers.
They provide little shelter for animals as they are not old enough to form nesting hollows. Biodiversity is lost forever.
Around 90% of the most contentious forest types, the “mixed” forest of rainforest and eucalypt, has been destroyed already. The industry is now going flat out to destroy about half of what remains, leaving the rest as fragmented remnants vulnerable to fire, weeds, global warming etc.
The 40% figure is also untruthful because it includes huge areas of buttongrass plains, alpine heath, mining leases, and tiny streamside remnants surrounded by clearfell.
Saying that some parts are protected as an excuse to keep destroying the rest is like saying that the Nazi concentration camps were OK because only 6 million people were killed!
I’m sorry about your ignorance Brian:
- The 40% is forests area, not button grass and crap like that. If you have any interest, you can see the figures in this page. This guy presents a good summary.
Most of native forest is not ‘sometimes planted’ after harvesting, but 85% of the area is ‘sown’ with a mix of species collected from the same area (before felling). The other 15% goes to either plantations or agriculture.
- The cycle is 90 years for native forests not 30. The areas are harvested in a mosaic fashion, so there can be movement of animals (you can see that in the pictures) while the harvested area is recovered. So they are not fragmented but connected remnants.
- Your figures about destroyed rainforest and eucalypts forests are false mate. There are over 200,000ha of rainforests protected in our state, including most (about 80%) of the Tarkine.
- The non-protected areas are not being destroyed, but managed in a way that guarantees there will be forests in the future.
Of course your reference to the nazis is irrelevant and showing that you ran out of sensible arguments.
I forgot, the pictures are not of rainforest but Eucalyptus obliqua and Eucalyptus regnans forests. See K. Bonham’s comment for more information. Just one more mistake.
I have lived in Tasmania for over 30 years, a refugee from the dirty industrial slums of Northern England. I am deeply in love with Tasmania, its wild grandeur and incredible, unique native fauna and flora. Some months ago I drove one of my favourite South-East routes through country that was once wild wet scherophyll forest, brimming with life, including many unique and iconic mammal species – wombats, possums, Tasmanian Devils and Spotted-tailed quolls. The forest was almost all gone. All that remained was hectare upon hectare of charred and blasted ground, recently planted out with row upon row of eucalyptus nitida (a favourite plantation monoculture crop)seedlings. Every few metres the carcass of a dead native animal – a wallaby, possum or wombat lay rotting on the roadside – the victim of deliberate 1080 poisoning. “Vertebrate pests” – as the Government broadsheets call them – are “controlled” through these means in order to prevent them eating the seedlings. There were no dead Tasmanian Devils to be seen of course, since the Devil population in the area has been largely exterminated by a horrendous facial tumour disease that has only arisen since the braodscale and ever-increasing use of 1080 and lethal herbicides (atrazine, simazine for eg)in plantations. 50% of the Island’s devils are now dead – in less than 10 years. The Platypus and many of our native frogs are under similar pressure, suffering from ulcerative and fungal diseases respectively that threaten to drive these unique and incredible species to extinction unless the industrial use of dangerous agricultural chemicals and the wholesale destruction of habitat is stopped. The people who love Tasmania (and we are many)are very angry. We suffer an endless stream of lies and weasel words (like the anonymous offering above)that issue from the forestry industry and the brutal Tasmanian Government, and are published regularly in the grovelling local media. Our hearts are breaking from this vile and senseless destruction on our wonderful island. Good People of the world, we need your help.
Having recently discovered the joys of Google Earth, its wonderous technology has confirmed what I have known, but have been hard pressed to prove until now. The clearance of native forests to convert land for agricultural and forestry use in Tasmania is like a creeping cancer across the state, particularly in the NE & NW. It is causing desertification of the island state. For four years I have been raising the flag amongst the shareholders at Gunns AGMs about water issues, chemical use and impacts on neighbours. The pictures from the heavens confirm my worst fears in regard to the rate of conversion. It is such a blessing to have such valuable tools given “freely” by Google. Here’s one conservationist giving the thumbs up for the great opportunities to raise awareness of these national and global issues. The visual proof of the scientific theories that the imaging can bring about, which has been so sadly lacking through lack of community funds.
Erika Ford,
Melbourne
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful comments and thanks for reading Sprol. Please submit your suggestions for places and we can bring much needed illumination from this unique perspective.
for a few dollars for Gunn’s shareholders, a few workers who don’t want to change jobs, a few votes that might cost some politician his seat — for that tiny benefit for a handful of people, the people of Australia allow their birthright — God’s great and IRREPLACEABLE gift — to be flushed down the sewer — Christians everywhere remember that God gave this garden to us to take care of!
John Salmond
Canberra
How tragic. Is there any evil more pure than people who destroy the earth? And to think wonders of creation destroyed for cardboard boxes. You will never change the greedy Gunn Ltd. . The only hope you have is to generate outside pressure using international media attention, or change land use laws in your communities. Grassroots movements and creative thinking can be very sucessful in stopping these seemingly unstoppable monsters. In my small community in upstate New York, we were threatened by a large mining interest that was going to level an entire mountain. It was a long shot that the dept. of environmental protection would prevent it. One man came up with the brillant idea of the town of East Nassau , the actual location of the mountain ,ceding from Nassau, the larger town that controlled the zoning for East Nassau. They actually suceeded and passed their own zoning that prohibited mining on that scale! They formed their own town government. I don’t know if this is applicable in Tazmanian locales, but indivduals with ideas can take down these seemingly invincible foes. Keep trying , never give up! Adam Todd, Malden Bridge , NY. USA
Hi looks Im writting this a bit late… all the trees are gone/// Just thought I mention that up here in Australias north we also have accelerating land clearing. Much of it is small stake holders near Darwin, but the greatest amount is occuring on the TIWI Islands not far from Darwin,. These Islands are owned by the Twiwi island aboriginals and they have granted permission for 100000 hecters to be cleared and replanted with accacia magnum — used also to make paper products and is not a native to the Tiwis. The company behind this land clearing is great southern plantations . Because the land is owned by aboriginal people it appears not to be subject to normal public scrutiny.. the question needs to be asked is there not some better and more sustainable way that this land could be developed … given that it appears that is destined to be ?
PLS send your objections to the tiwi island land council…
I am doing this for a school project can you supply us with more information.I HATE LOGGERS!!! (And brussel sprouts)
i’ve heard a little bit about this before but it’s really amazing to actually see this in photos. This article will hopefully open some people’s eye about logging!!!!!!
It’s sad that we are given this earth and as well as making a hole in the ozone layer we decide to cut half of it down!! D: We also should find an alternate material that will not destroy the earth in this way!!! Those tress hold some of the earth’s history. the rings in their trunks can show how old the trees are and help with climate change but they don’t usually even end up being seen by scientists who can make a differnce!!!
no this is bias