Friends of Forestry (FoF) have expressed deep concern with the VicForests announcement that timber harvesting in Victoria’s Ash forests will be reduced from 2017. Source: Timberbiz
FoF president Brett Robin said it was disappointing that the timber industry was constantly asked to accept lower resource availability because Government authorities won’t allow more than 6% of Victoria’s native forest being made available to the industry.
“We understand that resource was lost during the 2009 Bushfires and that it is vital that the Government and industry take action to ensure our forests continue to be harvested at sustainable levels as we have always done,” said Robin.
“This does not have to be doom and gloom for the industry, if the Government uses this opportunity to look outside the square and explore the hundreds of thousands of hectares of previously harvested forests now in reserves or national parks — like Queensland has recently done.
“Queensland Premier Campbell Newman recognized that there were unnecessary reserves which had been created by poor policy from previous Governments and that the continued locking up of these resources had had a huge impact on the timber industry and dependent communities,” he said.
“We are not talking open slather, but to simply recognize that responsible harvesting is productive conservation and the reason many forests are in reserves is because of the way they were managed through the forestry departments in the first place.
“Friends of Forestry looks forward to working with Government, industry and VicForests to explore new markets, opportunities and innovative ways to add value to our forest resources and supporting timber dependent communities.
“With the blinkers off the timber industry has a bright future as timber is the most environmentally friendly building material and the more wood used the better the planet will be,” Robin said.
