Jackie Jarvis
The WA Government’s new forestry policy is unravelling. The responsible Minister, Jackie Jarvis, has started to panic, reportedly ordering 120,000 tonnes of firewood to be produced, and in the process is sacrificing supplies to sawmills. Source: Gavin Butcher, Australian Rural & Regional News
The result is that high quality sawlogs are being set aside for firewood instead of being manufactured for furniture and flooring. This is at odds with the high standards claimed by the current Minister’s predecessor when punishing a Nannup sawmiller for failing to process sawlogs in Western Australia.
To meet the Minister’s target, the Forest Products Commission (FPC) is now cranking up firewood production, building stockpiles at Deanmill, Diamond Mill, Harvey and Myalup. Harvesting will need to double. Last year only 59,000 tonnes were delivered to firewood merchants.
To achieve this, sawlog deliveries are being abandoned, with sawmillers being told to not expect any more logs, despite promises from the Premier to honour contracts.
The denial of sawmiller rights has seen good quality logs being sold as firewood. An inspection of firewood logs by respected forester and principal of JC Forestry, John Clarke, confirmed that downgrading is occurring. He reports seeing sawlogs among delivered firewood logs and sawlogs among logs cut for firewood in the forest.
“Downgrading of logs is against all the principles of sound forest management,” said Mr Clarke.
Misuse of sawlogs offended the previous Minister, Dave Kelly, who in 2019 took a contract off a Nannup sawmiller for failing to process 100 tonnes of logs in WA. (ABC 31/10/2019). He stated: “We expect everybody in the industry to play by the rules … we are about protecting the WA timber industry and local jobs.”
It seems Minister Jarvis is operating to a lower set of standards, as the contracts of local processors are ignored, and furniture makers are abandoned well before the end of the current forest plan.
“Wasting a valuable asset like jarrah is a serious failure and should carry a sanction as occurred with the Nannup sawmill,” said Mr Clarke.
This is just the latest in a stream of failings in the new policy, including:
- the cost of the logging ban has ballooned from the announced $50 million to more than $200 million
- WA running out of firewood in 2022 leaving many out in the cold
- Logging contractors leaving the industry early due to a lack of information about their future
- No results from extensive ecological thinning trials
- No prescription for ecological thinning
- The timing of the new forest plan thrown into doubt with the EPA still deliberating on the untested ecological thinning plan
- The lack of scientific evidence to support claims that:
- the forests have stopped growing
- timber harvesting harms biodiversity
- timber harvesting reduces forest carbon stocks
- The uncertainty of future karri supply to pine processors exacerbating pine resource shortfalls.
After two years of turmoil, it’s time for Minister Jarvis to set the course for the timber industry’s future and provide some certainty for workers and businesses.
Editor’s note:
In response Ms Jarvis said that following the decision to end native forest logging, the State Government had committed to an $80 million Native Forest Transition Plan that included industry restructure payments of over $22 million made to 24 individual businesses – including sawmills.
“For contracted customers who did not receive an Industry Restructure payment, the Forest Products Commission continues to meet all contractual obligations to deliver both firewood and sawlogs up until the end of this year; or until a deed of agreement to receive an Industry Restructure Payment is executed,” she said.
“The Deed of Agreement was negotiated by Forest Industries Federation Western Australia.”
Gavin Butcher is a former director of the WA Forest Products Commission.
