DEAR News Of The Area,

WHILE it is good to see forestry industry advocates entering the debate on the future integrity and sustainability of native forest logging, the misleading claims and generalisations are disappointing and won’t go anywhere towards resolving any so-called ‘forest wars’.

The people I know who are opposing native forest logging are on the whole not ‘inner city elites’ but locals from a range of political backgrounds who live and work adjacent to State Forests and see first-hand what goes on.

Statistics emphasising the small percentage of the entire forest estate available for logging miss the point.

It’s what you do in the area you are logging which counts.

To claim that native forest logging has not caused species extinctions in Australia is extraordinary, and highlights the misconceptions in the industry and failure to acknowledge the importance of the protection of species and complexity of native forest ecosystems to the entire sustainability debate.

We have no idea what has been lost.

While we have totally inadequate pre-harvest surveys, rules which permit the continued destruction and removal of non-commercial tree species and endangered plants, inadequate control of invasive species; including significant increased weed loads, and ecologists being harassed by timber contractors and local police, no-one can pretend all is good in the native forestry hood.

Regards,
Dave WOOD.