Can't See the Trees or the Forests

I am sitting on a wooden chair, in front of a wooden desk, all in a wooden house (Queenslander circa 1890) while pondering Jenny Bell from Breadalbane's letter titled "Forest Tragedy" (The Land, 21st October 2004).

The letter states that Australian farmers should not support old growth logging in Tasmania given that establishing trees on our farms is a "long and arduous" process.

Trees may be difficult to grow in Breadalbane.  As long ago as 1820 there where few trees in that region with then NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie describing the countryside as open "with a plentiful supply of fresh water ponds, and hardly a tree to be seen in this whole extent of plain".

But this is not the situation across Australia.  Australia has nearly 165 million hectares of native forests.  When plantations are included, we apparently have the third highest area of forest per capita in the world.

So I sometimes wonder why the Australian Greens don't rally against the importation of cheap products from overseas.  Mahogany and teak cabinets and tables from Indonesia are crammed into warehouses across Brisbane and are oh so cheap.

While forestry is perhaps the quintessential renewable resource, how sustainable are forest practices in Indonesia relative to Australia?

At issue in Australia is the practice of logging native forests, particularly old growth forests.

Protection of old growth forest was identified as a priority in the 1992 National Forest Policy Statement with various targets agreed nationally.

Since 1995 the area of old-growth forests in reserves has increased by 1.2 million hectares and is now 3.7 million hectares.  This constitutes 71 per cent of the total 5.2 million hectares of old-growth forest covered by Regional Forest Agreements.

In Tasmania, about 20 per cent of the area of native forest available for wood supply is old-growth.

As old growth forests generally contain higher timber volumes than younger growth stages, it is predicted that this area will provide 30-50 per cent of the timber volumes for the next 50 years.

According to the Bureau of Rural Science's report Old Growth Forests in Australia -- Conservation Status and Significance for Timber Production, old-growth and regrowth forests are often intimately mixed with access to regrowth areas dependent on harvesting associated old growth.

According to the same report, some wildlife species such as the Leadbeater's Possum require more than one growth stage for their survival:  one for nesting and another for feeding.

It is really an issue of balance and agreeing where we should source our wood and paper products from.  I have confidence that forests can be managed as sustainably in Australia as anywhere else in the world.

I appreciate my wooden furniture, my cotton shirt and the beef curry and rice that I enjoyed for dinner.  I had some yoghurt for dessert and some Australian honey in my herbal tea.  The production of all of these nice things involved some sunshine, some water and in the case of my chair and curry -- the death of an organism.

But the cattle herd in Australia is on the increase, along with the area under plantation hardwood and also the area of old growth forest in reserves.

So I suspect that my indulgences can be accommodated by our primary industries and that we don't need to worry too much if the folk of Breadalbane struggle in their quest to grow trees.

Different regions and different communities have different skills and endowments -- within the Breadalbane community is an acclaimed artist called Jenny Bell.

Let us celebrate the talents and contributions of our respective regions and respective industries -- our cattlemen, our foresters and our artists.

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