This week I write from the Timber Communities Australia's national conference in Launceston, Tasmania. The TCA represents timber communities from across Australia and there are people here from Western Australia to North Queensland including mill operator Ted Hayman from the Pillaga, in northwest NSW.
Prime Minister, John Howard, has also attended, which is something of a coup for what is essentially a small community-based group.
Then again, it was the same organisation that got the PM to address its workers, with the support of the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, just before last year's federal election.
The image of a Liberal PM being cheered by timber workers with the backing of a powerful union just a few days out from the election was considered by many, a turning point in John Howard's re-election.
Labor's Tasmanian Premier, Paul Lennon, has also spoken at this week's conference. TCA must be doing something right.
It has been my experience that this organisation has a very different culture to many industry associations. TCA seems more accepting of different views, but at the same is very sure of what it represents and what it want to achieve.
Interestingly there are a lot of women at all levels of the organisation.
The TCA actively seeks community participation and engagement and is prepared to take on the mainstream media. It's Tasmanian manager, Barry Chipman, has successfully challenged the ABC Television Program Four Corners on the basis its program titled "Lord of the Forest" contained misleading, biased and unfactual reporting. The video of the program has been withdrawn from sale in ABC shops. Mr Chipman, on behalf of TCA, is now pursuing journalist Ticky Fullerton for return of the $10,000 which she won as part of the Australian Museum Eureka 2004 prize for outstanding environmentalism based on that program.
TCA's Victorian manager, Kersten Gentle, has developed an education program about forestry for primary schools and actively promotes this through school visits. Gentle is a mother of three. Conversations with her switch seemlessly from children to Kyoto and climate change -- including why timber window frames are much more greenhouse friendly than the equivalent in aluminium.
As a group TCA seem more prepared to take risks and upset the apple cart than organisations like National Farmers Federation and NSW Farmers Association. (Even if supportive of my work, these traditional industry organisations don't necessarily embrace concepts I promote).
I was invited to speak at the conference, too, and chose my pet subject -- the need to rethink what it means to be an environmentalist.
I talked of the importance of working from the basis of evidence and science. If we really care about the environment we will acknowledge the dynamic nature of landscapes, reject the flawed concept of pristine, and acknowledge that there is often a need for active management of the environment including in national parks. I talked about woody weed encroachment in western NSW and how bans on broadscale tree clearing have created many problems for the management of rangeland areas.
I gave GM food crops a big plug and, in this regard the cotton industry a bouquet. The Launceston crowd learnt that 90 per cent of NSW cotton farmers now planted GM and as a consequence insecticide application rates have reduced by 88 per cent. The timber representatives and their workers were also interested to learn about the Murray River and have some myths dispelled including that salt levels are rising at Morgan.
In fact salt levels have halved over the last 20 years at this key site, just upstream from the offshoots for Adelaide's water supply.
After the conference I'll spend two days with industry representatives learning more about forestry practices in Tasmania, including a promised visit to the famous Styx forest.
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