Greens barking up the wrong tree

November 4, 2006

THE Tasmanian Greens are not happy with the proposal by the Gunns forestry company to build a massive pulp mill. Their recent submission to a state government inquiry predicts it would lead to child prostitution and shorten the New Zealand skiing season by five days. And that's just for starters.

Although the mill hasn't received much publicity yet on the mainland, it's becoming a big environmental issue. It would be built in the Bell Bay industrial zone on the Tamar River in northern Tasmania and cost $1.4 billion.

Link:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/greens-...2340045034.html

I've heard about it, and I really hope they are successful. Tasmania's forests are being felled at horrible rates, and this would make it so much worse.

Climate change has been in the news a lot recently, hopefully the Greens can use this publicity to get more votes, and bring people's attention to other conservation issues which are occuring. Felling any native forest is going to contribute to global warming, it doesn't take a genius to realise.

What a disgusting article. They portray the Greens as if they are idiots, and only talk about the more exaggerated sections of the submission. The Greens are stupid sometimes though. It doesn't help their cause when they make assumptions such as the child prostitution claims. They may be right (though I have no idea how they would know), but idiots who want to hurt their chances at elections jump on to these kinds of things. The Greens have great policies, and a country which is worried about the environment. There is no need to use hyperbole, when you have such strong arguments already.

"It's just as well these guys weren't around when homo sapiens was inventing agriculture. Or the wheel."

What a joke? How can a newspaper be so blatently bias? There is not one word of the problems this would cause to biodiversity, which is the only issue which Bob Brown talked about the other day. Michael Duffy should be ashamed, what an idiot.

I've read recently that the Greens are going to make environment and climate change their platform in the next elections - which will give other parties some pretty big headaches I think. Certainly I think the Greens will make an impact in those elections.

There's a lady here - there are local council elections taking place - and she is taking a strong stand on Climate Change. That's local council elections!

Windyliz

From what I've heard from timber suppliers, the thing to remember about 'Tas Oak' timber is this. If it's all the same colour, it's from regrowth plantations. If it's multi-coloured, it's native old growth. The variation in the colour is because the clearfelling rips up about 5 different species indiscriminantly. Looks great, but is one of the WORST timbers to use. A figure I heard (and I'm not sure of the accuracy, but it's probably about right) is that there's 3m of 'tas oak' flooring produced every second, 24 hours a day.

Does anyone know if the pulp mills are certified regrowth? Down here in Portland Vic there's LOTS of bluegum plantations being planted, and they're ALL destined for (offshore) pulp. Better than native forests I guess...

The blue gums around Portland may not be going overseas. There are plans to build two pulp mills in the area - one at Penola, in South Australia, and another outside Portland. Better to do some of the value-adding on Australian shores. Plus, plantations and processing of wood fibre helps to 'drought proof' the local economy - it keeps people in jobs that aren't exposed to short-term variations in rainfall. And covering the landscape with trees just returns the land to the pre-European hydrology, albeit with a different set of tree species.

Tassie Oak is made of about fourteen different euc species. Some of them do look similar. If you want regrowth, check the growth rings - old growth has small rings close together, regrowth are wider. Old growth also has more natural features like fungal specks or stains and borer holes.

One thing that pees me off - when is a native forest a plantation, and when is a plantation a native forest? There are hand-planted plantations of indigenous species in Victoria that conservationists have labelled native forest, and then used that as an excuse to stop logging. Then there are regrowth native forests of indigenous species, that conservationists have labelled plantations then used that as an excuse to stop logging. Please, provide some positive direction for what industry are supposed to do.

By the way - there is an aluminium smelter in Bell Bay. Does it have an environmental impact, or are pulp mills the only things with the potential to pollute?

Tim, can you give examples of what you are talking about in Victoria. It isn't easy to discuss things when we have no idea what you are talking about.

I'm not against plantations TimJim. I support them wholheartedly, and would love to see more, although the farmers in this area HATE them, as they see them as a waste of some of the only farmland left in Victora (and SE Australia for that matter) that's still relatively unaffected by the drought. Things are getting squeezed from all directions... But any land not being used for high yielding primary production should be covered in pantations as far as I'm concerned.

The pulp mills are much better (value-add wise) than how a lot of the plantation pine in this area is exported. A lot of the pine is simply shipped out in raw logs (and then a lot stays here and is used for timber). From what the local media has been saying (regularly) is both of the pulp mills (Penola and Heywood, just outside Portland) are purely export. There was talk of a third and maybe even a fourth, but the third was apparently export as well, and the fourth (domestic) sounds like a real longshot. I'd like to see not only a domestic pulp mill, but also a hardwood TIMBER (as opposed to paper) plantation industry set up here.

Bell Bay? I don't know anything about that smelter, but there's a HUGE aluminium smelter here in Portland as well. It's the largest single energy user in Victoria, and there's plans to expand it by about 50% (now demand in China has seen the price go through the roof). And yes of course it pollutes, in the form of massive amounts of C02 from the Hazelwood brown coal power station, and the smelter's local pollutants such as spent pot-lining (which has been improved to be apparently almost zero (link)). The smelter tries to be as environmentally friendly as possible, but the fact remains they use incredible amounts of fossil fuel based electricity, far more than any of the proposed pulp mills.

Thanks for the info on the 15 species of Euc in Tas Oak.

This post has been edited by PeterReefman: Nov 4 2006, 11:34 AM

Sunday, January 7, 2007. 10:24am (AEDT)
Greens want pulp mill task force disbanded

The Tasmanian Greens are calling for the State Government's pulp mill task force to be disbanded and a new chairman of the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) to be appointed from interstate.

A leaked letter reportedly suggests the outgoing RPDC chairman, Julian Green, quit because he could no longer tolerate pressure from the task force.

The task force was set up to promote Gunns Limited's billion-dollar Bell Bay pulp mill project.

Link:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1822583.htm

Tuesday, January 9, 2007. 5:04pm (AEDT)
Legality of Upper Florentine logging questioned

The Wilderness Society claims the resumption of logging in Tasmania's Upper Florentine Valley in south-west Tasmania could be illegal.

The society says logging of a coupe containing threatened and rare species, including wedge-tailed eagles and grey goshawks, resumed this week.

A recent Federal Court decision that stopped logging in the Wielangta Forest raised questions about the legality of logging in areas inhabited by threatened species.

Link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1823999.htm

Greed is driving the Tasmanian government into silly short sighted decision making. Gunns and forestry Tasmania are the main players damaging the reputation Tasmania has got for scenic beauty, they are complete fools if they think they are sustain ably managing the great forests in tassie.
In years to come Lennon and his team of clowns will be remembered for the continued destruction of awesome forests, wonders people from all over the world come to see.
I mean how can people be so stupid when they have this jewel in their possession and all they want to do is destroy it.
In the end though all the so called 'tree huggers' will be rejoicing when this pulp mill fails to be built.

Unfortunately I don't think it is as simple as this.

In the case of the two pulp mills you are talking about, my understanding is that there has been a huge question mark over whether both of the mills would proceed, or whether it was a political exercise of seeing whether the SA or VIC Govs would come up with a more attractive offer for new business. I think the Heywood mill is under construction, but I believe that unofficially the Penola option is all but over.

As for plantations - I'm neither for or against, but in terms of environmental impact, and more specifically water use, unless all post-settlement agriculture is removed from the same area that is being re-planted with trees, its not really as simple as saying that the land is just being returned to what it used to be. Unfortunately, both plantations and agriculture compete for the same aquifer resource - at least in that part of the world. Blue gum plantations, vineyards and centre pivots can't all use the same water !

Its not easy....

Wednesday, January 10, 2007. 7:23pm (AEDT)
$3m funding announced for old-growth forest eco-tourism

The Federal Government has announced $3 million in funding for eco-tourism in Tasmania's old-growth forests.

The grants include $1 million to develop a bushwalk in the Tarkine region in the state's west.

Another $2 million will be spent on forest-based tourism infrastructure.

Federal Minister for the Environment, Senator Ian Campbell, who is in the Tarkine today, says it will open up these regions to more visitors.

Link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1824737.htm

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I wasn't sure where to post this but given previous posts thought this may the most appropriate place.

Windyliz

Saturday, January 13, 2007. 10:34am (AEDT)
Lennon continues to back pulp mill project

Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon says he is concerned the current assessment process for the proposed pulp mill for northern Tasmania may have been compromised.

(Excerpt/s)
He yesterday restated his unwavering commitment to the Gunns proposal for Longreach in the state's north.

Mr Lennon was worried public comments by former members of the Resource Planning and Development Commission have undermined the pulp mill approval process.

Mr Lennon says the environmental guidelines will not be changed.

"I want a pulp mill that meets international environmental standards," he said.

Link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1826274.htm
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But as tangil says - at what cost to future generations of Taswegians? and the beauty destroyed forever :no:

"International environmental standards"? What about preserving forests? He's got be to kidding.

Windyliz

Saturday, January 13, 2007. 10:34am (AEDT)
Lennon continues to back pulp mill project

Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon says he is concerned the current assessment process for the proposed pulp mill for northern Tasmania may have been compromised.

(Excerpt/s)
He yesterday restated his unwavering commitment to the Gunns proposal for Longreach in the state's north.

Mr Lennon was worried public comments by former members of the Resource Planning and Development Commission have undermined the pulp mill approval process.

Mr Lennon says the environmental guidelines will not be changed.

"I want a pulp mill that meets international environmental standards," he said.

Link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1826274.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But as tangil says - at what cost to future generations of Taswegians? and the beauty destroyed forever :no:

"International environmental standards"? What about preserving forests? He's got be to kidding.

Windyliz

Monday, January 15, 2007. 9:00am (AEDT)
Wilderness Society, Gunns argue over pulp mill delays

The Tasmanian Wilderness Society has blamed timber company Gunns for any delays to the pulp mill approval process.

Gunns has warned Tasmania could miss out on the mill if there are further delays with the assessment process.

Link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1826776.htm

Friday, March 16, 2007. 8:00am (AEDT)
Gunns stands firm on pulp mill deadline

The Tasmanian Government hopes a fresh assessment of Gunns' proposed $1.5 billion pulp mill will be completed in August.

But the timber giant is standing by its deadline of the end of the financial year and there are still no guarantees Gunns will even take part in the new process.

A special sitting of Parliament next week will debate whether a new assessment process is needed, after Gunns pulled the plug on the Resource Planning and Development Commission's (RPDC) assessment of the mill.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1873119.htm

Pulp mill 'will pollute' Bass Strait

March 20, 2007

TIMBER giant Gunns has pulled out of an assessment process of a planned pulp mill in Tasmania's north because it knows it will dump toxic effluent into Bass Strait, Greens senator Christine Milne said today.

The planned mill for the Tamar Valley would result in water and air pollution, she said today.

(Excerpt)

"In 1989, the Tamar Valley was ruled out as a site for a pulp mill because Bass Strait, off the Tamar, was too shallow to achieve dispersion of dilution levels and because the Tamar Valley suffers from atmospheric inversion.

"It wasn't deemed suitable because the gases coming from the stacks would be trapped under the inversion layer.

"That situation remains.''

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...90-1702,00.html

Tuesday, April 17, 2007. 9:25am (AEST)
Consultant appointed to assess planned pulp mill

The Tasmanian Government has announced a Scandanavian company will make the assessment of the proposed Gunns' pulp mill.

SWECO PIC is based in Finland and does consultancy work in more than 60 countries.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1898917.htm

Pulp Mill Rally in Launceston, June 16

Gunns' proposed pulp mill will be a disaster for Tasmania. Our air, water, ocean, forests, unique wildlife, tourism industry, reputation and economy are at stake.

The Tasmanian Government is totally devoted to fast-tracking this pulp mill. Meanwhile—in an election year—the Federal Goverment has the power to decide if this pulp mill goes ahead.

If you want to see Tasmania protected from the environmental, social and economic damage that this pulp mill will create, please join us in Launceston on Saturday 16th June for the rally.

Speakers include Peter Cundall, Andrew Wilkie (former intelligence analyst, whistleblower and Greens' senate candidate), Robert Belcher (national advocate for rural communities), and John Hammond (scallop fisherman).

If ever you were going to travel across the state for a rally, this should be the one. To find out about buses travelling to the rally from your part of the state, please phone (03) 6224 1550.


For more information, please contact:

Gemma Tillack
Tasmanian Community Campaigner
Email: Gemma Tillack - gemma.tillack@wilderness.org.au
Workphone: 03 6224 1550
Fax: 03 6223 5112

This post has been edited by Fourth Crossing Wildlife: Jun 9 2007, 05:40 AM