VicForests cleared on claims
December 8, 2010 - BY ADAM MORTON
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vicforests-cleared-on-claims-20101207-18odq.html
THE Victorian government's timber arm, VicForests, has been cleared of allegations it illegally logged old-growth forest and increased risk to a threatened species in the central highlands.
Green group My Environment accused VicForests of felling pre-1900 ash eucalypts and failing to protect habitats vital for the survival of Leadbeater's possum, the Victorian faunal emblem.
An Australian National University scientist commissioned by the Department of ...
Chipping away
Royce Millar and Adam Morton - November 22, 2010
http://www.theage.com.au/national/chipping-away-20101121-182ku.html
BOB Brown could have scripted John Brumby's passionate address to an adoring anti-logging rally in Treasury Gardens in 1995. ''An end to native forest woodchips, the protection of our high-conservation value forest areas and an industry which is based in the future on plantations. That's what we want.''
Standing on stage with a head-banded hippie, Brumby, then Victoria's opposition leader, slammed the ''bizarre'' policy that allowed state-owned native ...
VicForests faces the axe
Leslie White | November 17, 2010
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2010/11/17/261211_politics-news.html
A RE-ELECTED Labor Government in Victoria would scrap government native forest logging agency VicForests.
A new agency which would consider "water, carbon and other forest values" and logging issues would be created instead.
Premier John Brumby also pledged $1 million for Tasmanian-style round-table discussions on the future of the industry, however government would not participate despite being responsible for almost all native forest logging in Victori...
Coalition’s forest vow slammed
Adam Morton - November 3, 2010
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/state-election-2010/coalitions-forest-vow-slammed-20101102-17ceg.html
ENVIRONMENT groups have attacked the opposition's forestry policy, accusing it of planning to intensify logging to a rate that could turn Central Highlands native forests into plantations.
The Coalition says it will guarantee the forestry industry's long-term future by promising current levels of native forest logging could continue. It would also review the frequency at which forests of fast-growing native species are logged.
The ...
CFMEU declares forests war is over
Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent - The Australian - October 23, 2010 12:00AM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/cfmeu-declares-forests-war-is-over/story-fn59niix-1225942469608
THE union representing forestry workers has conceded logging in the nation's natural forests must stop.
It has declared an armistice in its 30-year war with the environmental movement.
But the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union now wants the green lobby and governments to secure the industry's long-term survival by agreeing to a dramatic expansion of ...
Industrial logging linked to frequency and severity of fire
5 March 2010 - Reporter: Gregg Borschmann
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2837143.htm
One year on from the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, many Australians, and the Bushfires Royal Commission, are still trying to explain the ferocity of the blaze that claimed 173 lives and burned more than 450,000 hectares.
The idea that the Australian bush burns the way it always has is being challenged by David Lindemayer, a professor of forest and wildlife management at the Australian National University. Lindenmayer has been working in the Victorian forests for ...
Forest logging creates fire traps: academic
4/03/2010
http://www.industrysearch.com.au/Features/Forest-logging-creates-fire-traps-academic-4857
Decades of industrial logging in Australia's wet forests have made them more fire prone, raising urgent fire management issues, according to an ANU academic.
- Martyn Pearce, ANU Media
Professor David Lindenmayer of the Fenner School of Environment and Society challenges current fire protection practices in the March issue of Australasian Science magazine.
"Much discussion focuses on how to best protect human lives and built assets," Professor Lindenmayer ...
Case logs off
By Kath Gannaway - 24th August 2010 02:00:29 AM
http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/mail/mountain-views/256/story/93523.html
CHARGES filed in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court in June claiming VicForests illegally logged a forest area in Toolangi have been dropped.
While VicForests last week labelled the case lodged by the Fauna and Flora Research Collective as a publicity stunt, Vanessa Bleyer, the lawyer for FFRC and other environment groups involved, says they are just changing tack.
The matter, which Ms Bleyer had described in July as a ‘landmark legal case’, was set ...
Receding gums: What ails Australia’s iconic trees?
16 September 2010 by Wendy Zukerman
New Scientist Magazine issue 2777
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727772.200-receding-gums-what-ails-australias-iconic-trees.html
Eucalyptus trees are dying all over Australia. To save them, we might have to learn to play with fire
PICTURE an Australian landscape and the scene you conjure up will almost certainly be one graced by gum trees. Eucalyptus has colonised just about every corner of the country, from the forests that fringe the sandy beaches of Australia's southern shores, to the baking heat of the outback.
Which ...
Bushfire response team to assess habitat damage
By Elizabeth Byrne - Posted Wed Sep 22, 2010 3:25pm AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/22/3019023.htm?section=justin
A group of ecology experts has assembled in Canberra to form a national response team that will assess damage immediately after a major bushfire.
The interstate team will make rapid judgements about the extent of environmental damage after major fires like those in Victoria and Canberra, and offer timely advice to government authorities about remediation.
The team includes experts in soil, forestry, wildlife and geographical systems.
Dr ...