New veg laws leave forestry in the woods

Earlier this week in Sydney, environmentalists opposed to logging –  Crown land or private – sat across the table from industry supporters barracking for the continuation of a renewable resource.

The joint departmental meeting with bureaucrats from the Environment Protection Authority, NSW Lands, Department of Industry (forestry) frustrated Timber NSW’s vigorous general manager Maree McCaskill who blamed state  bureaucrats with the Office of Environment and Heritage and the Environment Protection Authority for ‘driving’ a draconian process which will involve new permits and licence fees, accreditation and an ‘expanded suite of penalties’.

The proposal is to report volumes and destination of timber harvested. It is the EPA mapping program that will be used to classify land and most of the north coast is classified as vulnerable or sensitive.

“(Previous minister Niall Blair) foreshadowed a modernisation of the regulations and proposed a native forestry legislative framework which would cover native forestry when the Biodiversity legislation was enacted and the existing legislation was repealed. What we did not expect was more draconian regulation that now extends to private land,” she said.

Forest on private land will be judged using aerial photographs and permission granted to harvest as long as there is no concern about old growth forest and Aboriginal artefacts.

Trouble is the mapping historically has been flawed. Just ask Alan Hartley, Tabulam, whose has an avocado plantation that borders native eucalypt and rainforest at Pretty Gully. Earlier maps claimed his fruit trees ought to be protected. Later this month a team from Local  Land Services plans to test the new maps on his property.

Ms McCaskill, who advocates that timber on private land should be viewed the same as a farm crop, said she was disappointed that the review process had not considered forestry science with the same respect as environmental science.

Steve Dobbyns, a contract harvester from Wauchope, was concerned that common sense silviculture practice, like removing the canopy from emerging eucalypts which are shade intolerant, might go out the window in a bid to appease environmentalists.

“The EPA don’t understand how to regenerate a site,” he said saying the new regulations appeared designed to increase fees but not improve forestry as a product that is used within the farming system. The fact that Crown Land and private land were being lumped together was a concern.

Tenterfield grazier Bronwyn Petrie relies on her native private forest for income and as spokeswoman for NSW Farmers urged the NSW Government to ‘promote sustainable private native forestry, and reverse the decline of this important industry that we’ve seen severely stifled in recent years through out-dated green and red tape.’

“Private native forestry should be treated as an integrated agricultural land management practice under the control of Local Land Services,” she said. “Private Native Forestry is vitally important to farmers and regional economies, provides environmental habitat and values for regional landscapes, and contributes to our nation’s sought after range of top quality Aussie timber.”

Meanwhile, new approval applications to harvest are in suspension until all this is worked out.

Rusty and Ann Bell, Wallaby Creek, border Tooloom National Park from where Anne’s father hauled logs out of the bush by bullock team. These days the couple harvest native timber off their private property in loads that you could count on one hand. That income, only a small portion of the total, is treated the same as a dollar from vealers – all part of the farming system.  

The couple applied to log weeks before the new laws were announced and now are caught in the freeze on new licences. Their case is more complicated because of the presence of an aboriginal site ‘nearby’.

 Timber contractors are still working and Wauchope timber contractor Mick Casey counts himself lucky that he’s got work in the pipeline to keep his company, Logcheck, going.

Mr Casey started the enterprise eight years ago after he was ripped off by an unscrupulous timber contractor who tried to under report the volume that was coming off his land.

“New regulations might not be a bad thing, he says. “It might highlight those that are reputable.”

Interested parties have little more than a week to comment on the draft private native forestry regulations, with documents delivered Thursday.