NSW timber millers are locked out of production as long as they rely on supply from fire affected areas.
At Eden the great wood chip pile continues to smoulder, with the armed forces now called in to assist in its quenching while the loading facility has been damaged.
The greatest loss has been the "jewel in the crown" of the softwood industry, around Tumburumba and Tumut, charred during the Dunns Road mega fire.
Timber NSW CEO Maree McCaskill has worked at her desk right through the holidays, and the fire emergency, taking calls from concerned members who will begin to face tough economic choices regarding staff from as early as the end of next week.
An estimated 42,000 hectares of plantation pine has been damaged by fire and the total resource on the south west slopes, in the Tumut district, has been reduced by 40 per cent with 1900 jobs at risk along with $800 million in economic activity plus another $400m, in value added industries, like the manufacture of frames and trusses for houses or the high quality cardboard produced by the likes of Visy.
Sawmillers such as Big River Timbers with a softwood mill at Wagga and a hardwood veneer mill at Grafton were dealt a double whammy by these far reaching fires, with supply cut for both types of timbers.
Pine plantations now charred were the focus of a state government scoping study before Christmas, looking at the feasibility of leasing or selling trees to private enterprise. Enthusiasm for the plan has waned but is not extinguished.
Softwood plantations on the North Coast have also been fire affected, like the Myrtle State Forest blocks near Rappville, south of Casino, along with a timber mill, all gone in October fires. That loss has left a vacuum in local processing and with less of a market for North Coast softwood and Timber NSW recommends replanting with high quality eucalypt hardwoods, like spotted gum and blackbutt, where soil suits.
"There is an opportunity right now to grow the native hardwood plantation industry," Ms McCaskill said.
Timber industry leaders are calling on lawmakers to listen to the outcomes of this next bush fire inquiry, something they have not been very good at, based on the lack of change after past Royal commissions.
At the core of this problem is an argument about hazard reduction with Ms McAskill saying her figures showed an abrupt decrease in controlled fire as a management tool post 2000.
Recommendations on hazard reduction made as a result of government inquiries following the Wombalong fire in 2013 and Black Saturday in Victoria proved recommendations made in the up coming Federal bush fire inquiry, announced last week, will likely remain on paper, rather than put to use.
"Of all the recommendations very few were enacted," she said.
"Labor and Liberal governments are both as bad as each other when it comes to hazard reduction."
Meanwhile, Australian timber imports have surged to $2 billion while constant inquiry for North Coast hardwood from Asian furniture manufacturers goes unanswered, with 88 per cent of forested land on the North Coast unavailable for timber harvest.
CEO of Australian Forest Products Association Ross Hampton says recommendations in the last inquiry included increased management of hazard reduction.
"The time is now that we need to manage our landscape as one entity, not as individual entities. That is a recipe for more of the same," he said. "We can't keep managing land using different compartment approvals, different fire regime, different roads and fire equipment. These artificial divisions are not going to make the situation better."
