Hardwood trees left to rot as timber mills forced to axe jobs
A NSW timber mill has been forced to cut staff because of a lack of logs, despite 50,000 trees being cleared and dumped to make way for transmission lines.
A lack of logs has forced a timber mill on the NSW south coast to lay off almost half of its workforce despite 50,000 trees being cleared and dumped to make way for transmission lines.
The Pentarch Mill at Nowra last week cut 12 jobs, around 40 per cent of its workforce, because it does not have enough timber to keep the mill running at full capacity.
But five hours south, a corridor 180km wide and nine kilometres long has been slashed through Kosciuszko National Park and Maragle State Forest to make way for transmission lines for the Snowy 2.0 hydro electricity project.
The NSW Australian Forestry Products Association (AFPA) estimates the 162 hectares of slashed native vegetation could have provided 50,000 hardwood trees to keep the mill running at full capacity. Instead, the valuable timber has been mulched or left to rot where it fell.
“The wholesale destruction of parts of Kosciuszko National Park and Maragle State Forest is gut-wrenching for South Coast hardwood businesses and workers to witness,” AFPA chief executive James Jooste said.
Under the National Parks and Wildlife Act regulated by the Environmental Protection Authority no timber felled in a national park can be touched. Timber in a state forest can be used with permission.
“We were never told or given a chance to use those trees. At a time when there is an acute shortage of timber, this is a tragic waste,” Mr Jooste said.
“There is a blatant double standard, one set of rules for the renewable energy sector, and another for the renewable native forestry sector.
“While a sustainable hardwood industry is being regulated towards extinction, the mass removal of native forest for infrastructure is waved through with the stroke of a pen.”
The forest cleared for transmission lines provided crucial habitat for gang-gang cockatoos, the eastern pygmy possum, yellow-bellied gliders and masked owls. More paths will be cut through parts of the Bago State Forest.
“These projects cause permanent environmental loss, while the forestry industry has sustainably managed forests for more than a century,” Mr Jooste said.
By contrast to the clear felling for transmission lines, the strictly regulated timber industry harvests six out of every 10,000 trees and ensures every tree is regrown to maintain habitat and future supply.
Pentarch Group executive director Stephen Dadd said the lack of timber meant it was not viable to unpack a $1.8 million finger jointing machine that had been partly funded by Australian taxpayers. The machine allows timber that is being discarded to be joined to make viable planks.
“The Pentarch Mill in Nowra is vital to the local economy and NSW’s housing construction sector,” Mr Dadd said. “We will continue working constructively with the NSW Government to secure a sustainable pathway forward.”
The government set up independent Forestry Panel last year and is now considering its report that attempts to balance environmental issues.
A spokeswoman for the Forestry Corporation said the disposal of trees was the responsibility of the “third party” responsible for the construction of state significant infrastructure.
However, a spokesman for Transgrid, which is building the transmission lines, said it was told by National Parks and Wildlife it could not touch the felled trees in Kosciuszko National Park.
The third party contractor who cleared the trees in Maragle State Forest referred all questions back to Transgrid, which denied any connection to the tree clearing.
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Originally published as Hardwood trees left to rot as timber mills forced to axe jobs
