In recent years, Tasmania has branded itself to the tourist industry as Australia’s clean and green state. But not everyone is in full agreement. Environmentalists, doctors, health officials and even some timber workers are challenging current forestry practices that seem to be stuck in a continuous state of controversy.

The state’s promotion agency appropriately describes Tasmania as a unique place. About 50 million years ago, Australia and Antarctica were joined as part of the supercontinent, Gondwana, and Tasmania shares geological similarities with Antarctica rather than the Australian mainland.

Species unique to the island include the burrowing freshwater crayfish (Engaeus sp.), Man Ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) and the creeping pine (Microcachrys tetragona). These have thrived because the island’s insular geography has protected against the invasion of non-native species from across Bass Strait and further afield.

Other survivors from Gondwana are the state’s large expanses of temperate forest. These include the Styx Valley, located about 80 kilometres to the west of Hobart, home to stands of Eucalyptus regnans. Also known as swamp gums, these magnificent trees can grow to be 400 years old. Reaching up to 90 metres into the sky, they are among the tallest on earth. To outsiders, it can come as a shock to learn that much of this area is not protected and Eucalyptus regnans continues to be logged, primarily for woodchips.

Old growth under attack

In contrast to the rest of Australia, where the logging of old-growth forests has been phased out or is winding down, the trend in Tasmania has been moving in the opposite direction. Approximately 5.5 million tonnes (about 4.75 million tonnes sourced from native forests) are woodchipped every year by Gunns, a Tasmanian forestry company with a near-monopoly over the state’s woodchipping industry. This represents roughly double the volume across all other states.

Assertions that various “residues” are used as woodchip feedstocks are challenged by the statistics. According to an analysis by The Wilderness Society (TWS) based on the most recent figures from 1999-2000, if sawmill residues are also counted, 92 per cent of logs are woodchipped while only 3.5 per cent are converted into sawn timber.

The final destination of most woodchip exports is Japan, where they are converted into disposable paper products. Last year, in response to a Greenpeace and TWS campaign, Mitsubishi Paper Mills decided to abandon old growth in favour of a mix of plantation, regrowth forest and reclaimed wood. Others, including Nippon Paper Group, have yet to make the switch.

Using clearfelling practices that have been discontinued elsewhere in Australia, approximately 22,000 hectares of forest are cleared annually. The remains are then burned using a napalm-like substance, a practice unknown in other developed countries. On top of the additional carbon emissions this generates, large volumes of smoke in areas such as the Huon Valley and the Derwent Valley can obscure the scenery for tourists and visitors.

More horrifically, until recently, carrots dipped in the poison 1080 were commonly laid down as baits to kill off any wildlife that ventured back into cleared areas. Most clearfelled land is turned into forest plantations and the poison prevents possums and wallabies from eating young saplings. Unfortunately, 1080 causes a lingering, painful death for these and non-target species, including wombats, bettongs and quolls. (Although this practice was banned in state forests at the end of last year, it continues on private land.)

With the support of both major parties and in the face of strong community dissent, Tasmania’s Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) was signed in 1997. Continuing for 20 years, it provides resource security for forestry companies, with financial compensation if forests they had intended to log are protected during the RFA period. Environment groups claim that areas allocated for protection were chosen on the basis that they were of little use to loggers.