Spin-doctoring and blatant denials used to obscure the truth about Tasmania's woodchipping
MEDIA RELEASE
29 January 2004
The Tasmanian State Government and logging industry have been accused by The Wilderness Society of using spin-doctoring and blatant denials to obscure the truth about woodchipping of oldgrowth forests in Tasmania.
"The industry's latest denials come hard on the heels of a whole string of such tactics – from claiming that El Grande had only been scorched when it had, in fact, been killed, to falsely claiming that trees taller than the Casino can't be cut down."
The Wilderness Society's Campaign Coordinator, Geoff Law, said that the industry was trying to hide the truth by referring to oldgrowth forests as 'mixed-age native forests' or as 'other' forests.
Mr Law said that the vast majority of so-called 'mixed-age native forests' are, in fact, oldgrowth.
And he released figures from Forestry Tasmania's Three Year Plans that show that only 39% of hardwood woodchips to be cut from public land this year are from regrowth (including hardwood plantations), while 61% come from 'other' (ie oldgrowth) forests. He said this is another case of the industry using spin to obscure the reality of what's happening to Tasmania's forests.
"Forestry Tasmania will use any word or phrase rather than admit that they log huge areas of oldgrowth."
He said analysis of the Three Year Plan showed that two thirds of all coupes logged by Forestry Tasmania are oldgrowth – making the area of public oldgrowth logged each year about 10,000 hectares.
Mr Law provided a list of examples where false or misleading statements had been used to cover up what's happening to the forests. They include:
· Forests Minister, Paul Lennon, claiming that trees taller than the Casino can't be logged (erroneously believing the Casino to be taller than 85 metres, when it is in fact only 56 metres tall) (August 2001);
· FIAT spokesperson Terry Edwards claiming that 'the Styx is regrowth'(July 2003);
· Forests Minister Paul Lennon making false claims about the impact of protecting oldgrowth forests in Western Australia, and then being rebutted by Duncan Kerr MHR and the Western Australian Labor Government (December 2003);
· Forestry Tasmania denying that El Grande had been killed in a regeneration burn in April 2003, and then admitting in December that it was dead;
· Forests Minister, Paul Lennon, denying that the forest industry poisons Australian native wildlife, but, rather, that they 'regulate the populations of browsing mammals'. (A Current Affair, September 2002)
Further information:
Geoff Law (03) 6224 1550, 0409 944 891.
For more information, please contact:
Geoff Law
Tasmanian Campaign Coordinator
Workphone: (03) 6224 1550
Created: 29 Jan 2004 | Last updated: 29 Jan 2004
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