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Clearfelling the Otways and the Pulpwood
Industry
The Department of Natural Resources & Environment (DNRE) and supporters
of clearfell logging within the Otway forest are actively trying
to deceive the public. This deception promotes the lie that "trees
from forests are harvested to feed small locally owned sawmills
that produce sawn timber for such things as building houses and
timber furniture. Woodchips are simply the waste/offcuts from sawmill
operations". This deception is used to fool the community and create
a facade. The real reason for clearfell logging in the Otways is
pulpwood.
The official timber licence allocations released by DNRE in
their 96/97 wood utilisation plan for the Otway region showed
the total volume of residual logs to be 60,000 tonnes. DNRE classes
residual logs as those trees being too small, twisted or cracked
to be used as sawlogs. The total sawlog volume for this period
is 42,600 sq. meters. This is equivalent to about 40,000 tonnes
of sawn timber.
Clearly, about 60% of the timber removed from Otway forests
never goes to a sawmill. Residual logs should more correctly be
referred to as pulpwood trees. Most of these so called residual
trees could be left in the forest to grow into sawlogs and provide
habitat. Instead they go straight to the woodchipper. Of the 42,600
sq. meters of timber that goes to the sawmills, 60% will be offcuts
and woodchipped. The actual volume of timber that ends up as actual
sawn timber can be as little as 20% of the total trees removed
from the forest.
The major lie is that you need logging to build your house.
The truth is logging in the Otways is dominated by the need for
pulpwood. Who needs this pulpwood ? Kimberly Clark has a licence
to take 44,000 tonnes of residual logs. This is about 40% of the
forest removed from the Otways.
Who is Kimberly Clark ?
Kimberly-Clark Australia (KCA) is a multi-national organisation
which specialises in the manufacture of disposable tissue products.
Kimberly Clark works in a joint venture with AMCOR. AMCOR owns 50%
of KCA and holds the controlling interest.
KCA has Otway forests trucked to its tissue paper pulp mills
in Millicent, South Australia (near Mt Gambier). At the pulp mill,
a blend of hardwood (eucalypt) and softwood (radiata pine) is
required to make tissue paper. The softwood (pine) gives strength
to the tissue paper while the hardwood (Otway forest) creates
softness and smoothness. The tissue paper is then packaged and
distributed to every supermarket in Australia. Most of the tissue
paper is sold under the popular brand name of KLEENEX. It could
be in your office or home toilet right now.
Some of the products include :-
- KLEENEX Facial Tissues
- KLEENEX Toilet tissues
- WONDERSOFT toilet tissue
Some of the packaging on these products refers to the source raw
material. For example:
" ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE
TREES
RESOURCES USED TO MAKE TISSUE
Tissue products are made from cellulose fibres obtained from wood.
The wood supplies used come from plantations, timber thinnings,
saw mills, and other wood harvesting residues"
- Taken from back of Kleenex Facial Tissues 100 box.
The word "harvest" sounds friendly but is not as truthful as
the word "clearfell". The terms "saw mill and other wood harvesting
residues" conjures upon the image that the trees were cut down
as part of a sawlog driven industry.
None of the packaging makes reference to hardwood native forests,
or the Otways, or the species destroyed in the clearfelling, or
landslides caused by pulpwood logging roads, or the spread of
Myrtle Wilt by negligent DNRE logging operations, or the 75 ha
of rainforest Sites of Significance that will be logged this summer
to produce 9000 tonnes of pulp wood for the tissue industry etc.
There is however hope for KCA. Greenpeace in Canada successfully
lobbied Kimberly Clark in the UK not to buy woodchips from MacMillan
Bloedel, a company logging old growth forest in Clayoquot Sound
on Vancouver island.
Midways
Another large user of Otway residual trees is Midways, the Geelong
Export Woodchip mill. Midways takes residual logs not required by
other licence holders. It also takes trees from other forest areas
such as East Gippsland and the Central highlands. Midways exports
about 400,000 tonnes of hardwood woodchips each year to places like
Korea and Japan.
The manager of Midways is Malcom MacDougal. Malcom is an ex-senior
Otways Forest Manager. He was in charge of the Forrest Office
in 1984 and spoke when "Save the Otways" actions took place and
atthe court cases following the arrests of environmentalists.
Midways is a listed company who share holders are made up of sawmills
taking timber from the Otways. In 1994, the Australian Securities
Commission revealed that of the mills taking sawlogs from the
Otways; the Bennett, Calco and Murnane mill, all had substantial
shareholdings in Midway.
Once again the myth.
Recently, Stewart McArthur, Federal Member for Corangamite in south-western
Victoria and Government whip in Federal Parliament wrote an article
in the Age 17/9/96 titled "Green fairy tales from the disenchanted
forest". The article strongly criticised the green movement for
its stand over woodchips. Clearly McArthur has the ear of the woodchippers
in his district. He rewrites the myth that the industry is sawlog
driven and continues to polarise the community by pretending that
all greenies are against all logging in native forest.
The following quotation from McArthur's article in the Age lists
the uses of timber from the Otway in a deceiving priority as if
the industry was saw logging driven (actual sawlog grade and approximate
percentages have been added in brackets from information from
DNRE's own data and makes the assumption that meter cubed is equivalent
to tonnes and 50% of each saw log is waste).
"In keeping with prudent resource management, loggers get
maximum use out of each harvested tree. High-quality sawlogs produce
appearance - grade furniture timber (B+,2.6%) or structural beams
(C,13.1%). Low-grade wood is used for pallets, fence palings (D,5.6%)
and woodchips for paper, some of which are exported to Japan (Residual
Logs, 60% & Sawlog Offcuts, 18.7%)"
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