Greens say Styx old-growth trees to go

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Greens say Styx old-growth trees to go

Tasmania, Australia

(The Mercury)

 

21nov00

 

THE Wilderness Society says Forestry Tasmania will log 800ha of old-growth

forest in the Styx Valley in the next three years – trees the society wants

included in a new national park.

 

Forestry Tasmania, in its publicly available three-year logging plan,

details 22 logging coupes and 17km of new roads in the area.

Wilderness Society Tasmanian campaign co-ordinator Geoff Law said

conservationists were facing a race against time to protect the valley.

 

But Forestry Tasmania Derwent district manager Steve Whitely said areas for

harvesting had been approved through the 1997 regional forest agreement,

which protected 87% of old-growth forests on public land.

 

Mr Whitely said no change was planned in the traditional level of forestry

activity which had been going on in the Styx Valley for 50 years.

 

The row continues the conservation push to protect the valley, which is

recognised by both sides for the value of its tall eucalypts.

 

It also follows a controversial national television documentary on the

valley.

 

The report, on the Nine Network's 60 Minutes program on Sunday, has been

slammed by the State Government and industry and applauded by

conservationists.

 

Mr Law said Forestry Tasmania's logging plan highlighted the need to

intensify the push for protection of the Styx Valley.

 

" People who want that valley to become a Valley of the Giants National Park

.... it is now a race against time, " he said.

 

" Forestry Tasmania have planned 22 logging coupes in the next three years,

some 800ha of old-growth forest, including places which have never seen an

axe let alone a chainsaw or a bulldozer. "

 

Mr Law said Forestry Tasmania figures showed three-quarters of the

old-growth logs harvested would go directly into woodchip mills and only 2%

of logs extracted would be for veneers.

 

He said the valley could become a tourist attraction equal in drawing power

to the Redwood National Park, which features the world's highest trees, in

California.

 

 

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