DEAR News Of The Area,

I’VE looked at hundreds of logging industry photos taken in the 1950’s and early 60’s.

Loaded log trucks carried trees of great size.

Girth gave cuts of stable timber of plank dimensions.

By the early 1970’s, large remaining trees became hard to find.

Likewise with large cuts of timber.

Based on the dates given, within the industry today, no-one under 70 would have a memory of past girths.

Industry amnesia runs to Forest Corporation staff, most would be well under 50 with no memory of shrinking forests.

When availability declined 50 years ago, mill owners, consulted, told me they were cutting matchsticks.

That remains true today.

We have a problem!

The demise of large trees leads to critical loss of hollows, habitat for shrinking biodiversity.

This is acknowledged in the Commonwealth ‘State of the Environment Report’.

This five yearly report warns of tragic biodiversity loss.

Too much has been taken, not enough given.

Studied warnings have been released for years, within the industry and politics, evidence hides behind cliches, “wood is a renewable resource”.

Simplistic words, hiding more than they reveal.

Time for words of truth.

“Extinctions are for keeps”.

Sadly, industry and Government have failed to instigate plantation policies.

This should have happened 60 years ago.

The choice?

Mass extinctions or a failed industry?

Time to create the Great Koala National Park.

Regards,
Warren TINDALL,
Bellingen.