Woodchip export levels would not be significantly affected by the end of clearfelling in old-growth forests, Forestry Tasmania chief executive Evan Rolley said yesterday.
Record levels of more than 5.1 million tonnes of wood-chips were exported in 2002-03.

“The reality is that an end of harvesting of old-growth forests will not have any significant impact on wood chips,” Mr Rolley said.

He said woodchips could be grown in very young plantations.

“A plantation base for a woodchip industry can be established quickly,” he said.
Mr Rolley said an end to old-growth logging would affect the sawlog and veneer industries more than the woodchip industry.

 Earlier this year Forestry Tasmania said up to 90 per cent of wood harvested at Blue Tier in the North-East would be used for woodchips.
Forestry Tasmania last week released papers examining the phasing out of clearfelling of old-growth forests by 2010 under a Tasmania Together benchmark.

It suggested a ban on harvesting could result in the loss of up to 1200 jobs and financial losses of up to $938 million.

Timber and woodchipping firm Gunns Ltd has yet to react to the review papers.
Forestry Industries Association of Tasmania chief executive Terry Edwards said again yesterday the industry was worried that the reports suggested considerable job losses.

Mr Edwards said research had failed to identify an alternative to clearfelling that protected forest workers and ensured effective regeneration of the forests.
He said decisions should be based on scientific evidence, not “emotive rhetoric”.

“We will be producing information about the different properties of mature timber that are not present in the proposed replacement resource, either regrowth forest or plantation,” he said.