Media Release - Friday 13th March 2009

Contentious Florentine logging coupe 42F burnt as Forestry Tasmania begins burns season

The regeneration burn of logging coupe FO042F in the Upper Florentine Valley commenced on Wednesday the 11^th of March and has now been completed. This is the first burn of this season in the Florentine Valley. Adjacent coupe FO042E is now being prepared for burning.

 

“Forestry Tasmania burns over 15,000 hectares of logged forest per annum which according to a Forestry Tasmania study in 2001 emits roughly more than 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is more than the combined emissions of all other sectors in Tasmania as calculated by the Australian Greenhouse Office,” said Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Ali Alishah.

 

“CO₂ emissions of this scale are directly responsible for driving climate change. Forestry Tasmania’s continued push to log and burn old growth forests which sequester and absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere clearly shows their inadequacy at managing Tasmania’s carbon storage assets,” said Mr. Alishah.

 

“It also shows their blatant disregard of the Tasmanian community’s wellbeing. Tasmanians enjoy some of the cleanest air in the world on record and during the autumn burning season our quality of air falls below third world standards,” said Mr. Alishah.

 

“These two old growth coupes in the Upper Florentine valley should not have been logged and the minute pockets reserved within these coupes through the aggregated retention scheme, employed by Forestry Tasmania as an alternative to clearfelling, are in great danger of being incinerated. Aggregated retention, like any logging practice which upholds the wood chipping status quo, is destined to fail in protecting biodiversity and satisfying the Tasmanian public,” said Mr. Alishah.