Forest Products Industry

Midway managing director Tony McKenna has a simple philosophy for the way the company sees the timber industry. “We’d like to see more trees in the ground,” he said. Source: Timberbiz Midway is a leading Australian forestry company with a head office in Geelong, Victoria, founded in 1980. Midway has business units across Australia and is involved in all aspects of forestry, with a lead focus of woodfibre processing and exporting, plantation project management and carbon abatement projects. “We’re committed to try to grow the estate where it makes sense,” Mr McKenna said. “And I believe that there is country where it would benefit from having trees in the ground.” To encourage the development of plantation forestry and expedite sequestration of atmospheric carbon, Midway has developed a Carbon Project Agreement, a commercial offering for Landholders who are keen to support commercial forest production and participate in Australia’s expanding carbon reduction market through the generation of carbon offsets. Midway sources hardwood plantation and softwood plantation from Victoria and the Green Triangle region in South Australia and Midway Tasmania sources native regrowth and hardwood and softwood plantation across Tasmania. Plantation Management Partners sources hardwood and softwood plantation from the Tiwi Island Forestry Project on Melville Island in the Northern Territory. Wood is sourced from Responsible Wood, FSC certified suppliers and non-certified suppliers. Combined the group manages over 90,000 ha of plantation estate. “The hardwood plantation estate peaked at around 970,000ha in Australia in 2010, and a lot of that was driven by the MIS,” Mr McKenna said. “A good part of it was in the Green Triangle in Western Victoria more generally. And a lot of that was driven by MIS, but not all of it.” Since then, the plantings have decreased by 250,000ha with some of the best country reverting to primarily grazing agriculture. The hardwood timber harvested in Western Victoria goes to paper mills in China and Japan, making renewable recyclable products such as paper products and plastic replacement packaging. It is currently chipped in field at sites such as Myamyn north of Portland, and in Geelong. The bulk of the product is exported out of Portland. “There’s very little being used domestically,” Mr McKenna said. He said there was some replanting. “There’s a couple of things happening with the economics around a little bit of improved longer-term demand for the woodchips and the carbon story,” he said. “Carbon generates another source of income from a plantation and that helps in country that’s really marginal agricultural country.” Midway doesn’t do any of its own harvesting and haul operations, relying on local contractors. Logs are generally harvested, cut to length, and then brought into Midway’s static mills. “Having the infrastructure there makes it cheaper for us to do it that way,” Mr McKenna said.

Forestry Corporation NSW has stood down 15 operations – 11 operations in the north of the state and four in the south, following a NSW Environment Protection Authority order which requires a 25-metre logging exclusion zone around any tree in which a Greater Glider is spotted. Source: Timberbiz Changes have also been made to how nocturnal search and surveys must be conducted, including that a first transect must be undertaken within 30 minutes of sunset to increase the likelihood of seeing gliders leaving their dens. Australian Forest Contractors Association general manager Tim Lester said that for several weeks Forestry Corporation NSW and the NSW EPA had been discussing the interpretation of the search and survey requirements relating to protections for Greater Gliders. “Last week environmental activists issued a notice of intent to Forestry Corp and likely the EPA – that further court actions would be launched to seek additional injunctions to prevent harvesting activity,” he said. Amendment of the biodiversity conditions could not occur while a court action was underway, leading to the developments at the weekend. Mr Lester said that as the amendments apply immediately, FC NSW moved to stand down crews while a review can be undertaken of the updated requirements. He said it was not clear how long the stand down is likely to last, with expectations ranging from several days to a number of weeks. FC NSW has advised that usual stand down arrangements and payments will apply for those harvesting contracting businesses that have affected. There are currently no stand down arrangements in place for haulage. FC NSW will negotiate with individual businesses to determine what financial support will apply. “We understand there is community concern for the conservation of threatened species and forests, and we remain committed to fulfilling our statutory obligation to protect the environment and independently regulate all licensed industries, including native forest operations,” the EPA said. “We will continue to regulate FCNSW activities to ensure the rules are complied with and will regularly review these settings to ensure that they are operating as intended.” The AFCA wants information about the impacts on businesses and individuals to support its bid to the NSW Government to stop these rolling series of changes. Those affected by the EPA’s orders can complete an online survey for the AFCA here.