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Irish Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, announced the publication of the Annual Forest Statistics Report for 2024. Source: Timberbiz This annual report, prepared by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, provides an annual compilation of statistics on Ireland’s forest sector and the forest industry. These forest statistics provide stakeholders with a repository of reliable and transparent information about the forest sector over the past year. “As an annual report, Forest Statistics Ireland 2024 is an essential publication for anybody interested in a detailed overview of our forestry sector. This annual report provides vital information for researchers, students and practitioners who wish to understand where the sector sits in our overall national economic picture,” Ms Hackett said. “Clearly the pace at which we are expanding our forest estate needs to increase substantially. The impact of the length of the State Aid approval process for the new Forestry Programme is reflected in the afforestation figures for last year, with afforestation under the new Forestry Program only beginning in September 2023. “Notwithstanding that, over 4,000 hectares have been made available for planting by the Forest Service since then, which I expect to result in increased afforestation figures for 2024. “While afforestation is ultimately a voluntary land use choice and there is much competition for land in the current market, the significantly increased funding in place for the new program combined with efficiencies in the licensing process make afforestation a highly attractive option for farmers and landowners, and I expect that the pace at which we continue to expand the forest estate will increase significantly over the remainder of the rogram to 2027.” The report highlights that total expenditure on forest activities, including maintenance grants, grants for forest road infrastructure, annual premium payments and supports for the afforestation of 1,651 hectares, was €73.8 million in 2023. “The percentage of broadleaves in new forests created during 2023 was 54%, which is the first time that the proportion of broadleaves planted exceeded conifer tree planting. My department also supported the construction of 78 km of private forest roads during 2023, an increase of 8 km over 2022. This will be essential to mobilising the projected increase in harvesting, which is expected to double by 2030,” Ms Hackett said. The continuation of the National Forest Inventory is essential to monitor change in Ireland’s forest estate, in terms of extent composition and health. Later this year, the Department will begin the planning for the fifth National Forest Inventory, which is due to commence in 2025. The recent proposal by the European Commission of a new forest monitoring law will make it mandatory for Member States to report national level information about their forests, emphasising the benefit of ongoing forest monitoring in Ireland. “The production of statistics by my department on a weekly, monthly and annual basis is essential to evaluating progress towards the implementation of Ireland’s Forest Strategy (2023 – 2030),” Ms Hackett said. Ten key statistics from Forest Statistics – Ireland 2024 include: Total expenditure in 2023 by DAFM on forest activities including afforestation, maintenance grants, annual premium payments and grants for forest road infrastructure was €73.8 million. The area of new forest created during 2023 totalled 1,651 hectares with the greatest afforestation taking place in Co. Roscommon with 189 hectares followed by Co. Galway with 139 hectares. The percentage of broadleaves in new forests created during 2023 was 54%, which was up from 43% in the previous year. This is the first time that proportion of broadleaves planted exceeded conifer tree planting. Between 1980 and 2023, over 24,000 private landowners have accessed the grants available to establish new forests, with an average size of 8.6 hectares. Farmers have accounted for 82% of afforestation on private lands. The percentage of land afforested by farmers during 2023 was 47%, which was up from 23% in the previous year. Over the period 2006-2023, 40% of the area afforested was by those aged 60 years or more. In 2023, 57% of the area afforested was by those aged 60 years or more and for those in receipt of premium payments, 61% were aged 60 years or more. In 2023, a total of 3.5 tonnes of Pedunculate Oak seed was sown in forestry nurseries, equating to over 3.4 million plants. The other main broadleaf species were Downy Birch and Common Alder. The main conifer species included Sitka spruce, Scots pine and, lodgepole pine. The construction of 78 km of private forest roads was funded during 2023, an increase of 8 km over 2022. This reflects the projected increase in timber and wood to be harvested, which is expected to double by 2030. During 2023, felling licences were issued for the thinning of 8,144 hectares and the clearfelling of 24,444 hectares. These sum to a total 505,814 hectares licenced for thinning since 2010 and 184,081 ha licenced for clearfell over the same period. Approximately half of Ireland’s forest estate is certified by international non-governmental organisations to promote good forest practice. The vast majority of this area is in the public forest estate, with 33,064 hectares of private forests currently certified. In 2022 Ireland’s forests removed 2.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, an increase of 0.34 million tonnes compared to 2021. The Census of Ireland has shown that employment in the forestry sector fell from 2,468 in 2016 to 2,138 in 2022. While in the Logging and Manufacture of wood and wood products employment grew from 4,000 in 2016 to 4,274 in 2022. The full report is at https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/15b56-forest-statistics-and-mapping/#annual-forest-sector-statistics    

Climate change is likely to drive tree species towards colder and wetter regions of their geographical distribution, a new study has shown. The research, led by the University of Alcalá (UAH), in Spain, and including researchers at the University of Birmingham, draws together data from across Europe and North America to show that tree species in the Northern Hemisphere are starting to become denser in colder and wetter regions. Source: Timberbiz The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) provides the first quantitative evidence that climate change is driving this change in the numbers of trees of each species across temperate forests on a continental scale. The researchers analysed data from over two million trees, representing 73 species widely distributed across Europe and the United States. They investigated whether changes in tree density could be attributed to specific characteristics of each species, such as tolerance to arid conditions, or their capacity to disperse. Importantly, however, the study did not identify any single trait of the tree species as being decisive for these changes. “Some tree species which are currently used for ecosystem restoration in Europe may no longer be suitable in these regions in the near future… massive reforestation programmes planned as a solution for capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere might be limited in their effectiveness if they do not account for these responses,” Dr Thomas Pugh  of the University of Birmingham and Lund University and co-author explained. Julen Astigarraga, from UAH and lead author of the study said that this lack of a definitive trait suggests that most species possess a degree of acclimation capability. Understanding how forest species are responding to climate change through increasing their density in these more northerly regions is essential for planning ecosystem conservation, management and restoration. “Some tree species which are currently used for ecosystem restoration in Europe may no longer be suitable in these regions in the near future,” Dr Pugh said. “In addition, massive reforestation programs planned as a solution for capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere might be limited in their effectiveness if they do not account for these responses.” The study represented a significant international collaboration, with scientists from 12 countries, and data analysis from more than 125,000 forest plots across Europe and North America. Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, an expert in forest ecology at the University of Birmingham and co-author on the paper, said: “This study required a significant international effort to pull together and harmonise data from many different sources. The data from these forest inventories is crucial for advancing our understanding of forest dynamics and their resilience to climate change.” The study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and by the European Research Council’s TreeMort project. It included data and analysis from the Spanish National Forest Inventory, the Flemish Forest Inventory, the CzechTerra Landscape Inventory, the Finnish Forest Health Monitoring Network, the Dutch Forest Inventory, the Polish National Forest Inventory, the Swedish National Forest Inventory, and the United States Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis research program.

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, extensive land areas have been left sitting idle after tropical forests were cleared in Indonesia, a country renowned for its biodiverse rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands. Source: PhysOrg Since 1990, the country has lost 25% of its old-growth forest, and while over one-quarter (7.8 million hectares) of Indonesia’s deforested lands have been converted to palm oil plantations since 2020, an even larger area (8.8 million hectares), remain vacant. The study, which focused on Indonesian deforestation trends from 1991 to 2020, also found that over half of Indonesia’s deforested lands were left idle for at least one year after forest clearing, and that 44% remained idle for at least five years. “Old-growth tropical forests are an extremely valuable resource, both locally and globally,” said Diana Parker, a postdoctoral associate in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences and the lead author of the paper. “The fact that such a large area of old-growth forest has been cleared then left empty is surprising.” To understand why so much idle land was being created, researchers first had to determine how the forests were cleared. During the 2015 El Niño event, forest and land fires in Indonesia created a major public health crisis both in Indonesia and in neighbouring countries. Some researchers have speculated that forest fires such as those that occurred in 2015 are largely responsible for the extensive areas of idle non-forest land. This study, however, found that fires resulting in tree cover loss accounted for less than half of all idle land clearing; 54% were cleared mechanically, either through manual clearing or using heavy machinery. “Forest fires can be either intentional or accidental,” said Parker. “Mechanical clearing, however, is not only intentional but can be time consuming and costly. Once we realized that more than half of idle areas were not created by fires, it led to a new question: why would people expend so much effort to clear forests then leave the land empty?” To answer this question, the researchers involved in the study, “Land in limbo: nearly one third of Indonesia’s cleared old-growth forests left idle,” used satellite imagery to examine the histories of deforested areas, both before and after clearing. They found that most forests are degraded, for example by selective logging, before they are cleared, suggesting that timber demand is not the main cause of idle-land creation. Case studies in regions with extensive idle land have also found that clearing increases, rather than decreases, land prices, further suggesting that timber is not the primary driver. After forest clearing, the researchers found that some idle areas were eventually converted to productive uses. Of mechanically cleared idle areas, about one quarter were converted to a productive land use within five years of the deforestation event and half were being used productively in 2020. In these cases, palm oil plantations were by far the most common outcome. “About 80% of mechanically cleared idle land that was converted to a productive use became a palm oil plantation,” said Parker. “This means that the true environmental impact of palm oil is likely much larger than the area planted immediately after forest loss, and is potentially larger than the total deforested area currently planted with oil palms.” This lagged conversion dynamic appears to be unique to palm oil. The researchers found that two-thirds of all palm oil plantations established in deforested areas were planted after a lag of at least one year. Other major deforestation drivers, such as smallholder land use or tree plantations, were almost always established immediately after clearing. “The satellite imagery can’t tell us exactly how idle land creation and the palm oil industry are linked, but the land use trends suggest a relationship,” said Parker. “In some cases, companies or individuals may intend to sell deforested land but are waiting for land prices to rise. Or they may plan to develop the land later, holding it as part of their land bank.” “In other cases, young seedlings may have died before they could be detected in satellite imagery, or conflicts with communities or other concession holders could have delayed planting,” Parker explained. Findings from the study include some hopeful news for the country’s remaining forests: From 2017–2020, Indonesia experienced the lowest deforestation rates observed during the entire study period. “Indonesia is one of the few tropical forest countries that has been able to successfully slow deforestation,” said Matthew Hansen, a professor at the University of Maryland and paper co-author. “Given how much idle land is currently available, Indonesia could stop clearing forests altogether while still increasing palm oil production.” Governments and private companies have increasingly adopted policies designed to eliminate deforestation from commodity supply chains. Under the EU Deforestation Policy (EUDR), set to be implemented later this year, certain commodities, including palm oil, cannot be imported into the EU if they were produced on land deforested after 2020. “This research shows that Indonesia contains vast areas of land deforested before 2020 that are underutilized,” Hansen said. “Using these areas for commodity expansion could allow Indonesia to comply with the EUDR while protecting its remaining natural forests.”

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In a new report, Otago Regional Council (ORC) has released its Regional Threat Assessment for vascular plants – the third in a series of threat assessments for indigenous species in Otago. Source: Timberbiz For the first time, ORC has led an assessment of the threat status of vascular plants in Otago, alongside a panel of plant experts, including John Barkla, Brian Rance, Dr Geoff Rogers, Richard Ewans, and Dr Mike Thorsen. “Knowing what species we have, and where they can be found, is critical for their protection and also for ecological restoration,” says Dr Scott Jarvie, ORC’s Senior Terrestrial Ecologist, who led this work. While much is known about vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, there are fewer details on the diversity of local species and where they occur. Vascular plants have a system of tubes which connect all parts of the plant – roots, shoots, and leaves – to transport water and nutrients from one part of the plant to another, much like the circulatory system in humans. The main groups of vascular plants are flowering plants, conifers, ferns, and club mosses. The report provides a comprehensive look at the population size and trends of indigenous vascular plants in Otago. A total of 1242 indigenous plant species were identified for Otago. This number of species makes Otago one of the most botanically diverse parts of New Zealand, containing a high proportion of the national indigenous flora. Some iconic Otago plants include narrow-leaved snow tussock, copper tussock, golden speargrass, matagouri, tōtara, rimu, southern rata, kōwhai, silver beech, among others. Otago has a major role to play in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s amazing and unique plant life. Around a quarter of Otago flora is nationally threatened or at risk. Using a methodology developed for regional councils, 227 species were regionally assessed as being “threatened”, 275 as “at risk”, 614 as “not threatened”, and one as non-resident native, and 115 as “data deficient”. A total of 10 species were identified as having become extinct in the region. Otago was identified as have at least 36 vascular plant species that are regional endemics, meaning they are not found elsewhere. Regional endemics include plants on Otago Peninsula such as Helichrysum simpsonii subsp. tumidum, Craspedia (y) (CHR 516260; Cape Saunders), and Melicytus aff. crassifolius (b) (CHR 616706; Cape Saunders), in the Catlins such as Celmisia lindsayi, in north-eastern Otago such as Gingidia grisea, and in Central Otago such as Myosotis hikuwai, Cardamine sciaphila and Carmichaelia compacta. Of these regional endemics, 28 have heightened risks of extinction (in either nationally threatened or at-risk categories). It is important for biodiversity agencies in Otago to be aware of these species if they are to be maintained and enhanced. While there was a good understanding of nationally threatened or at-risk plant species found in Otago, it was not known which species were regionally threatened in Otago. Dr Jarvie says this report remedies that. “We also discussed in the expert panel assessments how many of our threatened plants are found in non-forest locations, instead growing in habitats with high disturbance and open areas,” says Dr Jarvie. “Some of these areas are known as naturally uncommon ecosystems, of which to date 72 have been identified in Aotearoa New Zealand with Otago having at least 38. Such ecosystems contribute enormously to national biodiversity, typically come about due to unusual environmental conditions, and are often small in area (up to 1000 hectares). Their rarity means they often support unique biodiversity, are poorly understood, and due to where they are found many are threatened.” For example, Lepidium kirkii, also known as salt-pan cress or Kirk’s scurvy grass, occurs only in the inland saline type of ecosystem, a type of naturally uncommon ecosystem found only in Otago. Another example is Craspedia argentea, commonly known as the Pisa Flats woolyhead, found on the inland outwash gravels type of ecosystem. Both the inland saline and inland outwash gravel ecosystem types are Critically Endangered. Plants are essential to land and water-based ecosystems, as well as supporting the survival of humans on Earth. The assessment of indigenous vascular plants in Otago followed a standardised regional methodology that leveraged off the New Zealand Threat Classification System, administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC) – Te Papa Atawhai on behalf of all New Zealanders. This includes informing how to manage threats to indigenous plants, such as from competition from weeds, browsing by animal pests, destruction or modification of habitats, and pathogens. Tom Dyer, ORC’s Science Manager, says “a knowledge of plant distributions is also critical for informing ecological restoration, to ensure the right choice of native and provenances.” The report will be presented at tomorrow’s Environmental Science and Policy Committee. New Zealand Threat Classification System The regional threat classification system leverages off the New Zealand Threat Classification System administered by DOC. While DOC is tasked with managing indigenous species nationally, regional and district councils have statutory obligations to maintain indigenous biodiversity under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), including to manage the habitats of threatened species. Threat classifications can play a key role in assessing status and trends in indigenous species and a key requirement of managing the habitats of threatened species is to understand population sizes.

FSC Forest Week is an annual campaign in which FSC and major global brands celebrate their collective sustainable forestry efforts and encourage consumers to take action for our forests. This year the event will be from 21-27 September. Source: Timberbiz Last year more than 1,270 companies and NGOs participated, highlighting the role forest stewards have in combating climate change and biodiversity loss by supporting sustainable forestry. If you would like to participate in FSC Forest Week 2024, fill in the registration form online or contact s.day@au.fsc.org

New data released from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research shows building and construction apprenticeship commencements have fallen 22% in the year to December 2023. Source: Timberbiz Only 41,935 people commenced a building and construction-related apprenticeship in 2023, down from 54,035. In response, Master Builders Australia is releasing the Future of the workforce: apprentices in building and construction report, which shows it will take a village to ensure Australia attracts and retains our next generation of trade apprentices. The report highlights some of the barriers impacting the industry’s ability to attract and retain apprentices and puts forward a holistic list of recommendations to reverse this trend. “Despite a sizeable workforce of over 1.35 million people, the industry is facing acute shortages with an annual exit rate of 8%, of which we are currently only replacing half of that rate,” CEO Denita Wawn said. “Prolonged construction labour shortages will lead to a $57 billion reduction in Australia’s GDP over the next five years. “The role of improving our domestic pipeline of workers is critical to overcoming the housing crisis. “For decades, we have seen the cultural erosion of trade apprenticeships with students being pushed towards the university system,” she said. “Apprentices are paid to learn, unlike their higher education counterparts who pay to learn. “VET and higher education are both integral parts of Australia’s education system and should be viewed as such. “It will take a concerted effort by governments, industry, schools and the broader community to turn this ship around. “The Federal Government made a range of positive announcements aimed at attracting more apprentices into the building and construction industry in the recent Budget. “We would like to see these measures expanded with stronger support from states and territories,” Ms Wawn said. Recommendations include: Promoting varied and rewarding pathways to school-aged students, their parents and careers advisers. Overhauling the funding for and quality of careers education in schools. Investing in programs that provide clear and practical information on what an apprenticeship and future career pathway in the industry could be. Supporting schools to adopt better integrated vocational education and training into the school curriculum especially in early high-school years. Encouraging secondary school students to undertake their White Card training. Expanding support for women in building and construction programs. Reintroducing an incentive system with commencement and completion bonuses to apprentices and employers. Introducing a tiered wage subsidy that better supports mature-aged apprentices and reflects existing skill levels. Funding the cost differential for Group Training Organisations to host an apprentice and provide vital pastoral care services. Introducing incentives to encourage industry upskilling from a Certificate III to a Certificate IV. Ensuring funding is proportionally distributed between TAFE and industry-led Registered Training Organisations. Reviewing the restrictive nature of Modern Awards and pattern Enterprise Bargaining Agreements on flexible work arrangements.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released its monthly building approvals data for May 2024 for detached houses and multi-units covering all states and territories. Source: Timberbiz In seasonally adjusted terms, approvals in the three months to May 2024 saw an increase of 51.1%in Western Australia compared to the same time in the previous year. This was followed by Victoria (+10.0%). The other jurisdictions recorded declines over the same period, led by the New South Wales (-21.6%), followed by South Australia (-6.0%) and Queensland (-4.8%). In original terms, the Australian Capital Territory recorded a 33.4% increase in approvals in the three months to May 2024 compared with the previous year. Approvals over the same period fell in the Northern Territory (-34.3%) and in Tasmania (-16.3%). “This leaves approvals in the three months to May 2024 down by 1.5% compared with the same period in the previous year,” HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon said. There were 14,180 residential building approvals in the month of May, with 9,260 detached house approvals and 4,920 multi-units. Detached house approvals increased by 1.3% in May 2024 and have been slowly strengthening in recent months. Detached approvals in the three months to May 2024 are up by 10.0% compared with the same period in the previous year. “Multi-unit approvals increased by 14.3% in May from very low levels in recent months. Over the three months to May 2024, multi-unit approvals remain 19.1% lower than in the same period in the previous year,” Mr Reardon said. “There have been 163,760 total dwelling approvals over the most recent 12 months to May 2024. “This is well below the 240,000 new homes needed each year from 1 July 2024 to achieve National Cabinet’s goal,” he said. “The low approvals numbers indicate a slow start to building 1.2 million homes over the next five years. “Increasing the number of homes built will be necessary to address longstanding housing shortages. “Addressing tax, planning, land and regulatory constraints will be necessary to increasing the supply of homes in Australia,” Mr Reardon said. Meanwhile CEO Denita Wawn said Monday marked the first day of the Housing Accord race to building 1.2 million homes, but we are not race ready. “Governments have had over 600 days to align all policy levers and help put the industry in the best possible position to build enough new homes. “While there’s been some progress at a state and federal level, particularly in the housing portfolios, it has simply not been fast enough or is being undermined by other policies. “Simply put, investment in new home building does not stack up without further reform. “Industrial relations laws, worker shortages, slow planning approvals, a lack of critical infrastructure, high developer taxes and charges, and licensing delays all add to the cost and time it takes to build. “We need to build a significant amount of higher-density homes, particularly to relieve the pressure on the rental market, but the builders who are relied upon to deliver these projects are now hamstrung by restrictive CFMEU pattern EBAs,” Ms Wawn said.

The following is taken from Nationals’ MP for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath’s Second Reading speech during debate on the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Repeal Bill 2024 which abolished VicForests and removed the legal framework that previously made commercial logging possible in Victoria’s state forests. This is a sad day, a dark day in Victoria’s history. This is a disaster of a bill, and the Nationals and the Liberals will seek to amend and oppose this abomination. This government, the former Premier and the current Premier, have abandoned regional Victoria. They have wilfully neglected to listen to the science. They have listened to the chirpy ideologues and inner-city elites who want to see a sustainable and world-class industry closed. On the day the then Premier Daniel Andrews was choosing the beautiful, high-quality hardwood manufactured in Heyfield from world-class ash timber for our $42 million expansion of this Parliament – he was choosing that because it is the best in the world – he signed the death knell for this industry. It is an abomination, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. Killing off Victoria’s sustainable native industry is economically, environmentally, socially and morally wrong. I would like to pay homage to and thank the industry, the industry workers, the towns and the various people and entities associated. Over my time in this place, I have met some wonderful people in regional Victoria, not only in regional Victoria but in metropolitan Melbourne, who are part of the supply chain for our native timber industry. I would like to thank the haulage and harvest operators, the contractors and the sole traders, who are doing it so tough at the moment because the government is not honouring a commitment to fully pay them out as required and is putting blocks in the road. I would like to thank so much the machinery workers and those employed by the VicForests contractors. I also want to thank and pay homage to the civil contractors who are not associated with VicForests. So many of those do an amazing job, and some have moved between department contracts and VicForests contracts over the past 20 years as well. I want to pay homage to them. When the fires are burning and for various reasons have not been able to be put out, they drive towards those fires, putting their own life in peril to protect our regional communities and towns. I want to particularly thank the mill owners – and there have been many in the time, their workers and their administrations. I thank them for their ingenuity, for their integrity and for their grit and hard work on the floor – for value-adding this beautiful hardwood timber product which adorns our homes, our offices, our cultural centres, our GovHubs, our schools, our libraries and indeed the $42 million offices that we inhabit when we are here. To all of those, I thank them so much for their ingenuity and craftsmanship. I want to thank, in particular, the engineers as well. I thank the registered training organisations. I have spoken with so many training officers who upskill and educate haulage and harvest operators, who provide that safety. And I thank the TAFE teachers. I know many of them have been so frustrated with third-party litigation. I also thank the seed collectors and boy, haven’t they done it tough at the end of this, because the government has not been recognising them for their services. I want to thank the VicForests staff, the biodiversity experts, the forest scientists, the surveyors, the assessors, the forest managers and the regenerators. I also thank Monique Dawson for giving a damn. When the courts have said to VicForests ‘How high?’, they have attempted in many and various ways to perform those tasks: lidar data, forest surveys, middle-of-the-night and heat sensor surveys, and it goes on. On occasion VicForests has been in an uncomfortable position. They are not universally loved by the contractors, but they have been pulled and pushed and abandoned by this government. Twenty years ago, Steve Bracks in actual fact introduced VicForests, and like timber workers in our community, I think that VicForests has been collateral damage for the elites and the egos that inhabit this place. As I said earlier, it has been a passion of mine for all of my time in here to espouse and share the importance of this industry and the science behind it. In one of my first days in this place, when Federation Room was operational, there was a buzz in that place, and the minister then was Jaala Pulford. There was a buzz of forestry people. The room was full, and the future looked bright. Well, weren’t we conned indeed. We know that there have been improvements over the time for harvest practices. We know that in the past it was always evolving to better serve biodiversity and better serve outcomes, conservation and protection of zones. We have got special protection zones and we have got buffer zones. There have been five ministers in my time of the ag department of this government. It seems like a hot potato that nobody wants. All of the National Party would relish it, and I am sure many of the Liberals would relish being the minister for ag. There are various things. Let us look at this: 94% of the public land estate is not available for timber harvesting – 94% of roughly eight million hectares is excluded from harvest. In the last few years around 3000 trees per hectare were harvested every year and regrown. These are the facts: four in 10,000 trees are harvested and regrown. The national state of the forests 2018 report stated that there was a 95% success rate for VicForests for Victorian forest regeneration. There was a 95% success rate for that regeneration. We also know that there is no such thing as deforestation. What I do also know is that the wilderness groups – these Wilderness Society groups – peddle […]