Who needs logging?

Chris Trueman, Blackburn, The Age (letter), Sunday 29/4/01

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Mark Poynter, commenting on John Elder's 'Battle for the Otways' (Your say, 22/4), omits the most important, and central, point in this logging dispute: that the planned annual rate of native forest-timber harvesting in the Otways will have an economic benefit for the region that is very much less than a third of 1 per cent of the total economic benefit that the: region derives from all other activities.

The proponents of native-forest timber production have presented myriad reasons why it should be encouraged. However, given that the economic benefit of logging to the Otway region is so small, it is difficult to understand why their arguments are given credence.

If, as Mr Poynter suggests, the protests of logging proponents are based purely on a philosophy that seeks to encourage unfettered timber production in all native forests, then we should be deeply concerned about any precedent that is set in the Otways.

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