Forestry myths

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Kate Carnell, of the National Association of Forest Industries, needs to be corrected on a few points she made in her letter (8/1) about clear-fell logging in Tasmania. Her claim that one-quarter of Tasmania is old-growth forest and that 86per cent of this is protected is simply untrue.

Approximately 15 per cent of Tasmania is old-growth forest. Only half of this is protected in formal reserves. Of Tasmania's original old-growth forests, 82per cent is now gone. Of what remains, only half is protected.

Furthermore, more than 90 per cent of the logged old-growth forests ends up as woodchips, hardly a residual product of a value-added industry.

More tragic is the devastation that clear-fell logging and subsequent poisoning has on Tasmania's unique and diverse wildlife.

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