I am being sued by Gunns

**Bushmiller** · 25th December 2004, 01:19 AM

Are there more emotive issues than timber felling of daming of rivers? Well not in nature perhaps.

Perhaps I shouldn't comment on a Christmas eve nightshift, but re reading the debate there is so much profound comment and understandably so much emotion. At the end of the day the lawyers will be the winners. Gunns will come out severely scarred and the Greens including comrade Suresh considerably embattled.

Can we separate any emotion here? If Gunns are complying with legislation and logging within their licence then there is little recource for the man in the street except to lobby the government. However, if Gunns or anybody else is abusing the licence it becomes a different issue. Is there an independent body policing the situation?

One of the problems with woodchipping is the diabolical waste. Not all timber is suitable for paper production. Many hardwoods are unsuitable. That timber is left to be burnt and the landscape is razed to prepare for plantation timber.

Individual trees can and should be cut for timber production, and this is sustainable because trees around will thrive once a mature tree is removed. Sawmillers do not remove the so called habitat trees by choice because they are defective for milling purposes. Those trees remain. If a tree is left for too long it eventually goes past its useby date.

To my mind clear felling is to be avoided. I can't help feeling that the agenda in woodchipping is to replant with plantation timber. They clear fell because the return is so poor they cannot pick and choose.

Really to make a decision as to who is at fault we need more independent information. Probably only the Greenies or the Tasmanian people can put on sufficient pressure to bring that about. I can't see it coming from the woodchippers!

The question remains. Are the woodchippers working within their licence? It is a question anybody has the right to ask.

Regards

Paul

**AlexS** · 18th July 2005, 02:21 PM

Congratulations on your win Suresh, I know it's only a start, but hope there are more to come.

**Suresh** · 18th July 2005, 03:48 PM

The judgement by Justice Bourngino was a fair walloping for Gunns. The language was fairly intemperate and he went to town on the woodchipper.

However the Justice has allowed Gunns the opportunity to file another suit in August. Lets all hope that they give up trying to intimidate the community
Suresh

**E. maculata** · 18th July 2005, 04:03 PM

Good stuff Suresh, Many large corporations in this country suffer from glaring shortfalls with community accountabilities ie; they on a whole need to learn and practice true equity, social responsibility and above all be positive contributing citizens commensurate with their size and try some accountability to other than just the boardroom

**Studley 2436** · 18th July 2005, 04:45 PM

Wrote this and posted it to then see that Suresh had won his case

Don't know if what Gunns are accusing Suresh of, though I am a bit surprised that the police didn't just cart him off if he was doing 6 million damage.

Anyway my logic re woodchips is that sawn timber is more valuable. Gunns sell sawn timber in various sizes etc and they sell woodchips and pulp too. Wouldn't they like any normal company that is seeking to maximise profit direct the raw product to it's most valuable market? When you mill timber there is tons of chip and offcuts that are not suitable for use as timber so pulping makes good sense for that stuff. Processing into sawn timber is not much work not nearly so much as making paper for instance.

I don't really know what the truth is but I think there is something that is more truthfull and honest in the middle somewhere.

Studley

**Studley 2436** · 18th July 2005, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by E. maculata

Good stuff Suresh, Many large corporations in this country suffer from glaring shortfalls with community accountabilities ie; they on a whole need to learn and practice true equity, social responsibility and above all be positive contributing citizens commensurate with their size and try some accountability to other than just the boardroom

Bruce could you tell us something about this, I mean Gunns and their business practise? It is hard for me to know what really is going on. The reporting is often inflammatory. Anyway I reckon that being in the timber industry you know something about it and could shed some light on the subject for the rest of us.

Good one Suresh! What did they accuse you of anyway. What were you doing that made them so angry?

Studley

**rsser** · 18th July 2005, 07:10 PM

There ain't much economically viable life left in old growth forests (in fact there isn't any now if loggers had to pay the actual value of state-provided infrastructure). Plantation hardwoods are coming on stream.

The loggers are busting a gut to make a buck now, and b*gger the generations to come.

**E. maculata** · 18th July 2005, 07:19 PM

Rsser to a degree I agree, usually it's not the "loggers" par se' but the larger companies in the background & yep it's definitely now mostly a southern states thing, we fixed (hopefully) these issues by culling many of the "cowboys" out a few years ago, during a massive shakeup, in part instigated by sections of the industry.

**adrian** · 18th July 2005, 09:09 PM

We have a lot of logging up this way for building timber and for the life of me I don't understand why the woodchippers don't follow them around. When they have finished logging a compartment there would easily be more than 100 tonne of logs that would be rejected. There's a log dump just off the Pacific Highway/Bago Rd turnoff that has tonnes of redgum logs that I've been cutting up for my turning blanks.
Unfortunately, most of it just rots away.

**ozwinner** · 18th July 2005, 09:12 PM

Ahhh,ha

So your the one destroying the forest??

Al

**glock40sw** · 18th July 2005, 09:27 PM

G'day All.
Some species are no good for woodchips.
These are the durable species.
Only the non durables are good for chips.
We now chip all our sawmill waste.
We have to segregate (sp?) the chips into 2 bins.
1 for export chips the other for fuel chips.

Adrian, You would probably have seen the E. Grandis plantations down the coast that were planted by APM for paper.
We are now milling this stuff. the waste is chipped for export.
As an aside....We are cutting 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 solid heart centers out of these small logs appro. 200mm to 250mm dia.

We are going to K.D. Them.
Anyone want KD 6x6's????

Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor
Grafton

**Gaza** · 18th July 2005, 09:34 PM

We are going to K.D. Them.
Anyone want KD 6x6's

might it be a long wait, 6in will take forever in th klin.
Good value adding....

**glock40sw** · 18th July 2005, 09:46 PM

Not in my Vac dryers.
It should only take 10 to 15 days from green.
I have carried out a simulated drying on the software and it looks very good.

Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor
Grafton

**barnsey** · 22nd July 2005, 02:33 PM

Geez trevor I was down there last Monday but will be back on the 18th of August or thereabouts. Save me some - pleeeeeeaseeeee

**NWT** · 9th August 2005, 06:01 PM

Studley,
your comments are on the money. Coupes are logged to provide sawlogs to the sawmills and the material left behind, the residue, is sold as chipwood. This material is a by product of the sawlogging operation.

The figures that the greens do not want out in the public forum are.
46% of Tasmania's forests are in reserves and protected from logging.

Tasmania is not down to its last old growth trees as they would have people think. 1 million hectares of oldgrowth forest is in reserve. That is in excess of 87% of old growth on public land.

I will probably get flamed for this as the Greens have a tendency to play the man rather than the ball and to confuse logical discussions with emotive phrases rather than fact or science.

I invite you all to look at the facts on legitamate web sites and make decisions based on fact rather than smears and hearsay.

Without forestry operations we all will struggle to access the resources we need for our wood working exploits!!
CJ

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Congratulations on your win!

Thanks Alex

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