Thread: Tasmanian Timber collecting

I used to live in Tassie about 10 years ago, so I am not sure things have changed. But you used to be able to get a craft license to collect after the big boys had been through a coupe. The big boys left all the small craft trees in piles ready for burning. So it was a case of get the wood or it was ash. In that case it didn't matter how much wood a lot of guys collected be it one bit or 2. It didn't get left around to rot or create habitat, just green house gases.

However, someone up one upon the current RFAs may be able to help

Originally Posted by Ivor

I used to live in Tassie about 10 years ago, so I am not sure things have changed. But you used to be able to get a craft license to collect after the big boys had been through a coupe. The big boys left all the small craft trees in piles ready for burning. So it was a case of get the wood or it was ash. In that case it didn't matter how much wood a lot of guys collected be it one bit or 2. It didn't get left around to rot or create habitat, just green house gases.

However, someone up one upon the current RFAs may be able to help

Hey thanks for the info Ivor, thats sounds like a useful situation in terms of collecting wood that would otherwise be wasted. I dont know if that kind of license still exists. Most of the collectors who can do it now seem to be suppliers who pay FT a bounty and on sell, and TST became the speciality timber seller for FT some time back.

The minutes from the latest Tasmania woodworkers guild meetings note that the chairman had spoken to Chris at TST and the tender process for logs was not working too well and many remain unsold.

cheeeeers
john

Reeves,

Have a look at the attached photos. I am fully comitted to revegetating degraded farm land, being able to do so is dependant on farmers getting an economic return.

I also have a diploma in conservation and land management.

I can do the "pick someones post apart line by line" too but will resist the tempataion, I believe I know exactly where you are coming from because I have been there too. seed collection for reveg and Natives plant foods are two areas where I bandicooted from state forests.

I have provided you with links to Forestry Tasmania websites so that you can chase down the information you want. and at the same time have a look at the volumes of wood being used as craft wood. The link I gave is just one of the 3 or 4 areas in Tasmania. It shows the volume of craft wood being purchased from this area. Craftwood is becoming another pressure on our ever decreasing native forest.

I have no problem with you collecting the small pieces you want from private land or under a licence agreement with the relevent forest management agency. It is the bandicooting "just a little bit" school of thought that can no longer work in this society.

For thousands of years, people have collected wood, often fallen to make tools and useful items from the forest and bush.

Your statement about past use of forests is true however can no longer be applied in todays society. we are living in a different society.

We are no longer a hunter gatherer population and our resources need carefull managemnet.

Tread lightly.

in the smart state, qld, case you werent sure! national parks and wildlife would rather burn fallen timber in a hot fire ,thus killing whats left after a cyclone . than let you salvage it in a sensitive way . takes some ,govt department to know the way ??? cheers bob

Originally Posted by dadpad

Reeves,

Have a look at the attached photos. I am fully comitted to revegetating degraded farm land, being able to do so is dependant on farmers getting an economic return.

As most of yr response and fotos dont seem relevant to original post i will decline to waste anyones time responding. besides, if i am not wrong one of those fotos has u cutting a live tree (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...chmentid=38472) which is precisely what i am opposed to. If i can do some good woodwork without killing a tree, but utilising, fallen, dead or already cut by others timber, then no trees need to die for me or by me. I am happy with that and i consider that environmentally sound. And i dont really care 'whose' land its on, the trees were growing long before humans divided it all up.

Originally Posted by dadpad

I have provided you with links to Forestry Tasmania websites so that you can chase down the information you want. and at the same time have a look at the volumes of wood being used as craft wood. The link I gave is just one of the 3 or 4 areas in Tasmania. It shows the volume of craft wood being purchased from this area. Craftwood is becoming another pressure on our ever decreasing native forest.

yes, well thanks for the link, i have visited the site many times, been on their tender list for 2 years, visited their yard at Geevston to purchase stock from them and spoken to others who has used their services. Personally I think that Chris (nice bloke) is under a bit of FT pressure turn a dollar from it, their stock can a bit expensive, especially if you are a woodworker without high end income from yr work and in general the practices of FT are not necesarily doing much to either salvage and distribute ALL the useful timber that gets wasted via clearfelling or supply woodworkers in a cost effective manner. Dont get me wrong, they have some good stuff available, but my original post was more about being able to salvage useful timber yrself, not put $$ in FT;s coffers.

The info on craft wood stats is commonly available from FT's site and has little to do with what i asked about, which is collecting and processing the stuff oneself for ones own woodwork, unless FT is happy with individuals salvaging a few bits for their own from their enviromentally destructive logging practices i am not that interested.
I think a reasonable fee is fine for this privalidge and would be happy to pay it.

But like u said, its not theirs its ours...public land is just that yet the public has no say in it's use.

Originally Posted by dadpad

We are no longer a hunter gatherer population and our resources need careful management.

well on a large scale yes, personally i think little self sufficiency and self support is something we ALL need to get back to on an individual level, the overall management of forests is a large scale issue, woodworkers salvaging fallen, dead, cut or discarded timber for their own use is a small scale issue.

Anyways i didnt start this thread to discuss overall forest management issues or the morals of wood collecting, there are threads for that, so thanks to those who gave useful responses in context to the original question. I have learnt a little more so cheeers for that.

Being able to collect discarded and fallen timber has done a lot more for my woodwork and wood knowledge than buying expensive processed stock from mainstream suppliers.

Now excuse me i have to go sharpen my chainsaw again as i blunted it yesterday cutting up all that fresh hoop pine i saved from a farmers burning pile. Nothing wrong with 'bandicooting' i cna see, its not the problem some people think it is.

I just hate to see good wood going to waste, nothing environmentally harmful about that.

cheeeeeers
john

Originally Posted by reeves

Hi guys, i just wanted to ask a question about the current situation in Tasmania with collecting fallen, salvaged or other wise 'dead' timber from state forests, roadsides, felled coupes , heritage areas and other such places ?

I know Sasssafras is now available mostly by tender, i know small suppliers collect and sell like Sassy and Tasman, i know u can get a craft timber license of some kind to collect from the coupes.

What am interested in is the avaibility to go out yrself and find and collect useful turning timber, including all the major varieties without undue legalities, expense etc
Area there places where u can legally gather fallen timber ?

this may seem a dumb question but i am just interested in the current situation,,,

thanks
john

Have you tried PM'ing Tasman as this is the way he gets a lot of his timber. I haven't obtained a craft licence for quite some time but this is the process from a number of years ago.

Contact the local district FT office and find out for which logged coupes they will offer craft licences. they should be able to tell you what special species timbers were recovered on that coupe. This will entitle you to go into a logged coupe, after the contractor has completed harvesting and prior to the residue being burnt in Autumn to preparing the bed for replanting.

It's hard yakka but 'sometimes' the returns can be worthwhile.

Kev M

Hi Reeves,well all boiled down the minor species here is a by product of timber harvesting (it is not logged especially)which is then sent to the yard for sale.I have a friend who works for a thinning contractor and there is so much myrtle,sassy and blackwood and some calery top which was left in the bush 30 years ago as it had no use in the industry but things have changed in the last 15 years in the direction of craft,furniture and flooring.
I have had permits from the forestry to go out and fossic in the logged coups and have bought home some fairly large short logs which have been slabbed into some nice b/w table tops which would have been burned if no one slavaged this beautiful timber.I think you are on the right track John salvaging small bits to value add into some thing usefull rather than leave it to rot,there is more than enough for the craft people and the ecology system.

Reguards Tasman

Kev and Tas, thanks for the information, good to hear about yr wood collecting experiences Jim, whats the FT cost for the licence ?

Have been thinking more bout moving down there, pregnant wife is into it, son not so much, just gotta navigate through the house selling moving business, will see what happens.

Good to kow i could collect some useful timber down there as its been great up here, getting all kinds of species locally...

cheeeers
john

Hi John,well i think the licence costs around $14 per ton plus licence fee and GST so all up some where around $23 so it is not going to break the bank.

Reguards Tasman

ok thanks Jim, thats pretty fair

queensland forestry as well as other local authorities would NOT allow anyone to retrieve fallen timber ,as a direct result of cyclone 'larry'.a shamefull and incongruous waste.yet government still allows the importation of timber ,from the raped forets of asia!makes me want to puke!!!

Reeves and Dadpad,

(dr evil voiceover)

get a freeking room

Originally Posted by MAPLEMAN

queensland forestry as well as other local authorities would NOT allow anyone to retrieve fallen timber ,as a direct result of cyclone 'larry'.a shamefull and incongruous waste.yet government still allows the importation of timber ,from the raped forets of asia!makes me want to puke!!!

yes, its a waste, specially when people are willing to put an effort in the collect it and distribute it to woodworkers. The people who me off up here are the national parks service who have a habit of cutting anything in the Nat park that looks like it might fall on the paths or picnic area and just leaving the chunks lying there. Dont look too natural on the walking paths and it means that old growth cedar (many cubes of it) qld Blackwood and other species are just lying left to rot . Often green trees are intentionally cut and left where they fall, looks bad and can be dangerous for walkers.

They 'could' use the resource to raise some funds to help care for the park but they r pretty tight about it. So it goes.

Originally Posted by dazzler

Reeves and Dadpad,

(dr evil voiceover)

get a freeking room

That bit of a stoush livened this place up a bit.
Dadpad had some legitimate points, but the way that he kept pushing them down Reeves throat was a bit out of line. Reeves was just making inquiries, and wasn't advocating anything illegal, so he didn't deserve repeated lectures on conservation, and he repeatedly said that he didn't want any.
I'm no expert, but I gather that there's still heaps of wilderness left in Tassie. What there is may be under threat, but not from backyard craft workers picking up deadwood. They're not going to trek miles into undisturbed wilderness, hauling out monstrous trees that they've brought down with their chainsaws. I'd say that the bulldozers and pulp mills is what we should be more concerned about. The increase in junk mail and free local papers that have started showing up in everyones mail box lately, would have been taken from more than a thousand times more material than the amount of deadwood that craft workers would be using. Most people have computers and TV sets, so they don't need paper print at all, and junk mail goes straight in the bin. Phone books should be optional on request, not automatically delivered to everyone. If you've got an internet connection, you don't need a newspaper and you don't need a phone book. You've even got reverse look up on line if you want it. Type in a phone number, an address, or even an entire street and find out who lives there. Dadpad should be directing his lectures towards the real rapists. The pulp mills, and an apathetic public.

It may be a different story if every man and his dog gets a lathe in their shed, or if Reeves was some unscrupulous bloke with a furniture factory, contemplating doing a midnight run through a national park with his semi trailer, and asking advice from the forums.

Reeves strikes me as a bloke who cares about the environment and wants to do the right thing as far as any legislation goes. He's not running some factory where you shove a pile of logs in one end, and it spits out cheap mass produced items, or a just pile of pulp from the other.