Letter to the Editor, Border Mail dated Friday 12th May 2000, printed in abridged form

Mr Dorber 's intellectual cowardice on forests

Mr Dorber, representing multinational interests in native forest woodchipping (e.g. 100% foreign owned Daishowa at Eden) is busy claiming environmentalists are irrational. He has even been quoted condemning "fanatical green lobbyists, who have used emotion, lies and plain old bullying ... to lock up ... forests of this State!"[Tumut & Adelong Times p8, 5th May 2000]. Yet he pulled out of a public debate with me in Albury recently to avoid many crucial facts. For example:

* only 5% of Australia has natural forest cover, down 50%

* over 70% of domestic timber for all uses is now sourced from plantations and is the "gorilla" dwarfing the native forest sector

* Wesfarmers in WA recently announced a major retreat from native forest; woodchips from plantation with a healthy increase in their share price resulting;

* massive native forest woodchipping of sawlogs over 25 years (now over 6 million tonnes a year) has accelerated massive job losses (estimated at 40% of the logging industry) and caused an unprecedented scientific and environmental backlash;

* jobs growth is in the plantation sector e.g. Visy Mill at Tumut (980 jobs), Wilmott Pty Ltd at Bombala (over 100 jobs);

* scientists link local extinctions in native forests to native forest logging e.g. scarcity of tiger quoll, koala, pottoroo in SE NSW;

* The Resource Assessment Commission found in 1992 there is no example of ecologically sustainable native forest logging existing in Australia (and nothing has really changed since);

* the CSIRO has proposed re-afforestation of 30 BILLION trees over 50 years to tackle salinity, not more native forest woodchipping running at 90% of all trees logged (130 truck deliveries a day) at Eden.

Yours sincerely

Tom McLoughlin, forest policy officer

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SYDNEY

Tel. 0410 558838, 02-9517 3900