The unique jarrah forests of WA have been over-logged for more than a century.  Community efforts to conserve the jarrah forest ecosystem and protect the hundreds of species that make up the jarrah forest have repeatedly been overruled, or undermined, by State governments acting on behalf of the logging and mining industries.

Now in the 21st century, despite significant gains that have been made, logging industry pressure is again leading to a seriously flawed and unsustainable outcome for the jarrah forests.

The Forest Management Plan (2004-2013) allows for:

• many community-identified high conservation value (HCV) jarrah forests to be destroyed;

• a level of jarrah logging that is totally unsustainable: 131,000 cubic metres per year jarrah sawlogs PLUS 534,000 cubic metres per year "other jarrah logs" = 665,000 cubic metres of jarrah logs per year;

• an area of jarrah logging that will severely damage large areas of jarrah forest: 6,500 - 9,500 hectares per year;

• a method of logging that is totally destructive for forest ecosystems and forest wildlife: "jarrah gap clearfelling".

Given the unwillingness or inability of successive governments to do what they are elected to do, and the insatiable greed of the logging industry, the only option remaining is a worldwide boycott of all jarrah products including:

• jarrah furniture;
• jarrah flooring;
• jarrah roof timber;
• jarrah railway sleepers;
• jarrah woodchips;
• jarrah charcoal and activated carbon;
• jarrah firewood.

Only the use of genuine certified recycled jarrah will not contribute to the ongoing destruction of WA's unique jarrah forests.

Background

The Gallop government has given interim approval to new ten-year log extraction volumes from WA’s native forests. In an announcement made after a Cabinet meeting on 14 July the government stated that the jarrah and karri sawlog cut could be:

• 131,000 cubic metres/year jarrah 1st and 2nd grade sawlogs PLUS 534,000 cubic metres/year "other jarrah logs

• 54,000 cubic metres/year karri 1st and 2nd grade sawlogs PLUS 117,000 cubic metres/year of karri "other logs".

The logging lobby is claiming, as usual, that the proposed logging levels spell the end of the timber industry, and that there will be massive job losses and the government has been captured by radical green extremists!

Under the government’s announcement almost half WA’s public jarrah forest will be available for logging, with the area to be logged each year determined by the 1st and 2nd grade jarrah sawlog cut, which is about 30% of millable wood generated.

Very low log prices (less than plantation pine!) means millers always prefer the highest grades of jarrah, which has historically led to enormous waste – logs left in the forest, log piles left on landings etc. Little has changed in this respect, despite Labor’s forward looking policy on forests.

Nor is most jarrah ‘value-added’- most still ends up as roofing timber and in other structural uses where WA’s plantation pine could and should replace it.

These inefficiencies wouldn’t matter much if policy was followed and the level of cut and method of logging jarrah caused no lasting harm – were ‘sustainable’ – but on both counts the State’s management of forests has been, and seems set to continue to be, dismally inadequate. The sad scenario is for continued degradation of forests by over-logging, repetitive burning, roading, mining, disease and human-induced climate change.

Mills will continue to fold as the resource dwindles due to a level of allowable cut that is still not economically sustainable, and will probably be at least four times higher than what, on best estimates, is ecologically sustainable.

The clearfelling methods used will continue to denude landscapes renowned for their biodiversity. As usual, the high conservation value areas will be targeted for their superior trees. The old growth marri trees (which the endangered black cockatoos depend on) will go to waste or woodchips, which is as close as you get to waste.

The political maneuvering over the allowable cut has shut out both science and better judgement. There isn’t one scientific explanation to back up claims that proposed levels of cut are sustainable, and a trip to recently logged forest should convince anyone that the chances of good recovery are about nil.

With thanks to Rod Whittle of Margaret River