Forest Industries
The Tasmanian forest industry feels it satisfies it's smoke obligation by posting a daily map on the internet. (See similar below).
Not everybody has access to the internet, and those who do can
not keep (excuse the pun) 'logging' on to the site all day in case there are updates, and
why should they have to when they are not the polluters of our clean air.
And what about the burns that don't appear on their website?
Forestry has had to publicly defend it's actions for smoking out
Tasmania by admitting they got their "air modelling wrong".
Even when they "get it right" Tasmanian's still have to breathe their smoke.
The forest industries can put as many dots on the map as they
choose, because it seems they are able to just do as they please and are not being made
accountable for their actions. They can blatantly get away with poisoning the air in this
manner with legalised protection.
(Not sure why most dots are green when fires are red. Is it to camouflage them on the map
(spot the dot), or is it because forestry are burning green smoky residue?)
The forest industry claims they have to burn.
"Fire is a vital and necessary part of the life cycle of
Tasmania's eucalypt forests and by conducting these burns we are mimicking the natural
process.," Then there was this...
It was reported in the Mercury newspaper (
Bob Gordon states in the same article,”… instead of wood in forests being burnt
to create a seedbed for eucalypts..” he would like to see it feeding wood fired power
stations.
What does this tell us? That these so called
forestry regeneration burns are not regeneration burns at all. They are forestry
operations residue burns or rubbish burns and if they can send the wood to
Forestry Tasmania's Fire Management branch manager Tony Blanks said the burns were
expected to run throughout the Autumn.
Forestry do not have to burn. Plantation seedlings are raised in nurseries, so why all the
smoke?
The forest industry claims the burns are
"regeneration burns."
The burns being done are mostly residue burns not regeneration
burns. Forestry are burning rubbish left behind after they have logged or cleared an area.
In other words forestry can't even clean up their own mess, without making another
mess.
In haste to replant, the forest industry sets fire to their residue when a lot of it is
still green.
What is "cost shifting? Cost shifting is when forestry perform residue burns to save
themselves money, and then transfers the associated cost onto our health system,
community, environment, and so on.
There is no reason to burn or to produce harmful smoke when other cleaner
alternatives exist.
The Forest Practices Code states, "Care should be taken to ensure that emissions of smoke, dust or noise from forest operations do not cause serious or material environmental harm under the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act.1994."
Because of the public outcry over forestry smoke,
there are plans afoot to introduce a permit system for burns next year, ie to stagger the
burns.
If the same area is to be burnt, this would have the effect of lengthening the burning
season. It would also create a not-so-visable smoke haze all the time, meaning
people would be breathing harmful smoke without knowing it for extended periods and this
is a very serious matter for everyone.
This would be like giving a smoker 100
cigarettes in one hit and telling them not to smoke them all at once!
The forest industry needs to go back to
school to learn their three R's.
There is a big difference between Reduction,
Regeneration and Residue/Rubbish burns.
Most of the smoke we are breathing comes from forestry
Residue.
Planned Burns must stop completely. There are other
smokeless methods available to forestry to get rid of their Rubbish.
Planned clearing does not mean planned burns.
Even their own National Association of Forest Industries say don't burn.
Go here to
read what other methods are available.
.