I'm not arguing that we have a sustainable forestry industry, Swinging & digging. If we didn't, we wouldn't have any forests left in Victoria. And I don't believe logging should be banned in State Forests, as long as it's managed properly. That is why the government reserved those areas as State Forests - to use the timber in them and have a sustainable supply of timber when it's replanted after logging. Which is something the Greenies don't understand. Those areas are reserved
specifically for the use of the timber in them. Not for possums to live there!
They think any tree over 100 feet tall is old growth - but in truth, there are very few old growth trees left in State Forests after being logged for 150 years. They just weren't around to see them cutting down the old ones over 100 years ago! Ballarat and Bendigo and the surrounding areas used to be covered in old growth forests before the miners moved in. They're not now! I'm not saying it's right - that's just what's true! They cut every tree down for miles around! Totally cleared those areas. And now the Greenies are saying those areas should be protected national parks - pfft! They should have been around 150 years ago to see what's been done to them - and learn that what they're seeing now is the regeneration of those cleared areas - there's nothing "old growth" about those goldfields areas at all.
And yes, the Greenies will say anything that suits their agenda (eg. 25 Leadbeater's possums in every pack of Reflex copy paper!). Which is just ridiculous, but they think it sounds "dire" enough to make people turn against the logging of those areas. "Oh those poor cute little possums!!" I reckon if they were serious about saving these "supposedly" endangered possums, they should just put some in the Melbourne suburbs - they thrive there! My back fence is a possum highway at night, there are that many of them here! And let's face it - how many of those people actually spend time in the bush, to even see those cute little possums that they suddenly care so much about? They wouldn't know the difference between a Leadbeater and a Brushtail possum. It's just a convenient excuse to try to stop the logging there.
And also while they're spouting off this garbage about banning logging in State Forests, they're all living in houses that were built with timber logged from those very same State Forests! But I guess that's different... :/ Perhaps they believe no possums were harmed in the logging of the trees used to build their homes...
And let's face it, the government is never going to stop logging State Forests here - it just won't happen as long as we need timber to build houses and the State gets income from selling it - no matter what the Greenies say or do - it will continue.
And having said that, I still don't think the bush users protest is the right place to bring the logging issue into it. I'd like everyone noticing that protest to think, 'Wow there are a lot of people who use our bush, aren't there?! Look at them all!' Not, "Look at them, they won't be happy until they cut down every tree in the state!" Totally misguided, but that's what the logging trucks there, will evoke for them, in my opinion.
But I guess it doesn't matter, since that's what they've organised, as LW correctly said too. I just wish they'd thought about that a bit more...
Anyway I hope to see you guys there. I've been thinking up what I could put on a sign.
What do you think of, "The Govt took my $$ for the
Right to be a gold digger!"
Do you like that one Big Wave? Or maybe something a bit more straightforward "Get your hand off it VEAC!"
Cheers,
Megsy