WAKE UP FORESTRY! - Erika's story.

In September 2001, just days after Sept 11th, I took a personal decision to look under the rocks in Tasmanian forestry and see what was under there. The site inspections commenced that week that still continue to this day. Two years on, I am currently seeking meetings with mainland regulators such as the ATO, ASX, ACCC and Australian Shareholder‚s Association to hear the wide concerns about community risk, lack of accountability, transparency and anti-competition practices with regard to Plantation establishment in Tasmania, particularly in relation to Gunns Ltd.

What I have witnessed at places like Weld Hill, is that destruction of high conservation native forests coincides with the "Green image" marketing of Plantation Prospectuses to investors, which represent next year's clearfelling of native forests. This year's Tax Deduction is next season's clearfall. Time is running out fast for the Island State as its population and culture is dispossessed from the clean air, water and land and is threatened by fire from plantations. We are mapping the effects of forestry within both community and corporate risk perspectives and looking at ways to eliminate or reduce the hazards. We want to map the common ground - where timber interests and community interests are one and the same.

The discovery of the giant trees on Weld Hill precipitated my personal watershed. Ever since local resident Lesley Nicklason and I discovered the Lost Weld 17 trees that day in December 2001, in a coupe due for clearfelling two months later. Since then other ancient treasures such as Holger's Myrtle, the Arch Myrtle, The Twins have been found and mapped, and we find something special every time we revisit.

What I discovered here was not just that the area would be clearfelled, burned, herbicided and 1080'd - the biggest crime as I discovered, was that the Providence and Posterity Trees, (aged 500 years plus - 16.8 metres circumference @ my shoulder height) would be filled with explosives, blown apart and burned. These trees are worth more standing than felled and wasted. All this destruction - for what? To clear the ground to create a seedbed for tax effective forestry investment. This is the bottom line.

Please - wake up Forestry Tasmania, Gunns and other forestry workers. Use the resource wisely - though it grows on trees - as you should know - Timber grows on wood. It takes time and if you were to be paid on a premium for that age - perhaps you would value it more. The "asparagus sticks" that will be harvested in 15 -20 years will be a dime a dozen and have to compete with other pulpwood producers in a flooded market. Conserving and managing sustainably, a long term resource of these magnificent timbers is vital. Once gone - they're gone for the next 200 - 300 years.

I am often asked to address investment seminars and conferences, where Weld Hill has become my case study for incompetence, mismanagement and negligence. Putting so much effort into this one hill, however significant, it is not just about saving a few trees. The Lost Weld Big Tree Reserve is representative of the hills in every region in Tasmania. Where high value forests are cleared day and night - many on 24 hour shifts and million of tonnes p/a of high value timbers are fed into chippers running at 900 tonnes per hour - 24/7. to wipe bums and end up in the rubbish bins of the world.

I don't believe that Investors are being adequately warned of possible risks of their plantation investments in a sharemarket, which has been wooed by high profits in an otherwise flat market. The Tax concessions are driving a financial tax scheme which allows the widespread clearing of native forests to plant trees for future profit - whilst ignoring far ranging impacts on other Industries and the wider population. Largely the tax concessions are given because of the belief that planting trees is good for the earth. One could be easily fooled by that belief.

However the act of chopping down a mature forest in order to plant the trees is being carried out so destructively, on such a massive scale to create these tree farms, which will be harvested before carbon is stored, followed by further burning of the bio-mass, prior to the second rotation. Soils are lost, washed into streams, requiring filtration before use downstream. I've witnessed the same destruction as Frank Strie describes - we've been there to see the mess together. It gets worse everytime I visit. Even from Melbourne I'm reminded of the daily destruction and cruelty that bring me profits from my forestry investment. It's not just the loss of trees that concerns me.

There are serious community concerns about possible health risks not being adequately addressed and the poisoning of native and domestic animals in a cruel and unconscionable manner. This island state is not on the other side of the world, but just across Bass Straight, right under our mainland nose. And the smell raised from the rotting carcasses in Tasmania is starting to reach the boardrooms of the investors of the company most involved in killing them off. My self-appointed and funded role as a shareholder advocate has been to help uncover the stories that will hopefully lead to positive forestry reform. To protect others from the effects of a selfish industry hell bent on upping the profits for few at the expense of all Australians through current Tax Law.

My primary objective is to help raise awareness. By researching the facts behind the veneer of self-regulatory forestry practice and present that evidence to the owners of the company. That is, the shareholders profiting from the actions of the biggest producer of hardwood woodchips in the world, Gunns Ltd. To call upon a collective conscience that is pro-active in reforming the company and broader forestry industry.

When we discovered the "Lost Weld" we knew they were special, worth the fight. A Current Affair ran a great story on the plight of the trees which helped save them. Until the Financial Review ran a feature on 21st July 2001 the situation was kept quiet on the national front and ran in local media in Tasmania as protest coverage or branded as greenie‚ stories, just about the trees themselves. The running of the story, "Forests under the Gunns", exposed new risks from forestry, and where for the first time, the impacts on the non-tree victims of forestry were recognised. Quickly to follow was A Current Affair's segment on 1080 poison and a 10-page story entitled Wilderness to Woodchips in Reader's Digest in Sept. 2002; the Sunday program in Feb. 2003 followed by the update on the Senate Inquiry on Plantations that also canvassed the issues of governance, self-regulation and self-interest.

Word is spreading. Every story published for aired, has brought out mainlanders wanting to help the Tasmanian cause. The movement to democratise money through investment is getting stronger. Many are choosing to invest in "notorious companies" to assist in making changes for good.

Weld Hill was my watershed. It helped me to find my own resonance and particular brand of tyre kicking, bringing clarity and understanding about the current system where change is needed. I knew I wouldn't find it in the regurgitation of facts and figures, loose terminology and open warfare between traditional enemies. What I have discovered is an industry out of step with mainland forestry practices, with bi-partisan support by the Liberal and Labor Parties.

Tasmanian decision makers seem to ignore basic science in their quest to rule over animal and birds and harvest what it sees as it‚s property to trade for royalties. In exchange for what? It wastes more than it harvests. It's wastes are spread through air, water and land that is supposed to be so clean, green and clever. It wrecks the vistas that are Tassie's future profits - leaving the community to pay to fix the problems caused by appalling forestry practices. All in the name of free enterprise, and supported and driven by tax concessions. Everyone pays - and few profit - WAKE UP FORESTRY!

Erika Ford
INVESTORS FOR FOREST