From ABC News (3/4/24)…
Thousands more of Tasmania ‘giant’ native trees could be spared from logging under policy change
Tasmania’s practice of logging centuries-old trees received international attention – and condemnation – last year when one was trucked through the centre of Hobart.
Now, the state’s public forestry company, which trades as Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), has changed its policy around the logging of “giant” trees.
It would previously give “protection” to giant trees based on whether they were taller than 85 metres, or greater than 280 cubic metres in volume.
This usually amounted to trees of about five metres in diameter.
This has been updated to protect trees wider than four metres in diameter.
The measurement is taken from 1.3 metres above ground level on the uphill side.
STT identifies the trees in coupes that it plans to log, and then gives them a “buffer” where the forest is retained around them. The size of this buffer is not specific however, but environmental groups that monitor forestry activity say it can be about 100 metres.
