Wood is one of the only sustainable, commercial, and carbon-positive products, yet the WA government has turned it into a wasteful and expensive indulgence under its new forest management regime.
Massive quantities of wood are being cut from the southwest forests and piled up on any spare land. Sites at Diamond Mill, Dean Mill, Palgarup and the bauxite mine sites are being choked with wood from the state government’s forest manager’s ecological thinning operations.
Wood is being heaped up in the forests!
Before 2023, commercial industries used this timber to build the local economy and employ people, but today, under the guidance of Minister Jackie Jarvis, there is no home for this wood, and there is no industry to use and pay the government for it.
Instead, it is being kept for no purpose…and at an unbelievable cost ($160 million in budget estimates) to taxpayers.
It is estimated that 100,000 tonnes of logs are already in waste stacks. The thinning program has four years of funding, so how big will these stockpiles grow?
The WA government announced it was closing commercial logging in 2023, and yet it has been replaced with a timber harvesting operation that is totally wasteful and massively expensive.
Minister Jarvis has refused to commit to timber contracts allowing for investment and use of this wood. Instead, onerous contracts are putting off existing markets for sawmills and firewood operators.
There are highly productive opportunities to use this wood from ecological thinning, returning the Southwest into a timber manufacturing hub. Finger-jointed timber, biochar, biomass pellets, and veneers are all possible projects. Such ventures would actually pay for the thinning.
Instead, the government is choosing to spend $160 million on wasteful stockpiles, money that could have been used in hospitals, housing or schools.
What a missed opportunity for all!
Please Note: Wood Central does not take an editorial stance on the native forest debate, it will however from time to time publish articles that it deems to be in the public interest which it will carefully fact check before posting.
