The Conservation Council of Western Australia has claimed it has irrefutable proof that the 600-year-old karris trees are being logged for woodchips.

 

The CCWA says it has carbon dated samples from logs destined for wood-chipping or exporting to Japan that prove they are in excess of 600-years old.

 

“The State Government needs to explain why it is happy to authorize trees older than Columbus, Joan of Arc or Shakespeare being turned into sawdust and junk mail,” CCWA’s spokesperson John McCarten said.

 

“Over 90% of karris logged end up as waste or woodchips. Those woodchips are exported to Japan to be processed into paper, often the low-quality glossy stock used for junk mail. Very little goes to any of the higher-grade uses the industry touts, and almost all of that could be sourced sustainably without the need for clear felling.”

 

CCWA’s findings come after the State Government has begun to draft a new 10-year Forest Management Plan, which will govern the logging industry until 2023.

 

The group says the plan, in its current draft form, will increase karri clear felling and industrial logging of jarrah. It also proposes an increase in the destruction of marri trees, critical for the survival of endangered cockatoos, by 40%.