MEET the latest mammals set to be added to the endangered species list: sawmillers, Ken O’Brien and Faye Ashwin.
They satisfy all the Federal Government’s own criteria to become an official threatened species.
In fact, to try to save their jobs and towns, an attempt was made to put this couple (pictured below) – and all the other NSW Riverina timber workers – onto the national list of soon-to-be extinct fauna.
In a tongue-in-cheek move, The Land has sent in a 15-page application to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts arguing rural communities in southern NSW and northern Victoria are indeed a “vulnerable” species and will soon be no more.
The Land is not questioning the importance of the assessment process, but south-western NSW river towns such as Barham, Mathoura and Deniliquin say their heart is about to be torn out, and the likes of Mr O’Brien and Ms Ashwin, both of Barham, are already rare species.
The towns survive on timber and have had “substantial reduction in numbers” – the first criteria animals must satisfy before being declared a threatened species.
Populations have dropped by as much as nine per cent a year in some towns in the past decade.
Based on the Commonwealth’s own criteria, there is also evidence population numbers in rural towns will “continue to decline” and there is a “probability of extinction”.
About 35,000ha of locked up State Government-run parks proposed for the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan valleys are about to be added to the 72,000 hectares of national or regional parkland proposed along the Murray.
Mr O’Brien said this meant about 70 per cent of the red gum forest industry would be closed, if the State Government took up the Natural Resource Commission’s (NRC) advice.
He estimated 1000 people – 500 directly involved and another 500 indirectly involved in the south-western NSW red gum timber industry – would be out of a job.
NRC Commissioner, Dr John Williams, Sydney, said the region’s red gums were dying or were in stressful conditions because they did not have enough water to survive.
“Lack of water has caused the red gum growth rate to be reduced, so the amount of wood harvested should also decline,” Dr Williams said.
However, Mr O’Brien said the local Koondrook-Perricoota forest on the Murray River was at risk of being locked up and becoming like the Yanga forest, near Balranald, where hundreds of thousands of trees were dead or dying.
On a recent trip to Yanga he estimated there were about 6000ha of dead or dying trees.
The “probability of extinction” feels too close for comfort in the border towns of Barham and Koondrook where Mr O’Brien and Ms Ashwin run a red gum sawmill.
Mr O’Brien, also the chairman of the Forest Products NSW Riverina branch, said all businesses in the area relied on the timber industry and quarantining the red gum forests would have devastating effects on the local community.
“The forests should have multiple uses – timber harvesting, grazing and tourism – all on a sustainable basis,” he said.
“We believe the NRC decision is not much to do with science, but everything to do with politics.”
Last month the NRC held community meetings to discuss its findings only to be given a vote of “no confidence” at the end of each meeting.
Dr Williams said forestry communities were distressed because they saw the recommendations as a threat to the forest industry.
“Some can see the value in the recommendations, but they are worried the forests will become fire threats and they will not be actively managed,” Dr Williams said.
He conceded the communities were not convinced creating more national parks, reserves or regional parks would generate more tourism traffic.
“But we believe if the State Government adopts the 16 recommendations as a package, it will solve the problem,” he said.
The Land recently visited many townships across northern Victoria. For photos, click the image below.
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