Sustainable... I've come to hate that word. What the hell does it mean? The dictionary defines it as "able to be maintained at a certain rate or level". That doesn't really mean anything does it? I mean I could club baby seals for the rest of my life and maintain it at a certain level. That wouldn't make it good, or morale or sensible or good for the species. Sustainable gets dropped like its the answer to the worlds woes and in forestry at least it's come to be an excuse to get away with anything that's not clear felling. Even that gets a run sometimes.
Check out the link below:
NSW Forests
It shows just how much timber is being taken to support the NSW Governments contracts with large timber companies who need timber for chipwood. They agreed to supply so much that even with operations like this they still can't keep up the supply.
Forests NSW wood supply
But have a look at the Forests NSW website and the word sustainable gets a flogging. I counted 12 uses of the word sustainable on just one page Forest NSW Website
The forests in the video above can be sustained. Australian forests grow back all on their own, but that doesn't make that type of forestry smart. As I've come to learn over the past 12 months forests don't fit into financial year calendars and electoral cycles. Smart forestry sticks to one simple principle as I see it "Grow more wood than you take". Yes, you need to think about many other things like soil health, biodiversity, wildlife, disease, stocking rates, machinery etc but if you stick to this simple rule and don't get greedy everything else should fall into place.
Time will tell if this principle can work.
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