Letter to the Editor: Forestry claims that beggar belief

DEAR News Of The Area,

THE letter of 4 March 2026 from Steve Dobbyns, Chair and Director of Forest and Wood Communities Australia titled “We can’t transition to plantations overnight”, is a rolling ball of contradictions, false accusations and exaggerations.

In his opening paragraph Mr Dobbyns identifies several comments he made in “an unpublished Forest and Wood Communities press release.”

Are not press releases, by definition, documents that are published to promote wide attention to their contents?

Mr Dobbyns then assures readers there are solid markets for all the products of hardwood plantations within the Great Koala National Park footprint.

Further on he states that LVL (laminated veneer lumber) is being landed from China and South America cheaper than can be manufactured in Australia.

If that’s not a competitor for timber from our hardwood plantations I don’t know what is.

Mr Dobbyns’ claim that one third of the timber used in your average apartment and one or two storey house is hardwood, not softwood, beggars belief.

I would prefer to rely on the Federal Government’s ABARES (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics) annual forecasts, released last week, which including this statement: “Value of hardwood plantation production to decrease, affected by easing global woodchip markets.”

The report is available on the DAFF website.

Mr Dobbyns cannot see the forests for the trees.

Even in his role he must take into account the changing values and roles of our forests over time.

In the early days timber extraction was the dominant industry.

More recently, we have started to recognise the outstanding universal values of our unique and diverse forests we have locally and seek to protect them.

For example, our rainforests have been listed as World Heritage properties and further nominations are ongoing. Our eucalypt forests, together with those in South East Queensland, are recognised as the most diverse occurrence of one of the world’s great plant genera and also proposed for World Heritage nomination.

Finally, our endangered koala has been recognised over the last eleven years by the current State Government as requiring a world class national park embracing their habitat within two meta-populations on the Mid North Coast.

That’s where plantations, some including koala hubs, come into it.

Regards,
Ashley LOVE,
Coffs Harbour.