New timber industry urged

Press, 27 April 1983, Page 20

New timber industry urged

Greymouth reporter

The West Coast Regional Development Council has recommended to the Minister of Forests, Mr Elworthy and the West Coast United Council that every effort be made to find a new woodusing industry for south Westland to sustain a reasonable level of employment on the volume of timber that would be available in perpetuity. The chairman of the development council, Mr D. J. Truman, in his annual report said that it had concluded that the viability of a given region could best be protected by basing its industry on the region’s own resources. “In the case of South

Westland, the resource is

podocarp timber which has decorative and other proEerties unique in the world, a series of ill-advised Government decisions has reduced the availability of this resource to the point where it will be extremely difficult to support a future long-term industry. “The development council opposes the extremes of forest management proposed by the environmental lobby, and the sawmillers continuing clearfelling until locally grown exotics are available. “The former option would completely eliminate any contribution the forests can make to south Westland in-

dustry, and the second

would mean the sawmilling industry would ultimately be based upon Tasmanian blackwood, a species that could be grown equally well closer to markets,” the report said. The council had noted that opposition had already started to planting Tasmanian blackwood in the North Island. This was significant because the environmental lobby was going to oppose blackwood, and also the blackwood was already being planted closer to markets than south Westland. “The risks of pinning south Westland’s future to Tasmanian blackwood are obvious,” said Mr Truman.