Letter to the editor
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I refer to the article "Reasons for Road use" (BDN 28 May 2010) in which Mr Peter Rutherford made a number of allegations against local community members attempting to stop woodchipping of koala habitat forest on Mumbulla Mountain.
I am surprised and disappointed that you, as editor, made no effort to obtain the views of any conservationists who may look upon those events differently and have a different version of the "facts". For example, some (true, not all) log trucks were using Dr George and Mumbulla Creek Rds instead of Clarkes Rd from the very first day of the logging, long before Clarkes Rd was blocked. I know that. I was there. I saw them. I photographed them.
It is a refreshing change, however, that Mr Rutherford has been honest enough to speak up on behalf of the woodchipping industry.
Normally, his company, South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) runs for cover when there is any controversy in the forests. It tries to pretend that it is simply a customer of Forests NSW and remains at arms length from the consequences of the logging to supply the trees to be woodchipped.
The reality is different; the loggers who destroyed parts of Mumbulla forest were directly contracted to SEFE. Mr Rutherford, as Forestry Manager for SEFE was intimately involved in the logging and he and his staff spent days in the forest before and during the logging to ensure that SEFE got the trees it wanted. A representative of SEFE signed the "Harvest Plan" which gave legal authority for logging to commence.
The Eden chipmill is not just up to its ears in this, it is directly responsible for and drives forest destruction throughout this region. It is good to see Mr Rutherford at least not trying to dodge responsibility for it.
Yours, etc.
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Save the Mumbulla and Five Forests Koalas from logging
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