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The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) is celebrating a milestone of 80 years of operations. Source: Timberbiz Recognised for its independent and authoritative analysis that has supported the growth and sustainability of Australia’s agricultural and resource sectors, the bureau first came into being on 21 August 1945. Originally known as the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, one of its first functions was to “investigate the economic prospects of primary industries with particular reference to efficiency factors”. The bureau has been through a series of mergers, most recently with the Bureau of Rural Sciences in 2010, bringing with it the capacity to undertake integrated economic, scientific and social science research. ABARES’s functions have ranged from shaping Australia’s post-war agriculture policies to addressing contemporary challenges like climate change, sustainability and biosecurity issues. ABARES Executive Director Dr Jared Greenville said the bureau had made a significant contribution to decisions on structural reform, trade, and natural resource management. “Since we began, ABARES’ aim has been to provide professionally independent economic analysis and advice on agricultural policies – a mission that has remained at our core,” Dr Greenville said. “A key activity of ABARES has been our farm surveys program, which expanded in 1971 to cover broadacre and dairy industries on an annual basis. “The support of Australian farmers who volunteer their time and provide their data each year has been critical to the success of the farm surveys.”

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A science-backed approach to bushfire mitigation is the goal of a joint effort between the University of Tasmania and the City of Hobart, as they study how land management techniques can be converted into measurable science that will inform safer, smarter outcomes for people, wildlife and the environment. Source: Timberbiz This collaboration between researchers at the University of Tasmania Fire Centre and the City of Hobart’s Fire and Biodiversity Team assesses the impact of on-ground bushfire mitigation techniques through a series of experiments on the bushland reserve near the University’s Sandy Bay campus. Together, the partners are building a new standard in evidence-based land management. Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, David Bowman, said the project was the first step in work that he hoped would help to reduce the risk of another 1967 Black Tuesday disaster in Tasmania, or a Los Angeles 2025-style bushfire scenario. “Our city is surrounded by dangerous fuel loads, and, with a changing climate, we need to start adapting fast,” Professor Bowman said. “But we can’t do this without solid scientific data, close collaboration with City of Hobart and convincing evidence for the community that we can have it all – reduced fire risk, healthy biodiversity and amenity.” The initiative builds on nearly a decade of collaboration between the University and the City of Hobart, with this latest phase aiming to measure how fuel loads, native vegetation, and fauna respond to strategic fire management practices. The City of Hobart’s experienced fire practitioners have been directly involved in guiding and mentoring researchers over 11 burns so far within the past year to ensure the experiments accurately reflect real-world methods. The Hobart Lord Mayor, Cr Anna Reynolds, said this work was about transforming how cities like Hobart live with fire. “These works are designed so property owners on the bushland – urban interface can replicate them, giving residents practical, proven approaches to reducing bushfire risk on their own land,” Cr Reynolds said. “We’re combining rigorous science with practical land management to ensure we deliver both safer communities and healthy bushland – improving city safety and empowering our people, while protecting the biodiversity that makes Hobart unique.” CEO of Tasmanian insurance firm RACT, Mark Mugnaioni, was supportive of the research efforts. “RACT congratulates the Fire Centre on the world-leading practical research it is undertaking,” Mr Mugnaioni said. “Research like this provides crucial evidence on how different fuel reduction methods can reduce bushfire risk – knowledge that’s particularly vital for Tasmania given bushfire is our State’s largest risk. “The outcomes of this research will help communities to build resilience and ultimately support affordable insurance outcomes as we continue to experience changing weather patterns,” he said. Professor Bowman said this approach was not just a conversation starter about bushfire risks but was unique and innovative in Australia. “We’re not waiting for another disaster to strike; we’re proactively building a body of knowledge that helps us act smarter now and helps communities across the country to be better prepared for future bushfires,” Professor Bowman said.

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Tariffs on wood products exported from New Zealand to the United Sates remain at 0% as the section 232 Investigation aimed at determining the global effects imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products pose to the US supply chain continues. Source: Timberbiz Although the 0% tariff rate is a welcome relief for wood product exporters, the uncertainty of what may eventuate from the section 232 Investigation is causing nervousness across New Zealand wood processors and manufacturers who export over NZ$370 million of value-added wood product to the United States. Developments over the weekend included President Trump announcing on a Truth Social post that a major new tariff investigation on furniture (including wooden furniture) coming into the United States will be completed within 50 days at a tariff rate to be determined. This was followed by release of the draft EU and US Trade Agreement Framework which promptly ensures that the tariff rate applied to section 232 actions on lumber does not exceed 15%. “These announcements create further uncertainty, with a survey of our main U.S. exporters of wood products to the US highlighting that a tariff rate over 5% or over will have a significant hit on their profitability in the longer-term,” New Zealand Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association (WPMA) Chief Executive, Mark Ross, said. “The US s a growing market for our value-added wood products and with a drop off in NZ domestic demand, profitable export markets are critical to growing our industry. “Having our Trade Minister, Todd McClay, speaking up in support of the NZ wood processing industry on the section 232 Investigation in his recent Washington negotiations with US Trade Representatives, is highly valued by WPMA members and we thank the Minister and his negotiation team for backing our exporters. “The key is to present a united face across industry and government to the US decision makers as to the value of our wood products to the U.S. and that our products are not a threat to their domestic timber manufacturing or supply chain.” With the outcome of this section 232 investigation expected no later than early December, WPMA will continue to engage with our allied U.S. Associations, who are lobbying the US Administration to keep imported timber and lumber products tariff free as a means of levelling recent domestic US.  house price rises and maintaining robust supply chains. New Zealand is known in the US for providing high value and high-quality wood products, most of which is sold into the DIY end user’s market, such as Home Depot, Lowes and Menards. As a small niche supplier of wood products that are needed by the US domestic building market, such as long clear Radiata pine boards, mouldings and primed product, there is a strong argument for keeping New Zealand timber and lumber imports tariff free. With comments from exporters such as customers in the US are already pressurising us to reduce product price, it will be a tough ask to pass any additional tariff costs on should they prevail. “While the section 232 Investigation continues WPMA will do what we can to advocate to keep New Zealand imported timber, lumber and their derivatives into the United Sates tariff free,” Mr Ross said. “But, at the end of the day the US President will be the final tariff rate decision maker, and we know from experience we need to be ready to expect the unexpected.”

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The OneFortyOne photo competition is back, launched in celebration of National Forestry Day. Corporate Affairs Manager Charlene Riley said the competition is designed to inspire young people to get out, explore, and appreciate the forest. Source: Timberbiz “Plantation pine forests are such a familiar part of our landscape,” Ms Riley said. “We often highlight the timber industry for its practical benefits, storing carbon, building homes, fencing farms, and supplying fibre for packaging and potting mix – it can be easy to forget the beauty of the forest itself. “This competition is a chance to slow down and see it through fresh eyes.” To enter the competition, students are asked to share a short reflection on what the forest means to them, along with their photos. “The written reflections we receive each year are very thoughtful. “From imaginative stories about spotting monkeys in the trees, allegedly, to reflections connecting a pine tree to the meaning of life, they’re always interesting.” This year, selected entries will be featured in a calendar, replacing the previous exhibition format. “The calendar will be a way to celebrate the forest and student creativity all year round,” Ms Riley said. Winners will be selected in both primary and secondary school categories and awarded their choice of a new iPad Air, DJI drone, or GoPro. To enter, students should submit a photo and completed entry form to weloveforests@onefortyone.com by Friday, 17 October. For entry forms, terms and conditions, and more information, visit the Community section of the OneFortyOne at www.onefortyone.com/community/photo-competition  

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Increased investment in a West Coast business will mean more specialty native timbers like Tasmanian Oak and Sassafras will be brought to the surface of a potential billion-dollar submerged timber global market. Source: The Mercury Tasmanian company Hydrowood, based at Lake Pieman, uses world-leading techniques to recover specialty native timbers submerged decades ago during hydro-electric dam construction. These include sought-after species like Tas oak, celery top pine, blackwood, myrtle, sassafras and Huon pine. Hydrowood works with locally owned and operated sawmills and processors to bring this wood to the water’s surface and turn it into material for furniture, construction and unique projects. The company announced that it had secured “significant investment” from two new backers, including environmentally focused AMB Holdings. This would allow the company to expand operations and is currently in negotiations to access more than 300,000m³ of additional submerged timber in further hydro lakes across Tasmania. The submerged timber market has a value $50b globally. Kelly Gang Timbers general manager Jye Kelly said Hydrowood was helping to support regional sawmill jobs, including his family-owned business that employs 14 locals. “Working with Hydrowood supports regional sawmill jobs” he said. “We’re proud to be part of Hydrowood’s innovative reclaimed timber story.” New Hydrowood CEO Neale Tomlin said the economic and social “ripple effects” are far reaching and that the fresh round of capital investment means more jobs, more timber and more opportunities for Tasmanian makers, builders and processors. “Hydrowood’s supply chain touches every part of the island,” said Mr Tomlin. “From Mole Creek to Zeehan, Deloraine to Tullah, our operation supports contractors, truck drivers, kiln operators, mill workers, maintenance teams and more. “For every direct job we create, we estimate three more indirect jobs are supported through this ecosystem. “This funding allows us to expand harvesting, invest in drying and distribution infrastructure, and meet growing demand from right across Australia. “Importantly, we’ll continue to do this the Tasmanian way — with local sawmills, local contractors, and timber that tells a uniquely Tasmanian story.” This new investment follows Hydrowood’s landmark $2.1 million equity crowdfunding campaign via OnMarket in 2023, which attracted more than 600 investors – the largest at that time in Tasmania’s history.

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The NSW Government is set to announce the formation of the Great Koala National Park on the Mid North Coast of NSW in order to save the koala population. The new park will surely gladden the hearts of activists everywhere and justify the millions of dollars generated by the outrage factory over many years. Source: Tim Lester, AFCA CEO And not a single koala will be saved. The study conducted by NSW National Parks as part of the assessment for the park showed that the koala habitation in the state forest is the same as the national park next door. The regulations, management and controls mean harvesting crews spot and avoid koalas, protect and preserve important trees, enhance forest health and make space for habitat and production trees of the future. Condemning a forest to a future of benign neglect is the worst possible outcome but the most likely one. Consider the case of the Pilliga Forest in north west NSW. In 2005 a productive industry in that area was scaled back to set aside forest for environmental conservation. The population of koalas at the time was 30,000 across 500,000 hectares, at the time the only known population in all of NSW to be increasing. Industry must have been the problem. Today the population of koalas, in an area 187 times the size of Greater Sydney, is 50. Clearly, industry was the problem. Under a conservationist approach management for forest health stopped. We stopped maintaining mixed species and having multiple aged trees. Food for koalas disappeared. We stopped investing in invasive weed and pest control, not because we wanted to but because it is too big a job for too few people over too large an area and that is much too expensive. So it became harder for koalas to move through the forest and they were more likely to be dinner for a fox or cat. But the real kicker is the struggle to effectively control the now inevitable fires that rage through unmanaged scrub. More than two thirds of the Pilliga Forest burnt in 2019-20 and about a quarter this last summer. In part because we had lost the skilled, experienced and capable people and their equipment who knew the bush and were on hand to step in when needed. But industry was the problem! This is not just an issue affecting the forest but it also affects the towns. Places you’ve probably never heard of like Barradine and Gwabegar. Soon to be places like Dorrigo, Bellingen and Bowraville. Because a forestry job is stable and secure, with an earning capacity two and a half times the average of hospitality. With a forestry job you can work hard and earn good money in rural areas, be home with your family every night and available to volunteer in your community. You can’t do that with a job that has you working nights and weekends, or one that is fly-in fly-out for weeks at a time. The new area of park is rumoured to be 176,000 hectares (66 times the size of Greater Sydney, estimated koala population between 12,111 and 14,541) of which 100,000 hectares is already protected for conservation. Industry, the extreme pro-forestry activists that we are, suggested to government that a medium-sized park would deliver the government’s commitment and balance important conservation with sustainable production. But industry with its stable jobs, support for communities, more than a century of real-world forest management experience and 2.5 times multiplier on economic activity, must be the problem. Instead of the win-win that we could have had the state of NSW is going to lose about a third of its native timber production capacity and hundreds of millions of dollars of income. It will lose the ability to produce power poles, timber wharves, high value feature timbers, decking and more. It will export jobs and carbon and sovereign capacity. The uncertainty and reduced activity will affect the rest of the forest products sector at the very time we need more timber and wood fibre of all kinds for sustainability, renewability and climate sensitivity. It will also put more pressure in the international market which is already awash with illegal timber, threatening Sumatran tigers, Congolese gorillas and Amazonian tamarins. And not a single koala will be saved.

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