Conservationists fear log intake rising
Posted
There are conflicting claims over a survey that conservationists say shows the big wood chipping mill on the New South Wales far south coast is increasing its intake of native forest logs.
The anti-logging group, Chip Stop, regularly counts the number of trucks carrying hardwood logs to the Eden chip mill at Eden.
In its latest survey, it counted what it says is a record number of logs from the region's native forests being sent for processing.
One hundred and 91 hardwood native forest hardwood trucks went in that day," logging activist Harriet Swift said.
South-East Fibre Exports forest operations manager, Peter Rutherford, confirms that the conservationists' number is accurate, but says there is an explanation.
"We were closed last Monday and Tuesday, so in terms of record numbers we've got contractors who are making up for lost deliveries from those two days," he said.
Trucks carrying softwood logs from the Monaro plantations were excluded from the count.
