Forestry
Political fight sparks as electricity network axes timber power poles
Essential Energy, the electricity distributor that covers 95 per cent of NSW, is switching to composite poles to make its network more resilient in bushfires.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Latest
Exclusive
Alcoa investigation
Worries of ‘irreversible’ damage to jarrah forest by Alcoa revealed
Water Corporation concluded that contamination of Perth’s dams is “certain” but the state government heavily watered-down its recommendations to reduce the risks from bauxite mining.
- by Peter Milne
Myths, spin and outright lies: the truth behind the logging industry
Scientist David Lindenmayer confronts the entrenched myths around the Australian logging industry and our native tall forests.
- by Kurt Johnson
‘Long-term pain’: Scientists warn against WA’s prescribed burn regime
Is it time the government rethinks its prescribed burning practices? New research says it’s making forests more flammable, not less, but the state stands firm.
- by Sarah Brookes
Analysis
Endangered species
Why can’t Forestry find any gliders, when everyone else can?
It has all the ingredients of a Monty Python sketch: bureaucrats shuffling around a forest looking for nocturnal animals in the middle of the day.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Alcoa boosts research amid concerns ‘extensive knowledge gaps’ threaten Perth’s water supply
Alcoa’s funding will support a forest research centre for five years and will also boost its own team of environmental researchers from four to eleven.
- by Peter Milne
Endangered greater glider found dead next to department’s felling site
Conservationists are furious after they warned the government about the presence of greater gliders and Leadbeater’s possums in trees identified for removal.
- by Bianca Hall
Can WA’s drought-ravaged forests survive this year’s prescribed burns program?
In coming weeks, the DBCA will start torching 200,000 hectares of the state to boost our defences in the face of increasing bushfires. But is it causing irreparable damage to our ecosystems?
- by Sarah Brookes
Exclusive
WA
WA’s parched forest canopy is turning brown as large areas die
From Shark Bay to Albany, WA’s famed national parks are experiencing mass plant deaths after the stress of the state’s unusually long, hot and dry summer.
- by Sarah Brookes
‘Forest gardening’: Stoush over Aboriginal corporation’s land management
Wombat State Forest near Daylesford has sparked a new chapter in Victoria’s forest wars, pitting Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation against a renowned ecology professor and his publisher.
- by Bianca Hall
‘I found I was more comfortable in the forest’: The scientist who took on the logging industry
Professor David Lindenmeyer looked neater than you’d expect for a man who has spent years in Australia’s oldest forests, locked in political battles with the industries that depend on cutting them down.
- by Nick O'Malley