Would Someone Please Cut Down All Timbercorp’s Trees?

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Now that Timbercorp has gone bust – voluntary administrators were appointed on April 23 – I’m wondering if someone will cut down all its trees.

While this may not be good for our commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, it would probably free up a lot of water.
Many of their new plantations have been established on cleared agricultural land and they are sucking up a lot of water in regions that are still suffering drought and reduced water runoff.

When farmers say the Murray Darling Basin has never been as dry in their lifetime they are correct.  However, the data clearly show that in south eastern Australia – where a lot of these plantations are going in –  the first half of the 20th century was much drier than the second half and the recent ‘drought’ could be a return to the conditions of the early 20th century.  Also, the recent dry period is not yet as dry as the period from about 1935 through 1945.

Timbercorp’s estate of blue gum eucalypt plantations covers 98,000 hectares – that’s a lot of new trees drawing a lot of water.  Established with government assistance and eligible for carbon accounting under the Kyoto Protocol these blue gum plantations have been nurtured to provide tax concessions and wood chip for Japan.   

Along with many other large corporations, Timbercorp has also planted almonds and grapes.   Reading the reports and prospectuses from these companies you wouldn’t know they were establishing and expanding during a period of drought. 

One company’s 2007 prospectus boasted access to sufficient groundwater entitlements to service the 2008 planned almond expansion with new bores planned after that.   

It explains that even though the new development is in the Murray Darling Basin, it doesn’t rely on the river system and thus water is not a problem. 

The new almond plantation might not be drawing from the Murray river, but underground and surface water systems are connected and so the development will almost certainly mean less water flowing to the river – less water for the environment and other users. 

Rather than planting trees to get Kyoto credits to offset the impacts of the claimed climate crisis which some blame for the current drought – it would be a lot simpler perhaps if companies like Timbercorp didn’t plant so many trees in the first place.

Indeed without all the new plantations, including those planted by Timbercorp – there would be a lot more water in the basin.

Published in The Land

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