Trees

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Dennis N O'Brien

Trees

Post by Dennis N O'Brien » Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:33 pm

Reading Stephen's poem gave me the idea for this ditty

Trees

How many trees would you need to cut down
To saw into timber and build a fine town,
And how many seedlings to plant in their place
To restore the forest and thus to replace
The trees that were harvested and turned to wealth
To help pay for roads, education and health.

A forest can provide both shelter and wood;
A source of materials - also a good
Home for the creatures of ground and of wing,
For selective logging, the praises I’ll sing,
But not of clear felling except of tree farms;
We’ve seen that clear felling, our forests, it harms.

But balance I feel is the answer – the key,
No need for religion - the cult of the tree,
Just grow lots of them for it takes but a seed,
And gums, well of caring, they’ve scarcely a need,
For locking up resources, enterprise robs,
Where now are the sawmills? Where now are the jobs?

© Dennis N. O'Brien, 2012

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Stephen Whiteside
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Re: Trees

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:29 pm

Very complicated, Dennis. Maybe one day I'll have a chance to sit down with you and talk through all the various issues. Too hard in this context.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au

william williams

Re: Trees

Post by william williams » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:56 pm

Add this to yours Dennis I know it maybe free verse but part of my family were timber cutters and timber millers for many years untill the multi company buisiness forced them out.

Our Country Now


The valleys deep, and the mountains high,
as the old man stood beneath the sky.
Thinking of years of logging camps,
and rough bush mills.

Of lofty mountains amongst the hills,
where logging tracks that wandered round.
Where once stood giant trees,
Now shook from axe and saw then tumbling down.

Holes appear in forest crown now light comes shinning in,
and a summer glare prevails.
Where cooling shade has gone forever,
these things now gone and people wail.

We did our job and we did not fail,
wood for houses, fences, posts.
Our job we did and never boast
now people cry and scream out rape.

They call us vandals that pillage and take,
but remember people, those that scream.
Those who want kitchens, furniture, and reams
of paper towels and news print.

And nappies now are in the past.
there's toilet paper to wipe you’re a**e.
So don't you scream you greedy folks?
we only cut, what you folks want .


Written by Bill Williams 20 May 2009 ©

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Stephen Whiteside
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Re: Trees

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:32 pm

Fair enough, Bill. I get that.

I think the analogy between whaling and logging is a good one. A hundred years ago men killed whales in open boats with hand held harpoons. Now they use factory ships. I can see a time when whaling ships won't even be crewed by men at all - they'll be drones, operated by men in major cities sitting beside computer consoles. If that's what you want, fair enough, but I can't say the idea appeals to me.

Current clearfelling practices have only been in place for about forty years. A large eucalypt can be removed by today's machinery in about a minute. (It used to take half a day.) Once all the trees have been removed, the debris is raked together and set alight. It's a scorched earth policy. Again, if you want it, it's yours. Logging cycles now take place every 50 - 70 years, which means the forest never gets a chance to mature. The tree hollows never get a chance to develop, and the small mammals pay the price.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au

Dennis N O'Brien

Re: Trees

Post by Dennis N O'Brien » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:45 pm

Thanks Stephen and Bill. I could go on about this subject but to keep
it short I basically believe in selective logging which is what I grew up with.
Disturbance of the forest should be minimal just with snigging tracks to get
the logs out. My brother used to snig pine logs out with horses back in
the sixties. Of course you need machinery for big logs but they don't need a wide track.
With proper management some big trees can be left - it's just, as usual, common sense.
I don't like clear felling at all but I can understand that in plantation timber
for woodchips it's the only economical way to do it.

william williams

Re: Trees

Post by william williams » Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:34 pm

The Charles and Radcliff families were Timber cutters and timber miller not long before the turn of the 19th century and the only timber cut was Mountain ASH and Alpine ASH two the worlds tallest trees and Alpine Ash as much sort after as Furniture timber after being air dried. The only trees selected was fully matured specimens hollow free usually 5 to 8 ft across at the butt and three hundred plus feet straight as a gun barrel and straight up in the air. The widest stump that uncle showed me was 8 ft across and it was 10 foot up in the air where they cut it of all by axe and saw the family prided them selves on the quality of their timber and no forestry officer ever bothered to select their trees for them nearly 100 years until greedy pollies forced them to surrender their leases now the mountains in the Woods Point Area have been virtually destroyed of Mountain Ash and Alpine Ash fit for high quality timber for years to come.

Bill Williams the old Battler.

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Stephen Whiteside
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Re: Trees

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:30 am

I don't want to go further into the specifics of this case, but the fact of the matter is that for many Australian mammals, marsupials and birds, their numbers have been dropping steadily ever since European colonisation. I don't know if this mythical 'balance' exists but, if so, it doesn't appear to have been struck yet. On current trends, it's probably only a matter of time before many of these animals are lost forever.

I think the environment movement has made a bit of a tactical error in the logging debate over the years, concentrating on the trees alone when they should have been talking in terms of habitat for animals and birds.

Quolls are on the way out. Likewise potoroos. I have spoken about Leadbeater's Possum before. Same goes for the Mahogany Glider in Queensland. Same goes for the Powerful Owl in Victoria.

I'm sure there are many others.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
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Neville Briggs
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Re: Trees

Post by Neville Briggs » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:17 am

Henry Lawson wrote a poem called The Stringy Bark Tree, this poem has an interesting
" environmental " sting in the tail. Interesting for those times I thought.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.

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Stephen Whiteside
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Re: Trees

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:21 am

Thanks for this, Neville.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
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