What is clearfelling?
The main form of logging is clearfelling and burning. The logging operations proceed by cutting down the large timber and burning the rest. The useful timber, primarily destined for woodchips, is removed and the area is then bombed from the air with incendiaries to ensure the whole area burns and is completely destroyed. 1080 poison is then spread amongst the blackened mess to ensure that possums and wallabies are killed before they graze on re-sprouting seedlings. This inevitably kills other ‘non-target’ species such as bettongs, quolls and wombats. The area is reseeded with commercially profitable species and the diversity of the forest is lost. The majority of clearfelled forest in Tasmania is converted into plantation.
