Fed: Logging would have lessened fire threat: Abetz

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2006
Fed: Logging would have lessened fire threat: Abetz

CANBERRA, Dec 13 AAP - Tasmania's bushfire crisis would not be so severe if the state's
forests had been logged rather than protected, Federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz says.

Senator Abetz said today the severity of the bushfires, which have destroyed 14 homes
in Tasmania's east, called into question the value of making forests off-limits to logging
and grazing.

He blamed a build-up of fuel in wilderness areas for the severity of the fires.

"Many Australians are starting to feel cheated that they were sold a line that you
could simply lock up our forests and keep them forever," Senator Abetz told ABC radio.

"And then fire comes through and destroys the koala habitat, the alpine plant species
and, in Tasmania ... those areas that people have argued to be locked up are now just
there in ashes."

Firefighters have prepared a control line on the edge of the Wielangta State Forest,
which is the subject of a court battle by Greens leader Bob Brown who wants to prevent
the area from being logged.

Senator Brown today rejected Senator Abetz's arguments.

"The majority of the forest that we've been talking about in the Federal Court wasn't
burnt in the fire," he told the ABC.

The areas that had been burnt would recover quickly and remain an important habitat
for key species, Senator Brown said.

AAP dcr/drp

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES TAS ABETZ

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