Tasmanian forest activists have unfurled a banner over a prominent Hobart city billboard to highlight the dangers of allowing forestry companies to burn native forests for power generation.
The banner was dropped today over a billboard at the corner of Bathurst and Elizabeth Streets. It reads "Ban Wood-fired Power". The banner sends a clear message to governments and industry that the only
way to rule out the risks associated with burning our native forestsfor power is an outright ban on this archaic practice.
Forestry Tasmania, Gunns Ltd and other forestry and mining industry players are running a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to have burning native forests for power installed as part of a false climatechange solution.A plan released by the Forests and Council (FFIC) calls forinvestments of over $300 million in wood fired power and proposes burning over 1.1 million cubic metres of Tasmanian timber in three power stations. There are currently three proposals for wood-fired power stations in Tasmania: at the Southwood facility in the HuonValley, at Circular Head in the North-West of the state and at Gunns planned pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. Combined, these power stations would consume many hundreds of thousands of tonnes of timber from Tasmania’s high conservation value native forests
