South Sister St. Marys, Tasmania

South Sister Evidence

email to b. green requesting action

From: Frances Daily
To: Mr. Bryan Green
Cc: P. Lennon, M. Polley, M. Hodgman, D. Llewellyn, R. Hidding, J. Jackson, P. Putt, EDO, R. Rallings
Sent: Tuesday, 10 January, 2006 2:35 PM
[email addresses redacted]

Dear Bryan,

Thanks for your email of 2 December 2005.

By now you will have received a 'review' paper by Ralph Rallings on several occasions outlining his concerns regarding the proposed logging on South Sister. His paper details many concerns including information included in a report prepared by Dr McIntosh and Mr Weldon for Forestry Tasmania in September 2005. In this review Ralph details the false and misleading information presented by the authors of the report which includes the incorrectly mapped 'road batter collapse' (found on the Dublin Town Road and eastern boundary of the coupe) which he believes is crucial to the slope stability issue of this area. He has many concerns but despite outlining these to you (and Forest Practices Authority), no action or investigation has seemingly been undertaken.

I find it astonishing that these claims can be repeatedly ignored. In your last email (below) you state that FT has '… assured me that it has done everything practicable to ensure that there will be no environmental harm caused when harvesting takes place'. I beg to differ. FT has failed to listen to our experts (who are not recent graduates with little experience, but nationally and internationally regarded and experienced professionals). FT (and it would seem you also) continue to be guided by their 'experts' who have shown they cannot plot features on a map accurately! As a layperson, I was easily able to identify that the map presented in the above mentioned report (Figure 10) was incorrect. How could two professionals be so wrong about something so straight forward? In addition, the 'graben' feature mentioned by Stapledon in his two Proofs of Evidence for RMPAT, was incorrectly identified by McIntosh and Weldon. Instead of finding the correct location, McIntosh and Weldon misidentified an old loading bay which is in fact another feature and quite a distance from the 'graben feature' mentioned by Stapledon! Again one needs to ask how two professionals could be so wrong about identification of a 'natural' phenomenon as proposed by Stapledon and one which appears to have been 'man made' ('The graben feature....is almost certainly a man-made feature … ').

I would like to ask you how you can fail to investigate these claims? A brief phone call or short memo is insufficient to ascertain whether the issue is being adequately addressed. As Minister I would have thought that you should be guided by the Department with expertise in this area (Mineral Resources Tasmania) rather than Forestry Tasmania and Forest Practices Authority who do not have the expertise that geologists and geotechnical engineers have regarding landslides. Surely MRT is the most logical department which should become involved and either conduct an investigation or organise for independent assessors - preferably from outside the state.

It is of considerable concern to me that despite bringing this information to the attention of yourself, other politicians and the Forest Practices Authority repeatedly, no independent investigation has yet been taken.

Bryan we are talking about a coupe that is the source of water for many local residents, abutting a public road where a landslide has occurred in the recent past (20 years ago). In a so called democratic society I find it incredulous that the general public is locked out of something that will affect them enormously if logging goes ahead.

Despite FT's claims, risks remain that a landslide on the coupe is likely (again reviewed in details in Ralling's review paper).

I implore you to

involve MRT in this issue as soon as possible
establish an investigation with suitably qualified and experienced professionals either from MRT or on recommendation from MRT
instruct FT to refrain from logging until this issue has been resolved

I have been asking FPA for a meeting between experts, FT, MRT and SOS for some time to no avail. I hope that you will support this idea so that the issues at hand can be dealt with and any action agreed upon.

I realise you are busy however I would appreciate a prompt reply to this email. It would appear that FT are going ahead with their plans to log this coupe despite our repeated concerns.

I look forward to your reply and prompt action on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Frances Daily

No response for days