Woodchipping in Australia

Woodchipping is the act and industry of chipping wood for pulp. Timber is converted to woodchips and sold, primarily, for paper manufacture. In Australia, woodchips are produced by clearcutting of native forests or managed plantations. In other parts of the world, forestry practices such as short rotation coppice are the usual methods adopted.Fact|date=June 2008

Uses of wood chips includes the manufacture of particle board (or 'chip board') and other engineered woods, mulch and fuel.

Sources and process

Historically, the primary sources of wood chips in Australia has been the extensive "Eucalyptus" hardwood forests found throughout temperate areas of the country. In more recent times, a significant proportion comes from managed hardwood and softwood plantations.

During the late 1960s and 70s the high demand for paper and the relatively low cost and availability of the native forests made the establishment of a woodchipping industry a viable proposition. Conversely, the establishment of a woodchipping industry made it economically feasible to clearfell areas of mixed or substandard forest that could not otherwise have been felled. Clearfelling is a controversial forest practice in Australia, and opponents of it argue that the woodchipping industry is culpable for its continuation.

Woodchips are converted into a fibre which can be made into various grades of paper or rayon for the textile industry. Most processing and value adding takes place outside of Australia. [cite web |url=http://www.daffa.gov.au/rfa/publications/deferred/wood-paper/why |title=Why Australia needs a Wood and Paper Industry Strategy |accessdate=2007-03-13 |author=Dept. of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry |authorlink=Australian Government |coauthors= |date=Last Updated: 19 Jan 2007-01-13 |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=DAFF |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote=It will also help cut Australia s bill for imports of wood and paper products. Imports of these products currently exceed our exports by $2 billion a year. ] The Australian economy benefits directly from a low cost and high volume export commodity. [cite web |url=http://www.abareonlineshop.com/product.asp?prodid=13284 |title=Australian Forest and Wood Product Statistics.(March/June quarters 2005) |accessdate=2007-03-13 |author=Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= ISSN: 1446-0167 |year= 2005|month=November |format= PDF|work= |publisher=abareconomics |pages=66 |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote=1999 - 2003-04 ($m); 'Logs category' Hardwood sawlogs 249.2 250.0 244.1 259.2 249.2: Softwood sawlogs b 404.2 467.1 591.0 608.5 578.3 : Cypress sawlogs 18.7 22.2 22.5 22.9 22.8 : Plywood and veneer logs 34.5 37.9 34.8 44.8 39.2 : Wood panels pulplogs 55.2 56.8 44.7 57.8 51.7 : Export woodchip hardwood pulplogs 300.4 328.2 291.9 349.0 338.0 : Export woodchip softwood pulplogs 62.0 81.8 52.0 50.3 64.8 : Paper pulplogs 106.3 97.4 88.0 120.8 138.3 ("emphasis added") ]

Usage

Wood chips, as a by-product of the timber industry, have been used in many ways for centuries, for example as a material for the production of wallpaper or as a disposable floor covering in butchers shop or drinking houses. Wood pulp is the primary market for the woodchipping industry in Australia.

The practice, known as woodchipping, was to make use of the entire plant in the production of wood chips. This was then converted into paper, softwoods generally used for newsprint and packaging, while hardwoods for high quality printing paper. [cite web
url=http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/content/education/pulp_and_paper.asp
title=Forest Products Commission - Education - Products from Trees - developing the sustainable use of the States plantation and native forest resources in Western Australia
publisher=www.fpc.wa.gov.au
accessdate=2008-03-11] An energy intensive process, it also involved the use of bleaches and other toxic chemicals. This stage of the process, known as Kraft pulping, was primarily performed in Japan and elsewhere. High demand for paper products saw purpose built bulk carriers increase the export of woodchips from Australia to Japan.

The separation of the chipping stage and the pulping and paper mills required the supply of energy usually sourced from by-products of the process. Additional energy expenditure is found in the shipping of raw materials and export of the finished product.

ee also

[
Eden, New South Wales]
*Logging
*Woodchipper

Woodchip mill companies and locations

*Eden, New South Wales
*North Shore, Victoria
*Gunns
*W.A. Chip & Pulp Co
*Wesley Vale pulp mill

Woodchip critics and opponents

*Australian Conservation Foundation
*Campaign to Save Native Forests
*Conservation Council of Western Australia
*Great Walk Networking
*Liberals for Forests
*South West Forests Defence Foundation
*Western Australian Forests Alliance

Notes

* cite web |url=http://www.abareonlineshop.com/product.asp?prodid=13284 |title=Australian Forest and Wood Product Statistics.(March/June quarters 2005) |accessdate=2007-03-13 |author=Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics |authorlink=Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics |coauthors= |date= ISSN: 1446-0167 |year= 2005|month=November |format= PDF|work= |publisher=abareconomics |pages=50-51 |language= |quote= Total woodchips; "Quantity 2002-03, 03-04, 04-05"- China: 67.6 0.0 69.6 0.0 Japan kt 4 790.0 4 653.7 4 997.3 Other kt 579.5 610.2 531.4 Total kt 5 437.1 5 263.9 5 598.3 ("emphasis added") Quarters 2004-05 a Pulpwood logs are included in the table exports of roundwood. b Broadleaved woodchip volumes were confidential from February 2000 to May 2000. From 1 June 2000, ABS have applied selected country and state restrictions to broadleaved woodchip exports. From February 2003 all state details are confidential. c Bone dry tonnes. na Not available. Sources: ABS, International Trade, Australia, cat. no. 5465.0, Canberra; ABARE.
* cite web |url=http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/victoria/royalty2/ |title= Implications of Selling Native Forests for 9 Cents a Tonne |accessdate=2007-03-14 |author=The Wilderness Society |authorlink= Wilderness Society |coauthors= |date= 2001-01-25|year= |month= |format= |work= Home > Campaigns > Forests > Tasmanian Forests|publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= The Wilderness Society has revealed today that Forestry Tasmania is planning to clearfell and woodchip areas of pure rainforest in north-west Tasmania and then convert the cleared areas to plantations.
*cite web |url=http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~jock/otways/forfact/fffpubop.htm |title= Woodchipping to Japan - Joint Environment Group Commissioned Public Opinion |accessdate=2007-03-14 |author=Open Mind Research Group on behalf of their client Environment Victoria|authorlink= |coauthors= |date=1994-12-4 |year= |month= |format= |work= Forest Fact File|publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= Newspoll - December 1994 - To the Question "Next a question about native forests. Do you personally approve or disapprove of trees from Australian's native forests being fell and exported as woodchips to Japan? 80.3% of Australians disapproved, 11.7% approved, 8.0% undecided.
*cite web |url= http://www.daff.gov.au/ministers/tuckey/releases/00/00_66tu.html|title=Tuckey writes to Tasmania Together committee over woodchipping - Media release|accessdate=2007-03-14 |author=Wilson "Ironbar" Tuckey MP |authorlink=Wilson Tuckey |coauthors= |date=2000-09-28 |year= |month= |format= |work=Media Releases The Hon Wilson Tuckey MP Former Minister for Forestry and Conservation |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= Mr Tuckey was responding to reports in the Launceston Examiner suggesting the phasing out of woodchipping in Tasmania. Press reports in the United States are quoting well known green activists as saying that the US fires, including forest and property destruction, are the result of past forest management policies that prevented harvesting. This has created 'cadaverous' forests overpopulated with sick, dead and skinny trees — the perfect fuel for a wildfire.
*cite web| url = http://www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/reviews/dargavel.htm| title = Review of John Dargavel, Fashioning Australia's forests, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995. | accessdate = 2007-04-04| author = Warwick Frost|authorlink = | coauthors = |date = Published: 1997-03-03| format = htm| work = The Electronic Journal of Australian and New Zealand History| publisher = School of Humanities, James Cook University.| pages = | issn = 1321-5752| language = | quote = The export of woodchips from Australian native forests over the last few decades has been one of Australia's greatest economic and environmental disasters. Heavily subsidised and poorly managed, wood chipping has continued despite the trend amongst Australia's policy makers towards the rhetoric of economic rationalism. Even though only those with a vested interest could argue for wood chipping on economic grounds, it has managed to gain the strong support of both Labour and Liberal/National Parties. Yet despite these contradictions and the enormous passion the wood chipping debate generates, historians have tended to ignore this issue. John Dargavel's excellent history of Australian forestry goes a long way to filling this gap. "Dr Warwick Frost lectures in the School of Economics, La Trobe University."