AN ADDITIONAL 94,162 hectares of plantation forest and investment of $500 million would be required if Tasmania moved from native forest harvesting to plantation timber, according to a Forestry Tasmania report.
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The existing 18,000 hectares of eucalyptus nitens would also need to be converted at maturity to frost-sensitive eucalyptus globulus, the report says.
The resource modelling, prepared by Forestry Tasmania for the signatories to the Tasmanian Forests Statement of Principles, estimates that the new resource would be available from 2035.
It found that environmental groups' proposal to reserve 351,600 hectares of state forest now available for wood production would not meet the processing industry's minimum wood requirement, with average yields until 2030 estimated at 78 per cent of high-quality eucalypt sawlog, 72 per cent of peeler logs and 54 per cent of special timbers.
An industry proposal to reserve 60,630 hectares of state forest now available for wood production would exceed the minimum sawlog requirement, with the average yield until 2030 estimated at 133 per cent.
The modelling found that the industry proposal would provide 100 per cent of the peeler log requirement and 92 per cent of the specialty timbers required.
According to Forestry Tasmania, there are few ways to mitigate the effects on wood supply to the processing industry if the environmental groups' reserve proposal is fully adopted, although it suggested the Trees of Farms project, which allows joint venture arrangements with private landowners to establish small wood lots.
With a ban on establishing plantations on public land, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association has warned that the only land suitable to grow eucalyptus globulus is prime agricultural land.
Chief executive Jan Davis said farmers would not tolerate any policy that resulted in the theft of their land. The association is also angry that it has not been part of negotiations to restructure the forest industry.
"We're feeling extremely angry, we're feeling disenfranchised (and) ignored," she said.