The forestry industry is turning to assessment and recovery in the wake of the recent bushfire damage to resources and facilities across the state.
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When last mapped by the Tasmania Fire Service on February 14, 35,683 hectares of privately owned forest had been affected by fire.
The Forestry Industry Association of Tasmania said its next steps are to undertake repair and resource assessments, including on the substantially impacted companies at Southwood, Ta Ann Tasmania and Neville Smith Forest Products.
While these phases are carried out FIAT members will continue to provide timber and timber products to the market from existing work in progress stock piles.
FIAT said it has welcomed the state governments efforts to bring together stakeholders and has called for key assessments to be completed as quickly as possible and for critical infrastructure to be restored without delay.
“The forestry sector is the back bone of many Tasmanian regional communities and its recovery of the sector is vital to the ongoing life and economy of those communities,” FIAT said in a statement.
Resources Minister Sarah Courtney said the state government was proactively working with industry to understand the damage and to look at the pathways forward to recovery.
“The Southwood infrastructure that was damaged – we are working closely with the two companies that have facilities on that site,” Ms Courtney said.
“I personally have been meeting with both of these companies to ensure that they can resume as soon as possible.
“Access has been restored to that site but we are working closely with TasNetworks to make sure that power is restored.
“Around 205,000 hectares of land was impacted around Tasmania. A significant proportion of that was managed by STT as well as private forest estates.”