No one disagrees that young regrowth densely stocked with small trees is more vulnerable to being severely burnt compared to older stands of larger trees.

The dispute is about whether this a significant driver of large, damaging bushfires, and whether or not it justifies closing an industry that converts a minor proportion of older forest into regrowth.

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Ecologists, such as Dr Sanger, with no practical fire experience and a history of advocating to close timber industries, have one view. On the other hand, bushfire science specialists and forestry practitioners who work with fire and take a landscape approach, know that logging regrowth is relatively small-scale and scattered, and not a significant factor in most large fires.

They also know that timber contractors are integral to managing the bushfire threat. Removing forestry contractors and their machinery, and closing much of the access road network, would weaken fire-fighting capability. This has been acknowledged in past government bushfire inquiries.

Given Dr Sanger's work for the Bob Brown Foundation and for a community group dedicated to exposing destructive forestry practices, it is a bit rich for her to accuse the nation's professional association for forest scientists and practitioners, that is The Institute of Foresters, of being a lobby group.

GREAT news for Tasmanian energy that three of the nation's top 10 wind generators are located in the state. In particular, the Granville Harbour wind farm, at number 1, produced 5 per cent of Tasmania's total electricity demand in August ("Tasmanian wind farm leads the nation, two others in top 10",The Examiner, October 13).

Scaling this up means the whole of Tasmania could be powered with only 20 comparable farms. However, in reality far fewer will be needed.

The University of Technology Sydney's map of offshore wind shows the best winds in the country are in Tasmanian waters.

Now that the federal government has finally introduced the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021 to the Australian parliament, the next generation of giant offshore turbines will soon be harvesting wind energy for Tasmania. Tasmania is well-positioned to become a major player in Australia's energy grid of the future.

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THE news that the building industry is running out of timber to build new houses doesn't surprise me at all.

I am definitely not anti-forestry, but for years I have seen large areas planted out to nitens and blue gums only to see them harvested after only a few years for wood chips.

When the woodchip industry started, it seemed like a good idea to use all the leftover small timber when harvesting native forest, but it seems now it has grown into a self-sustaining monster demanding more and more timber.

I am sure that there are many areas around the state that could be planted out with suitables types of trees, that with suitable management techniques could provide us with a sustainable timber supply in years to come.

The only problem is that in this day and age, when most companies only seem to be concerned with making a quick profit, is any company willing to make such an investment when the benefits will only be felt in the far future?

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THIS week Tasmania celebrates as 80 per cent of its population has received the first dose of their vaccination. This is great news for most, but not all of us.

Alarmingly, this statistic is much lower for those at a higher risk due to needing additional support. The data suggests just 30 per cent of autistic Tasmanians have had their first dose and 19 per cent their second.

We need to act now to understand the barriers that autistic Tasmanians face when booking and attending their vaccinations, and work to remove those barriers fast.

To prevent both social and economic isolation for all we need to improve accessibility for everyone to receive their vaccination.

The autistic community has been active in sharing their ideas and helping to design solutions with Autism Tasmania.

So far, we are grateful that the Department of Health is willing to listen and act.

THE Federal Liberals, past masters at doublespeak. When Liberal prime minister John Howard won office in 1996 he promised to retain many of the social policies of the Keating government.

Howard's first horror budget cut funding to higher education, labour market programs and the ABC, despite a promise not to. Howard justified this by saying he would keep his "core" promises, implying the rest of his commitments were "non-core" and didn't count.

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When addressing an Energy Summit in Canberra, Federal Energy Minister, Angus Taylor, is reported to have said the following concerning carbon emissions: "Some in this debate think net zero means zero."

It doesn't. Net-zero is not zero. It is not "zero emissions" and thereby boldly holding to an apparent and entrenched Liberal Party tradition.