Tasmania's state-owned forestry company, Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), is expanding the area available for logging.

While some contentious areas have been spared, such as the “Grove of Giants”, which contains the world's tallest known blue gum tree, STT has earmarked an additional 1,000 hectares of native forest for logging.

The new areas include parts of the takayna/Tarkine region, which conservationists have been campaigning to protect.

The updated three-year schedule released by STT reveals the native forestry coupes available for immediate logging. 

While some environmental groups are celebrating the removal of certain contentious areas from the plan, they remain cautious that these areas may be re-added in the future.

The 2023 schedule includes 743 coupes covering 40,100 hectares, indicating an increase compared to the previous year. 

Additionally, 276 new coupes have been listed, roughly representing the number of coupes logged in the last financial year. 

Notably, the plan includes an expansion of logging in remote areas, particularly in the Central Highland forests and the Wentworth Hills, which have previously been the target of protests by the Bob Brown Foundation due to the presence of old-growth forest.

Jenny Weber, campaign manager for the Bob Brown Foundation, expressed concern about the increasing attractiveness of the remote Wentworth Hills area for logging, stating that it is “just so out of sight, out of mind”.

The takayna/Tarkine forests have also been expanded for logging, with 19 additional coupes covering around 100 hectares added to the three-year plan.

While STT has removed coupes from the schedule in response to community pressure in the past, the company rarely cites this as the reason for changes. 

The removal of the "Grove of Giants" from the plan, which followed significant public pressure and campaigns by environmental groups like The Tree Projects, demonstrates the impact of local community concerns. 

STT General Manager Operations, Greg Hickey, says that not all coupes included in the plan would be logged, and changes could be made based on stakeholder feedback or various environmental, social, economic, or temporal considerations.

The expansion of logging in Tasmania contrasts with the decisions made by Victoria and Western Australia to phase out native forest logging. 

Despite growing pressure to transition to plantation timber, the Tasmanian Government continues to support native forestry. 

Sawmillers in Tasmania have been urging the government to release more land for native timber harvesting.

The environmental impact of logging in Tasmania is evident from STT's annual reports, which show significant amounts of native forest being removed for pulpwood and sawlog production. 

In the latest report, the figures for logging of old-growth forests were no longer provided.