Timber Education Program Up and Running
18 March 2008
The new Timber Technical Resources Program funded by Forest and Wood Products Australia was launched in Sydney this month.
“The program will now be extended into continuing professional development (CPD) courses for practicing engineers, architects and other building professionals,” project manager Boris Iskra said.
“Practicing professionals are under increasing pressure to keep up to date with changing regulations, standards, specifications and methods of construction,” Iskra said. “This program will develop the resources and delivery mechanisms desired by these professionals to support those who specify timber products in their projects.
“At the same time, we will maintain and extend the strong links with universities and TAFE institutes to educate the ‘specifiers of tomorrow’.”
Since 2003, the education resource programs have been successful in supporting TAFE teachers and lecturers with relevant and up-to-date teaching and learning resources.
“The resources are so good we have been asked to assist other building materials to develop similar resources,” Iskra said. “Needless to say, we won’t be doing that.”
The National Timber Technical Resources Program supports a national network of more than 170 university lecturers in engineering, architecture and construction schools and over 1000 TAFE teachers in carpentry, joinery, building, architectural drafting and design.
“We plan to develop and deliver the new resources through the relevant professional industry association CPD programs using cost effective web-based methods as well as traditional formats,” Iskra said.
Report Catches Timber’s Water Positives
The Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI) has released a new independent report into the effects of timber production on Melbourne’s water catchment yield.
VAFI executive director Philip Dalidakis launched the report at the Timber Towns Victoria AGM on March 14, revealing the impact of timber production on Melbourne’s water yield to be negligible and in some cases could actually increase Melbourne’s water supply.
“Current research shows that timber production not only has a minimal effect on water yield, it also has the potential to greatly increase the city’s water supply in an environmentally sustainable way,” Dalidakis said.
The report reveals that in the previous 10 years, the annual harvested area equates to less than 0.19% of the total catchment area, or only 306 ha out of 157,000 ha.
Dalidakis said contrary to some misinformed claims, no ‘old growth’ forest was harvested within Melbourne’s catchments and the city’s water quality remained very high with some of the cleanest water in the world.
“The results of this report really fly in the face of deliberate misinformation campaigns by some groups to unfairly tarnish the timber industry, and questions must be asked about their true motives,” he said.
The report identified the real threat to Melbourne’s water supply as being the unavoidable incidence of a severe catchment wildfire occurring at least once in a 100-year period, a risk that can be greatly reduced through the presence of a sustainable timber industry.
“When you compare the 1 million ha of forest that was burnt in just 59 days during the 2003 Alpine bushfire, to the 306 ha that is sustainably harvested annually, there can be no doubt as to where the real threat to Melbourne’s water yield actually lies,” Dalidakis said.
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