The Mary Valley region around the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam in south-east Queensland is prime agricultural land for producing food rather than timber monocultures, says Queensland Senator Ron Boswell..
Responding to the Qld Government’s call for expressions of interest to establish 2000 hectares of timber plantations Senator Boswell said, "The land is unsuitable for both a dam and a state government plantation.
“Prime agricultural land is a scarce resource that we cannot afford to squander and the Qld Government is frittering away the highly productive Mary Valley on firstly a poorly placed dam and now an inefficient plantation.
“I have been fighting to defend prime agricultural land from encroachments resulting from huge tax incentives given to Managed Investment Schemes (MIS) and Carbon Sinks.
"So I will not stand by and watch a state government plant trees when the agricultural industry could be using that land for food production.
“A Senate Inquiry into tax deductions on establishing carbon sinks has already highlighted that 14,000 hectares of sugar cane land has been lost to forest plantations from tax incentives received by MIS’s.
“These 2000 hectares of trees will take more than 5000 megalitres per year out of the catchment just to keep them alive.
"This is without even considering the lost runoff resulting from the trees, plus evaporation and dam leakage.
"It is the marketplace and not the government’s role to determine the best and most efficient land use of the rich soil of the Mary Valley.”
“The continual loss of prime agricultural land due to MIS’s, carbon sinks and now state government grown plantations can only lead to an increase in the price of food.”
The Qld State Government is calling for expressions of interest from forestry plantation operators to plant up to two million trees as part of construction of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Paul Lucas, told State Parliament this week that expressions of interest were being called for forestry plantation operators to partner with Queensland Water Infrastructure (QWI) in establishing up to 2,000 hectares of timber plantations.
"We are committed to the development of forestry initiatives that support carbon reduction and offsetting of major infrastructure projects," Mr Lucas said.
"This is an exciting initiative that could help show the way when it comes to managing our carbon footprint."
Mr Lucas said the Traveston Crossing Dam Forest Initiative EOI is for a large scale hardwood plantation and bio-sequestration project aiming to establish timber plantations in the Mary Valley.
"Overseeing the development of this unique initiative, QWI has forged strategic alliances with the CSIRO, Griffith University, University of Sunshine Coast, Timber Queensland and Greening Australia," Mr Lucas said.
"The partners have been working for some time to establish this innovative program on land surrounding the Traveston Crossing Dam Project and are now ready to move to the implementation stage."
Mr Lucas said unlike many other infrastructure projects, the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam provides a unique opportunity to incorporate carbon offsets on the same site.
"Not only will the Forest Initiative revitalise the Mary Valley timber industry, the offsets of up to 850,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will more than offset the dam's estimated 140,000 tonne construction footprint," Mr Lucas said.
"This will give the Traveston Crossing Dam Project a better than carbon neutral profile."
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