Murray Region Forestry Hub celebrates National Forestry Day

National Forestry Day 2023 ( photo from Murray Region Forestry Hub )

Media Release | 22 August 2023

This year’s National Forestry Day was celebrated at National Foresters’ Grove, Lavington, today Tuesday 22 August.

The day was hosted by the Murray Region Forestry Hub (MRFH) and Softwoods Working Group (SWG) and marked by a tree-planting ceremony followed by morning tea at National Foresters’ Grove, Wagga Road, Lavington.

A dinner was held at Huon Hill, Wodonga, last night (Monday), which the chair of MRFH and SWG Peter Crowe OAM, said provided a great opportunity for the forestry industry to engage in insightful conversations and foster connections within the industry.

“Both gatherings bring together like-minded professionals to discuss ways to ensure the growth and advancement of an industry that can not only help solve the national housing shortage by supporting the industry which supplies the materials, but also fight climate change through carbon storage,” Mr Crowe said.

Albury Mayor Kylie King also attended the National Foresters’ Grove celebrations.

Mr Crowe said National Foresters’ Grove, a bicentennial project where more than 300 native trees have been planted in honour of past and present foresters, was the ideal place to celebrate the timber industries’ achievements.

“National Forestry Day celebrates the forest industries’ great work fighting climate change, providing jobs, and creating sought-after products such as house frames, cardboard boxes, and even paper straws, from a renewable source,” he said.

Mr Crowe said Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) figures show Australia’s forest industries contribute $24 billion annually to the economy and support around 80,000 direct jobs nationally and another 100,000 indirectly, many of which underpin rural and regional communities.

“The trees that make up Australia’s total plantation forestry estate store vast amounts of carbon, which AFPA figures show equates to the same amount of carbon created by more than 56 million cars being driven for a year,” he said.

“Australia has a $2 billion trade deficit in wood products. The Albanese Government aims to plant one billion more production trees by 2030 to help make our nation far less dependent on timber imports.”