When I see pictures of great Karri trees having been felled, as on the front page of the West Australian on the 4th of June, I first of all feel sadness that in this day and age we can perform such atrocities.
How can we continue to allow these blatant acts of vandalism on trees that were 300 years old before white people had even seen Karri forest?
How can any human being with any feeling whatsoever, walk up to a magnificent giant such as that, and take a chain saw to it?
How can we continue to listen to so called foresters who claim to be environmentally aware, tell us that trees such as this are showing signs of deterioration, and it is better they are felled while they are still useful?
They are just at an age where they will develop hollows and become really useful to much of our endangered wildlife, ( or don't they count? ).
After sadness I then feel anger, anger at the big con job being pulled on the public. If one peruses the copious marketing information put out by the timber industry and government forestry agencies, there is one thing not mentioned anywhere, the well known fact that Karri timber is the termites favorite food. Early settlers learnt this very early in the piece, when they built homes from this seemingly wonderful resource, only to find them becoming a pile of dust within a few years.
The great majority of residents in the South West have discovered the vulnerability of Karri to termite (white ant) attack at their cost. One piece of Karri in a structure will be found and devoured if termites are in the vicinity.
Yet here we are, still with an industry recommending this timber and selling it for the construction of homes. They sell it for floorboards, roofing timber, staircases, tile battens and decking, with no warning about the likelihood of white ant attack. I believe that any person whose home is attacked and damaged by white ants, because of the presence of Karri in their home who had not been warned of the danger, would have a case against the suppliers of the product.
I would also advise that anyone building a new home, should protect themselves from the chance of serious damage to their home, and should insist on a clause in their building contract that NO KARRI be used in its construction.
