News Shorts and Other Busyness

Australian ‘Redneck’ Becomes Forestry Chief

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pg. 5.

A businessman who felled virgin forest in Australia and asked for understanding in the use of violence against protesters, has been put in charge of Britain’s forestry.

David Bills was appointed director general of the Forestry Commission, the country’s biggest landowner, last year. He has been put in charge at a time when the government is asking the commission to earn £20 million a year from selling forests.

Although Mr Bills presents himself as a moderate and “voice of reason” his appointment has been attacked by environmentalists.

David Bellamy, who was imprisoned in Tasmania while protesting against environmental damage in the 80s, called him “one of a ring of rednecks who have put Australia down at the bottom of the conservation ladder by destroying their old growth forests”.

Mr Bills’ past includes heading a company, North Forest Products Ltd, which cuts down 2.5 million Tasmanian trees a year for making paper; he opposed the protection of Tasmania’s rare lemon thyme and eucalyptus forests as world heritage sites and was a chief advocate for building a pulp mill on Tasmania’s north west coast which was stopped by the Australian government following massive protests.