Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 51


     
     1        I would certainly say that the yield from there which was
     2        not destined for sawmill product, and certainly some of the
     3        1920s and 1950s could be sawmill product, is likely to go
     4        to those mills.
     5
     6   MR. MORRIS:  That would also apply to the waste from the
     7        sawmills as well, would it not, the waste that is suitable
     8        for pulp would also have to be transported down?
     9        A.  Yes.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You were going to say something?
    12        A.  I was going to say that the concerns over the area have
    13        been of varying kinds.  In fact, actually the Highland
    14        Regional Council had an agreement with the Countryside
    15        Commission for Scotland and the Nature Conservancy Council
    16        in 1989 in which they confirmed the need to continue
    17        planting in the wetland area of Caithness at the rate of
    18        2,000 hectares per annum.  None of that planning has taken
    19        place by the Forest Enterprise.  It has all been in private
    20        areas where that has taken place.  They were doing this in
    21        order to sustain a viable forest industry into the next
    22        century.  So respectable organisations concerned with the
    23        environment have agreed that it is not having such a
    24        detrimental effect that a limited amount of planning should
    25        not continue.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  That was the Highlands Council.
    28        A.  Yes.
    29
    30   Q.   Is that your example for environmental ----
    31        A.  The Highland Regional Council and the working party
    32        which produced the report comprised the Highland Regional
    33        Council, the Highland and Islands Development Board, the
    34        Countryside Commission for Scotland and the Nature
    35        Conservancy Council.
    36
    37   Q.   Are they all governmental bodies?
    38        A.  No. The Countryside Commission is set up by government,
    39        but its representation is very broad and covers a wide
    40        variety of environmental interests, similarly the Nature
    41        Conservancy Council.
    42
    43   Q.   I think we are on to soil erosion.
    44        A.  My Lord, I would add one point.  I made fairly
    45        extensive notes on this one. There is a point which I think
    46        should be made because I may be seeming to be defending the
    47        forest industry, but the forest industry I do not believe
    48        really needs defence; it needs to declare the things it is
    49        doing in environmental terms.  Reference to the annual
    50        reports of the Forestry Commission for 1985/1986 and also 
    51        1986/1987 make it clear that the Commission responded to 
    52        the concerns of the RSPB (which Mr. Morris referred to) and 
    53        have been in constant negotiation with Nature Conservancy
    54        Council from the first stage of this issue affecting the
    55        Caithness area of the peat land.
    56
    57   Q.   In your first paragraph on soil erosion, the second
    58        sentence, "The two main considerations are the effect of
    59        harvesting and the impact of new planting".  Are they the
    60        two main problems as regards the causation of soil erosion

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