President's comments

The main environmental issue in the political arena at present is the Regional Forests Agreement Bill. This legislation aims to provide the woodchip and saw milling industry with guaranteed access to areas of forest for the next 20 years. The regional public interest groups who are concerned over logging issues have condemned the Bill as totally inadequate for the protection of old-growth forest. Examples have been quoted of logging of Heritage and protected areas after the Regional Forests Areement Bill has been signed, in the two States so far with agreements.

The extraordinary element of the situation to me is that woodchipping is allowed at all in native old-growth forest. To replace our little remaining undisturbed native forest with a pile of chips selling for as little as 9 cents per tonne and an area of devastated land, is just vandalism.

To quote the Western Australian Forest Alliance (Peter Robertson), 'In the case of the karri forest, arguably the most beautiful timber, out of 457,000 cubic metres logged, 99% ended up as woodchips, 0.4% structural timber and 0.04% value-added sawn timber.'

One of my own most memorable experiences of walking through native forest was unexpectedly entering an area of clear-felling. The whole scene was an environmental catastrophe, the ground sloped about 20 degrees, trees had been dragged down gullies to bulldozed tracks, leaving huge erosion potential, and the land surface was stumps and torn earth. The loss of soil from such devastation would have been huge and regrowth a long time away.

Statistical data prepared by Ms Judy Clark of ANU for the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics shows that Australia's plantation timber stocks have already overtaken the use of native timber for saw logs.

Plantations will soon replace the need for felling of native forest for this use. Wood chipping is the main use for our old-growth forest, and the Regional Forest Agreements lock in this abuse of our ecological inheritance.

I recommend that our members oppose this Bill.

Ian Falconer

Report of the Executive

The Executive has spent a great deal of time in trying to drum up increased membership, but can report a poor response at the moment. Newly designed membership brochures and fliers have been sent to all regional representatives with a request to target particularly new graduates, teachers and anyone else they can think of. The response has been a stony silence. Meantime, the Executive is planning a mail out to biology teachers as a follow up to an approach of a couple of years ago. We have reprinted the popular symposium volume Exploiting our Native Fauna - Culling, Harvesting, Farming? And these are available from the Business Manager at a cost of $20.00. Convince your library that it must have a copy and try to convince your friends and colleagues to purchase a copy. All these things will provide extra funds to enable the Institute to be more proactive.

Additional funding to support the Biology Olympiads is being sought from kindred societies and from businesses to provide $500.00 bursaries for the four team members each year. A singular lack of response from the editorial committee and from members has resulted in the production of the journal only twice a year and newsletters in the interim. We hope to remedy this situation, but can't achieve anything without the support of the membership. We urge members to attend the symposium in Melbourne in September, to write papers for the journal, and to go out and actively seek more members - this is your Institute.

Margaret Davies - Hon. Secretary

New Nova topics and another 'Best of the Web' listing at http://www.science.org.au/nova

The Australian Academy of Science's Nova: Science in the News has been recommended by the editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online as one of the eight best science news sites on the world wide web - and the only one located outside the United States of America. This follows on Nova's recent selection by the search engine Yahoo! for its Science news and media listings.

Two new environmental topics are now available on Nova's web site.

Integrated pest management - the good, the bad and the genetically modified

Twenty-five years after being abandoned because of an uncontrollable infestation of two native caterpillars, cotton cultivation is making a comeback in Western Australia's Ord River Valley. Its re-emergence is evidence that integrated pest management can help keep even persistent pests at bay. This topic covers pest resistance, the key components of integrated pest management (IPM) strategy, and control and integrating techniques. Special information boxes include pest control techniques and integrated pest management in the Australian apple industry. This topic is sponsored by AgrEvo Pty Ltd.

The bitter-sweet taste of toxic substances

Household items such as bleach, disinfectant and detergent are an integral part of everyday life - and they are all potentially toxic. How can we minimise the risks they present? This topic defines toxic substances, indicates how they can enter the body, discusses the concepts of risk, dosage, and acute and chronic toxicity, briefly explains the biochemistry of toxicity, and describes the importance of safeguarding ourselves and our environment from their deleterious effects. Special information boxes discuss cyanide and arsenic, and DDT and biological concentration. This topic is sponsored by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission and the Science and Technology Awareness Program of the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

For more information about Nova: Science in the News, including sponsorship of new topics, contact the Academy's Development Officer, Nancy Lane, telephone (02) 6247 5777, facsimile (02) 6257 4620 or email nancy.lane@science.org.au GPO Box 783, Canberra ACT 2601.

Some interesting related web sites
Nova: Science in the News http://www.science.org.au/nova
Primary investigations http://www.science.org.au/pi
Australian Academy of Science http://www.science.org.au

1999 AIB Symposium

The next AIB Symposium and AGM will be held at the Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, on Saturday 25 September 1999. The Symposium topic is Genetics, Conservation and Habitat Fragmentation. The Symposium will commence at 9:15am and will occupy most of the day, with the AGM in the late afternoon followed by dinner.

The Symposium convenors are Professors Peter Temple-Smith and Angus Martin, Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens. Inquiries regarding the meeting should be directed to Bridget Hayes (email: bhayes@zoo.org.au; phone (03) 9285 9343; fax (03) 9285 9346).

Make the newsletter a success

The Institute has been forced to reduce the number of issues of Australian Biologist each year from four to two. Good material for the journal has been scarce for some time now. Hopefully we will be able to resume production at four issues a year in the near future. But to do that, we need to receive good quality articles of a biological nature that will appeal to your fellow members.

Let's see how successful the two issues are, combined with two issues of the newsletter each year. But for even a small newsletter to be a success, we need ... you guessed it! Material!

Send your contributions in the first instance to the Secretary, Dr Margaret Davies. We need news of members, news of interest to other members, and so on. And we need interesting material to link to our home page on the world wide web.

Your library needs a copy!

Your colleagues need copies!
Popular volume

Exploiting our Native Fauna - Culling, Harvesting, Farming? (1997) Proceedings of the Australian Institute of Biology Symposium, September 1996.

Cost $20.00 (including postage and packing) (cheques to the Australian Institute of Biology Inc).

Orders to the Business Manager, Dr G. Webb, 235 Gover St, North Adelaide, South Australia 5006.

The AIB has its new web page running

Members are urged to check out the Institute's new web page and let us know what they think. It's at http://www.utas.edu.au/docs/plant_science/aib/ Material for linking to the home page should be sent directly to the President, Professor Ian Falconer, email: ifalconer@ozemail.com.au

Election of a new Fellow

Professor John J. Findlay-Jones, who is Professor of Microbiology and Head of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia, has been elected Fellow of the Australian Institute of Biology. Professor Findlay-Jones is a former South Australian representative on the Council of the Institute.

New Members of the Institute