Rob de Fégely is a conservationist and forester from Lochiel. He is also the manager of the South East NSW Forestry Hub, one of 11 hubs around Australia, which stretches from Nowra to the Victorian border and includes Yass and the ACT.

He put the situation bluntly: "Australia has run out of wood."

"We are a net importer of building products and supply from overseas is difficult and environmentally damaging. Builders and industry are screaming for wood to build houses and the new mass timber construction buildings, such as Atlassian's plan for a glass and wood tower in the Sydney CBD," Mr de Fégely said.

He said despite Australia being the 6th most forested country, it is a net importer of timber to the tune of $2bn a year.

"A trade deficit is not an economic argument but a moral one - our imports cause considerable damage in other countries," he said.

He believes the big end of town has been, in part, responsible for the dire situation, driven by short-term profit motives and now Mr de Fégely wants to see landholders, farmers, landcare groups and councils more involved in the discussion and the solution.

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Mr de Fégely explained there were three main sources of timber, softwood plantations, hardwood plantations and natural forests.

"We need more softwood; it's the most carbon positive building material but the bushfires put a big hole in softwood, although Forestry has a buffer. But it has a growing cycle of about 30years," he explained.

Profit motives have driven the way hardwood plantations have been used.

"After 10-15 years the wood harvested. It's not stable as a construction timber at that age but great for paper and so it's all sold to Asia," Mr de Fégely said.

Natural forests supply boutique products such as high strength (power poles, beams), decking, cladding and furniture.

"It's preferred for power poles because it's cheaper, flexible and doesn't conduct. There are 800,000 power poles over 50 years of age, still in service," he said.

"Preferencing plantations over native forests makes little sense - old plantations look and behave like natural forests; the debate should be how we manage trees and forest in our landscape.

"By using Australian grown wood we avoid significant greenhouse gas emissions from substitute products such as steel, concrete, aluminium and imported wood products and avoided emissions are worth more than captured emissions."

Mr de Fégely said we need to plant more and manage better. He would like to see councils sign up to Planet Ark Environmental Foundation's Make It Wood campaign which aims to encourage the increased use of responsibly sourced wood as a building material because "one tonne of avoided emissions is worth more than one tonne of sequestered emissions".

He said we need to promote multiple use and monitoring of the State Forests, develop a circular economy (no waste - recycle wood products), work to increase training opportunities in forest management (including conservation, protection and production), encourage private landowners to manage their natural forest, continue to explore plantation options including agroforestry and species trials and consider an urban forest strategy for all the towns and villages in council areas.

"The hub is about developing a plan around a range of ideas. The objective is to provide that information to government. We're not an advocate for the industry."

A master tree growing workshop is planned for landholders. Mr de Fégely can be contacted at rob.defegely@margulesgroome.com

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