Making wood for good in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie

Making wood for good in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie

By Josh Cole  August 20th, 2019

Cyclone-damaged timber previously bound for the scrap heap has been turned into free building material for community groups as part of the Community Timber Partnerships Program.

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Cyclone-damaged timber previously bound for the scrap heap has been turned into free building material for community groups as part of the Community Timber Partnerships Program (CTPP).  Cyclone Debbie in 2017 was highly destructive, leading to 14 deaths and $3.5 billion in damage across Queensland and New South Wales  One of the many businesses caught up in that storm was Boral Timber’s Murwillumbah plant, in which timber products worth more than $10 million were declared unfit for sale but still usable.  In conjunction with the Forestry Corporation of NSW and Planet Ark’s Make It Wood program the CTTP was founded to provide the timber donated by Boral to projects with a public benefit.  Those projects include the Nambucca Mountain Bike Track, a pergola at Bellingen Public School and a children’s playground at The Nature School in Port Macquarie. Also pictured above is a demountable classroom made using salvaged timber at Coffs Harbour Christian Community School. According to Boral there are 17 partnerships already in effect and another 15 under discussion.    As Planet Ark’s Make It Wood campaign has found through research, sustainably procured timber has a range of benefits when used in construction, ranging from the positive physical and mental health effects of exposure to wood to its carbon sequestering properties.  The CTPP is now looking for other organisations in the timber industry who can help deliver on projects, in the hope of both promoting sustainable timber in building and helping community groups find cheap or free resources for construction efforts.

 

Positive Action  If you want to find out if your community group is eligible for the Community Timber Partnerships, or want more information about Make It Wood’s other efforts to encourage the sustainable use of timber, visit the Make It Wood website.

 

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Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.

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By Josh Cole

Josh comes to Planet Ark after a stint in legal communication and from a background in print journalism. He studied Communications and Media as a mature age student in Wollongong where he re-discovered his love for the natural environment.

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