On the back of the disastrous Koala SEPP, the Liberal National Party Government has again forgotten its rural constituents and the promises made by North Coast Nationals that they would not support a Great Koala National Park.

Want to know some facts about Koalas, the GKNP and its potential impacts on North Coast communities?

This is a presentation I gave to the Mid North Coast Joint Organisation, which includes Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, Bellingen Shire Council and Kempsey Shire Council.

As you might imagine, I did not get a standing ovation from the Mayor of Bellingen or the General Manager of Destination North Coast, who are both pushing for the GKNP.

When Cyclone Pam blew in to Vanuatu on March 13 it set back development of this proud, independent island nation. Villagers are very dependent on agriculture and forestry to raise small amounts of cash. The trees that they grow in their gardens supply nuts and fruit, but also occasional sales of timber that are used for local construction or to pay secondary school fees. Australian forestry has had a long tradition of working with Vanuatu, and this appeal is being supported by the Institute of Foresters of Australia and Foresters Without Borders.

The Department of Forests and the Vanuatu Foresters' Association provide seedlings and support to farmers and forest growers across all of the major islands of the 86 islands of Vanuatu. Nurseries, shedding and houses for forest workers have all been damaged.

This appeal is to raise money for repairs and reconstruction of buildings and nurseries and provide sufficient nursery materials to help growers produce additional trees to reforest areas damaged by the cyclone and get Vanuatu back on the path to self-sufficient agriculture and forestry.

With money from this appeal the Department of Forests and members of the Vanuatu Foresters' Association will re-build and support growers whose livelihoods have been affected by the cyclone. 

We have budgeted for re-roofing and repairing buildings, buying shadecloth and greenhouse materials, and new rainwater tanks. We aim to raise at least $30,000.

In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a healthy young wife by the name of Dorothy. 

Dot Com was a comely woman, large of breast, broad of shoulder and long of leg.

Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?"

Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. The sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums.

The drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.

To prevent neighbouring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was known as Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP).

And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung.

They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. Indeed he did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or eBay as it came to be known.

He said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators." "YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.

Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside.

It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).

That is how it all began. And that's the truth!

The Bowthorpe Oak is a massively thick, millennium-old tree in Lincolnshire, England that once was rumored to hold three dozen people in its enormous, hollowed-out trunk. Beth Moon photographed the leafy giant some 15 years ago and was struck by its solemn nobility and overwhelming presence. 

Thus began a pilgrimage that would take her around the world to document the planet’s most ancient trees.

The series and corresponding photo book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time, is a collection of beautiful, stoic images that feel suspended in time. Though our distant ancestors left the shelter and safety of trees some 3.5 million years ago, Moon’s work points to our enduring affinity for—and exploitation of—really, really big trees.

A shocked diver has found an incredible 10,000-year-old pre-historic forest under the North Sea and experts believe it could have once stretched as far as Europe. Diver Dawn Watson, 45, discovered the remarkable 'lost forest' when she was diving just 300 metres off the coast of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk. 

She found complete oak trees with branches measuring eight metres long under the sea and experts believe they have been hidden off the coast of Norfolk since the Ice Age. The forest is believed to have become exposed following the stormy weather last winter. 

Ms Watson, who runs the Marine Conservation Society's survey project said 'It was amazing to find and to think the trees had been lying there completely undiscovered for thousands of years. You certainly don't expect to go out for a quick dive and find a forest.'

'It would have looked like a scene from the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, which is something we don't get in this country anymore. Geologists are very excited about it, it was a really miraculous find.' It’s now hoped that radio carbon dating will be carried out on the trees to discover exactly how long the forest has been there. 

Source: Daily Mail

Jamax Forest Solutions has been nominated in the prestigious 2014 Telstra Australian Business Awards and is entered in the Micro Business category. Not sure who by but thank you. Mind you, after the 20-30 hours it took to complete the entry, if I ever find ...out, I might turn around and nominate their business next year. All jokes aside, the process does provide a good opportunity to navel gaze at your business, where it's heading and how to improve what you do.

The Institute of Foresters of Australia recently announced Jamax Forest Solutions owner, Steve Dobbyns' approval as a Registered Professional Forester.

The Registered Professional Forester© scheme is a formal registration system that offers quality assurance on forestry expertise. The scheme is administered by the Institute of Foresters of Australia and is available to members and non-members of IFA.

More information about the IFA and the RPF scheme can be found by following the enclosed link.

The IFA's announcement stated: