farmers plan to buy blue gum forests and burn

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201007/s2967613.htm

Farmers plan to buy blue gum forests and burn them down

Thursday, 29/07/2010

A group of 32 landholders have joined forces to buy up blue gum forests on Kangaroo Island, burn them down and create farmland.

Managed Investment scheme promoter Great Southern collapsed in May last year, and now 269,000 hectares of land occupied by blue gum plantations is now up for grabs across Australia.

Spokesperson for the Kangaroo Island landholder group, Ted Speed, says it's put in a bid to buy 18,000 hectares of land.

He says if successful, the buyers will cut down all the trees, burn them and transform the land back into farming country.

"The forestry on Kangaroo Island, in recent history, has always gone broke," he says.

"We just want to get back into agriculture, so it helps our community, our schools and our businesses.

"They've all been decimated by the blue gums, which haven't created a huge amount of work."