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Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests
Winner, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards 2011
Winner, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011
For many years, the Tasmanian wilderness has been the site of a fierce struggle. At stake is the future of old-growth forests. Loggers and police face off with protesters deep in the forest, while savage political games are played in the courts and parliaments.
In Into the Woods, Anna Krien, armed with a notebook, a sleeping bag and a rusty sedan, ventures behind the battlelines to see what it is like to risk everything for a cause. She speaks to ferals and premiers, sawmillers and whistle-blowers. She investigates personalities and convictions, methods and motives. This is a book about a company that wanted its way and the resistance that eventually forced it to change.
Updated with a new afterword, Into the Woods is intimate, intrepid reporting by a fearless new voice.
‘Anna Krien’s intimate, urgent book pulsates with life and truth.’ — Chloe Hooper
‘Anna Krien is Australia’s young, female Hunter S. Thompson.’ — Amanda Lohrey
Winner, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011
For many years, the Tasmanian wilderness has been the site of a fierce struggle. At stake is the future of old-growth forests. Loggers and police face off with protesters deep in the forest, while savage political games are played in the courts and parliaments.
In Into the Woods, Anna Krien, armed with a notebook, a sleeping bag and a rusty sedan, ventures behind the battlelines to see what it is like to risk everything for a cause. She speaks to ferals and premiers, sawmillers and whistle-blowers. She investigates personalities and convictions, methods and motives. This is a book about a company that wanted its way and the resistance that eventually forced it to change.
Updated with a new afterword, Into the Woods is intimate, intrepid reporting by a fearless new voice.
‘Anna Krien’s intimate, urgent book pulsates with life and truth.’ — Chloe Hooper
‘Anna Krien is Australia’s young, female Hunter S. Thompson.’ — Amanda Lohrey
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2010
11 people are currently reading
339 people want to read
About the author
Anna Krien
17 books61 followersAnna Krien is the author of Night Games: Sex, power and sport, which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, Into the
Woods: The battle for Tasmania’s forests and Us and Them: On the importance of animals (Quarterly Essay 45). Anna’s work has been
published in the Monthly, the Age, the Big Issue, The Best Australian Essays, Griffith REVIEW, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Colors, Frankie and Dazed & Confused.
Woods: The battle for Tasmania’s forests and Us and Them: On the importance of animals (Quarterly Essay 45). Anna’s work has been
published in the Monthly, the Age, the Big Issue, The Best Australian Essays, Griffith REVIEW, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Colors, Frankie and Dazed & Confused.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 3, 2024
The Forest Wars are not really over - the tension still bubbles up now and then. This book helps to understand the ordinary people on both sides but most of all shows how governments have let us all down.
November 10, 2010
War over the environment in Tasmania has been ongoing for many years and no battle has been more furious or longstanding then that of the forests. As in many conflicts, the first casualty is truth. There is much published material on both sides of the debate but Anna's book tries to walk the narrow path between.
It is clear however where Krien's sympathies lie. To a logger, in response to being asked where she puts herself on this issue, she says "I like nature. I like creatures." While she doesn't spell out her position more explicitly then this, the way she writes betrays her. Her words on forests and the animals that live within them are filled with heart and emotion. On the economics and politics she's colder, more cynical and more precise.
At the same time I feel she is not pushing an agenda. Krien's a journalist embedded in the front line and she's telling it as she sees and experiences it. Trees are beautiful, the economics of woodchipping is doubtful and there is a long history of corruption in the politics of Tasmanian forestry. These are simple truths but Krien does not treat them simply. She is careful to put thorough investigation behind her arguments. Her questions and criticisms are aimed at loggers and activists alike.
Into the Woods doesn't provide a solution but instead gives us accurate portrait of the debate as a whole. Krien's writing is interesting and enjoyable and she very successfully puts a human face on the people of both sides of this battle.
Highly recommended!
It is clear however where Krien's sympathies lie. To a logger, in response to being asked where she puts herself on this issue, she says "I like nature. I like creatures." While she doesn't spell out her position more explicitly then this, the way she writes betrays her. Her words on forests and the animals that live within them are filled with heart and emotion. On the economics and politics she's colder, more cynical and more precise.
At the same time I feel she is not pushing an agenda. Krien's a journalist embedded in the front line and she's telling it as she sees and experiences it. Trees are beautiful, the economics of woodchipping is doubtful and there is a long history of corruption in the politics of Tasmanian forestry. These are simple truths but Krien does not treat them simply. She is careful to put thorough investigation behind her arguments. Her questions and criticisms are aimed at loggers and activists alike.
Into the Woods doesn't provide a solution but instead gives us accurate portrait of the debate as a whole. Krien's writing is interesting and enjoyable and she very successfully puts a human face on the people of both sides of this battle.
Highly recommended!
January 8, 2024
A mainlander’s insight into the forestry industry’s influence on government and nature. This book comes from all angles and was brilliantly written.
May 27, 2023
Somewhat depressing, in many ways.
July 18, 2020
A compelling piece, the first half was most compelling for me, the human elements and how they bump into each other, the political sections were good too. A good read
October 5, 2014
There's no doubt that Anna Krien writes beautifully, and I value the way she puts herself front and centre in her journalistic endeavours, wearing all of her vulnerabilities and biases on her sleeve. Her writerly voice is raw and honest, and very acute.
I believed in Krien's open-hearted analysis of the Forest wars in Tasmania, and thought she wrote perceptively about the various interest groups and camps.
For me, though, this book veered into trainspotting detail. The material would have worked beautifully as a long article, even as a Quarterly Essay-type length, but a book felt like it was pushing out the material too far. I lost interest in all the minute machinations, and wanted a more macro view of things towards the last third of the book.
But the lingering flavour for me was Krien's lovely writing, a pleasure to read.
I believed in Krien's open-hearted analysis of the Forest wars in Tasmania, and thought she wrote perceptively about the various interest groups and camps.
For me, though, this book veered into trainspotting detail. The material would have worked beautifully as a long article, even as a Quarterly Essay-type length, but a book felt like it was pushing out the material too far. I lost interest in all the minute machinations, and wanted a more macro view of things towards the last third of the book.
But the lingering flavour for me was Krien's lovely writing, a pleasure to read.
August 16, 2014
Anna Krien has done a marvelous job in this personal essay looking into the history of logging in Tasmania's forests. I fell in love with her use of varied narrative techniques, visual imagery and well rounded characters.
Reading Into the Woods has educated me, infuriated me, and made me sad. Due to the sheer greed and deceitful actions of Forestry Tasmania and the Tasmanian government much damage has been done to the native forests in Tasmania and the wildlife.
Scenes describing the poisoned animals broke my heart, especially the wombat frothing at the mouth, bumping into fences with it's cub following behind will remain with me forever.
The level of dedication and research put into this essay is outstanding and commendable. Please read this book - I highly recommend it.
Reading Into the Woods has educated me, infuriated me, and made me sad. Due to the sheer greed and deceitful actions of Forestry Tasmania and the Tasmanian government much damage has been done to the native forests in Tasmania and the wildlife.
Scenes describing the poisoned animals broke my heart, especially the wombat frothing at the mouth, bumping into fences with it's cub following behind will remain with me forever.
The level of dedication and research put into this essay is outstanding and commendable. Please read this book - I highly recommend it.
January 29, 2011
A very interesting read which brings up lots of information about the struggle to save old-growth forests in Tasmania. The author's research includes activists and their strong passion, loggers who have worked in the industry for years, the politicians and the corruption of individuals and government departments and mill owners. Reading the facts quoted makes one very sad plus very angry but my eyes have been opened and I hope others will get to read this book and be enlightened
also.
also.
March 12, 2018
Beautifully written and researched this book was an eye opener. While Gunns may be now gone, this book remains relevant. The power one company had over Tasmanian, even federal, politics is astounding and provides insight as to how our shared natural wealth can be manoeuvred away from us, without public consent, to the detriment or our environment and future generations.
March 25, 2011
Really very good. Ambivalent and washed through with shades of grey, very personal, angry, sad and hilarious. The author never gets pompous, and is open about her own biases and flaws. If you liked The Tall Man, there's a good chance you'll find this worthwhile.
April 8, 2014
Tragic and perfectly executed. Absolutely essential reading.
December 29, 2022
The battle for Tasmania’s forests. Krien visited Tasmania when the forestry wars were at their height (from 2001 to 2010). I retired in Tasmania in 2001 and so lived through that horrendous period. I read her book at the time when it was very hot, and again in 2022 when I could look back and judge from a distance. Tasmania’s population is only 500K pop, with a small government: a situation ripe for crony capitalism, with the governments legislating for rich mates, not for the people.. Krien explains how this works. In this case the issue was woodchipping, a thoroughly wasteful operation that created enormous conflict.
She sets the scene with an account of a horrifying incident: two protesters had locked themselves in a car in the path of logging operations. Several loggers howled violent abuse at them and attacked the car with an axe. Police stood by. The secret filming of that event went viral. Krien tried to interview all parties to the forestry wars. “The ratbags”, ie the protesters, were of two kinds, Green politicians, concerned citizens and environmentalists who set up camps in the areas to be logged and tried to peacefully stall the operations. Then there were the ferals, professional agitators, who acted violently to the loggers: these gave the environmentalists highly negative publicity, which was most unfortunate. Krien stayed in these camps in rather uncomfortable conditions and reports the violence; th camps being set alight while they were occupied, property destroyed, physical violence and constant verbal abuse. The police turned a blind eye to this as did the politicians (“they were breaking the law”, “they were preventing workers from doing their jobs”). Krien then spoke to the loggers to hear their side. They had many stories to tell, particularly how Gunns and Forestry Tasmania (FT), a government run forestry operation, together monopolised sawmilling and wood chipping, forcing long running family sawmiller and timber workers out of business. The central issue is woodchipping. Once it was an economical operation, using the detritus after logging, but it soon became more economically viable to wood chip prime logs themselves. Old growth forests were levelled, most logs extracted for chipping leaving 10-20 percent of logs for timber and craft work, then the site was napalmed, sown for plantation timber and 1080 poison used to kill wildlife that would nibble the young saplings . It was utterly unsustainable, which is what caused the public outcry. So the real villains were not the loggers but Gunns and FT who had subcontracted them. Incredibly Gunns made huge profits but FT large losses, kept afloat with massive government subsidies.
Krien then goes for these real villains. Gunns initiated SLAPP suits against people who criticized their operations – that is, frightening off critics by suing them – but public opinion forced them to withdraw and actually compensate the defendants. Krien describes how successive governments in Tasmania engineered and supported this appalling situation of crony capitalism. The final straw was the Gunns pulp mill proposal, which Premier Paul Lennon raucously supported and prevented the proper accrediting body to assess the proposal. Amazingly, this deeply flawed proposal was supported by both major parties state and federal yet through greedy and incompetent management, Gunns went bankrupt.
Krien started out with an open mind. She sees wrong on both sides, but the wrongs done by the powerful beggar belief. She concludes something is wrong with the way things work in Tasmania that is not so true of other states. She is right: today, forestry is not the issue, it is salmon farming. Same thing: corruption, the ruination of the marine environment, violence against those who protest.
She sets the scene with an account of a horrifying incident: two protesters had locked themselves in a car in the path of logging operations. Several loggers howled violent abuse at them and attacked the car with an axe. Police stood by. The secret filming of that event went viral. Krien tried to interview all parties to the forestry wars. “The ratbags”, ie the protesters, were of two kinds, Green politicians, concerned citizens and environmentalists who set up camps in the areas to be logged and tried to peacefully stall the operations. Then there were the ferals, professional agitators, who acted violently to the loggers: these gave the environmentalists highly negative publicity, which was most unfortunate. Krien stayed in these camps in rather uncomfortable conditions and reports the violence; th camps being set alight while they were occupied, property destroyed, physical violence and constant verbal abuse. The police turned a blind eye to this as did the politicians (“they were breaking the law”, “they were preventing workers from doing their jobs”). Krien then spoke to the loggers to hear their side. They had many stories to tell, particularly how Gunns and Forestry Tasmania (FT), a government run forestry operation, together monopolised sawmilling and wood chipping, forcing long running family sawmiller and timber workers out of business. The central issue is woodchipping. Once it was an economical operation, using the detritus after logging, but it soon became more economically viable to wood chip prime logs themselves. Old growth forests were levelled, most logs extracted for chipping leaving 10-20 percent of logs for timber and craft work, then the site was napalmed, sown for plantation timber and 1080 poison used to kill wildlife that would nibble the young saplings . It was utterly unsustainable, which is what caused the public outcry. So the real villains were not the loggers but Gunns and FT who had subcontracted them. Incredibly Gunns made huge profits but FT large losses, kept afloat with massive government subsidies.
Krien then goes for these real villains. Gunns initiated SLAPP suits against people who criticized their operations – that is, frightening off critics by suing them – but public opinion forced them to withdraw and actually compensate the defendants. Krien describes how successive governments in Tasmania engineered and supported this appalling situation of crony capitalism. The final straw was the Gunns pulp mill proposal, which Premier Paul Lennon raucously supported and prevented the proper accrediting body to assess the proposal. Amazingly, this deeply flawed proposal was supported by both major parties state and federal yet through greedy and incompetent management, Gunns went bankrupt.
Krien started out with an open mind. She sees wrong on both sides, but the wrongs done by the powerful beggar belief. She concludes something is wrong with the way things work in Tasmania that is not so true of other states. She is right: today, forestry is not the issue, it is salmon farming. Same thing: corruption, the ruination of the marine environment, violence against those who protest.
June 25, 2017
This was such an interesting book.
Krien writes in a 'conversational' style that is easy to read.
The book is the sort of piece you might read in "The Monthly" only longer.
In the beginning, it's almost *too* conversational, but it's worth persevering.
There's a lot of work in this book. Interviews with a multitude of characters from Premiers to loggers to activists and everyone in between. Much research is revealed as you read on.
If it's a case of choosing 'sides', the book comes out on the 'side' of the forests and the activists.
But I can't see how it can help doing that when there has clearly been much corruption in business and government relating to the forests.
I feel for the loggers and the saw-millers. Generations of families who worked the forests responsibly.
My grandfather worked in the sawmills in Tasmania and Victoria. There are several 'characters' in the book who understand the real value of the forests and how to best treat them, but with the administrative structures and business interests at play, they are not given a chance.
Where is the story up to now, I wonder?
I would love to see an update - perhaps there has been one in the press somewhere? If you know, please feel free to send me a link!
Krien writes in a 'conversational' style that is easy to read.
The book is the sort of piece you might read in "The Monthly" only longer.
In the beginning, it's almost *too* conversational, but it's worth persevering.
There's a lot of work in this book. Interviews with a multitude of characters from Premiers to loggers to activists and everyone in between. Much research is revealed as you read on.
If it's a case of choosing 'sides', the book comes out on the 'side' of the forests and the activists.
But I can't see how it can help doing that when there has clearly been much corruption in business and government relating to the forests.
I feel for the loggers and the saw-millers. Generations of families who worked the forests responsibly.
My grandfather worked in the sawmills in Tasmania and Victoria. There are several 'characters' in the book who understand the real value of the forests and how to best treat them, but with the administrative structures and business interests at play, they are not given a chance.
Where is the story up to now, I wonder?
I would love to see an update - perhaps there has been one in the press somewhere? If you know, please feel free to send me a link!
February 9, 2018
The last of the Anna Krien binge that I purchased two months ago. I have to say, whilst I love her style as a writer, this book was the hardest to get through (for me). Maybe it is the most remote in time and geography. In this book her sympathies were more obvious, although she really tried to be neutral…
She painted the unholy alliance between the (now defunct) Gunns and the largest two political parties as corrupt (and if what she writes is true it likely was). We are supposed to cheer the brave Greenies, and sympathize with the toiling forestry men. It was just hard work to believe she was neutral and trying to report both sides. It was clear she had picked a side and followed a cliché of the little people battling an evil corporation. So I think this was her weakest work. She gave the veneer of the neutral writer that I like, whilst her ugly opinions were clearly observable below the surface. The quality I like most her work is her ability to hide her ugly opinions and be sympathetic to all. I am glad I read this book last, not first because I would not have continued
She painted the unholy alliance between the (now defunct) Gunns and the largest two political parties as corrupt (and if what she writes is true it likely was). We are supposed to cheer the brave Greenies, and sympathize with the toiling forestry men. It was just hard work to believe she was neutral and trying to report both sides. It was clear she had picked a side and followed a cliché of the little people battling an evil corporation. So I think this was her weakest work. She gave the veneer of the neutral writer that I like, whilst her ugly opinions were clearly observable below the surface. The quality I like most her work is her ability to hide her ugly opinions and be sympathetic to all. I am glad I read this book last, not first because I would not have continued
November 29, 2017
A well written and interesting read. It brought home to me the greed of our society and the destruction caused as a result. Krien did not hide her bias, but her efforts to put herself in the frontline and chat to people on both sides was admirable. There has to be a better way for Tasmania to go than continuing the decimating forestry practices of the past.
Read
February 2, 2020A real page-turner, I couldn't put it down!
October 23, 2022
Brilliant and scary, a must for anyone who cares about the environment.
January 24, 2023
A fascinating and insightful read told with an impressive balance of compassion and rigor. Found it a little hard to follow in some places but overall it was a pageturner and I devoured it.
September 24, 2024
A unique insight to all those involved with the fight for Tasmania's forest .
Has perspectives from each side including activists, loggers and department of forestry.
Has perspectives from each side including activists, loggers and department of forestry.
August 3, 2011
I was looking for a balanced treatment of the issue, but this isn't it.
In places it is poorly written. The author employs some wacky descriptions: An office is described as looking "wholesome, straight out of a timber yard in 1970s North Dakota."(pg 96) How is this meaningful to anyone who perhaps didn't see a 1970s timber yard in North Dakota? How were North Dakotan timber yards different to those in, say, South Dakota? Does the author have any idea?
A man stands between two dogs. "One dog is stiff and shuffling, while the other is determined to monopolise my ball-throwing skills. [The man] seems to have a bit of each quality."(pg 214) What? He has trouble walking, but wants the author to throw him a ball?
Descriptions like this annoyed me and made this book difficult to read. In other places things which needed explanation left the reader in the dark. What is the difference between quarter-sawing and back-sawing techniques? We are told it is important (pg 97, then referred to later in the book), but it is never explained. No diagram, no description, just confusion.
Ultimately a very unsatisfying read, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
In places it is poorly written. The author employs some wacky descriptions: An office is described as looking "wholesome, straight out of a timber yard in 1970s North Dakota."(pg 96) How is this meaningful to anyone who perhaps didn't see a 1970s timber yard in North Dakota? How were North Dakotan timber yards different to those in, say, South Dakota? Does the author have any idea?
A man stands between two dogs. "One dog is stiff and shuffling, while the other is determined to monopolise my ball-throwing skills. [The man] seems to have a bit of each quality."(pg 214) What? He has trouble walking, but wants the author to throw him a ball?
Descriptions like this annoyed me and made this book difficult to read. In other places things which needed explanation left the reader in the dark. What is the difference between quarter-sawing and back-sawing techniques? We are told it is important (pg 97, then referred to later in the book), but it is never explained. No diagram, no description, just confusion.
Ultimately a very unsatisfying read, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
June 24, 2014
With the Abbott government's pitiful plea to raze 74,000 ha of old growth forest just knocked back, this book feels very much alive.
Anna Krien clearly lived this complex topic for a long time as she teases apart the forces around the old growth forest and new plantations in Tasmania. From living with ingenious protesters in the cold forest, to sharing drinks with loggers and millers, furniture makers, politicians and more, she covers the issues in admirable balance.
She has illuminated the situation, and a little about Tasmania's character, in the process.
Wonderful book, and one which I didn't think would hold its pace right through, but even with two epilogues, it did.
Anna Krien clearly lived this complex topic for a long time as she teases apart the forces around the old growth forest and new plantations in Tasmania. From living with ingenious protesters in the cold forest, to sharing drinks with loggers and millers, furniture makers, politicians and more, she covers the issues in admirable balance.
She has illuminated the situation, and a little about Tasmania's character, in the process.
Wonderful book, and one which I didn't think would hold its pace right through, but even with two epilogues, it did.
April 10, 2014
Annoyed with myself that I missed this book when it was first published, although good to have the second edition with the afterword update.
Anna Krien's written a compelling account of Tasmania's forestry battles with all stakeholders - bar the voiceless forests themselves - heard.
I was angered, outraged, saddened and educated by this book. Great read.
Anna Krien's written a compelling account of Tasmania's forestry battles with all stakeholders - bar the voiceless forests themselves - heard.
I was angered, outraged, saddened and educated by this book. Great read.
June 1, 2014
Great exploration of the logging debate in Tasmania. Anna Krien interviews all the groups involved and one soon learns that it's not the greenies or the loggers who are the main players, it's the timber companies (Gunns) and the politicians that are the trouble. So much dodginess, lies, corruption etc. It's fairly disheartening although at least ends on a somewhat hopeful note.
October 8, 2011
Excellent; balanced but heartfelt, and disturbing concerning brazen corruption and lies of Tas. Govt and Gunns.
And beautifully written: lyrical in many places with some well chosen imagery and always clear in her meaning, explanations and confusion.
And beautifully written: lyrical in many places with some well chosen imagery and always clear in her meaning, explanations and confusion.
May 26, 2012
A book we who care about the forest in Tassie should read. Balanced, evocative and hopeful.
April 27, 2016
I dont usually read this kind of book, but it seemed very well researched, and told in an easy way. But the story is terribly sad and absurd...
October 11, 2010
Fantastic book, a must-read!!
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews