Into the Woods, by Anna Krien

Published almost 10 years ago, it is instructive and depressing to realise how little has changed in the battle for Tasmania’s native forests. Krien’s style is personal documentary, in the manner of Helen Garner, with objectivity secondary to the experience. She interviews loggers, forestry officials, townsfolk, politicians, conservationists and activists, to get the picture from all sides of the debate, but she spends most time and energy embedded with the activists. Sympathies definitely lean towards the conservation side, with the revealed venality and violence of its opposition quite shocking. It is interesting that many of the leading protestors have gone on to become major figures in groups like the Wilderness Society, continuing their fight in a more mainstream manner and, one could argue, reaping some benefit from the cause. The war continues in different forms and the more things change the more they stay the same. It seems likely that an update of the book to the present day would find no improvement in any aspect of the situation.