Major Jamestown employer Luke Morgan, Morgan Sawmills, is concerned about the future of his business and its 63 employees.
“We’re the largest private employer in the Mid North,” he said. “If you take those people out of a small community, it will have a big knock-on effect.”
Mr Morgan said the mill had developed a plan, with professional help, for the industry’s future, which included sourcing wood from other places, including private timber, to extend the lifetime of the forest.
“We’ve already put in place steps to make the forest last,” he said. But there was still a chance this could be made meaningless if the government decided to sell and the land.
“This is a good environmental industry to be in; it’s a renewable resource and it should be promoted and grown not shut down,” he said.