State News - Feb. 2006
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20/02/2006 - Logging protesters block forest coupe access.. ABC News Online - East Gippsland - Feb 06
18/02/06 - A possum stares extinction in the face - By Tracee Hutchison - The Age - Opinion - February 18, 2006 - Central Highlands - Feb06 ;
10/02/06 - Royston blockade restarts with treesit and community walk-in - Media Release - Friends of the Earth - Feb 10, 2006 Central Highlands - Feb06 ;
10/02/06 - Potoroos and parrots need better protection - The Age - Editorial - East Gippsland ; Murray Basin
09/02/06 - Alarm at logging breaches - Adam Morton - The Age - East Gippsland ; Murray Basin
06/02/06 - Stop destruction of old growth trees & endangered wildlife on Melbourne’s fringe - Media release ACF - 6-Feb-2006 - Central Highlands - Feb06 ;
06/02/06 - Anti-loggers stage protest - Herald / Sun -Central Highlands - Feb06 ;
ABC Online
Logging protesters block forest coupe access. 20/02/2006. ABC News Online
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1574078.htm]
Last Update:Monday, February 20, 2006. 3:09pm (AEDT)
Police and VicForests' officers are at a logging blockade on the Erinunderra Plateau in East Gippsland.
Protesters have built a tripod on Centre Road, blocking access to the coupe.
Fiona Yorke from the Goongerah Environment Centre says the protesters are determined to stay in the coupe.
"There's 15 conservationists in the logging coupe at the moment, two people are locked onto a logging machine, another remains up a tree platform and they're very determined to stay as long as possible and protect this area of forest," she said.
Logging contractor Gary Squires, from Snowy Harvesting and Haulage, says he is frustrated by the protests.
He says two contractors had to stay in the coupe on the weekend to protect their equipment.
"They've had to camp there overnight, it means they effectively can't work today, the ones that camped there last night, they're getting no pay for it, it's just 24-hours-a-day for no productive work," he said.
By Tracee Hutchison
February 18, 2006
The Age - Opinion
There's a giant mountain ash tree in Victoria's Royston Range with a pink H spray-painted onto its massive trunk. It's taken more than 200 years for it to reach its 60-metre height and, inside, it is likely that a family of tiny possums is nestling in its hollows.
They are Leadbeater's possums, so small they would fit in the palm of your hand. The pink H on the tree means these little creatures were safe from the chainsaws that clear-felled around them this week - their house is a designated habitat tree.
After presuming the species extinct, scientists found the last surviving colonies of Leadbeater's possums living in Victoria's Central Highlands in the early 1960s. Just 2000 of them remain. They are a protected and endangered species and Victoria's state fauna emblem.
On Monday night these little possums would have looked out over what was left of their neighbourhood and wondered what had happened to the furniture. And their food source. The sap from the once-plentiful alpine ash and their much loved wattle are gone. So are the blackwoods.
In the distance, they might have seen one or two old-growth trees still standing - also marked with an H to save the other English-speaking possums in the forest. They'll be among a handful of forest-dwelling creatures to survive this week's logging in the stretch of state forest that runs between the Yarra Valley National Park and Mount Bullfight Conservation Reserve.
Studies of forest activity by eminent environmental scientists such as Dr David Lindenmayer from the Australian National University indicate most animals die when a forest is extensively disturbed in a clear-felling operation. There are no early warning signals. Adult animals have a strong affinity with their home range and are reluctant to move.
In the daylight, the H-trees protrude from the forest floor like an Absurdist's version of a Russell Drysdale painting. It is a macabre and disturbing sight. The H-trees are too far apart for the possums to skip between branches and there is a sense that the forest has screamed all night but only the survivors will remember the sound.
For them, there's a looming regeneration fire, which will burn through the logging debris on the forest floor. The heat intensity of an often chemically fuelled regeneration fire will make life inside one of these H-trees almost unbearable - that is assuming the fire also speaks English and is smart enough to burn around them. Surviving this fire will be a challenge for a creature with very little body weight.
The complex eco-systems of old-growth forests don't like regeneration fires very much either. They tend to suit eucalypts, which grow back - plantation-like - relatively quickly. This works well for future logging and suits the industry these forests service rather nicely. But Leadbeater's possums don't like young eucalypts very much. They don't form hollows so it's hard to make a house. They need old-growth trees to survive.
This week many of these possums will have thought about moving to a place with more H-trees. They will have scouted for wattle and alpine ash sap.
But, as we see in other aspects of the Australian experience, newcomers aren't always welcome in unfamiliar territories - especially if you're a minority and have particular living requirements. It's a precarious predicament. About 80 per cent of the old-growth trees that came out of Royston this week will be chipped. By now the logs will have reached the Midway woodchip mill in Geelong and might be on their way to Japan. Others will have arrived at the Paperlinx mill in Maryvale where they'll end up as sheet paper with a lifespan of about a week. It's not much to show for 200 years of breathing life into the planet.
Royston Range is one of the last old-growth forests within a comfortable drive from Melbourne, just two hours due east along the Maroondah Highway. Walking though this forest, you can't help but be reminded of how blessed we are to have these precious, centuries-old ecosystems exist at all, let alone on the doorstep of a capital city.
Australia has the worst record for plant and mammal extinctions in the world in the past 200 years. We clear land faster here than in any other developed nation. Our planet is heating up and the best our governments can do is gag the scientists who would hold us to account and prop up the industries that contribute to the problem.
Unless the Victorian Government puts an end to old-growth logging in the state forests of eastern Victoria, the legacy of Premier Steve Bracks may well include the extinction of a tiny possum. For woodchips. For the paper on which history will record the state-sanctioned passing of our fauna emblem. It is madness.
Tracee Hutchison is a Melbourne writer and broadcaster.
See also - 06/02/06 - Anti-loggers stage protest - Herald / Sun -Central Highlands - 06feb06 ;
06/02/06 - Stop destruction of old growth trees & endangered wildlife on Melbourne’s fringe - Media release ACF - 6-Feb-2006 - Central Highlands - 06feb06 ;
10/02/06 - Royston blockade restarts with treesit and community walk-in - Media Release - Friends of the Earth - Feb 10, 2006 - Central Highlands - 06feb06 ;
More on the Central Highlands, The Central Highlands Alliance Campaigns, and the Leadbeaters Possum go to http://www.tcha.org.au/
PDF Submission by The Central Highlands Alliance and others to DSE re logging in these coupes 2004 - with photos of areas and detailed maps of terrain and coupes PROPOSED CLEARFELL LOGGING ADJACENT LAKE MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT
February 10, 2006 - Media Release - Friends of the Earth - (in red - our addition )
Environmentalists have returned this morning to block logging operations in an area of extremely high conservation value north east of Melbourne.
One activist is perched on a platform in an old growth tree, and a community walk-in of local residents is expected to arrive at the coupe at midday in order to show support for the blockade.
The Site
only 90 minutes from Melbourne, is home to large stands of rainforest, old growth forest, and Victoria’s endangered faunal emblem, the Leadbeaters Possum. Planned logging operations have been contested for several years. According to Sarah Rees of the Central Highlands Alliance, "The case to protect the Royston from woodchipping is irrefutable. The logging is also a slap in the face of the region’s tourism industry. These coupes will severely impact the last remaining undisturbed scenic lookouts along the Lake Mountain Ski Resort Trails, working against the intentions of the Alpine Resort 2020 Strategy"."It is appalling that the destruction of old trees and rainforest is occurring right now on Melbourne’s doorstep. For two years we have pleaded with the Bracks' government not to destroy this area. Now that logging has started, we have no choice but to stop the destruction ourselves."
"It’s time for the Government to be held to account." said TCHA Spokesperson Sarah Rees.
Sarah Rees- Mobile: 0438 368870 office: 5962 3461 sarah@tcha.org.au
Photos available
In the Forest: Mobile 0408 667 100
Background information available at: http://www.tcha.org.au/RoystonMtBullfight.htm
See also - More on the Central Highlands, The Central Highlands Alliance Campaigns, and the Leadbeaters Possum go to http://www.tcha.org.au/
PDF Submission by The Central Highlands Alliance and others to DSE re logging in these coupes 2004 - with photos of areas and detailed maps of terrain and coupes PROPOSED CLEARFELL LOGGING ADJACENT LAKE MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT
Potoroos and parrots need better protection
February 10, 2006
The Age - Editorial
'You're gunna get stung!" That greeting on the Environment Protection Authority website is aimed at anyone who discards rubbish carelessly. Under Victorian law, litterers face hefty fines (ranging from $210 to $6289), which the EPA says are to deter people from actions that "can cause injury to people and wildlife".
How then should the EPA deal with businesses and government agencies that put protected flora and fauna at serious risk? According to an EPA audit - commissioned by the State Government at the urging of environmentalists - there were at least four breaches of the Environment Protection Act in 2004 and 2005, three by VicForests near Cann River in East Gippsland, and a fourth in the Barmah State Forest, near Echuca, where the Department of Sustainability and Environment logged more than half of a 35-hectare protected nesting colony for the endangered superb parrot. The EPA found the breaches were due to poor management and inadequate staff training.
The long-footed potoroo, a small kangaroo unique to the forests of south-east Australia, lives in Gippsland. Possibly the only thing it has in common with the superb parrot, a bird with a striking green body, is its vulnerability. Both are at greater risk as a result of these breaches but the offenders have escaped with what amounts to a slap on the wrist after they promised to behave more responsibly in future.
The EPA was not asked to consider penalties and the auditors concluded that there is a legal question as to whether government officers are bound by codes of practice outlined in the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987. If this is the case, an amendment is urgently needed. It is ludicrous that an individual could face a penalty of $4192 for depositing household rubbish in a litter bin, yet agencies that do far more environmental damage get off scott free.
By Adam Morton, The Age
February 9, 2006
STATE agencies guilty of logging breaches that felled protected trees and threatened endangered species have escaped punishment despite the environmental watchdog finding systemic problems in at least one forest district.
A special Environment Protection Authority audit found three breaches by VicForests near Cann River in East Gippsland, home to threatened species including the long-footed potoroo.
A fourth was confirmed in the Barmah State Forest, near Echuca, where the Department of Sustainability and Environment logged more than half of a 35-hectare protected nesting colony for the endangered superb parrot. As few as 150 superb parrots breed in Victoria.
EPA chairman Mick Bourke said the East Gippsland breaches — where timber workers logged more than a hectare of the Errinundra National Park at one site and breached coupe boundaries by a total of nearly 15 hectares at two others — were signs of a systemic problem.
"Anywhere where there is potential to impact on national forest and special protection zone is a serious matter," he said.
The special audit was released along with a wider EPA report into timber harvesting in 2004-05 which found an average of 91 per cent compliance with the law.
But breaches, often for minor offences such as inadequate record-keeping, were found in 44 out of 45 coupes sampled.
The EPA found the Gippsland and Barmah breaches were due to poor management, communication, mapping and planning, and false assumptions by staff that coupe boundaries could be changed without proper approval. Recommendations included improving boundary delineation and increasing staff training.
But the EPA was not asked to consider penalties. Mr Bourke said it was unclear whether Government officers were bound by codes of practice in the sustainable forests act.
Environmentalists reacted angrily, calling for those responsible to be prosecuted.
Lawyers for Forests president Vanessa Bleyer said it was preposterous that Government employees could break the law and get away with it.
"The audit simply seeks to keep a record of criminal acts. What sort of response is that? I can't break the law and get away with it," she said.
Friends of the Earth spokesman Jonathan La Nauze said the destruction of the superb parrot's habitat should have alarmed the Government: "You only get one chance at saving a species from extinction, and this audit shows we're blowing it."
Environment East Gippsland spokesman Luke Chamberlain said a similar audit finding incompetence and mismanagement in the private sector would lead to mass sackings.
Acting Environment Minister Candy Broad said the Government believed adequate steps were being taken to stop logging breaches. She said it was encouraging that the annual audit found overall compliance in the timber industry was high.
Many of the EPA recommendations had already been put in place, including park boundaries being checked by Parks Victoria before harvesting, she said.
Date: 6-Feb-2006 Media release ACF
Environment groups have called on Victorian Premier Steve Bracks to immediately intervene to stop logging and woodchipping in the Royston Range, adjacent to the Lake Mountain ski resort, one of the last stands of old growth forest left close to Melbourne.
"Logging these coupes will severely impact upon the last remaining undisturbed scenic lookouts along the Lake Mountain ski resort trails, working against the aims of the Alpine Resort 2020 strategy," said ACF's Forest Campaign coordinator Lindsay Hesketh.
"Premier Bracks must show leadership and stop the logging immediately."
"The case to protect the Royston from logging and woodchipping is irrefutable. This area contains significant stands of rainforest and old growth veteran trees that are designated critical habitat for the Leadbeaters possum, Victoria's endangered faunal emblem, as well as other threatened forest dependent species. It adjoins mature sub alpine snow gum woodland and is within the headwaters of a significant tributary of the Goulburn River."
"Our understanding is that the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) has not even surveyed the area for these values before handing it over to be destroyed."
The Wilderness Society's Victorian Campaigns Manager Gavan McFadzean said: "We are shocked and appalled that the Bracks government has allowed logging to proceed in another of the state's last old growth forests, only 90 minutes drive from Melbourne, impacting on one of our key tourism assets. The Bracks government's policy allowing old growth forest logging falls way short of community expectations. It's time Premier Bracks followed the lead of premiers in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia and protected old growth forests for future generations."
Environment and community groups are discussing options to stop the logging and are currently seeking advice as to whether the logging is legal.
Read more about the Royston Range at the Central Highlands Alliance website. More on the Central Highlands, The Central Highlands Alliance Campaigns, and the Leadbeaters Possum go to http://www.tcha.org.au/
PDF Submission by The Central Highlands Alliance and others to DSE re logging in these coupes 2004 - with photos of areas and detailed maps of terrain and coupes PROPOSED CLEARFELL LOGGING ADJACENT LAKE MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT
See also - 18/02/06 - A possum stares extinction in the face - By Tracee Hutchison - The Age - Opinion - February 18, 2006 ;
06/02/06 - Anti-loggers stage protest - Herald / Sun -Central Highlands - 06feb06
Anti-loggers stage protest
Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Lindsay Hesketh said the case against logging and woodchipping in the area was irrefutable.
"This area contains significant stands of rainforest and old growth veteran trees which are a designated critical habitat for the Leadbeaters possum."
The endangered possum is Victoria's fauna emblem. Other species also relied on the forest for food.
Comment was being sought from the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
See also - 18/02/06 - A possum stares extinction in the face - By Tracee Hutchison - The Age - Opinion - February 18, 2006 ;
06/02/06 - Stop destruction of old growth trees & endangered wildlife on Melbourne’s fringe - Media release ACF - 6-Feb-2006
Read more about the Royston Range at the Central Highlands Alliance website.
More on the Central Highlands, The Central Highlands Alliance Campaigns, and the Leadbeaters Possum go to http://www.tcha.org.au/
PDF Submission by The Central Highlands Alliance and others to DSE re logging in these coupes 2004 - with photos of areas and detailed maps of terrain and coupes PROPOSED CLEARFELL LOGGING ADJACENT LAKE MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT