Rethink burn targets – Comrie
Former Victorian Police Commissioner Neil Comrie who has the job of monitoring the response to the Black Saturday Royal Commission, says a target to burn 5% of Victoria’s public land every year must be reconsidered. Neil Comrie is now saying what we have for years – DSE should instead focus on protecting high-risk fire areas …
Logging gets free water but irrigators pay
How’s this quote – the forestry industry’s water take is “worse” for irrigation communities than government buy-backs “because there’s zero compensation for it”. This is from a key irrigation spokesperson. The Australian Conservation Foundation looked at the Goulburn catchment and found the river would lose almost 4 million megalitres in the next century as clearfelled …
Logging road curve given quarter of a million upgrade
A logging road in South Gippsland is being given a quarter of a million dollar upgrade to help the trucks travel faster. Deputy Premier and Gippsland South National Party MLA Peter Ryan said his government will widen a bend on Woorarra Rd, between Wonyip and Ryton Junction. This road curve has inadequate passing space for …
PLANET (d)ARK SELLS its soul
Planet Ark or Dark as some say – famous for loo paper, soap powder and advocating we recycle our Xmas cards – has accepted a large parcel of cash from the logging industry, in exchange for its ‘green’ endorsement of forest destruction. No genuine green group would go near the AFS with a bottle of …
Harvey Norman’s Naturally Australian floorboards hard on wildlife
If you buy furniture or flooring from Harvey Norman stores, you could well be aiding the destruction of native forests, wildlife and the NSW koala populations. Markets for Change followed the supply line of timber and found the flooring they sell comes from prime forest habitat of coastal NSW koala populations that are on the …
197,000 ha of fried forest
The largest area of forest since 1991 was burnt by DSE this last season. DSE publicly celebrated a whopping 197,000 ha that they burnt last season out of their 225,000ha target for 2011-12. Wet conditions thankfully slowed down the East Gippsland burns. Next year DSE plans to torch a quarter of a million hectares across …
Bushfire burnoff goal ‘needs review’
THE man charged with monitoring the state government’s response to the Black Saturday royal commission says a target to burn 5 per cent of Victoria’s public land every year to ease bushfire risk must be reconsidered. In his final report Bushfire Royal Commission Implementation Monitor Neil Comrie says the state’s burning program should instead focus …
Rezoning owls to extinction?
Being our ‘eagles of the night’, owls are rarely seen. Our most mysterious owls are those that live in forests, and even more cryptic are those that can only thrive in old growth forests. They are becoming increasingly endangered. Our state government is currently reviewing owl protection zones (June 2012), but they are using out …
Rare Potoroos – search and destroy
The discovery by VicForests contracted surveyors of the endangered Long-footed Potoroo (LFP) only kilometers from its known range is not at all surprising. Bemm River and its ‘epicentre’ Bellbird Creek are very close by. What is surprising is VicForests’ claim to be looking after these rare animals, after the Minister in charge of logging, Peter …