NSW group South East Forest Rescue (SEFR) has successfully won a case to prevent the operation of a wood pellet plant in Eden by the woodchip exporter SEFE (South East Fibre Export). SEFE is 100% Japanese owned by Nippon Paper and Itochu and export over a million tonnes of woodchips a year. The new plan …
VicForests is becoming a familiar defendant in the Victorian Supreme Court. In late 2010 the Court found it guilty of intending to illegally log an old growth forest near Brown Mountain that supports protected rare and endangered wildlife. Now they are again in the same court defending their actions to destroy Victoria’s faunal emblem, the …
Snowy River Alliance has called on the Victorian Coalition Government to honour the requirements and intent of the Snowy legislation regarding the establishment of an independent Snowy Scientific Committee and has expressed grave concerns regarding the lack of due process. The Snowy Scientific Committee (SSC) is the key independent scientific body required by legislation to …
You’da thunk VicForests might have learnt something from the Brown Mountain case. Nup. It’s in court again, this time with another group. Environment group, MyEnvironment, is suing them to stop them logging a stand of known Leadbeaters Possum habitat at Sylvia Creek. The Sylvia Creek case will be heard on Feb 6 at Melbourne’s Supreme …
Kosher power companies to buy from Wondering which power company you should change to now that well soon have a choice? Environment Victoria sent out questionnaires to all Victorian power companies asking if they intend to use forest waste to burn as part of their mandatory 2% renewables target. They received replies from only four. …
Perhaps it is a pity that so many Australians think of our parks, gardens, streetscapes and urban landscapes only in terms of their aesthetics. While green spaces are beautiful and decorative, these attributes can mask the many functions vegetation serves in cities, to the point where its economic, social and environmental benefits are overlooked. Yes, …
This WA Report looks at how the disastrous Margaret River fires of 2011 got away and burnt 32 homes. It lists a series of findings and focuses heavily on WA’s Department of Environment and Conservation’s (DEC) poorly applied risk management practices and policies governing the undertaking of planned burns. The Report notes that the DEC …
Environment East Gippsland had a win today as the Supreme Court decided that its rainforest logging case can go to trial after Easter, with VicForests not able to log the site in the meantime. “VicForests was about to log illegally in a protected National Rainforest Site of Significance. We started this Court proceeding to stop …
EEG has again been forced to sue VicForests in the Supreme Court over their logging of a protected rainforest buffer at Cobb Hill on the Errinundra Plateua. All National Rainforest Sites of Significance are protected under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. These areas must be protected by law. The case was set to be …
Losses to life and property from unplanned fires (wildfires) are forecast to increase because of population growth in peri-urban areas and climate change. In response, there have been moves to increase fuel reduction—clearing, prescribed burning, biomass removal and grazing—to afford greater protection to peri-urban communities in fire-prone regions. But how effective are these measures? Severe …
