Reflex paper targeted by consumer campaign
Reflex is made from ripping down the beautiful ash forests of the Central Highlands, Melbourne’s water catchments and the home of the endangered state faunal emblem, the Leadbeaters Possum. The Wilderness Society and other enviro groups have been trying to negotiate a win-win outcome with the makers of Reflex paper for the last five years. …
EPBC Act 10-year review recommendations released … and rejected
The first 10-year review of the Commonwealth’s environmental legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)was made publicly available on 21 December 2009. It was conducted by Dr Allan Hawke throughout 2009. The final report makes 71 recommendations, covering numerous aspects of the Act’s operation from the significant to the relatively minor. …
Green Building Council of Australia decision supports destruction of old-growth forests
The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has caved into Australia’s forest practitioners by amending a Green Star Rating Scheme that will endorse timber from destructive clearfelling operations in old growth forests, said the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) today. “The GBCA has given in to extreme pressure from representatives of state government forestry agencies and …
EEG tree banner in city march
A large team of EEG members and supporters created and marched, as part of a crowd of 40,000 people, with a huge yellow banner through the city streets in early December 2009 to highlight the role forests play in the climate solution. Forests are being overlooked in the whole debate, and as France rightly pointed …
FSC shuns VicForests wood as unsustainably logged
After discussions between green groups and the certifying agents of the Forest Stewardship Council in mid 2009 – supposedly the most reputable forest certifying body in the world, VicForests were thankfully refused endorsement by the FSC. Certifying logging – should we ever endorse native forest logging? In 2007 the logging industry was desperately grabbing for …
Q: How are VicForest activities controlled on days of high fire danger?
Greg Barber, Greens member for Northern Metro, asked Environment Minister Gavin Jennings what controls have been put in place given the significant number of fires caused by salvage logging operations in November in the Central Highlands. These fires started when dry logs dragged across others on the ground, amongst logging debris, generated heat enough to …
Firefighters push for tough action on climate
Members of the United Firefighters Union of Australia travelled to Parliament House in Canberra on the 18th November 2009 to demand that politicians stop treating action on Climate Change like “a political football”. Speaking on behalf of the union, Peter Marshall called on the opposition to accept the Emissions Trading Scheme. He also suggested to …
Fire retardants and the dying Lakes
Who ever stops to consider what might be in those bright pink fire retardants the DSE dumps by the thousands of tonnes all over our forests, water catchments, houses, bridges and streams almost every summer? In the desperate situation of a bushfire, who wants to know? Certainly not the government. The plight of the Gippsland …
Propoganda machine in overdrive
Hats off to Minister Jennings for turning his Department into the ALP’s propaganda office. When the DSE asked part of the Department to do a survey for endangered animals in East Gippsland, the Departmental staff were so poorly resourced that they didn’t have enough time to do the work properly. Eventually, it was left to …