VicForests busted again
VicForests has a chronic habit of illegal logging. This time it has been caught illegally logging protected rainforest near Hensleigh Creek on the western edge of the Errinundra Plateau.
It has been investigated but logging continues and the forests need you to act.
Email: lisa.neville@nullparliament.vic.gov.au
Call: 03 9637 9654
Tweet: @LisanevilleMP
#LogOutOfRainforest #ProsecuteVicForests
The cool temperate rainforest and mixed forest was very easily identified despite it having been cut down. Giant sassafras trees and other obvious rainforest species were strewn over the ground. Nathan Trushall, VicForests’ General Manager for Planning, when interviewed by Gippsland ABC on 10th April said he didn’t think they had logged rainforest.
“
…our level of compliance has consistently been shown to be high … we’ve put an incredible amount of effort into our own procedures, our own training and verification of identification of rainforests”
Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) crew found the illegal logging in early April. They gathered photographic evidence and sent a report to the environment minister and VicForests. The irony is that they had to break the law by entering a so called ‘public safety zone’ to document an even greater crime of VicForests destroying valuable public property; cool temperate rainforest protected under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (FFGA).