Before the election the Bracks government made a quiet little offering to get rid of the niggling pressure they were under regarding their long time promise to protect the Gippsland Strzelecki forests. Their offer was a compromise to protect the important central sites and its connecting links (called ‘cores and links’) but if you read …
When Labor announced it would protect all ‘significant stands’ of old growth, they must have been using their special parliamentary dictionary. In Eastern Victoria, Mr Bracks protected only 5% of areas identified as critical to extinction-proof native species and protect domestic water catchments. The Forest Alliance had carefully mapped and scientifically validated these areas. Wins …
Old growth forests store massive amounts of carbon but have been accused of just ‘stagnating’ and not actively absorbing any. Quite the opposite is true. Old-growth forests continue to remove far more carbon than previously thought, making their protection a high priority in tackling global warming. A new study found that a 400-year-old forest in …
Old growth forests store massive amounts of carbon but have been accused of just ‘stagnating’ and not actively absorbing any. Quite the opposite is true. Old-growth forests continue to remove far more carbon than previously thought, making their protection a high priority in tackling global warming. A new study found that a 400-year-old forest in …
Despite a promise to protect old growth forests that link the Errinundra and Snowy parks, logging crews were clearfelling 30ha of giant trees in a protected area that Premier Bracks had promised would get “immediate protection”. Environment Minister John Thwaites was not willing to comment on the issue at first but later said that any …
In October last year, a group of timber workers started a lobby group called Loggers for Forests. The group wants to stop woodchipping in old growth forests and to use trees taken from forests more efficiently. Mick Harris is a timber contractor from Fernbank in East Gippsland and he says most loggers think woodchipping is …
Discovered in 2003 in an area planned for logging, the Darejo tree has now had its immediate area protected from logging, but its giant Shining Gum relatives were not so lucky – they didn’t meet the 12.5 girth minimum that gains them protection. Darejo is a very impressive tree. It has a huge base with …
First we had the Bracks government, via the DSE/VicForests, doing a trial to see if they can log old growth more slowly (the Old Growth Project), then in late February, the Minister for forests, John Thwaites, announced a new six month consultation process with the logging industry in East Gippsland to work out how many …
One of the main reasons for blockading logging is to generate media and alert the public to what is happening in their own forests. The ’05-06 summer was a great success with plenty of blockades and good media coverage. We hear the protests have even been noticed in Spring Street. All up 12 protests were …
A December 2005 truck-check vigil at the Eden woodchip mill showed that over 2/3rds of logs that entered the Nippon woodchip mill at Eden were large, meaning they are from mature and old growth forests. Of the 158 trucks that arrived between 4am and 7pm on just one day, 75% came from the south (the …
