Rare plants that have not been seen in more than a decade have been rediscovered by four botanists in South East Forests National Park near Bombala. The group of plant scientists from the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the Australian National Botanic Gardens and the Australian National Herbarium embarked on …
The Andrews government has been told it must choose between saving Victoria’s endangered emblem the Leadbeater’s possum or hundreds of timber industry jobs. The government’s forest taskforce has been told the only way to save the Leadbeater’s Possum, is to stop logging in the Central Highlands. The highlands are home to the vast majority of …
A parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s forestry body won’t be a “witch hunt” because it is simply designed to get some answers for the state’s ailing timber mills, Victorian MP Jeff Bourman says. Mr Bourman, an MP for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, has established a parliamentary inquiry into VicForests, who manage the state’s timber …
A comparison of conditions in the outback on either side of Australia’s dingo fence has revealed that extermination of these apex predators not only affects the abundance of other animals and plants, but also reduces the quality of the soil. The UNSW study indicates greater control of kangaroo numbers is needed across a third of …
Legal and scientific basis for an Interim Conservation Order under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 to protect Leadbeater’s Possum – Summary Acting on behalf of Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum Inc., on 24th April Environmental Justice Australia submitted a letter and supporting documents to the Victorian Environment Minister, the Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio requesting an …
In 2009, 75,000 ha of Victoria’s forests were burnt in the Black Saturday bushfires. Over a 3rd of that was forests earmarked for the logging industry. The prospect of bushfires are never calculated into long term planning or log contracts with mills. Couple this situation with other bushfires and a history of overlogging and the …
Fire shapes biome distribution and community composition worldwide, and is extensively used as a management tool in flammable landscapes. There is growing concern, however, that fire could increase the vulnerability of native fauna to invasive predators. We developed a conceptual model of the ways in which fire could influence predator–prey dynamics. Using a before–after, control–impact …
According to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change late last month, sequestering carbon dioxide is only one of the crucial climate-regulating attributes inherent to the world’s forests. Trees are a crucial regulating factor in the cycle of water and heat exchange between Earth’s surface and atmosphere – and thus forests play …
Sometimes it takes a cute and furry species on the brink of extinction to get people thinking about nature protection laws. And when a federal politician recommends the furry creature’s threatened species status be downgraded to allow its dwindling forest habitat to be logged, well that’s sure to get the public’s attention. There has been …
THE people of the Latrobe Valley are right to be dismayed by the looming fate of the Australian Sustainable Hardwoods mill at Heyfield. Gippsland has long been the centre of the hardwood timber industry in Victoria, and the hardwood timber industry has long played a major part in Gippsland’s development and in its prosperity. The …
