Bellerive funding falls short

Then our tall-eucalypt forests can enjoy the same protection and reverence as California’s statuesque oldgrowth redwoods and become a great international drawcard for Tasmania.

Elizabeth Perey: President,
Florentine Protection Society,

Geoff Law on The Observer Tree website, HERE

www.observertree.org

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=bc3eaa378269a9a44a935f44e&id=8375b9d497&e=

http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/frustration-with-dishonoured-agreement-leads-to-forest-action.-watch-forest/

https://www.facebook.com/ObserverTree

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/20111214-conflict-over-peace-deal-logging/3730540?section=tas

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=153971568041372&set=a.153843248054204.26812.152795598158969&type=1&theater

Lily Leahy

Please share this and support this amazing unprecedented campaign for Tassie’s Forest, TheObserverTree is old growth forest beauty meets destruction filmed and beamed to the internet as it happens, check out the blog and like the page to support this.

Geoff Law

Well done to the audacious crew at Still Willd Still Threatened for another imaginative protest – and especially to Miranda Gibson for her courageous stand in one of the threatened oldgrowth giants on Mt Mueller in Tasmania’s south-west. Read about the ObserverTree below.

Ula Majewski

Chek out the amazing new project in Tassie. The inspiring Miranda Gibson from Still Wild Still Threatened is sitting in a tree right now, defending the forests of Mt Mueller. Please support her and our forests, which are being smashed right now

Conflict over peace deal logging

Updated December 14, 2011 14:49:47

PreviousNextSlideshow: Photo 1 of 2

Photo: Protester Miranda Gibson is 60 metres up a tree in a Forestry Tasmania coupe. (ABC Tony King)

Map: TAS

Environmental activists are stepping up their campaign against Forestry Tasmania, over claims it is continuing to log in native forest earmarked for immediate protection.

The group Still Wild Still Threatened has set up a tree sit in a coupe under Mount Muir, west of the Styx Valley.

Activist Miranda Gibson is 60-metres up the tree and filming what she claims shows Forestry Tasmania is logging in the 430,000 hectares being considered for protection under the peace deal.

“That was signed in August by the Prime Minister and was clearly stated that an immediate conservation agreement would go over this area of forest.”

The Wilderness Society has also accused Forestry Tasmania of unacceptable logging in areas earmarked for protection under the federally-funded deal.

The company is accused of logging 13 coupes being investigated for possible protection.

Vica Bayley claims critical areas are being logged.

“We know that the moratorium that should have been delivered in March failed.”

“We’re now seeing logging in critical areas such as the Tyena, Ben Lomond, the Picton and this is just unacceptable and untenable from an environment perspective.

“At a time when everybody else is trying to get a restructure and transition out of native forest logging and into plantation, Forestry Tasmania is flogging their plantations and bulldozing ahead with native forest logging and this is unacceptable.

Peace deal delays

Forestry Tasmania says it has done everything it can to reschedule logging outside of the native forests which environmentalists say have high conservation value.

Managing director Bob Gordon says environmentalists are making its transition from native logging difficult, after changing the boundaries for protected forests.

“After we rescheduled, they made them high conservation value forest again.”

The company says it will have to log a further 13 coupes due to delays in the verification process.

Mr Gordon says the non-government agencies involved in the peace process have had major wins and he denies the company is acting in bad faith.

“We sat down with them every month with Mr Kelty and his advisers and said here’s the logging schedule, here’s the demand we have from customers, here are all the options and all during that process they’ve been kept fully informed.”

“The level of harvesting in Tasmanian forests has substantially reduced and we have acted in good faith in accordance with the original principles agreed by the signatories to avoid as much as we can logging in those areas, but we are not going to put our customers out of business,” he said.

The media was taken by helicopter to the Styx area by Australian Greens leader Bob Brown.

Topics: forests, forestry, activism-and-lobbying, federal—state-issues, tas, maydena-7140

First posted December 14, 2011 10:20:09

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/12/15/284721_tasmania-news.html

I totally admire and support these wonderful young people. Why did Prime Minister Gillard promise that these old growth forests, which the IUCN has said could be added to the World Heritage Area, when she is now allowing them to be logged. Logging in the Styx and Upper Florentine has to stop right now.

Posted by: Angela McGowan of South Hobart 8:01am today

The Florentine Protection Society sent letters to all MLCs re the Intergovernmental Agreement: here is the one to MLC Ruth Forrest (above), with her response (below). She completely ignores the fact that change in the forest industry was thanks to market forces and the industry’s subsequent realisation of the necessity for change. This happened in spite of all the efforts of government and Forestry Tas to maintain a fantasy world where our industry would be insulated from world-wide impacts, like a glut of pulp and cheaper operators, but still operate on the world market. FT’s increasingly creative financing and refusal to answer to parliamentary committees have been essential to maintain the fiction that the industry is profitable.
Unreal!
Reply from Ruth Forrest - 24 August 2011

The legislation still has to be passed – nothing is certain until the fat lady sings!  But, it is definitely looking a lot better than it did!

We had a successful banner action on Saturday, 2 April at Salamanca.
“Worth More Standing” made a great impact and we had lots of positive feedback from passers-by. We’ll be there again next Saturday, 9 April.

We have got these postcards (with text on the back) printed and ready for you to send to Prime Minsiter Julia Gillard. Contact us (info@florentine.org.au) if you would like any. Or click on this link to download the pdf.