Arve Action 30/07/07

Sick and tired of forest destruction occuring unnoticed and unchallenged in hidden ancient forests, four Weld activists took it upon themselves to halt logging yesterday in the Arve valley, west of Geeveston.

The forest contains old growth obliqua forest which has been turned into an 83 hectare clearfell over a four month period. The forest, only a couple of ks from Forestry Tasmania's Arve Rd tourism/propaganda showpiece, is adjacent to the Arve Loop reserve, a 950 ha formal reserve. Behind this reserve is several thousand hectares of unroaded wilderness between the Arve and Picton Valleys, with this area continous with the Hartz Mountain National Park, itself a part of the World Heritage Area.

Forest Defenders entered the site at 11:30, stopping work, with FT representative Terry turning up in the snappy time of half an hour. Terry informed the protestors that he was disapointed we had regressed in our relationship, and that he was calling workplace health and safety to come down and threaten us with big fines( this has been tried previously with fines of up to $20,000 but to date OH&S and the Department of Public Prosecutions have failed to take any activists to court over this, though they have tried). We decided to stick around.

An hour and a half later, Terry informed us he had:
1. filed an incident report with OH&S
2.Was planning to draw up an exclusion zone over the whole Arve Loop area (this includes the Arve Big Tree, a major tourism draw, with no other active coupes in the area)
3.Was directing the contractors to file a cost report with Gunns, with the additional phrase "and you know what that's about", which appeard to be an implied threat regarding the current suing of the Huon Valley Environment Centre by Gunns.

It appears the Police are sick of dealing with the problems FT creates by logging these areas, so FT are calling in legal tactics to deal with situations. This backfired majorly when HVEC was sued by FT in February, and as this day shows, the tactic continues to be inneffective.

We again decided to stay. We subsequently negotiated with FT and the contractors to allow them to load one tree hearse if everybody went home afterwards. We thought this fair enough, so the truck was loaded, no more work occured that day, and a progressive interaction was had by all.

The Arve area , particularly the large unroaded wilderness area between the Arve and Picton that FT are planning to access soon, looks like another front in the Southern Forests where activists and Forestry will once again clash.

Also Flozza crew conducted an action outside FT headquarters in Hobart yesterday, as Bill Beese "ecologist" from Canada told everyone how great aggregated retention (clump clearfelling) is.

From ABC Online: sorry Don, anyone will tell you this coupe is old growth!
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/30/1992163.htm?section=business

Logging activisits want extension to Hartz National Park

Posted Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:00pm AEST
Logging in a southern Tasmanian forest has been halted by a group of protesters.

Six protesters from the Huon Environment Centre entered a coupe in the Arve Valley west of Geeveston this morning, forcing the timber cutters to stop work.

Jenny Weber from the Environment Centre is calling for the area to be protected by adding it to the Hartz National Park.

"The current logging area is 80 hectares, its a massive area, its old growth forest, and it's just another wilderness area in southern Tasmania which is consigned to destruction for the current Tasmania forestry industry, and we're calling for urging protection."

But Forestry Tasmania's acting district manager, Donald Riddill says the area is not classified as old growth forest.

"This particular bit of forest is mainly mature forest or regrowth forest," he said.
He says Forestry Tasmania is moving to establish an exclusion zone in the area to prevent further protests.
Tags: forestry, activism-and-lobbying, timber, tasLogging activisits want extension to Hartz National Park
Posted Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:00pm AEST
Logging in a southern Tasmanian forest has been halted by a group of protesters.
Six protesters from the Huon Environment Centre entered a coupe in the Arve Valley west of Geeveston this morning, forcing the timber cutters to stop work.
Jenny Weber from the Environment Centre is calling for the area to be protected by adding it to the Hartz National Park.
"The current logging area is 80 hectares, its a massive area, its old growth forest, and it's just another wilderness area in southern Tasmania which is consigned to destruction for the current Tasmania forestry industry, and we're calling for urging protection."
But Forestry Tasmania's acting district manager, Donald Riddill says the area is not classified as old growth forest.
"This particular bit of forest is mainly mature forest or regrowth forest," he said.
He says Forestry Tasmania is moving to establish an exclusion zone in the area to prevent further protests.
Tags: forestry, activism-and-lobbying, timber, tas

Flicks for The Styx/Planned Weld Destruction

So we have some tentative confirmation regarding FT's plans for the Lower Weld over the upcoming summer/year:

1. bridge over the Weld River behind Reuben's Falls, accessing the southern edge of the North Weld Wilderness. this will facilitate logging of BB16E - old growth tall eucalypt and rainforest.
2. extension of the Barnback Rd further into the North Weld Wilderness. This as currently exists is a nightmare, it runs within 50m of the WHA, and the destructive potential this road opens up is frightening - the view form this road exposes the whole of the North Weld Wilderness thats being opened up. BB19C, next to WHA, is up for here.
3.extension of Eddy Spur 2(behind the former Weld Ark) to access BB18A, a previously unlogged forest bordered by the Weld River and Eddy Creek.
4.extension of another road from the denison to access BB24A, a forest of towering eucalyptus regnans. This coupe, a couple of kilometres from teh Weld Ark, is up for this year.
5.coupe between glovers bluff and the weld river.
6.small patch harvesting operation occuring in the Sth Weld as we speak, as does WR12c cable coupe.

In other areas:
1.logging continues in AR41A, amazing old growth forest adjacent to arve reserve.
2.plans to road into the wilderness area that lies on the ridge between the picton and arve valleys, adjacent to arve reserve and Hartz mountain NP.
3.logging continues in forest alongside the Little Denison river, adjaccnt to wedge tailed eagle nests. This logging must stop by wednesday as the eagle breeding season starts. These eagles nests are next to the Barnback rd used to access the North Weld, and so access is restricted between august and february. FT are seeking an evaluation to see if the nests are active (used by breeding pairs), if they are found not to be then the road will be open in october november.
The logging operation could potentially have scared the eagles off these nests but recent sightings indicate they are still around. if everyone out there could try to connect with the eagles and promote them to make the love then the summer will be easier for activists and eagles.

The FT three year wood production plan detailing the above situations should be released in the very near future, with information put up as it comes to hand.

love to all the good people....

Federal ALP Sell Out

So, Rudd and Garrett have sold us out.....it looks like they have totally written off any chance of further reservation of old growth , contradicting labor policy from the April conference. Is there more to come , or are the forests of the Weld, Florentine, Styx, and the rest of the high conservation value Southern Forests being resigned to the same fate as so many other magic places lost to the planet for all time? Time will tell.....

It seems beyond comprehension that the ALP, and Garrett in particular, will risk the wrath of the large section of the Tasmanian and Australian communities that value,and vote on, our unique forests.

Get Up Film Competition

Hey all, this is from our friends at Still Wild Still Threatened:



Tasmania's Southern Forests
Still Wild Still Threatened



Protecting Tasmania's Forests - A Real Climate Change Solution

Help Tassie's forests feature on national prime time television in the lead up to the federal election.

OUR ADS MESSAGE

Deforestation contributes more to global greenhouse gas emissions annually than the transport sector.
Ending native forest logging in Tasmania is equivalent to taking 4.6 million cars off Australia's roads.
KEEP THE CARBON IN THE FOREST


The Tasmanian government has identified logging and landclearing as being the state's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. (Tasmanian Draft Climate Change Strategy)


'Oz in 30 Seconds' (by GetUp) is a call to arms (or digital video cameras, actually) to create, rate and air television ads that promote a better, fairer, more progressive Australia. This is a chance to show us your Australia by making a 30 second political ad, which we will air on national prime time television during the lead up to the federal election.

Still Wild Still Threatened has entered three ads in this competition and we are seeking your support in getting one of them onto national television!

The highest ranking 10 ads will be screened at a gala event at the Opera House,
even having one of our ads make the top ten would see Tassie's Forests
gain awesome coverage at this important time.

The voting system has been setup to make it as fair as possible for all entries. This means that to vote for our entries it will be necessary to view and vote for other peoples ads as well.

You can view our ads by following these links.
(note these are compressed files, the final versions are of broadcast quality)

A Real Climate Change Solution www.ozin30seconds.org/node/310

Conservation Cools the Planet www.ozin30seconds.org/node/309

Forests for the Future www.ozin30seconds.org/node/308

TO VOTE go to the "watch and vote' section of www.ozin30seconds.org

If you go to the bottom of this page you will be able to scroll through the pages using 'rate more videos' until you get a page that includes one of our ads. For your vote to be valid you will need to view and vote for all of the ads on the same page. Giving a very low (unrealistic) rating for the competing ads may result in all ratings being discounted.

Please forward this email amongst your networks - friends, family etc

THANKYOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

If you are interested in helping to draw attention to the plight of Tasmania's forests
in the lead up to the election please contact me.

Cheers
For the Forests
Ben

Forestry Tasmania draft management plan.

Hey all,
FT is is in initial preparation for formulating it's forest management plan for the next ten years. theyre asking for public comment on the plan, before july 20. write to them and ask for what you want.
details at forestrytas.com.au .

Styx Operation Shutdown

Last monday around 30 crew from Camp Flozza, the Derwent Valley community and Weld mob conducted Styx Operation Shutdown. The high profile Styx still(contrary to common perception) contains large tracts of old growth /world heritage valued forest that is under threat , with some areas being smashed as i type.

To highlight this situation, both ends of Styx Rd, the 45km long main acess rd was blockaded, as well as the Plenty Link Rd(this road runs between the Derwent and Huon forests, and was designed to get logs from the Huon to Gunns' Triabunna chip mill without going through Hobart,and get logs from the Derwent to the Southwood super-mill/woodfired power station.FT messed up the engineering of the road though.ha.).

At the eastern end was the Magna of Menace, just behind the bridge over the Styx River, and a pod with giant cray atop on the plenty rd, and at the western end was an eagle up a pod and the hand of justice/intruding finger of lust cable set up on Styx rd.

Crew were subjected to a one man cop frenzy of bi-polarity, with a local copper arresting everyone at the dragon end straight away, breaking the lock on bunnys nose by punching him and smashing his head against the steering wheel, allowing loggers to hit the bunny in the arm with axes, shovels and screwdrivers,as well as smash protestors vehicles and assault them, before planning to remove the bunny by ripping his arm off(lifting the car with an excavator). The aforementioned cop also drove through part of the hand of justice before threatening to cut it down and waving a knife around, and then pulled over a tripod as crew were packing up, almost wiping a local woman out.

And as a coup de grace my car got torched, followed by an unsuccesful 15km hippie van/white ute chase,replete with banjo car chase music to catch the perpetrator.big day. hopefully we get some joy out of trying to nail the copper, his actions were totally out of hand. got some good media but as yet not as much as the situation deserves.

In down south news, loggers are in Denison 19D, a coupe containing 2 active eagle nests.It was partially logged last year ,and was blockaded (with another coupe in the same area) for about 10 days in April 06. Eagle breeding season which means no logging within 500m runs from august to feb. These nests are less than this distance from the Barnback rd, which restricts access to the Weld Wilderness accessing Road to Ruin for six months of the year. A cynic might think that FT are trying to scare away the eagles in order to be able to use this road over the dry summer months............

cya

Zero Emissions Conference/the Highway to Hell

Hey all. A couple of crew representing HVEC and Still Wild Still Threatened attended the first Zero Emissions Network conference in Melbourne last weekend. Zero Emissions Network is a composite of climate action groups and other environmental organisations focused on achieving zero emissions as quickly as possible.

The conference was very inspiring, which surprised me as any climate slap of reality is usually succeeded by a bout of depression, anger and frustration at how stupid we all are. It was great to see people like the Bayside Climate Action Group and Central Victorian Climate Action working in their local communities and making good progress towards educating the community and government, and taking real steps towards cutting emissions.

We managed to connect with some cluey forestclimate folk and came away with plenty of ideas for where we can go from here. Forests clearing and logging is the world's third largest greenhouse emitter, around 18% of the total (and 22% of Tasmania's total), and Tassie's third world logging practices, and large scale annihilation of old , carbon storing forests ensure we are keeping up world's best practice of earth destruction.

3-4 degree temperature rise by end of century and 90% of the planet's biosphere dies. There is no coming back from this. This is where we are headed, even with the kind of cuts being touted by governments and politicians around the world. Forests store carbon and help regulate the planet. As well as releasing carbon, eco-system destruction is destroying Earth's ability to look after itself. When we fill the air with greenhouse gas and destroy most of it's life, it'll be a little late for emissions trading. Abetz, NAFI et al can trot out all the doctored figures and straight out lies they want regarding the climateforests debate, but the fact is that history will hold these people to account when we and are children are drowning/frying/dying of thirst.

check out www.zeroemissionsnetwork.org