GIANTS and RAINFOREST – going down today!
For the past 3 weeks the giant trees of Mount Jersey have been falling at a rate so fast locals are saying it “sounds like a factory out in the forests, from early in the morning to late into the night, the machines don’t stop. Two to three trees on the back of one truck has become a common site.”
Early in October 2013 members of the Goongerah Environment Centre visited a stand of old growth (coupe 891-512-02). They found serious rainforest breaches.
The Jersey rainforest is a rare and significant warm/cool temperate overlap type. It appears to have been misidentified by VicForests’ foresters – once again. It was included in the logging area rather than marked for protection.
VicForests has a long and appalling record of not properly identifying rainforest and subsequently destroying this protected EVC. Last year its blatant destruction of about 8ha of rainforest near Murrungowar saw DSE take legal action against VicForests. But an out of court agreement was reached that included a 12 month “good behavior” bond for Vic Forests, and they were to improve their rainforest identification skills during the 12 months.
EEG has written to the govt asking what has been done, what new and improved systems are in place and to obtain the settlement details and any subsequent report.
GECO has written and presented a rainforest breach report to the government. They were informed that logging in the Southern part of the coup has been halted until the “regular procedures” have been put into place for verifying the claim. It appears that those responsible for the breach will be investigating it!
Meanwhile, the old growth, giant tress and habitat for the rare old growth dependent wildlife continue to be butchered and destroyed. We are told this is all legal and carried out under the world’s best logging practices and strictly enforced codes.
Nothing could be further from the truth!