BAN KRILL FISHING IN ANTARCTIC WATERS: Krill supertrawlers found trawling through whale pods for a second year in a row in the Antarctic.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxgdmnm8RYs

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), 16 February 2018:

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba)

Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans.

In the Southern Ocean, one species, the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, makes up an estimated biomass of around 379 000 000 tonnes1, more than that of the global population of humans. Of this, over half is eaten by whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish each year, and is replaced through reproduction and subsequent growth of the krill population. Krill can live up to 8 years in aquariums but in the wild they probably live for 3 to 4 years, spawning when they are 2 to 3 years old.

They are important in the food chain because they feed on phytoplankton, and to a lesser extent zooplankton, making nutrients available to other animals for which krill make up the largest part of their diet. For this reason krill are considered a keystone species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

Krill undertake large daily vertical migrations, providing food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.

The size of the krill population is very variable from year to year and the changes observed appear to be driven mostly by how many young krill enter the population each year. This may be driven by variability in the amount of sea-ice, which is why there is a concern about the effects of climate change.....

“The krill fishing industry claimed that the images of krill trawlers fishing amongst whales that we captured last year were a rare occurrence. It’s now evident that it is par for the course. 

Krill is caught for products we do not need such as to create feed for farmed salmon or pet food. There is no need to destroy the foundation of the Antarctic ecosystem. It should shock all Australians that the farmed salmon that is produced in Tasmania, is fed the very food that penguins, seals and whales rely on to survive in Antarctica.” [Bob Brown Foundation, media release, 26 January 2024]

Echo, 26 January 2024:

Krill ships in Antarctica, trawling near whales. Screenshot from Sea Shepherd Global video.

Today Sea Shepherd Global has released footage and images of large industrial krill supertrawlers, once again trawling in large pods of whales off the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Bob Brown Foundation is calling on the Australian government to call on the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to ban krill fishing in the Antarctic, based on the huge impact it has on the wildlife that calls Antarctica home.

The Bob Brown Foundation travelled to Antarctica over the Austral summer of 2022/23 and witnessed devastating scenes of trawlers fishing amongst foraging whales and penguins.

In October 2023, the Bob Brown Foundation released a report on where krill that is caught ends up in Australia. This report found that 100 per cent of Australian pharmacies surveyed carried krill oil products from the Antarctic and that Biomar, a fish feed producer in Wesley Vale, Tasmania, used up to 1200 tons of krill meal per year. This is the equivalent of 1 billion individual krill.

Krill ships in Antarctica.

Screenshot from Sea Shepherd Global video.

‘Once again, these immense supertrawlers have been caught plundering krill right out of the mouths of penguins and whales in Antarctica,’ said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine campaigner at the Bob Brown Foundation.

‘The krill fishing industry claimed that the images of krill trawlers fishing amongst whales that we captured last year were a rare occurrence. It’s now evident that it is par for the course.

‘Krill is caught for products we do not need such as to created feed for farmed salmon or pet food,’ said Mr Allan.

‘There is no need to destroy the foundation of the Antarctic ecosystem. It should shock all Australians that the farmed salmon that is produced in Tasmania, is feed the very food that penguins, seals and whales rely on to survive in Antarctica.”

‘CCAMLR is expected to have a special meeting later this year to talk about Marine Protected Areas right where these trawlers operate. Australia must put forward a motion to ban krill fishing in Antarctica,’ said Alistair Allan.

Is United Arab Emirates & international fossil fuel industry scheming about to turn UN COP28 into a crime against humanity?

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is a 50 year old Emirati politician with a undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering, a Master in Business Administration and a PhD in Business and Economics. 

His studies appear to have been funded by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) - a state-owned multinational corporation of which he is currently Director-General & Chief Executive Officer. ADNOC is considered one of the world's largest energy companies measured by both fossil fuel reserves and production.

Critics tend to characterise ADNOC under his guidance as a corporation which focuses on 'greenwashing' rather than genuine greenhouse gas emissions reduction/climate change mitigation.

Al Jaber is currently the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.

He is also President of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) which is being hosted by oil-rich UAE and therein lies an immense conflict of interest which has the potential to fatally weaken the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

COP28 was convened for thirteen days with around 199 nations participating and concludes on Tuesday 12 December 2023. 

AlJazeera, 8 December 2023:

The head of OPEC has urged members to reject any COP28 agreement that “targets” fossil fuels, highlighting deep divisions as the UN climate conference in Dubai enters its final week.

A new draft of the final agreement published on Friday includes a range of options, from agreeing to a “phase out of fossil fuels in line with best available science”, to phasing out “unabated fossil fuels”, to including no language on them at all....

The nearly 200 nations gathered in Dubai are now expected to focus on the issue of fossil fuels in the hope of reaching a consensus before the gathering’s scheduled end......

The most vocal holdout to calls to end fossil fuels is Saudi Arabia, which like summit host United Arab Emirates, is a major oil producer.....

TheGuardian, 3 December 2023:

The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.

The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.

Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Al Jaber is also the CEO of the United Arab Emirates’s state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.

More than 100 countries already support a phase-out of fossil fuels and whether the final Cop28 agreement calls for this or uses weaker language such as “phase-down” is one of the most fiercely fought issues at the summit and may be the key determinant of its success. Deep and rapid cuts are needed to bring fossil fuel emissions to zero and limit fast-worsening climate impacts.....

Guterres told Cop28 delegates on Friday: “The science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.”.......

Newsweek, 1 December 2023:

The annual United Nations climate summit started yesterday. We're up to the 28th edition: "COP28." Past UN summits have obviously failed us, but this is a new low. Everyone on Earth needs to know that the meeting has been overrun by fossil fuel executives, making it a sick, planet-destroying joke. There's no real hope of stopping catastrophic global heating until we fix this.

The primary cause of global heating is fossil fuels; and global heating is what's driving all the crazy heat, fire, smoke, storms, flooding, drought, crop yield losses, and ecosystem death that is intensifying everywhere as Earth breaks down. This is basic physics and it's merciless. If left unchecked, every year on average will be hotter than the last, and at some point—no one knows exactly when or how it will unfold—global heating will take down civilization as we know it. Billions of lives are at risk, and the damage to Earth's habitability will last for so long that it will be essentially permanent as far as humans are concerned.

Since fossil fuels are the cause, the only way out of this emergency is to ramp down and ultimately end the fossil fuel industry. Recycling and composting aren't bad things in and of themselves, but they will not stop global heating. The cause is fossil fuels. The only real solution is ending fossil fuels. If you want to help, and you should, forget recycling. Instead, fight the fossil fuel industry every way you can.

It's easy to imagine an alternate universe in which fossil fuel executives were like, "We already have more money than we know what to do with, so let's not destroy the planet." In this alternate universe, the fossil fuel industry uses its vast power and resources to accelerate humanity's transition to clean energy, so we can all have a planet to live on. Makes sense.

In reality of course, fossil fuel executives made the opposite choice: to spend billions to hire the best and brightest to spread disinformation and block action. Which is sad, and horrible, and nightmarish. They've been doing this for half a century. And they recently promised to keep doing it.

In 2021, six fossil fuel executives testified before congress. They were Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil; Michael Wirth, CEO of Chevron; David Lawler, CEO of BP America; Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell Oil; Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute; and Suzanne Clark, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. When asked in several instances by Congress if they would agree to stop spending to spread disinformation and block climate action, these fossil fuel executives refused. They clearly signaled to the world that they plan to blithely continue dishonestly destroying Earth's habitability for the sake of corporate greed. They are literal supervillains, stealing our future.

This year, 2023, is the hottest in recorded human history. This should surprise no one: global heating is driven inexorably by trending accumulation of fossil fuel carbon dioxide and methane emissions. In this hottest year in human history, the climate summit is being held in the United Arab Emirates and presided over by a fossil fuel chief executive named Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber. It's hard to imagine anything more cynical or more evil. And yet, things did get more cynical and more evil, with recent revelations that the U.A.E. has been abusing its host role to strike side deals to expand fossil fuels......

Read the full article by Dr. Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at:

https://www.newsweek.com/climate-summit-sick-joke-you-should-angry-afraid-opinion-1848719

The New York Times (Late Edition), 29 November 2023:

A leaked document has talking points for the president of the United Nations climate conference, who is an oil executive in the United Arab Emirates, to advance oil and gas deals.

As the host of global climate talks that begin this week, the United Arab Emirates is expected to play a central role in forging an agreement to move the world more rapidly away from coal, oil and gas.

But behind the scenes, the Emirates has sought to use its position as host to pursue a contradictory goal: to lobby on oil and gas deals around the world, according to an internal document made public by a whistle-blower.

In one example, the document offers guidance for Emirati climate officials to use meetings with Brazil's environment minister to enlist her help with a local petrochemical deal by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the Emirates' state-run oil and gas company, known as Adnoc.

Emirati officials should also inform their Chinese counterparts that Adnoc was "willing to jointly evaluate international LNG opportunities" in Mozambique, Canada and Australia, the document indicates. LNG stands for liquefied natural gas, which is a fossil fuel and a driver of global warming.

These and other details in the nearly 50-page document -- obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting and the BBC -- have cast a pall over the climate summit, which begins on Thursday. They are indications, experts said, that the U.A.E. is blurring the boundary between its powerful standing as host of the United Nations climate conference, and U.A.E.'s position as one of the world's largest oil and gas exporters.

"I can't believe it," António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, said at a news conference Monday. The U.A.E. had been "caught red-handed," Christiana Figueres, a former United Nations diplomat posted on X. Ms. Figueres led the negotiations that yielded the 2015 Paris Agreement, the pact among nations of the world to work to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"At this point we might as well meet inside an actual oil refinery," said Joseph Moeono-Kolio, lead adviser to the campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, an advocacy network.

Members of Emirates' climate delegation didn't respond to requests for comment.....

NSW Government's Forestry Corporation in the news, November 2023

 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 November 2023, p.3:

Forestry activists allege the NSW government-owned Forestry Corporation has breached regulations more than 1200 times in recent logging operations in Tallaganda State Forest, one of the last strongholds of the endangered greater glider.

AAP General News Wire, 14 November 2023:

The Forestry Corporation of NSW has been slapped with a new stop work order, amid concerns about efforts to protect endangered greater gliders.

Logging has been shut down in a second NSW forest amid claims the Forestry Corporation failed to properly look for den trees an endangered glider needs to survive.

The Environment Protection Authority has ordered the state-owned corporation to immediately halt harvesting work in parts of the Flat Rock State Forest near Ulladulla.

The watchdog has accused the corporation of failing to conduct detailed, thorough searches for den trees used by endangered southern greater gliders, as well as vulnerable yellow-bellied gliders.

It's the second time the Forestry Corporation has been accused of incompetently conducting habitat searches in recent months.

Harvesting has also been shut down in the Tallaganda State Forest, southeast of Canberra, after the EPA found multiple den trees in an area where the Forestry Corporation said there was only one.

The corporation later admitted it looked for den trees during the day when nocturnal greater gliders would have been asleep.

EPA officers went to Flat Rock this week after receiving a complaint from conservationists who went to the area to do a den tree search.

Members of South East Forest Rescue said no den trees were recorded by the Forestry Corporation but they spotted a greater glider leaving what appeared to be a hollow-bearing den tree on Sunday night.

When the EPA officers arrived on Monday, they also identified what appeared to be a greater glider den tree within 30 metres of logging.

“The EPA alleges that FCNSW has not conducted detailed and thorough searches necessary to identify all Greater Glider and Yellow-Bellied Glider den trees within the Flat Rock State Forest compartment," the watchdog said on Tuesday.

The EPA also said the Forestry Corporation had identified 137 glider sap feed trees, making it likely a family of yellow-bellied gliders was active in the area.

"Yet no den trees were identified," it said.

“Den trees and their surrounding habitat are critical for the gliders’ feeding and movement and removal of habitat removes shelter and food, making the gliders vulnerable to harm."

AAP has sought comment from the Forestry Corporation.

South East Forest Rescue staged a protest Flat Rock on Monday, after discovering the den tree.

"Again, conservationists have shown the absurdity of the Forestry Corporation looking for nocturnal species during the day," spokesman Scott Daines says.

Kita Ashman is a threatened species ecologist with WWF Australia and says there are alarming similarities between Flat Rock and Tallaganda, where conservationists also identified unlogged den trees.

"In both cases it’s been left to citizen scientists to record greater glider den trees. A deeply disturbing pattern of behaviour is emerging that cannot be allowed to continue."

Greens MP Sue Higginson says it's time for the NSW government to step in.

“It is clear that Forestry Corporation are either wilfully disregarding their legal obligations to operate consistently with their approvals or they are too incompetent to adequately conduct operations in a lawful way,'' she said.

1 Earth Media, 14 November 2023:

A magistrate dismissed a charge of ‘enter a forest w/o permission if prohibited by notice’ after the police failed to provide prima facie evidence to prove their case against Susie Russell. She has called the police action a S.L.A.P.P. – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

Veteran forest defender Susie Russell defended herself in the Forster magistrates court on Tuesday November 14. The judge’s ruling meant that Ms Russell did not have to provide her evidence and she can now put the long drawn out matter to rest.

Ms Russell, a member of the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) had been arrested at the 9 January 2023 protest at Bulga Forest, west of Port Macquarie.

In the space of three days state-owned Forestry NSW has apparently thumbed its nose at the Land & Environment Court and exposed itself to the international community as an environmental vandal

 

Echo, 1 September 2023:

Aunty Alison and Aunty Lauren on Gumbaynggirr Country at Newry State Forest. Photo supplied

Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Micklo and the oldest and most senior Gumbaynggirr Elder living on Gumbaynggirr Country Uncle Bud Marshall brought a successful application to the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) that halted logging at the Newry State Forest on 22 August. They were supported by Gumbaynggirr elders Aunty Alison and Aunty Lauren.

The Judge accepted an undertaking from Forestry to stop all logging in the forest to allow for a site inspection by Gumbaynggirr Elders of sacred and significant sites in the forest that the NSW Forestry had been logging. It had been arranged for the elders to go for the inspection on Friday, 1 September, however, at the last minute they were contacted by NSW Forestry to cancel the site inspection.

The Judge also accepted an undertaking that the stop on logging should extend to the substantial hearing set down for November 14, 16 and 17 in the L&EC.

‘Last night (31 August) Forestry said they were going to call off the site inspection, then they said they wanted to delay for another two weeks. They are due back in court on Tuesday (5 September) and the site inspection is supposed to have taken place,’ said Al Oshlack, from the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network who helped organise the stop work order. [my yellow highlighting]

‘We had a driver organised and they were going to go out to a number of sites in Newry Forest today (Friday, 1 September). Everyone is really upset because they have been locked out for a long time by Forestry with fences and cameras etc in place.’

Mr Oshlack told The Echo that Forestry appears to use a person named Mr Potter to sign off on their cultural heritage requirements. However, Mr Oshlack said they have been unable to find any Gumbaynggirr people who either know Mr Potter or who have been consulted about sacred and cultural sites in the area by Forestry NSW.

‘We have been asking around to find out if anyone knows who Mr Potter is but we haven’t been able to find anyone who knows this person so far,’ Mr Oshlack said.

‘I spoke to Gumbaynggirr people who have been looking for him and they said “We went to five different Gumbaynggirr families and no one has heard of him.”….

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2023:

Professor Helge Bruelheide, professor of botany at the University of Helle in Germany, was stunned by what he has seen exploring the forests in and around the promised Great Koala National Park on the state’s North Coast this week.

“It is spectacular. All the variants of this Gondwana rainforest – cool and warm, temperate rainforest and also the subtropical rainforest – is something that is so unique globally that you wouldn’t find it in this particular combination elsewhere,” said Breulheide, one of the leading scientists in his field, who visited with 30 of his colleagues from around the world as they prepared for a conference on forest preservation to be held in Coffs Harbour next week.

Professor Helge Bruelheide at Border Ranges National Park, north of the proposed Great Koala National Park.

“It’s incredible walking through the forest and seeing a different tree every 5 meters. It is unique in the world. And it is also ancient, what we have seen remnants of a vegetation that is long gone on Earth. Australia is a bit of an ark conserving this fantastic biodiversity.

“I mean, I knew that from the books but touching it and seeing these wonderful trees is something different. We were completely shocked that this was being logged for paper pulp and timber. Particularly this type of forest, we really couldn’t understand that.” [my yellow highlighting]

It was not just the fact of the logging that stunned, but Bruelheide, but the nature of it. Rather than so-called single-stem logging that is common in places like Germany, where single trees are targeted and removed, loggers here take out whole sections, leaving behind a few trees in compartments (a section of forest identified for logging) that have been identified as critical feed or habitat trees for some endangered species.

“I feel like I was time travelling back to the 60s when this was all over the place,” says Breulheide of what he saw inside a patch of the Moonpar State Forest identified on the Forestry Corporation website as Section 345…..

Overview of a Moonpar State Forest Section 345 in May 2023

Moonpar State Forest Section 345
IMAGE: via @CloudsCreek, 7 May 2023

Closer view of segment of Moonpar State Forest Section 345, May 2023, showing felled native trees. SNAPSHOT: Google Earth Pro

Click on images to enlarge

Gumbaynggirr custodians are calling for our help to protect forests of the proposed Great Koala National Park

 

Approved plans for forestry operations at Newry State Forest were made active last week.(Supplied: Bellingen Activist Network) IMAGE: ABC News, 3 August 2023.

Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, email, 5 August 2023:

The battle to protect the Great Koala National Park is ramping up. Will you support the Newry Forest protest camp and Gumbaynggirr traditional owners to protect this culturally and ecologically significant site?

…., for the past few days Gumbaynggirr custodians, environment groups and the wider community have peacefully protested to save the forest from logging destruction.

The forest has recently won a few moments of temporary reprieve from the bulldozers in the past few days. The campaign has had a series of powerful protests and received coverage in the Coffs Coast Advocate, NBN, NITV, and The Echo.

Gumbayngirr traditional owners Sandy Greenwood, Uncle Micklo Jarrett and Uncle Bud Marshall.

But the fight is not over and those at the camp are calling out for your support.

“If we don't act now our deeply significant cultural heritage will be desecrated, our beautiful old-growth trees will be logged, rare flora will become extinct and our koalas and endangered species will literally have nowhere else to go.” Sandy Greenwood, Gumbaynggirr Custodian.

This alliance has catalysed around a peaceful protest camp at the entry of the forest. This camp has served as an important place for meetings, events and interviews with journalists.

Are you able to put your name down to help out at camp?

Sign up here to get involved

Whether you’re able to visit once or take on a weekly task—there is something for everyone to do.

“It would be a disaster and a disgrace to see some of our totemic animals like the Koala disappear for motives of greed.

“The ancestral beings gave us our lore, our culture, and taught us how to live in harmony with the land. Everything was precious – we needed these places to survive. If they keep going like this we won’t have forest left. This forest needs to be a sanctuary for our people and other animals.”

Gumbaynggirr spokesperson, Micklo Jarrett.

This campaign to protect Newry State Forest relies on people like you stepping up and working together.

Please sign up here and a camp organiser will get in touch with you about next steps.

In the inspiring words of Sandy Greenwood: “The time to act is now—we will save our forests.”......

Ed Mortimer

Organising Director

Nature Conservation Council of NSW

https://www.nature.org.au/

Yet another Northern Rivers forest protector is before the NSW court

IMAGE: Echo, 4 April 2023

 

Forest protector 23 year-old Kashmir Miller (Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours, Southern Cross University) who suspended herself in a tree on a 25m high platform by a rope attached to three NSW Forestry machines in Doubleduke State Forest in early April has had her case adjourned until 11 May 2023, when as R v Kashmir Miller Case No. 2023/00108712 it is scheduled for Ballina Local Court where it is listed as Mention (Police).

Background

Echo, 20 April 2023:

Forest defender Valerie Thompson will today face court in Ballina after she was arrested for stopping forest operations in Doubleduke State Forest north of Grafton.

Ms Thompson sat high in a tree on a platform, in what is referred to as a tree sit, which was attached to logging equipment and stopped logging for 30 hours in early March this year.

The conflicts in Doubleduke have been ongoing, with NSW Forestry Corporation accused of multiple breaches of harvesting laws including failing to map all giant trees and habitat trees.

On Friday last week the EPA instructed the Forestry Corporation to stop work, which is a temporary victory for the forest defenders. Ms Thompson’s protest was carried out while the EPA was carrying out its investigation into breaches that have since been upheld. Ms Thomson faces charges relating to entering a closed forest and interfering with timber harvesting equipment.....

NSW Environment Protection Authority, News, 16 April 2023:

The EPA has acted on community concerns about giant trees in Doubleduke State Forest on Bundjalung Country near Grafton, leading the Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) to voluntarily suspend tree harvesting there.

Update: 20 April 2023

 

FCNSW has completed a remap of active harvest areas as requested by the EPA on 14 April 2023.

The additional mapping provides assurance to the EPA and the community that all retained trees in active harvest areas have been identified and mapped.

Having regard to remapping works undertaken by FCNSW, a voluntarily suspension of operations is no longer requested by the EPA.....

 

Logging is again underway in Doubleduke State Forest. It is not certain that it was ever temporarily suspended in practice.

Tweets of the Week

 

#NSWForestry 2023 native forest #logging schedule targets 1000's of hectares within the proposed #GreatKoalaNationalPark.
Unburnt core koala habitats being intensively logged this week ahead of #NSWElection. #VoteForests #VoteForKoalas #NSWVotes pic.twitter.com/tifROE4IBO

— Meredith Stanton (@CloudsCreek) March 22, 2023

 

After 2 more failed attempts by LNP’s Paul Fletcher to block evidence from the #RoboDebtRC , he can’t stop Bill Shorten revealing Stuart Robert’s evidence, where he threw Scott Morrison under the bus & insisted that:
“The member for Cook make him do it” 🔥🔥 #QT pic.twitter.com/hMsTZSP3Xv

— stranger (@strangerous10) March 22, 2023

 

Protecting old growth trees and saving Banyabba Koalas in March 2023

 

The Echo, 10 March 2023:

View over Valerie’s boots at the logging taking place in Doubleduke State Forest. Photo supplied

The magnificent old trees in a grove known as the Gully of the Giants are still standing this morning. They might not be so lucky tomorrow. The trees are part of Doubleduke State Forest, west of Evan’s Head, being logged under the auspices of the NSW Government’s Forestry Corporation.

Logging couldn’t go ahead this morning because yesterday, Save Banyabba’s Koalas Valerie Thompson, bought the ‘Gully Giants’ a reprieve. Logging was unable to commence due to the logging machinery having been ‘captured’ by the ropes suspending Valerie’s tree platform.

‘I relish the opportunity to spend the night in the forest. I’m hoping I will hear a forest owl or the screech of a yellow-bellied glider, or maybe the bellow of a koala,’ said Valerie.

‘These animals are why I’m here. They depend on the hollows in these old trees to survive. When the trees go, the animals will go too. It could be 100 years until there are trees big enough to provide the size hollows they need.

Some ‘Giants’ already gone

‘At the moment it’s not looking good. We had hoped that the Forestry Corporation would leave these giants, but we’ve seen one on a log truck and another in the log dump.

‘I felt compelled to do something, hoping against hope that as a result of my helping to bring this travesty to public attention someone in authority might be prepared to negotiate. I understand a formal complaint is being submitted today about Forestry’s breaches and calling for an immediate Stop Work Order. I’d be happy to free the machines if they’ll let the old trees live in peace.’

As Valerie sits in the tree waiting for the police to do the bidding of the Forestry Corporation, Greens Senator Janet Rice, is introducing legislation into the Federal Parliament to end native forest logging.

The Ending Native Forest Logging 2023 Bill ‘If passed, will immediately halt the destruction of Australia’s precious native forests and close the loophole used by the logging industry to skirt our national environment laws,’ said Senator Rice.

Valerie said that according to the Australian National University survey the majority of Australians want the logging of native forests to stop….. 

Wednesday 14 March 2023 Save Banyabba Koalas announced on Facebook that:

A very small crew off protectors just faced of an angry crew of Forestry corp workers keeping them away from the Old Growth in Doubleduke Forest.

We need numbers to keep them out for good

#StandUp4Forests

#EndNativeForestLogging

#savebanyabbakoalas

Images: Save Banyabba Koalas