Volunteers from across Tasmania, from Southport to Grindelwald, from Bruny Island to Triabunna offered their help and many cards were also requested from supporters in Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT.

We even had a request for cards from Darwin!

Right select ‘Save target As…’ to download the print version and send it off yourself.

Wild Wielangta members met with the Tasmanian Premier’s office yesterday, hearing that the Premier’s getting the message, loud and clear, that the community wants immediate action to save this beautiful bird. The Premier’s forestry advisor admitted that they’d been swamped by cards and emails about Swift Parrots.

Questions have now been asked in State and Federal Parliaments and there’s been intense media interest, with The Australian, Canberra Times, Age, Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Radio National, local ABC radio and TV stations all covering the unfolding story.

The National Swift Parrot Recovery Team are visiting Hobart next week and we are hoping to have the opportunity to take them out to Wielangta, to see the birds we’ve observed nesting there and to talk with them about the Government’s response to this conservation emergency.

Right select ‘Save target As…’ to download this fabulous new report ‘The Swift Parrot in Tasmania: its Conservation Status and the Impact of Logging on its Breeding Habitat’ by Marg Blakers and Isobel Crawford, for lots of detail on what’s happening to Swift Parrots and their habitat.

Cassy O’Connor, Green Parliamentarian in Tasmania has also been challenging Premier Bartlett and Minister Llewellyn on their lack of action to protect the Swift Parrot. Right select ‘Save target As…’ to download the Hansard notes of her recent speech.

So, many thanks to all of you who’ve helped with postcards, written to politicians and kept the Letters to the Editor rolling in to your local papers.

Other areas where these endangered birds are breeding are, most likely, being logged right now, with the loss of eggs, chicks and the adult birds at the nest. For ideas for a letter see the recent post on blog: Swift Parrot ‘Reprieve’ Not Enough to Halt Extinction Threat

Please help keep the pressure up by writing to the Tasmanian Premier, David Bartlett, GPO Box 123, Hobart 7001. Tell Premier Bartlett that it’s not enough to temporarily halt logging in one coupe in Wielangta Forest.

You can also write to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, C/o Parliament House, Canberra 2601. Ask him to intervene to save the Swift Parrot’s breeding habitat in Tasmania using his powers under the Regional Forest Agreement.

See the recent post Swift Parrot Critically Endangered – Faulkner undertakes to tell Rudd about his Swift Parrot responsibilities for ideas for your letter.

Oh! If you live in Australia, check out your local cafes for another Swift Parrot postcard that’s been produced by Greens Senator, Bob Brown’s office and is being distributed around the country by AvantCard (the free postcard people). Grab one and send it off to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asap!

Sharon East
For Wild Wielangta
wildwielangta at gmail dot com

‘…it (the RFA) states that the Commonwealth and Tasmania agree that the:
… application of management strategies and management prescriptions developed under Tasmania’s Forest Management Systems, protect rare and threatened fauna.
And Forestry Tasmania has stated publicly in the last week that it intends to log one of the richest nesting sites for this species known after the current nesting season.’

(Hansard 20th October 2008, F&PA 75, our additions in brackets and emphasis in bold)

Senator John Faulkner undertook to ‘…make the Prime Minister’s office aware of that (matter) urgently, and draw it to the Prime Minister’s attention appropriately’.
(Hansard 20th October 2008, F&PA 78, our additions in brackets)

We maintain a watching brief. Read Bob’s media full release below for more detailed information.

Wielangta update

A new report on the Swift Parrot concludes that the species may now be critically endangered, not just endangered. The only evidence of its population level, winter surveys on the mainland, shows a dramatic decline in Swift Parrot sightings since 2003. Logging of its Tasmanian nesting and foraging habitat is the prime threat to the species.

The report calls on Prime Minister Rudd to use his powers under the Regional Forest Agreement to halt logging in coupes containing Swift Parrot breeding habitat until a landscape scale protection plan is in place. Read the report at www.on-trial.info.

Who is responsible for the fate of the Swift Parrot?

At Senate estimates this week, representatives of the Prime Minister’s department maintained that the Environment Department has ‘main carriage’ of the Swift Parrot issue and that the Prime Minister had not been informed of it. (Transcripts are at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S11349.pdf, starting on p.73)

Over at the Environment Department, Minister Garrett says that the Tasmanian forest management agencies are responsible for protecting the Swift Parrot and he cannot intervene.

(http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2008/2397656.htm)

In Tasmania, Ken Jeffreys, speaking for Forestry Tasmania, says there are 391 000 hectares of suitable habitat for the Swift Parrot and that 1000 pairs only need 2000 hectares to breed in! ()

Meanwhile at Wielangta, Forestry Tasmania has agreed to suspend logging in coupe 19D until the Swift Parrots have finished nesting. That’s a reprieve of about 3 months!

Only Prime Minister Rudd and Tasmanian Premier Bartlett can untangle this knot. In 2007, then Prime Minister Howard and Premier Lennon changed the Regional Forest Agreement overnight in response to the Justice Marshall’s Wielangta judgment. Now they can change it to protect the Swift Parrot – or Prime Minister Rudd can terminate the Agreement so that responsibility for threatened species in Tasmanian forests reverts to the federal Environment Minister.

Bob Brown and Margaret Blakers