The exhibition also serves the serious purpose of raising money to pay for our initially successful court challenge against logging Wielangta Forest and the habitat of its rare and endangered species. Forestry Tasmania is demanding $280,000 — I am not acceding but have no further court of appeal on the judgement.

View the images at www.greenart.com.au and you can make a purchase here as well.

We wish you a happy, hopeful and fulfilling 2009,
Bob Brown and Margaret Blakers

We offered a ‘New, Fresh Way of Working’.

We offered the Tasmanian Government the opportunity to use Wielangta as a way to demonstrate to the wider community, a new way of responding to contentious and historically divisive forestry issues. Wielangta can provide the opportunity for the Government to move into a new era of community engagement and transparency in forestry issues.

We asked them to:

• make an appointment with Premier David Bartlett preferably in Wielangta Forest Coupe 19D
• create a public opportunity for all scientific ‘experts’ on Wielangta Coupe 19D (departmental, forestry and independent) to establish facts
• place a moratorium on logging swift parrot breeding habitat – from Orford to Dover, from the coast to 10km inland
• delay logging and woodchipping in Wielangta until June 2010 to undertake independent surveys of endangered species habitat and studies of the forest’s potential as a carbon sink
• stop all logging in Wielangta – in line with the Federal Court decision in 2006 – with the exception of areas already in plantation.

This will ensure that endangered species habitat is protected and the mature forest retains its value as irreplaceable carbon storage.

We asked them to respond to the following questions:

• under the recently amended RFA, how does the Premier intend to ensure the protection of endangered species on land managed by Forestry Tasmania (given that the Federal Court showed that current forestry management regimes in Wielangta are further endangering species)?
• what mechanisms does the Premier have in mind to address community concerns about forestry operations in Wielangta?
• will the Premier include the economic and the environmental benefits of protecting Wielangta’s mature native forests for carbon storage as part of Tasmania’s climate change strategy?
• will the Premier meet with us in Wielangta, Coupe 19D to see why this extraordinary forest has inspired such strong community concern?

What next?
We have requested meetings with David Llewellyn – Minister for Resources and Michelle O’Bryne – Minister for Environment.

Meeting with Forestry Tasmania
Three members of Wild Wielangta, South East Forest Protection Group had a 2.5 hour meeting with the Derwent District Forest Manager and a Senior Planner, Forestry Tasmania on 6th August 2008.

Forestry Tasmania do not see any factor – endangered species or carbon storage – delaying or stopping the logging of Coupe 19D in Wielangta.
Coupe 19D is scheduled to be logged and woodchipped during the 2008/09 financial year.
Forestry Tasmania will allow members of the community to enter the exclusion zone around Coupe 19D to undertake surveys etc – we just need to gain permission.

What next?

We have requested a meeting with the Executive General Manager of Forestry Tasmania and with the Forest Practices Authority (who regulate Forestry Tasmania’s operations).

“Each year the return of this colourful little parrot is one of the harbingers of spring in Tasmania. Local communities and birdwatchers anticipate the Swift Parrots return with great excitement, in the same way that the first cuckoo is eagerly anticipated in the UK every spring,” said Sharon East, keen birdwatcher and spokesperson for the South East (Tas) Forest Protection Group.

“After completing their long annual migration from as far afield as South-East Queensland, Swift Parrots return to Tasmania to breed every year. They only breed here in Tasmania, favouring forests in the coastal strip between Orford and Dover. Now numbering less than 1300 pairs the species is listed as nationally endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. An “endangered” listing under the Act means that unless action is taken immediately the species is likely to become extinct,” Ms East said.

“Much of the Swift Parrot’s favoured nesting habitat is on land managed by Forestry Tasmania that is targeted for logging and woodchipping. Birds Tasmania has estimated that 500 – 1000 ha of Swift Parrot breeding habitat is being woodchipped in Tasmania every year. An area regarded by experts as “the best known breeding habitat” for Swift Parrots is about to be logged in Wielangta Forest, south-east of Hobart. If Forestry Tasmania continues woodchipping the old forests that this beautiful but endangered bird needs for breeding then its future prospects are indeed grim,” Ms East said.

Local residents in South-East Tasmania are compiling sighting information for the Swift Parrot this year. Anyone seeing Swift Parrots is asked to contact the South East (Tas) Forest Protection Group on 6253 5348.

Photo opportunity: Andrew is available for photos/filming at the location of the first Swift Parrot sighting for this year at Mt Nelson.
Andrew Hingston, Honorary Research Associate, School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania

Further information and photos of Swift Parrots:
6253 5348
Wild Wielangta
South East (Tas) Forest Protection Group