Road dozing into the spectacular forests of the Esperance, Southern Tasmania

This photo was taken in scheduled logging coupe EP011A last Friday.

[Source:  ‘Treachery to the Forests – Secret Letters Exposed’, 20120925, ^http://taann.net/2012/09/25/treachery-to-the-forests-secret-letters-exposed/]

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First, a Gunns postmortem:

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To all but the exploitation deniers, the demise of industrial logger Gunns this week was a fait accompli about a case of insular management obstinately pursuing an unsustainable business model.

Gunns plans for industrial deforestation have deservedly been condemned to civilised obsolescence like the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Fur Trade before it.

The industrial culture of taming Nature as if Man needed to compete

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Gunns employees, contractors, suppliers, investors and lenders have all been in denial – ‘market denial‘ – a story of  “corporate arrogance, complacency, denial and hubris“.

And the Tasmanian and Australian parliaments have been equally negligent in delaying the implementation of their 2011 ^Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement to transition Tasmanians out of this dying native timber industry, as well as shunning their broader social responsibilities to dependent communities.

Gunns Pulp Mill Site

Tamar Valley, Tasmania

(an ideal job for Planet Ark to make amends)

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They have allowed the problem to fester and to escalate.  So now the inevitable crash has been all the more severe for all involved.   This is a classic failure of leadership and of a parochial culture locked in 20th Century exploitism and despondently lost trying to find sustainable profit in a more complex and very different 21st Century.

[Read: ‘Nokia – a lesson in corporate denial’, 20110602, by Scott Bicheno, ^http://hexus.net/business/features/corporate/30688-nokia-lesson-corporate-denial/]

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A puppet passing the buck

Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings tactically softens the crash: “this does not mean that the pulp mill project itself is dead” 

(famous last words in Tasmania’s Parliament, last Tuesday)

[Source: ‘Giddings: Gunns ‘not the end’ of pulp mill project’, 20120925,

^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-25/giddings-not-the-end-of-pulp-mill-project/4279564]

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‘The story of Gunns is a parable of corporate hubris. You can, as they did, corrupt the polity, cow the media, poison public life and seek to persecute those who disagree with you. You can rape the land, exterminate protected species, exploit your workers and you can even poison your neighbours. But the naked pursuit of greed at all costs will in the end destroy your public legitimacy and thus ensure your doom. Gunns was a rogue corporation and its death was a chronicle long ago foretold. The sadness is in the legacy they leave to Tasmania—the immense damage to its people, its wildlands, and its economy.’

[Source: ‘Let us hope the days of the cargo cult are over’, 20120925, by Richard Flanagan, Tasmanian Times,  Read More (with the many community comments): ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/article/the-days-of-the-cargo-cult-are-over/]

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Denial Domino Effect…Ta Ann

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Ta Ann Tasmania now remains the major driver of logging operations that continue to destroy large areas of old growth and high conservation value forests in Tasmania.  Ta Ann Holdings is a Malaysian-based multinational logging and timber products company.

The Ta Ann Group has a track record of rainforest destruction and human rights violations in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

The Ta Ann Group’s operations began in 1985 when a subsidiary was granted a 257,604 acre concession to extract timber in the Kapit District, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.  In recent years the conglomerate has grown substantially to be among the top five timber groups in Sarawak. The Ta Ann Group includes many subsidiaries and is worth around $US1.6billion.

The principal activities of the Ta Ann Group are in oil palm, timber concession licenses, trading logs, and manufacturing as well as the sale of sawn timber and plywood products. Japan and Europe are the main markets for structural plywood and floor base boards produced by the company.

In January 2006, Ta Ann was welcomed to Australia’s island state of Tasmania with a golden political handshake and they have since established forestry operations to sell Tasmanian wood products to customers in Japan, China and Europe.

Ta Ann’s decision to commence operations in Tasmania was likely driven by two core objectives: they were offered hardwood by the state-owned forestry company, Forestry Tasmania, at lower rates than they could access in Malaysia or Indonesia and they needed Tasmania’s ‘clean, green’ brand to access an increasingly environmentally concerned and lucrative international market.

Ta Ann received timber from Old Growth Coupe HA045E

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Ta Ann Tasmania has rejected timber from plantations, staked its future on continued access to timber from native forests and has actively lobbied to stall an industry-wide transition to plantation harvesting. Ta Ann has received timber from the destruction of Tasmania’s world class forests, including timber from old growth forests, forests with recognised World Heritage values, threatened species habitat and other forests that are of high conservation value.

[Source:  ^http://taann.net/who-is-ta-ann/]

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Jenny Weber

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Malaysian-owned Ta Ann does not process old growth but accepts wood from forest coupes where some old growth, or forest regarded by green groups as of high conservation value, may be harvested.  This has led conservation groups to attack Ta Ann’s two Tasmanian mills as the main “driver” of the destruction of many of Tasmania’s oldest and most environmentally significant forests.

Huon Valley Environment Centre (HVEC) and Markets for Change have pursued their advocacy campaign for the protection of high conservation value forests and a rapid transition out of native forests in Tasmania.   This has included actually travelling to Japan to Ta Ann’s Japanese markets.  They have exposed Ta Ann’s false claims of using only plantation timber.   They have exposed Ta Ann’s sourcing of timber from high conservation value forests, accused Ta Ann of lying to their Japanese markets about timber certification, and directly lobbied Ta Ann’s Japanese customers to tear up their contracts with Ta Ann and instead seek timber supply that meets high environmental standards, that which the current industry in Tasmania does not meet.

‘Ta Ann’s veneer of truth‘

[Source: Huon Valley Environment Centre]

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So when it was discovered this week that The Wilderness Society (TWS) and Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) on 20th August 2012 had unilaterally written a letter to the Japanese customers to ask these customers to continue to purchase timber from Ta Ann Tasmania, naturally HVEC and Markets for Change were appalled.  The letter by ACF’s Don Henry and TWS Inc.’s Lyndon Schneiders requests the Japanese customers to continue to purchase the contentious wood supply that Ta Ann Tasmania is supplying.

TWS and ACF are accused of selling out Tasmania’s native forests by secretly undermining the market campaigns of fellow conservationists in Japan and Australia.  TWS and ACF are accused of “treachery” and “betrayal”.

 

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Markets for Change and the Huon Valley Environment Centre yesterday expressed shock and dismay at the letter, accusing ACF and TWS of secretly undermining their campaigns, which had been blamed for some cancelled contracts.

“This is an act of treachery to the forests,” Markets for Change campaigner and former Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt told The Australian.  “TWS and ACF never had the decency to inform us that they had done this.”

Huon Valley Environment Centre campaigner Jenny Weber said the letter, sent to Ta Ann customers on August 20, seriously undermined campaigning in Japan against the veneer maker.

“It’s unprecedented that TWS and ACF are prepared to support the forest industry and undermine not only our own campaign but that of Japanese campaigners,” Ms Weber said.

“We have felt that these organisations have worked against us in the Japanese markets, and worse still they have supported a forestry industry that is not yet sustainable, committed to a transition out of native forests, and continues to log world heritage value and high conservation value forests. A forestry industry where the biggest timber company is a Malaysian  logging company with a record of displacing indigenous people and environmental desecration in their home state of Sarawak.

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[Sources: Environmentalists accuse green groups of ‘treachery to the forests’, 20120925, by Matthew Denholm, Tasmania correspondent, The Australian, ^http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/environmentalists-accuse-green-groups-of-treachery-to-the-forests/story-fn59niix-1226480587702]; Jenny Weber of the Huon Valley Environment Centre, Tasmania]

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TWS/ACF’s appeasement tactic.

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The letter states; “As a buyer of Tasmania forests products we continue to respectfully request that you not make any decisions that could adversely affect Tasmanian suppliers during the current negotiations that are now closer to achieving a sustainable future for the forest industries in Tasmania. Far from giving peace a chance, the letters have reduced pressure for the forestry industry to come to an agreement. There is still no final forest agreement in Tasmania and the outlook is bleak as forestry industry representatives have now suspended their participation in the talks,” Ms Weber continued.

“At best the ACF TWS letters are grossly misguided, at worst they are a capitulation to industry. In either case these peak bodies have shown they are willing to support the forestry industry and deliberately undermine our campaign in secret. They have endorsed the ongoing logging of high conservation value forests for Ta Ann and their Japanese customers by  making this communication with the markets.”

“This is not a time for these environment groups to lose their way and become the green tick for an unsustainable native forest logging industry in Tasmania. This is one step too far for these groups who have been waylaid by a long drawn out process that has not delivered any conservation gains and these conservation groups are endorsing the very company that  contributes to the devastation of the forests for which they are trying to secure protection,” Ms Weber concluded.

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>Read TWS/ACF letter of appeasement

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[Source:  ^http://taann.net/2012/09/25/treachery-to-the-forests-secret-letters-exposed/]

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“This act is undermining the chances of achieving protection of magnificent forests in Tasmania, and also the campaigns of Tasmanian, Australian and Japanese groups who have been participating in a successful markets campaign for the past twelve months”, said Peg Putt of Markets for Change.

Markets for Change spokeswoman Peg Putt

speaks to the media outside Tasmania’s State Parliament 20120925

Photo by Loretta Johnson, The Examiner

[Source: The Examiner, Hobart, ^http://www.examiner.com.au/story/358861/green-groups-split-over-ta-ann-letter/?cs=95]

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“We have consistently asked companies receiving Ta Ann product to call for an immediate stop to logging the conservation claim in Tasmania whilst negotiations over the future protection of these forests take place, and to refuse to take wood product coming from inside this area.

“The ACF and TWS letters are clearly designed to counteract this campaign and to appease the forest industry. They repeatedly express concern for “a sustainable future for the forest industries in Tasmania”, but not for the fate of the magnificent forests under the chainsaw. We do not believe that their members and supporters are aware of or would condone their actions” Ms Putt said.

“The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and The Wilderness Society Inc. (TWS Inc) have sent false confidence to the Japanese customers of Ta Ann. This miscommunication in the markets will increase uncertainty. The fact remains that Ta Ann is shipping high conservation value forests to Japan, and these environment groups have endorsed this controversial product in the international market,” said Jenny Weber of the Huon Valley Environment Centre.

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[Source: ‘Green groups split over Ta Ann letter, by Rosemary Bolger, 20120925,^http://www.examiner.com.au/story/358861/green-groups-split-over-ta-ann-letter/?cs=95]

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Read:   ^Markets for Change and HVEC protest letter of 20120925.pdf

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Lessons from Planet Ark’s appeasement tactic

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No organisation is so big that it cannot fail.  It is recent logging industry appeasement that since last month has seen Planet Ark lose its environmental credibility with many.

Planet Ark was formed in 1992 and is well known for having established ‘National Tree Day’ across Australia – ‘Australia’s largest community nature event’.  Planet Ark claims to be “an environmental organisation committed to encouraging positive behaviour change… We guard our independence and reputation fiercely.” ~ Planet Ark.

Yet just last month (August 2012) Sydney-based environmental not-for-profit organisation, Planet Ark, has been found out allowing its Planet Ark logo to be used on advertisements for timber, paid for by Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA). It is part of a sponsorship deal in which Planet Ark gets $700,000 from the timber industry.  The deal involves Planet Ark’s public endorsement in the ‘Make It Wood’ advertising campaign which promotes the increased use of certified, responsibly sourced wood as a building material, along with the organisation’s decision to join the timber industry’s certification system for wood products, called the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS).

Yet the AFS Scheme has been found to have allowed timber to be sourced from high conservation value native forests. A timber company ticked off by the AFS was last year fined for illegal logging.  AFS board member, the Victorian Government’s industrial logger, VicForests, was fined more than $200,000 by the Victorian Government’s Department of Sustainability and Environment for logging over allocation.  ViCforests has also lost a Supreme Court case for planning to log threatened species habitat in East Gippsland and is being taken to court this year over alleged rainforest logging.

Australian environmental groups claim that the AFS Scheme is dodgy and approves “the most appalling logging practices like we see in Indonesia and Malaysia. AFS is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), which has also been condemned globally for endorsing the certification of forest operations that destroy biodiversity, revoke human and community rights, and fail to undertake adequate engagement with key stakeholders.”

Reflex (copy paper) lost its Forestry Standard Certification by using native forest timber supplied by VicForests, yet retains AFS certification.  The Tasmanian Government’s industroial logger, Forestry Tasmania, had its AFS certification renewed in July 2012, despite its ongoing clearfelling of high conservation forests and scorched earth practices that permanently destroy forest ecology and replace it with plantation timber, which it then calls ‘sustainable timber’.

[Source: ”Appalling logging’ exposed: green groups’, 20120907, by Leslie White, ^http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/09/07/535275_national-news.html]

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So Planet Ark is not in good company.  Planet Ark’s endorsement of AFS would seem to be contrary to Planet Ark’s key objective – ‘to protect and enhance the natural environment‘.  It would be interesting to learn how FWPA answered Pkanet Ark’s Prospective Partners Questionnaire question #6:

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‘What is the environmental advantage and rationale/justification for this partnership?‘

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Conservationists have accused Planet Ark of having gone over to the ‘darkside’.

Sarah Rees from My Environment has said, “What in effect Planet Ark is doing today is endorsing logging in the Styx Valley (South West Tasmania). This is a very confusing message for consumers, given Planet Ark has such an important role to play in advising people on best brands and good wood.”

Greens Leader Christine Milne agrees.  “What Planet Ark has done is they have undermined the rest of the environment movement by effectively trying to give some green wash to the native forest logging industry,” she said.  “The AFS has no credibility at all. It was only dreamt up in response to the FSC standard and Australia couldn’t meet that standard. Next thing we knew we had this dodgy standard which no-one has any respect for.”

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says Planet Ark’s deal with the timber industry is a conflict of interest. “There could be a perception that who pays the piper calls the tune. And when you’re getting $700,000 in donations from the industry and part of the review of the forest standard, then it raises some serious questions of a potential conflict of interest,” he said.

“The AFS scheme concerns many environmentalists.  Clear felling, environmental destruction, death of native forests,”  said environmentalist Jon Dee who helped found Planet Ark twenty years ago.  “We believe this campaign, tied up with the forest industry, is one step too far.”

Joint founding member, Australia’s tennis great, Pat Cash, issued a statement to ABC TV’s 7.30 programme stated:

“The deal with the forest industry and the controversy around the Peter Maddison TV advert has eroded Planet Ark’s credibility as an environmental organisation.  The Planet Ark board and management team should be held accountable for this decision to work with the forest industry…Planet Ark needs to return to the values that once made it such a great organisation and withdraw from their association with the AFS and the FWPA.”

[Source: ‘Planet Ark founders cut ties with ‘lost’ organisation’, 20120801, by Adam Harvey, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-31/pat-cash-and-john-dee/4167288]

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The Director of environment group My Environment, Sarah Rees, says these are confronting issues for big NGOs who traditionally don’t come out against each other.  “Discussions with Planet Ark with organisations including the Wilderness Society and Greenpeace over 14 months have failed to get Planet Ark to amend its attitude to the issues of clear-fell logging.

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“Planet Ark has dug its heels in with its message that all wood is good wood and this is just not right. The role of the environmental organisations is to ethically educate the public on forestry issues but Planet Ark has muddied that message.”

~ Sarah Rees (August 2012)

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[Source: ‘Planet Ark Offside with Other Environmental NGOs’, 20120801, ^http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2012/08/planet-ark-offside-other-environmental-ngos]

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The Australian Forestry Standard provides certification for logging in extensive areas of native forests across Australia, and for wood products arising from such logging.

Watch the new promotional video ‘The Facts’ right now to see what sort of assurance the standard provides to retail customers and the Australian consumer about the forest and wood products they are purchasing.

[Source:  ^http://australianforestrystandard.com/]

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Tasmanian Police inspect arson at Camp Flozza

Upper Florentine Valley, South West Tasmania

Thursday 20120913

(click image to enlarge)

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Still Wild Still Threatened’s Camp Florentine (Camp Flozza) has been subject to an arson attack the weekend before last.  It is estimated that it was torched on Sunday night 9th September 2012. But since the camp had been unattended by environmentalists, the destruction was not discovered until some days later, by which time it had burnt itself out, perhaps with the help of rain.

Personal and campaign property has been damaged and destroyed, a car has been stolen from the site, and the information tent and camp structures were torn down and burnt. Police have inspected the site and the fire is being treated and investigated as arson.

It is believed that the arson was a misguided revenge attack by disgruntled loggers in response to an arson incident three nights prior at Les Walkden Enterprises at the nearby town of New Norfolk and connected vandalism the Saturday night prior of machinery owned by the same company at a logging coupe 12km south of Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands.

Yet, Detective Constable Craig Fry, investigating the two attacks on the Walkden business has said that “they do not appear to be linked to any kind of protest activity.”   So the subsequent arson attack on Camp Flozza was a case of mistaken identity – frustrated loggers happy to kneejerk blame conservationists (Greenies) for everything and anything.  Being night time, the arsonists were probably on the turps.  Perhaps the two attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises, which have caused over $800,000 damage, were intended to have the Greenies take the wrap.

Detectives are investigating all three crimes.

“This violent attack on the camp is an assault on the forest campaign. The camp is a peaceful protest movement and this incident is an act of intimidation towards protesters and the community involved in the camp” said Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Miranda Gibson.

Arson Attack on Camp Flozza Sunday night 9th September 2012

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Miranda Gibson: 

‘It’s first thing in the morning when I get the call.  “Camp has been attacked“, the voice on the end of the line is telling me. “What do you mean… attacked?“, I asked.

“Someone’s gone there and trashed it, burnt it down.”

She is talking about Camp Florentine, Tasmania’s longest running forest blockade.  The camp is run by the group I’m part of:  Still Wild Still Threatened.  And it is a place that is very close to my heart, having spent many years spending so much of my time out there in the past.’

 Camp Flozza front as it was before the arson attack

[Photo by editor, 20110928, free in public domain, click image to enlarge]

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Miranda Gibson:

 ‘Camp Floz, as it is known, is in the Upper Florentine Valley, the next valley to the west of where I am located in the Observer Tree (in the Tyenna).’    [Check out  ^The Observer Tree]

The Upper Florentine Valley is a large tract of ancient wilderness, that is surrounding on three sides by the World Heritage Area.’   [Check out Tasmania’s majestic ^Upper Florentine Valley]

‘Despite the protection for the surrounding mountain ranges, this valley remained unprotected because it contains such significant tracts of tall trees that the logging industry were hungry to get their hands on.’

‘Over six years ago now members of the local community became aware of Forestry’s plans to fell 15 logging coupes in the valley within three years and in response the camp was established to stop this from happening. Over those years, the constant presence of the camp has meant that the majority of those logging coupes have never been touched by a chainsaw and the forest remains standing. Hopefully it will continue to remain standing until it can take it’s rightful place as part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.’

‘As well as literally stopping the logging, the camp has a range of other important functions in the campaign. Being on a main tourist road, it acts an information centre with people stopping in every day to find out about what is going on in the forest and having the opportunity to go on short guided walks. It has become a significant icon of the forest movement in Tasmania and is known to people all around the world who have stopped in on their travels.’

Camp Flozza Information Centre, as it was before the arson attack

[Photo by editor, 20110928, free in public domain, click image to enlarge]

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Miranda Gibson:

‘When I saw the photos I realised it was even worse than I thought.  The entire camp had been torched.  The main house, kitchen area and information hut were nothing but ashes.

And the camp car had been stolen.’

Camp Flozza arson attack on the Kitchen

[Photo courtesy of Still Wild Still Threatened 201209]

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‘Luckily no one was at the camp when the attack occurred.  The next person who was rostered on to be at the camp turned up to a horrifying scene of the camp reduced to ashes. However, one has to wonder whether the attackers would have known there was no one there, as the camp is the usually always attendance and people could have been the forest nearby.’

Camp Flozza Kitchen as it was before the arson attack

[Photo by editor, 20110928, free in public domain, click image to enlarge]

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Camp Flozza’s front line legacy

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Up here in the ^Observer Tree, Miranda Gibson tree-sits some ways far removed from what was happening at the camp. Yet, it had a big impact.

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Miranda Gibson:

‘There was the practical side of things of course, as the Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson I spent the day talking to media, police and community members.  But it also was a sad day for me.  Although I am not able to be there at Camp Floz, obviously, I still care deeply about the place.’

The Upper Florentine Valley

[Photo by Rob Blakers – visit his ^website]

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Ed:  When viewing each video below and wishing to stop it, just click the pause button on the bottom left of the respective video view.

 

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The Battle of Coupe FO044A

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Like a poacher sees an elephant only with selfish cash-eyes through crosshairs, loggers only see native forests with selfish cash-eyes with chainsaw in hand.    In Tasmania, the babyboomer government mindset cannot discern forest value from timber.  The environment is still seen as a resource for industrial exploitation, just like it was in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Forests are arbitrarily carved up on a logger’s map into harvestable ‘coupes’.    The Upper Florentine Valley where Camp Flozza is situated is innocuously described by the Tasmanian Government as ‘Coupe FO044A‘ – sounds like a factory production batch stamped on a pallet.

It’s like how numbering of black slaves occurred through the 16th and 19th centuries’ Atlantic Slave Trade.  To backward rednecks, Tasmania outside the bitumen has all been about how many ways to skin it, shoot it, trap it, log it, woodchip it, burn it, plough it, dam it, pollute it.  The 19th Century Taswegian redneck element persists in logging despite there no longer being a market for the timber.  But the loggers know no different.  They only know how to log.

Camp Flozza is a blockade set up to try to stop them logging what’s left of Tasmania’s magnificent ancient forest ecosystems.  It includes some of the largest trees left on the planet.

But to Forestry Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government logging corporation driving the deforestation, Camp Flozza is nothing more than “a slum in the forest, full of extremists“.   Emotive words, but then one would expect as such demonising by vested interests.

In early 2006, well over six years ago now, Forestry Tasmania decided to target the Upper Florentine Valley for its massive hardwood timber.  It rolled in the dozers and started pushing an ugly scar of a road into the pristine valley, within ‘coo-ee’ of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage.

Community response was immediate.  Local and independent activists and The Wilderness Society went out along the Gordon River Road to make peaceful protests.  Over the comng months, the protest presence grew and became more established and other groups joined in – The Derwent Forest Alliance, and Friends of the Florentine.

By October 2006, a protest camp had been established situated strategically blocking logging access to an area of the forest containing Mountain Ash Trees over 200 feet tall.  Camp Florentine (Flozza) was established.

It was not supposed to be flash

because a permanent structure would have invited legal demolition

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February  2007 – Government Bully Bust #1

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On 21st February 2007, The blockade was raided by over 40 police and Forestry Tasmania workers and 16 arrests were made over the following 3 days. However, a complex system of structures was built and Camp Florentine continued.    In October 2008, logging commenced in coupe FO042E in the Upper Florentine valley and was met with two actions, one resulting with physical assault on protesters by contractors. Footage taken at the action went national in the media and highlighted the ongoing violence that protesters face in the forest.

Not long after his media attention two cars and the info hut were torched one night resulting in even more media coverage.

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January  2009 – Government Bully Bust #2

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In mid January 2009, the blockade was busted for the second time by 65 police and Forestry Tasmania workers. Again there were 16 arrests in the first 3 days and after the tunnel and dragons and winter shack were removed the machines came in and carved a massive scar a further 3km into the pristine valley, to be a logging road. After 11 days of continuous actions  to try and slow down further road construction and logging the machines weretaken away and we started rebuilding on the road again.

‘…In the Upper Florentine Valley today, the Battle of Coupe FO044A entered a second day (13th January) with six activists up trees — and one down a hole — holding out against arrest amid the ruins of  their two-year-old protest camp.

Forestry Tasmania has requested police remove the camp which is hindering plans to build road and to harvest trees from a 25ha coupe in the area.    (Ed:  didims!)

Derwent District Forest Manager Steve Whitely (Ed: a hardcore logger) said Forestry Tasmania respected people’s right to protest peacefully and legally, but Camp Flozza was neither.

“The camp has been there for some time but it has degenerated into a slum and as shown late last year it has the potential to become a real flashpoint of conflict over this summer,” he said.  “We ended up with a couple of conflict situations last year that were really quite serious and we really took stock that this camp wasn’t just a slum in the forest as some people saw it but in fact a place where extremists launched raids on various other places and actually generated conflict.

That’s when it was realised it wasn’t just an eyesore but something more serious than that.”

He said the logging in the valley will be small in scale and sensitive to the area’s conservation values but admitted up to 90 per cent of the old growth forest harvested will end up as woodchips.

“The Upper Florentine is an important place for both conservation and wood production,” he said. “In fact up to 90 per cent of the Upper Florentine is protected or not available for wood production.

“We recognise the values of the area and with that in mind we’re operating at a small scale, there’s no clearfelling in the area at all, there is to be no plantations established all of the forest that is harvested will be resown with natural seed and there will be no chemicals used in the area or fertilisers.

“It’s high-quality timber, it’s been grown over a number of years, it’s some of the higher value timbers that will be supplied to the local mills.

“On average I think we find that between 10 and 20 per cent, depending on the quality of the forest, is taken off as sawing-grade products and there’s some other milling grade products which can be recovered and then the rest of it is sold to make paper.”

[Source: ‘Protest camp ‘a slum’, by David Killick, The Mercury newspaper (Hobart), 20090113, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/01/13/49521_tasmania-news.html]

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Police move in on protesters at Camp Flozza in the Florentine Valley

[Photo by Niki Davis-Jones]

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“..Push came to shove in the Upper Florentine Valley yesterday.   Scuffles broke out as about 200 protesters confronted a line of police blocking access to a contested logging road.

Police arrested 15 people during yesterday’s Community Walk-In For the Florentine march.

In a short but heated exchange, several protesters broke through the the frontline of about 30 officers but were quickly tackled and arrested.  No injuries were reported.

Over the course of the day about two dozen forest activists managed to infiltrate the logging site.  One halted forestry operations for several hours after locking himself to logging equipment before police cut him free.

Tasmania Police act as cheap bouncers for the loggers

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Some of the others were escorted from the area by officers, while others were arrested for refusing to leave an exclusion zone around forestry operations near Timbs Track, off Gordon River Rd, west of Maydena.

Those arrested yesterday were charged with a range of offences including assaulting police, trespass, obstructing police, disobeying the lawful direction of a police officer and breaching bail conditions.   They were taken by bus to the Hobart police station.  Thirteen were granted bail and two others appeared in court last night.  Simon Christopher Browning, of Huonville, and Lauren Athalie Campbell, of Adelaide, were remanded in custody for breach of bail and will appear in the Hobart Magistrates Court this morning.

After the initial confrontation about 11am, the remainder of yesterday’s protest was peaceful.  There have been 20 arrests during the police operation in the area.  Forestry Tasmania ‘asked‘ police to clear the area surrounding the so-called Camp Flozza of protesters on Monday.

Camp Flozza – Government Bust in January 2009

[Source: The Mercury – Photo by Raoul Kochanowski]

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Most of the old-growth forest to be cut in the area will become woodchips.  The two-year-old protest camp was destroyed on Tuesday although four protesters continued a vigil on two treetop platforms. They could be heard shouting their defiance throughout yesterday’s protest.  Police inspector Glen Woolley (Ed: hardcore logger sympathiser) said the outbreak of violence was regrettable.

“It’s very disappointing. Up until this stage the protest has always been peaceful,” he said.  “The police presence is here to ensure that business operations were able to continue, however the activists have decided they would use some force to force their way through the blockade.  “When they did force their way through the blockade, we were prepared for them and they were arrested very quickly.”

Police called for re-inforcements after the initial scuffles, boosting their numbers to nearly 60.  Protester Bronwyn Smith said she attended yesterday’s protest because she believed the old forests were part of the state’s heritage. She said: “It’s much older than Port Arthur, they’ve never seen a chainsaw, there’s been very little disturbance.

“Can you imagine what it would be like today if they were at Port Arthur pulling down the ruins?

“We live in a dying world. We live in a world that’s becoming less and less tenable and less and less viable. And that’s in part because of the clearing of forest like what’s happening here.”

Fellow campaigner Patsy Harmsen said the logging had to be stopped.  “It shouldn’t be happening, it mustn’t go on. It’s just the most shocking worldwide shame,” she said.

Ula Majewski, of the group Still Wild Still Threatened, said the largeHeadline:  face-off turns nasty turnout for a weekday protest organised at short notice showed the strong support of the old-growth anti-logging cause.

“Once again, we are seeing a massive swell of community support for Tasmania’s carbon-dense old-growth forests and outrage at the destructive roading, logging, woodchipping and burning of these precious ecosystems by local climate criminals Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited,” she said.

“Our community will continue to stand up and speak out against these environmentally criminal acts. In this era of dangerous climate change, the destruction of Tasmania’s ancient forests is a global issue.”

She said there would be further protests.

Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said the forestry operations in the area showed Premier David Bartlett was no different to his predecessor on forestry issues.

“The Bartlett Tasmania is in the grip of the same greed-driven woodchip frenzy that ex-premier [Paul] Lennon promoted with such blinkered commitment,” he said.

“It makes a mockery of the clever and kind Bartlett rhetoric when carbon-rich old-growth forests in an intact valley of World Heritage value are being opened up with a brand new logging road for clearfelling.”

Late yesterday, Derwent district forest manager Steve Whiteley said contractors had resumed work.

“Our staff and contractors are cleaning up the site of Camp Florentine and undertaking road repair and construction,” he said.  “We have had plans in place for several years to harvest a 50ha coupe and to build four kilometres of road.  “This year, we plan to harvest 25ha of this area, using a variable retention technique we have developed as an alternative to clearfelling. “The timber is being harvested to meet market conditions. All harvested areas will be regrown as native forest.”

Mr Whiteley said the wood was essential for Forestry Tasmania to meet its legislated requirement to supply 300,000 cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer logs annually. However, most of the old-growth forest to be cut is destined to be come woodchips.  Police are expected to scale down their presence today.

[Source: ‘Arrests at Camp Flozza’, by David Killick, The Mercury newspaper (Hobart), 20090114, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/01/14/49611_tasmania-news.html]

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May  2009 – Government Bully Bust #3

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‘In early May 2009, Forestry Tasmania came back into the area to log the coupe.  It was Mother’s Day.

A huge police operation that lasted a whole month accompanied Forestry Tasmania’s bulldozers chain saws and log trucks. Almost every log truck that left the area got a police escort of a dozen cops jogging alongside!

The Cops had a mobile cop shop bus parked in the clearfell so they could process arrestees on site. The operation sucked most of the states police resources for the month of May as they maintained a constant 24 hour presence in the logging area for the entire month. Of course when the police association complained about the drain on resources, the government blamed us.’

[Source: Still Wild Still Threatened]

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Logger Ecoterrorism Culture

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Miranda Gibson:  

‘This is yet another act of violence against the non-violent protest movement.   This was not the first time that such acts of intimidation had been committed towards the protesters and community involved in the camp.

‘In 2008 when there was a fire-bomb attack on the camp in the middle of the night, many people were there and were awoken in terror. Two people at the camp had their cars set on fire by the attackers, as well as the camp’s information center being torched.

That incident occurred within days of a violent assault on myself and another protester at a peaceful action in another part of the Upper Florentine Valley. Logging contractors used a sledgehammer to attack a car that we were in. Smashing glass in on us and screaming abuse. When we eventually managed to get out of the car, fearing for our lives, my fellow protester was dragged to the ground and kicked in the head.’

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How the incident was reported back in 2008..

“…Police have been called to investigate a film showing protester’s car being smashed by logging contractors.   Protesters have posted footage of the attack  by logging contractors on the Internet. They say one contractor kicked a man’s head when he was escaping from the car during the Upper Florentine Valley confrontation.

A representative of forest contractors said they had been pushed to the limit and he predicted further violence in the forests.  He called on Gunns and Forestry Tasmania to compensate workers.  The video shows several men, one wielding a sledgehammer, and one screaming expletives and abuse and smashing windows of the car.

The man and woman protesters were using a “dragon” technique, in which they put their arms into a pipe running through the floor of the car and into a concrete block in the ground below.

“The man was trying to get out of the car and he was pulled out and kicked in the head,” said Ula Majewski, spokeswoman for protest group Still Wild Still Threatened.  She said a Forestry Tasmania staff member warned protesters to get out of the car before the attack but then stood by.

“Members of the Tasmanian community engaged in legitimate peaceful protest should not be subjected to this kind of violence, nor should it be condoned by a Forestry Tasmania employee,” Ms Majewski said. She said the FT employee could be seen in the video, which is on the public video website Myspace.

Forestry Tasmania last night said it had asked police to investigate the video footage.

Acting general manager operations Steve Whiteley said the staffer denied witnessing the violence.  “Forestry Tasmania staff at today’s protest had provided a categorical assurance that he didn’t witness any confrontation while he was at the scene and did not receive any complaint,” Mr Whiteley said.

Australian Forest Contractors Association chairman Colin McCulloch said the contractor involved had had his work interrupted several times and had lost about $30,000.

“These loggers should be compensated by the industry or Government,” he said, adding that Gunns and Forestry Tasmania should pay in this case.’

[Source:  ‘Forest violence filmed’, by Michelle Paine, 20081022, The Mercury newspaper (Hobart), ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2008/10/22/34071_tasmania-news.html]

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2008 Fire Bombing of Camp Flozza:

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Camp Floz, more than a protest camp

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“Florentine camp has been in place for the past five years as a frontline defence to protect the Upper Florentine. There have been violent attacks on the camp in the past. This valley is one of Tasmania’s most iconic high conservation value forests yet the current negotiations have failed to provide certainty for the future of this area. The camp is operating as an information centre, providing opportunities for tourists to take walks through the forest and find out more about the area”, said Ms Gibson.

“Sometimes I really miss the Floz and one thing I am looking forward to when I get down from this tree is going back to walk in the forest around the camp and visit all my favorite little spots. And I care deeply about all the people who are spending their time maintaining the camp. And it is hard for all of them to have to be out there this weekend, shifting through the ahes and rebuilding the camp again.”

“There is an odd lack of curiosity in the camp.  People float in and out, asking a few questions of one another, as if the past is erased and this, what they are now, is all that matters.”

[Source:  ‘Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests‘, by Anna Krien, 2010, p.38, published by Black Inc. Publishing, ^http://www.blackincbooks.com/books/woods]

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Camp Florentine arson attack Sunday 9th September 2012

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‘Anti-forestry protesters have reported an apparent arson attack on a well-known protest camp in the Upper Florentine Valley.  Activists say a large area of Camp Florentine has been destroyed by fire.  They believe it happened earlier this week.

Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre says there were no protesters at the site at the time of the fire because they had been helping at a tree sit.

“It’s very serious because it’s an arson attack, it’s a pattern that we’ve seen before where arson has been used against the protesters camp at the Florentine Valley,” she said.  “Even though people weren’t there at the time, it’s also a threat to what we believe in and the very real fact that we’re standing up for Tasmania’s forest.”

[Source: ‘Forest activists’ camp torched, ABC, 20120913, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-13/forest-activists27-camp-torched/4259124]

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Miranda Gibson:

“Environmentalists have been targeted by the industry in calls for durability despite the fact that our actions are always peaceful. The question is, will these same critics be condemning this violent attack on the conservation movement?   There has been a great show of support from the community, in response to this act of violence. We have received many calls from people in the Derwent valley and offers of support to help with rebuilding the camp, which has began today.”

Environment Tasmania today condemned the reported arson of Camp Florentine and condemned all violence towards person or property as totally unacceptable, and welcomed the police investigation into the incident.

“It is very fortunate no-one was present or hurt during this incident and we welcome the police investigation,” said Dr Phill Pullinger, Director of Environment Tasmania.  But it was also wonderful to receive so much support from the community and offers of help to rebuild. I guess it is a perfect time for a spring clean!

And with so much help, I’m sure they will be able to build an even better camp. And so Camp Floz will, as it always has, rise up from the ashes.

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Comments on Tasmanian Times:

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Ron, 20120913:

“Nothing in the mainstream newspapers?  When forestry equipment gets damaged you dont hear the end of it.”

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Garry Stannus, 20120913:

” The last time it was wrecked, was by the police.  And the time before that …?  ..the brotherhood roguery of Forestry Tasmania?

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William Boeder, 20120914:

“I can envision in my mind the snortings and sniggerings going on between the many upper level individuals that orchestrate the denudation of our Old Growth Forests, (along with the incumbent wildlife species and ecosystems,) this must give each individual attendant to and associated with this plundering consortium of Neanderthals the most enormous mirth.

Across the top end waters of Australia’s North a like-minded family of Malaysians have almost completely destroyed their own natural forests and the many homes of their indigenous people, all this for the life-killing tainted dollars that they now have squirreled away for themselves, yet now they are greedily and cunningly sourcing their cheaply negotiated timber product from our Tasmanian people’s forests, thanks to our feckless State government of Lib/Labbers…”

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John Hayward, 20120915:

“I can’t see any great moral difference between obliterating the camp and obliterating the surrounding forest.  The same contempt for everyone and everything else is apparent in both.”

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[Source: ‘Arson attack against Camp Florentine’, by Miranda Gibson (Still Wild Still Threatened), 20120914, Tasmanian Times, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/arson-attack-against-camp-florentine/]

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Was it misguided logger payback?

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Less than a week before the arson attack on Camp Flozza, Tasmanian news media reported that vandals had caused about $750,000 damage to logging machinery in a Forestry Tasmania logging coupe.

Who attacked Les Walkden’s machinery at Butlers Gorge?

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The media report ran thus:

…’Police were called to the logging coupe near Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands early yesterday morning and found two damaged excavators and a skidder.  One excavator had been used to ram the other two pieces of machinery.  Private contractor Les Walkden owns the equipment.

[Source: ^http://www.robblakers.com/products/large-calendar]

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“It’s extremely upsetting especially when your workers have got to go to work and find that,” he said.  “I just hope that we can catch these people and, if we do, I can assure you…they’ll be (pursued to) the full extent of the law, we just can’t have this sort of thing going on.  “We’re supposed to have peace with this forest agreement that’s being mooted at the moment and its just disgusting.”

Mr Walkden says he will have to stand workers down until new equipment is sourced and the site is forensically examined.

Ed Vincent, from the Forest Contractors Association, says it is another blow to a struggling industry.  “Vandalism by whomever is to be abhorred.”

The State Opposition has condemned the damage, saying its proof the forest conflict is not over.

 [Ed: This media statement by the Tasmanian Liberals is unsubstantiated, presumptive and spiteful and has likely become the incitement causing the arson at Camp Flozza and the Tasmanian Police ought to investigate who made this statement as part of their arson investigation.]

[Source:  ‘Vandals hit logging machinery’, 20120904, ABC, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-03/vandals-hit-logging-machinery/4239326]

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Just two days hence, and just three days before the Camp Flozza arson attack, came a second related report of property damage to the same industrial logger.

The Tasmanian news media report ran thus:

‘Police believe an arson attack at a forestry company’s New Norfolk offices on Tuesday night is linked to the vandalism of forestry machinery over the previous weekend.

“The office and dining area was entered and multiple fires were started,” Detective Constable Craig Fry said.  “It appears some sort of flammable liquid was used in the incident,” he said.
Detectives believe the fire at Les Walkden Enterprises at 69 Hamilton Rd was started at 11.40pm. It caused an estimated $50,000 damage.

“The fire is being investigated in conjunction with a recent incident involving damage to two excavators and a logging skidder, also owned by Les Walkden Enterprises,” Constable Fry confirmed.  The vandalism attack caused $750,000 damage and was carried out at a logging coupe 12km south of Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands on Saturday night.

“The attacks on the business do not appear to be linked to any kind of protest activity,” Constable Fry said.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

[Source:  ‘Forestry firm hit again’, 20120906, by Zara Dawtrey, The Mercury, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/09/06/359231_tasmania-news.html]

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Yet the Tasmanian forest environmentalist campaigns have been consistently non-violent.

The fundamental core of the environmentalists defending the magnificent Florentine is non-violent protest.

All participating groups have a policy as such and the protest record is consistently non-violent.  Importantly , the two night-time attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises have been confirmed by the investigating police detectives as not connected with environmental protest.  It could more likely be a disgruntled past employee seeking revenge or some other criminal attack targetting specifically Les Walkden Enterprises, and happy to have blame attributed to environmentalists.

Indeed, the modus operandi of the night time attacks on Les Walkden have similarity with the attack on Camp Floz.

Yet as night follows day, within a few days Camp Flozza is torched, following the Tasmania Opposition publicly implying that this damage was associated with the “forest conflict”.  How irrespponsible?

So what involvement did Tasmanian loggers play in this misguided arson attack on Camp Flozza just two weekends ago?    Police ought to be taling to the local Forestry Tasmania crews under Scott Marriott, asking questions whther anyone saw anything; about who was where when around the local Maydena logger haunts like the National Park Hotel, the Maydena RSL and the New Norfolk Hotel.  What vehicles were seen travveling along the Gordon River Road west of Maydena on the night of Sunday 9th September 2012?

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Word of mouth says that in the days between the two attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises logging operations and the arson attack on Camp Flozza, loggers on Facebook were fuming and texting prolifically threatening retaliation against ‘Green scum’ and ‘Green terrorists’.  Police investigation of social media could well identify the culprits of all three attacks.

One Tasmanian logger page on Facebook includes correspondence on a known Tasmanian logger page is telling of the angst.

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“…the interim protection order on forests locked up for the IGA expired at midnight this Saturday just gone.  Some of that forest was in the Buttlers Gorge area. Walkdens machinery was burnt out in the Buttlers Gorge area this weekend just gone, then his offices at New Norfolk….. co-incidence or not?”

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“How would they like it if someone did this to their property??? They’d squeal like crazy.  Makes me so angry when they do this.”

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“Find them and cut off their centrelink payments plus jail time of 4 year. the governemnt BAN and shut down everything else so what not shut down the greens and BAN them.”

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“Hope they catch the dickheads that did this soon, someone must have seen strangers in the area they didnt walk there .”

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Jarrod Halsall should be nmade to pay for the damage done intil its completely paid should come out of there own back pocket ill go set there green alight and there propbety gutless doggs.”

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“I suspect that there are a couple of lackwit bogans somewhere sniggering about how they not only got away with it, but the “greenies” are being blamed. No doubt a double bonus to persons of that ilk.”

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“K***’are you really so gullible and naive that you think this is not the handywork of Green terrorists? Have a talk to Jenny – I believe she has a great little hand book on this kind of thing – Im sure you are aware of it?”

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[Source:  Facebook Page:  ‘Support Tassies Timber Industry like theyve supported Tassie for years‘, accessed 20120921,^http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Tassies-Timber-Industry-like-theyve-supported-Tassie-for-years/165600243510822]

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Police inspect the arson attack, Thursday 20120913

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Still Wild Still Threatened – visit their ^website

 

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Connected

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Visit ^MyEnvironment Inc. 

“It brings people and ideas together for the conservation of Australia’s natural places through science, law, design and the community.”

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The Habitat Advocate’s first video  (one small step for Habitat.. Mankind better lookout!)

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American film director, Tom Shadyac, has created a documentary film entitled ‘I AM: the shift is about to hit the fan’‘, which asks some of today’s most profound thinkers, two questions – What’s wrong with our world, and what can we do about it?  This moving, inspiring film is about reconnecting with Nature and with others and indeed with ‘Reality‘.  It has won the Audience Choice Award and the Student Choice Award at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Colorado, where it premiered in February 2011:

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Read More:  ^http://www.iamthedoc.com/thefilm/

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DENMARK:  A coalition of NGOs has today (September 4, 2012) written directly to the Prime Minister of Denmark’s Faroe Islands, Kaj Leo Johannesen, to express their deep concerns about the high number of pilot whales killed there so far this year.

In the year to August 24, 590 long-finned pilot whales have been killed on the Islands, bring the total number of pilot whales killed since the beginning of 2010 to 2,423 and raising serious human health, animal welfare and conservation concerns.

The coalition sending the letter comprises the Environmental Investigation Agency, Animal Welfare Institute, Campaign Whale, Cetacean Society International, Dyrenes Venner, Humane Society International, OceanCare, Pro Wildlife and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

In the year to August 24, 590 long-finned pilot whales have been killed on the Islands, bring the total number of pilot whales killed since the beginning of 2010 to 2,423 and raising serious human health, animal welfare and conservation concerns.

Meat and blubber from the animals are distributed and sold in the Faroe Islands for human consumption, despite evidence of high levels of mercury and PCBs. Long-term research undertaken by Danish and Faroese scientists has revealed that consumption of pilot whale meat and blubber has detrimental effects on the development of foetal nervous and immune systems, and increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis of the carotid arteries in adults and Type II diabetes.

The Faroe Islands’ Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientist have jointly issued health warnings several times. In an open letter to the Government on August 8, 2008 they stated that pilot whale should no longer be used for human consumption.

This conclusion was recently repeated in the 2012 review article “Dietary recommendations regarding pilot whale meat and blubber in the Faroe Islands” by Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen, based on additional long-term studies.

There is broad scientific agreement on the strong link between mercury in cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) products and a variety of human diseases and medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune suppression and hypertension. Threats to children include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

In July 2012 at its annual meeting, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) adopted by consensus a resolution proposed by the European Union IWC members including Denmark, requesting increased cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO). It encourages the WHO to review scientific publications regarding contaminants in cetacean products and provide updated advice for consumers. It also urges governments to remain vigilant in responsibly informing consumers of the health effects associated with the consumption of polluted cetacean products, and taking steps to counter any negative effects based on rigorous scientific advice and clear risk assessments.

Unfortunately, the Government of the Faroe Islands has so far failed to adopt the recommendations of its own scientific experts to end the consumption of pilot whale, and instead supports continuation of the ‘grinds’ (the traditional name given to the style of kill in which whales are stranded and then slaughtered) and the consumption of these polluted whale products.

Indeed, if all the meat and blubber of the 590 whales killed this year is consumed, it will by far exceed the Faroese Government’s June 2011 guidelines which recommend a maximum of one meal per month.

Pilot whales tend to migrate to the calmer waters around the Faroe Islands to give birth from April to July. Pilot whale hunts frequently occur during the breeding season, despite there being agreement internationally that hunting during breeding seasons should be avoided to allow for stable populations to endure. For this reason, targeting animals accompanied by calves is expressly forbidden by the IWC – the world’s expert cetacean management authority.

The status of cetaceans occurring around the Faroe Islands is uncertain in many cases and the impacts of the hunts which take entire family groups is also unknown. Pilot whales are protected under EU law; many of the pilot whales occurring in Faroese waters also travel to EU waters.

The methods used to kill whales in the Faroe Islands have been subject to international criticism for decades. In the hunts known as ‘grinds’, large family groups of whales are driven by boats into a bay where they are crudely killed with hooks and knives. Pilot whales are known for their highly social behaviours and close-knit family groups.

Although Faroese authorities claim killing methods have improved, there is no documentary evidence to prove this. The grinds are a lengthy process that also involves extreme distress for the whales associated with the chasing, separation of social groups, and individual whales experiencing close family members being slaughtered. This is in addition to the inherent cruelty associated with the killing methods..

In conclusion and in consideration of the serious concerns raised, the nine signatory organisations – EIA,  Animal Welfare Institute, Campaign Whale, Cetacean Society International, Dyrenes Venner, Humane Society International, OceanCare, Pro Wildlife and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society – have urged Prime Minister Johannesen, his Government and the Faroese people to bring a permanent end to the hunting of pilot whales and other cetacean species in the interests of human health, animal welfare and conservation.

 

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[Source:  ‘Faroe Islands PM urged to end the slaughter of pilot whales’, 20120904, ^http://www.eia-international.org/faroe-islands-pm-urged-to-end-the-slaughter-of-pilot-whales]

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Snow Gums of the Australian Alps

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In Berridale, New South Wales, in the north-west foothills of the Australian Alps, there are hardly any trees left now.  Generations of colonists have clearfelled forests of Australian Snow Gums en mass for ‘high country’ beef pasture. 

Each Autumn when the bored local Rural Fire Service (RFS) is searching for something to justify its funding, it sets fire to the natural landscape on the basis of doing so being a bushfire ‘mitigation strategy‘.  ‘Burn the forest before it burns’.  Last month the Berridale RFS burned grasslands and the few surviving isolated old snow gums, and even the odd homestead by accident. 

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“We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo – men, women and children. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”

~ Robert McNamara (Architect of the US War Against the Vietnamese’)

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‘Berridale is a small country town in the famed Snowy Mountains ‘high country‘ of Australia, just a short trip from Australia’s highest peaks (Australian Alps) – about 60km from Mount Kosciuszko.

Vast grassy slopes and pastoral plains surround Berridale these days, all cleared by our forebears.   Yet one can still find traces of the old country, dotted by ancient magnificent granite boulders holding old fella wisdom of the original people of this land.  It was for eons blanketed by wild twisted Snow Gum forests and grand and rugged rivers coursed through this area giving vital sustenance to the diverse species of this place.  Traditional Aboriginal people hold insight to the links between plants, animals and their surroundings.

Bucolic British..’Berridale’

..replicated in New South Wales

Australia (other side of planet)

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The  Northern Corroboree Frog and Lesueur’s Tree Frog are long gone away from long-clearfelled Berridale.

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‘When one can no longer hear the frogs,

Nature has stopped breathing and has passed away.’

( Ed. – a metaphor to my aunt who passed away this morning)

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So once again, the Rural Fire Service has lit fires around Berridale, lighting fires so that they may save the town from bushfires…“We had to destroy the village in order to save it”

Vietnamese Spiky Frog

^http://australianmuseum.net.au/BlogPost/Science-Bytes/Welcome-to-the-Jungle-Day-10

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Over recent weeks the Rural Fire Service across New South Wales has lit multiple fires it euphemistically labels as ‘hazard reduction‘ – any rich ground cover that may provide habitat foir groudn dwelling mammals is deemed a fuel and therefore a hazard.   It must be therefore burned before it burns.   The fires the RFS light are  ‘prescribed burns‘, they precribe that a bushfire must be started so they start one.

It is like an arsonist deciding it is a good idea to light a bushfire and so lights one, like Brendan Sokaluk did at Churchill in Victoria on 7th Febuary 2009.   The only difference is that because the RFS is a government funded agency it has legal immunity – read ‘impunity‘.

On 5th September,  it was reported that ‘about 50 grass, scrub and bushfires have burned across NSW during a tough start to the bushfire season.’

Included was a scub fire in Budderoo National Park, near Kiama, burning out of control.  It was one of those prescribed burns that had escaped.

So the reports read that crews from the NSWRFS and National Parks and Wildlife Service were using waterbombing aircraft to contain the fire, which was burning in inaccessible terrain, as if it was a wildfire that had started by lightning, not deliberately.   It is almost like they light fires to create work for themselves, and destroy vast areas of bushland in the process.

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Snow Gums do not enjoy being burned to death

So then the RFS declares a Total Fire Ban across most of New South Wales, so that residents don’t their barbeques in case they start a bushfire.

The hazard reduction burn at Berridale, burned out 200 hectares of largely grassly scrubland, taking with it old snow gums that must have been a few hundred years old in come cases.

[Source: ‘House burns down as severe fire danger conditions hit state’, by Stephanie Gardiner, Sydney Morning Herald, 20120905, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/house-burns-down-as-severe-fire-danger-conditions-hit-state-20120905-25dep.html]

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A historic homestead was destroyed in the blaze.   It was a lucky escape for Brian Woodhouse’s elderly mother, who was in the Myack homestead as the fire approached.

“She’s 86 years old and suffers dementia,” Mr Woodhouse said.

“This has been her home for all her life and this is the only place that she has got a touch of reality.  Here at her home she knows where everything is.”

Mr Woodhouse said passers-by saved his mother’s life.

“One of the carers came around that day to have lunch with her and had just left after lunch,” he said.  “She only travelled about 2 kilometres and she could see the fire, so she did a U-turn and raced back and got her out, with the help of a couple of the young Snowy River Shire Council guys.”

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The homestead destroyed by fire about one kilometre east of Berridale in the Snowy Mountains.

[Source: ‘Wild winds head north as crews battle bushfires’, ABC News: Lisa Mosley),

^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-06/wild-winds-head-north-as-crews-battle-bushfires/4245504]

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This immorality of setting fires seems extracted straight out of  Robert McNamara’s military operating and debrief manual.

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Snow Gums in their natural alpine environment

[Source:  vjmite, TrekEarth.com]

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Footnote

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“We had to destroy the village in order to save it” is an infamous quote by US Army Major Booris in 1968 in the immediate aftermath of the Tet Offensive by North Vietnam forces.

It has come to symbolise the absurdity of war and the United States immoral prosecution of the Vietnam War.  The quote was made famous by its reporting by a young Associated Press reporter, Peter Arnettwho had been assigned to report on the battle of Ben Tre during the Tet Offensive. For two days, a small American unit had battled the Vietcong, who in turn had killed many villagers.  Arnett entered Ben Tre after it had finally been secured and interviewed a number of Army officers.

The following is believed to be the true account:

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Saving Ben Tre: About the famous quote of the Vietnamese 1968 Tet Offensive:  “We Had To Destroy Ben Tre In Order To Save It”

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‘I was the Commanding Officer of Task Force Builder, an Army engineer group of 60 soldiers that was stationed in the small rural village of Rach Kein, Vietnam in 1968. Rach Kein was approximately 20 miles SW of Saigon, located in Long An Province.  Our base camp was next to the base camp of the 3/39 Infantry Battalion of the 9th Infantry Division.

Ben Tre, Vietnam,  is a moderately size town that is located on the Mekong River about 25 miles SE of Rach Kein. It was much bigger than Rach Kein, probably even bigger than the town of Long An.

During the first week of the Tet Offensive the VC made their big move of attacking Saigon. The 3/39 Inf. was initially sent to fight in the big battle for Saigon. This left us alone to face an NVA regiment of 5,000 men that surrounded us on January 29. We survived that. And we remained surrounded and cut off for several weeks. As best I recall, the 3/39 Inf. was in Saigon for about two weeks. I certainly remember this, because while they were gone from Rach Kein we were on our own as far as defending against ground attacks. These must have been likely, for at one point, the 9th Inf. Div. sent in several companies of the 2/39 Inf. to bolster the town defenses and to conduct sweeps around Rach Kein while the 3/39 was away.

I especially remember that one platoon of infantry was wiped out in a well laid ambush in an open rice paddy. It was just a few hundred yards from where we eventually built a school near the first village North of Rach Kein (can’t remember its name). The VC had cleverly built machinegun bunkers into the rice paddy dikes (it was the dry season), and the infantry walked right up to them before the VC opened fire.

Then the 3/39 returned. Or I should say that 75 percent of them returned. The fighting in Saigon had been intense. After only a few days rest, they were air-lifted by chopper to retake the town of Ben Tre.  Ben Tre had been occupied by the VC during Tet. The VC had dug in heavily, and were not ready to retreat without a big fight. So the still exhausted and depleted infantry troops of the 3/39 were thrown into another vicious fight. I cannot tell you how much respect that I have for those guys. True heroes, every one of them. Tough, plucky, and mostly draftees. I still remember my wonder at the ability of America’s youth to endure.

I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who remembers them.  So I willingly tell this story, so you can help me to remember. Their deeds should not be forgotten. The 3/39 Inf. Bn. suffered 100% casualties during the year 1968. I watched it. It is something that still haunts me. Eight hundred young men gone, dying bravely to serve the country they so loved.

Anyway, the fighting in Ben Tre went badly for the Americans. House-to-house all the way. The VC were so well dug in and barricaded that progress got stalled. So, in desperation, artillery and air strikes were called in on the town. Much of the town was heavily damaged in the resulting melee, but the town was retaken.

Several days later, Major Robert Black (the Rach Kein U.S. Army Advisor) invited me to attend with him an evening briefing that the 3/39 was going to give for a group of journalists and Saigon army brass. I had never before been invited to attend an infantry battalion briefing. I accepted the invitation. The briefing was held in a Vietnamese house that served as the S-3 office. It was about 7 houses East of where the VC barbershop was at one time set up. The house was on the left side of the road as you drove through the infantry compound, just about across from the infantry mess hall.

Anyway, the living room of the house was packed, mostly with civilians. The purpose of the briefing was to explain the battle of Ben Tre. Such briefings are usually conducted by the S-3, in this case, Major Booris. He was a heavy-set fellow.

He was also not my favorite officer. This was because he was the guy who told the infantry on guard to open fire on us the morning when we were walking back to Rach Kein across the rice paddies. This was when we had chased the VC who had ambushed the infantry Road Runners that one infamous and well-remembered morning (but that is another story). Fortunately for us, the infantry sergeant (an E-5) on duty had ignored the major’s orders. I’ll never forget his grin as he told me that he had saved our bacon by ignoring the S-3’s orders. He could clearly see that we were friendlies, so he withheld his fire.

Anyway, at one point the journalists were pressing Major Booris to explain why it had been necessary to wipe out the town. They were definitely pressing the point that perhaps too much force had been applied by the US forces. Major Booris was trying his best to put a good face on the situation. But at one point he got flustered, and blurted out, “We had to destroy Ben Tre in order to save it.” I have to admit that I almost laughed when he said that. It was a really unfortunate comment. But Major Booris, in his defense, was trying his best to defend his battalion’s honor. His CO, Lt. Colonel Anthony P. Deluca, deftly jumped to his feet and interceded to rescue Major Booris from this difficult moment. He smoothly carried the rest of the conversation. I really liked LTC Deluca. He was a good combat leader, and he was always fair to Task Force Builder.

Anyway, that was the only briefing of the infantry that I ever attended. But it turned out to be the most famous. Some of the journalists present at that briefing seized Major Booris’ comment, and they really publicized it. As I recall, it appeared on the cover of Newsweek or Time magazine within the month. And it has gone down in history as an example of the some of the insanity that was Vietnam.

Last year I was reading an historical assessment of the Vietnam War. The famous historian who wrote it actually challenged whether or not that Ben Tre statement was ever made. Well I know, because I witnessed it being made. I wrote to the historian, explaining this. I hope that he got my message.’

Regards,

Michael D. Miller
Former Captain, US Army Corps of Engineers
Commander, Task Force Builder, 1968
46th Engineer Battalion
159th Engineer Group

(Vietnam War)
Source:  ^http://www.nhe.net/BenTreVietnam/

Captain Michael D. Miller  in 1968

[New life amongst so much death]

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Remembering.. is it relevant if officially dismissed?  Does memory and our forebear’s ‘history‘ offer value to our children’s wisdom and judgment?

 

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service setting fire to native habitat while the weather is calm.

What fauna, it’s an ‘Ecological Burn’?

This week’s hazard reduction burn in Barrington Tops NP, north of Dungog

[Source: Photo by Andy Boleyn, ^http://newcastleonhunter.com/2012/08/npws-burning-down-the-tops/]

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It’s that time of year across Australia, when bush arson is deemed acceptable (even noble) , so long as it is ‘prescribed‘ by government, even when it often gets out of control.

Australia’s native habitat is deliberately set fire to by Australian Government agencies every year, just in case it burns, which means that frequently they can’t put it out.

Dropping petrol bombs by immoral helicopter pilots

..”hey man, this is like Nam all over again!”

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None of the arson rationale respects native wildlife, as with illegal bush arsonists.   There is little difference on wildlife impact as to who sets fire to their habitat – illegal or government sanctioned.  In the above burn, Acting NPWS Barrington Tops Area Manager Peter Beard, justifies setting fire to wildlife habitat thus:

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“Hazard reduction burn aims to protect lives and property, whilst maintaining the biodiversity of the World Heritage-listed park.”

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Yet it is carried out without  any thought or knowledge about the ecological impacts upon ground dwelling fauna populations or upon flora species that are fire sensitive nor the complex and fragile co-existences.   Where are the independent scientific wildlife counts before and after each prescribed arson sortie?   Where is the qualified wildlife ecologist’s report that made public that says burning this forest is not harmful?

The fire lighting is not even mosaic. It is blanket, broadscale and indiscriminate.  Aerial incendiaries are dropped along the ridge top by helicopter casuing multiple ignition points so that the fire takes hold.

Aerial ‘habitat reduction’ occurs across National Parks and World Heritage Areas

– no habitat is sacrosanct. 

It is euphemistically branded ‘Biodiversity Burning’ – fire is good for wildlife – watch them run, watch the Echinas and Wombats burn!

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It is one of many hundred being conducted across New South Wales native landscapes by the National Parks and Wildlife Services as well as by the Rural Fires Service and with assistance from regional fire brigades.  Another 25 burns covering 6000ha are planned in the next week, including burns in In Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

Rather through unrelenting government propaganda, all Australian native vegetation is demonised as a ‘threat‘, a ‘hazard‘ and as ‘fuel‘ – just like the Christian church has for centuries demonised non-believers as heathens.

National Parks are deemed by Australian governments as a ‘hazards’!

It is a town park mentality – a bit of greenery for people to enjoy at weekends.

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It doesn’t take much effort by a layperson to access a computer, download Google Earth and zoom into New South Wales, then to realise that the native vegetation that remains is dotted in islands within vast landscapes of denuded cleared farmland, and then to respect that if the native wildlife exist anywhere, they are in these vegetation islands.

This is Destination New South Wales..

about 90% deforested, or burned, or farmed, or mined, or housed or else deserted

‘NSW.. see where it takes you’..enjoy!

[Click image to enlarge, or visit Google Earth’s website]

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“There are some amazing natural attractions in New South Wales. From the coast to the country you’re spoilt for choice. All over this state you can meander at your own pace and discover a whole world of extraordinary natural wonders. With close to 900 ^NSW national parks, forests and reserves, the State features the most diverse nature experiences in Australia ranging from rainforests, marine parks, a city within a national park, outback landscapes, mountains, islands and World-heritage listed areas.”

[Source:  New South Wales Tourism Department, ^http://www.visitnsw.com/things-to-do/nature-and-parks]

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Then for these islands of native vegetation to be deliberately set fire to can only contribue to native wildlife extinctions.  It doesn’t take more than a lay person to realise this by deduction.  Yet wildlife extinction is exactly what these senseless fatalistic government bush arson culls are doing every year.  Setting fire to wildlife habitat is wildlife desecration, just like an invading army razing a village.

Rural fire agencies throughout Australia are no different in mindset to paid professional urban fire brigades – their mandate is to serve only to protect human life and property – but all native vegetation and wildlife is demonised as a liability and dismissed as only a risk to human life and property.  The key distinction between rural fire fighters and their urban counterparts is that the urban fire fighters are paid professionals.  Governments save billions by not paying rural firefighters and by not training them to the skill level of urban firefighters – yet operationally their job is exactly the same.  Volunteers have been conned by governments to being cheap fingers in the dyke, so that taxes can be channelled elsewhere instead of properly into emergency management.

When there is a wildfire under extreme bushfire weather conditions, the ill-equipped, under=prepared and under-resourced bushfire agenecies know full well, that they cannot reliably detect, reach or suppress ignitions most of the time.  They are depressing forced to rely upon the vagrancies of wind changes to dictate the impact of wildfires and the fate to lives and property.

So that is why government is so keen to prescribe preventative fighting fire with fire.  If the bush is burned so that there is litte to burn then when a wildfire erupts in hot, dry and windy conditions the risk is less.

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.. one has to destroy the village to save it!

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Oddly this mindset is not allowed to apply to plantation forests – because they are deemed ‘economic assets’ and so therefor evaluable and therefore worth protecting from fire.

Of course, after every major fire involving loss of human life, such as in Victoria in 2009, all the politicians come out crying “shocking, shocking, shocking”, promising expensive enquiries, promising more resourcing, and that it will never happen again.  All the while, politicians full well know that when the media cameras lose interest, it is cheap volunteer business as usual, because by the time the next wildfire, they will be happily lifestyle pensioned out – polly gold card privileges and all.

The Victorian Bushfires of 2009 that caused the deaths of 173 people were in the main caused initially by either powerline neglect and arson.   The fire brigade was not prepared for a catastrophe despite the bushfire danger index forecast days before to  be well off the scale.  The underprepared, under-resourced Dad’s Army preparedness contributed to the 173 deaths.

Instead, all Australian and State governments have blamed the Australian wildlife habitat for being the fuel like and ‘accessory before the fact’.  It was the victim.

So hazard reduction is now ramped up Australia wide.  In New South Wales hazard reduction this year is the NSW Government’s response strategy, costing $62 million “to boost wildfire preparedness“.    Under the NSW NPWS ‘Enhanced Bushfire Management Programme’, NPWS aims to double the number of hazard reduction hectares each year, for the next five years.   NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker said hazard reduction work is part of an ongoing State-wide operation.

If there is unburnt bush, it will be targeted for burning!   Burn it before it burns, god damn!  If the Rural Fire Starters had access to B52s and Agent Orange, they sure the would deploy both, such is the inculcated bushphobic mindset.

“NPWS crews are already taking advantage of favourable spring weather to carry out 12 burns covering more than 2,500 hectares of national park in the past fortnight.”
The NSW Government is doing everything it can to reduce the risk of fire, including in our national parks – particularly with a drier, hotter summer than we’ve recently experience predicted.”

[Source: ^http://newcastleonhunter.com/2012/08/npws-burning-down-the-tops/]

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Broadscale Hazard Reduction

‘So when summer comes we should be right – there’ll be nothing left to burn!’

‘Job Done!‘

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It is a wicked species-anhilating strategy that most in the broader community ignorantly accept as justified, because government propaganda threats say so and because few folk have the wisdom or courage to dare question the propaganda.

Woops, the prescribed burn got out of control

That’s ok its only Fraser Island World Heritage – it’ll grow back!

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Last weekend, a 12-year-old boy was charged with lighting a bushfire at Watannobi on the Central Coast around lunch time.  Just like the fire fighters he must be watching and learning from, the bushfire was lit using multiple ignition points so that it took hold.   Sure enough, the blaze quickly escalated.  In the end some eighty hectares of native vegetation and grassland were burnt before the fire was contained in the mid afternoon.

He may be charged now, but no doubt he is recruitment material for the local Rural Fire Starters when he gets older.

But unlike the State-sanctioned arsonists, the boy was publicly apologetic for what he had done, realising that it was wrong.  To his credit he said:

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“I’m sorry for what I have done .. and I won’t do it again.”

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[Source: ‘Boy apologises for lighting F3 Fire’, Seven News (Sydney television), 20120911, ^http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/30549030/boy-apologises-for-lighting-f3-fire/]

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Government-sanctioned arsonists know what they are doing is wrong

– but the Firie peer pressure is too great

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Why don’t gardeners of Australian native gardens follow the National Parks biodiversity burning mantra and set fire to their gardens?  Because they respect the unburnt value of Australia’s flora.

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Why do we not see much wildlife anymore in National Parks?

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DELHI, INDIA: Tiger Range Countries meet in Delhi, India next week (May 2012) to evaluate progress of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP) in what will be a true test of their national commitment to end the tiger trade.

The GTRP was signed into existence in November 2010 in St Petersburg, Russia, with the common objective of doubling the world’s wild tiger population by 2022.

The agenda for the Delhi meeting, from May 15-17, includes issues which to date have received too little attention in this forum – demand reduction and effective enforcement.

With final preparations for the meeting underway, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) today warned that concrete action is needed to shut down tiger breeding operations and destroy their stockpiles of tiger skins and bones if the GTRP is to retain serious credibility.

EIA lead campaigner Debbie Banks said: “Successful demand reduction will be dependent on the closure of operations that breed tigers for trade in their parts and derivatives, and those that provide the living specimens to stock such operations.”

Operations in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have been implicated in the illegal international trade; in China, breeders are allowed to sell farmed tiger skins on the domestic market.

“This trade simply serves to perpetuate demand, undermining enforcement efforts and sending mixed messages to consumers,” added Banks.

Tiger Farming was hotly debated in 2007 at the 14th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), where the majority of Parties voted against domestic and international trade in parts of farmed tigers and called for a phasing out of such operations.

No country has yet reported on what action is being taken to fulfil the CITES decision.

While there have been recent high profile seizures and arrests in Thailand, and Vietnam has prosecuted at least one tiger farm owner, there is no report of action against tiger farmers in Laos; China stated in March 2011 that it had inspected tiger breeding operations, but it has not shared information on any convictions of those found selling tiger bone and products.

China also allows tiger breeding operations to maintain freezers full of tiger carcasses, instead of destroying them as urged by CITES. While tiger bone trade is currently prohibited, China has a scheme for registering, labelling and selling the skins but refuses to disclose how many skins have entered the scheme.

“How can these stockpiles possibly be justified?” asked Banks. “Maintaining stockpiles serves no conservation purpose; it only creates confusion and speculates that one day these parts may be traded for profit. That runs completely counter to a commitment to end tiger trade and totally undermines efforts at demand reduction.

“For the credibility of the GTRP, we need to see unequivocal and emphatic action to shut down all commercial tiger breeding operations and to transparently destroy the stockpiles.”

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1. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is a UK-based Non Governmental Organisation and charitable trust (registered charity number 1040615) that investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging, hazardous waste, and trade in climate and ozone-altering chemicals.
2. Skin trade registration scheme. In 2007, China introduced a mechanism for registering and selling skins from ‘legal’ sources, including captive tigers. EIA has been trying to find out how many skins have been registered, sold, etc, and how legality is determined – read more at http://www.eia-international.org/enforcement-and-asian-big-cats
3. Auctions of tiger bone wine. In 2011, NGOs reported there was to be a sale of Tiger Bone Wine in Beijing. This was stopped by the SFA after an outcry, but EIA research shows many more sales were advertised and may have gone ahead. We urgently need clarification on these – read more at http://www.eia-international.org/tiger-bone-wine-auctions-in-china
4. Enforcement action. China has recently reported a number of enforcement actions on wildlife crime in general, but from the reports available it seems it has not focused efforts in the provinces EIA has highlighted as key to the tiger and Asian big cat trade. Criminals we have identified trading in Asian big cat parts between 2005-09 were still operating in July 2011. China has not provided any evidence of targeted enforcement action against known criminals and trade hotspots.

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[Source: ‘Tiger Countries Must Shut Breeding Centres’,  Environmental Investigation Agency (UK), www.eia-international.org, ^http://www.eia-international.org/key-features-of-asian-big-cat-skin-and-bone-trade-in-china-in-2005-2011]

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Endangered Tiger

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Does wilderness still matter?  Or is it just a nostalgic and overblown idea from the 1960s that has worn out its usefulness?

Unsurprisingly, the Colong Foundation for Wilderness vigorously asserts that wilderness is more important than ever. As the global environment plummets into crisis, ‘business as usual’ is rushing ever more recklessly in the opposite direction, chasing the almighty dollar. Our parks, reserves and natural areas are everywhere imperilled, by climate change, mining, tourism and many other threats. Wilderness remains a sanctuary and an insurance against the complete exploitation of nature.

Which is why the Colong Foundation has taken up the baton again for the Sixth National Wilderness Conference, established by Geoff Mosley and the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1977. The 5^th and most recent conference, Celebrating Wilderness, was hosted by the Colong Foundation in 2006.

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6^th National Wilderness Conference

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The 6^th National Wilderness Conference will be held in Sydney on 21-23 September 2012 and co-presented by the NSW National Parks Association and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.

With environmental protection laws under attack in all states and nationally, this conference comes at a critical time. So if you haven’t signed up for this conference yet, now’s the time. And don’t forget the Conference dinner, $40 for three beautiful courses at Maynard’s Café, Newtown.

^Online Conference registration

^Program brochure and more information