Forestry Tasmania only moved logging machines 8km from the contentious Swift parrot habitat.
“After moving out of a logging coupe full of nesting Swift Parrots in the Eastern Tiers, Forestry Tasmania has done the unthinkable, by immediately moving loggers into an adjacent forest which contains equivalent old-growth forest and being used by these birds for nesting and foraging,” said campaigns manager Jenny Weber.
“Premier Rockliff cannot ignore the fact that the Eastern Tiers is full of critically endangered Swift Parrots. Logging these forests has to stop now. Logging in this new forest, we are in today, should not start. The Federal Environment minister and the Tasmanian government must do their job and immediately protect Swift Parrot habitat and halt native logging,” said Jenny Weber.
A group of forest activists from the Bob Brown Foundation have moved in to make sure the logging cannot commence and defend this vitally important Swift Parrot habitat area.
“No trees have been logged in this Swift Parrot habitat yet and not a single tree will fall in this forest on our watch. We are here to evict the machines and are staying here until these machines move out of this area for good,” said Dr Lisa Searle, from high off the ground in a treesit platform attached to the machines on the ground.
“Yesterday loggers moved out of the other coupe to avoid public scrutiny. We followed them and found the machines, while also recording Swift Parrots in this imminently threatened forest,” Dr Lisa Searle said.
The Bob Brown Foundation will continue taking action in the Eastern Tiers and native forests across Tasmania for as long as it takes to make sure these critically endangered parrots, native forests, and all forest dependent wildlife get the protection they urgently require.