John Martin has locked onto the access gate to rescue Swift Parrot habitat from logging in Tasmania’s south. This morning, loggers, Forestry Tasmania and hired security are also on site.
Bob Brown Foundation is calling for immediate action to prevent the ongoing destruction of the native forests in ‘coupe KD022C’.
Swift Parrots have returned to Tasmania to breed and are predominantly in the Southern Forests. Bob Brown Foundation has been monitoring the Swift Parrot breeding habitat on Forestry Tasmania’s logging schedule and calling on governments, both state and federal, to end native forest logging.
“In just two weeks, the industrial clearfelling operation of one of the last Swift Parrot strongholds here on the Kermandie Divide has ravaged the landscape beyond repair. The sassafras and tall tree fern gullies that once shaded winter creeks lined the majestic and towering sentinels of Eucalyptus regnans, punching through the closed dark canopies into the sky, are all completely gone. Pushed over into piles of rubble, pressed into the mud and left to rot. This is a sanctuary. It is a disgrace,” said Bob Brown Foundation campaigner Erik Hayward.
“Native forests have been destroyed for an access road into the forest for clearfelling. Critically endangered Swift Parrots have been recorded in these forests before and during the logging. Our bioacoustic recorders were placed in these threatened forests so we could monitor the presence of Swift Parrots and Masked Owls. We recorded both of these forest-dependent species and want the forests left standing for these endangered species,” Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager, Jenny Weber said.
“Tasmania’s government must cease the destruction of Swift Parrot habitat – the species will not survive ongoing logging. Swift Parrots can only breed and raise their chicks in a limited type of habitat. They rely on tree hollows for nesting and the logging industry is removing this critical breeding habitat,” Jenny Weber said.
“Destroying critically endangered species habitat is a crime against nature and those perpetrating these crimes should be answering to the law. I am protesting today to defend the Swift Parrots, Masked Owls and the countless species who are living in this environment,” said John Martin, a forest defender who is locked onto the access gate at the protest today.