Forestry Tasmania is leaving a Swift Parrot nesting forest after Bob Brown Foundation relentlessly pressured for a cease to the logging over the past month. Logging elsewhere in Swift Parrot habitat on the Eastern Tiers continues and must end now.
Today, Forestry Tasmania has effectively admitted guilt after smashing critically endangered Swift Parrot habitat right from under nesting parrots. An area of forests, given the death tag SH045A by Forestry Tasmania, has been suffering logging of critical hollow-bearing trees since early November.
“Once again, Forestry Tasmania has been negligently pushing the Swift Parrots to extinction. Had we not been in these forests, the entire Swift Parrot habitat would have been demolished. It is not our job to protect the Swift Parrot, it is the role of the Rockliff government and they have failed again,” Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation Campaigns Manager said.
“We have been in contact with Premier Rockliff, Forestry Tasmania (FT), and the Forest Practices Authority since October, demanding a halt to logging but heard nothing from these guilty parties until today in the GBE hearings when FT’s Steve Whiteley revealed they would remove logging machines. A temporary halt to logging in these forests is not good enough, it must be permanent. All Swift Parrot habitat must be securely protected,” Jenny Weber said.
“Bob Brown, along with two forest defenders, was arrested one month ago in this logging coupe, calling for protection of the Swift Parrot. It should be Forestry Tasmania and the Rockliff government in the dock, not those three,” Jenny Weber said.
“Swift Parrots are settling down in Snow Hill forests to breed. These old forests contain hollow-bearing trees upon which the species relies to nest. An important number of Swift Parrots were recorded inside the active logging coupe SH045A, as well as nesting behaviour. These forests are nesting ground for a Critically Endangered species and need to be permanently protected,” Charley Gros, Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Scientist said. Mr Gros has authored a crisis report about the logging in SH045E which will be sent to members of State and Federal Parliaments today.
“Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is also missing in action. When Prime Minister Albanese dined with the loggers in Canberra this week, the extinction of Swift Parrots was on the menu. Besides the Swift Parrot, there are Masked Owls, Spotted-tailed Quolls and giant Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagles in forests targeted by the Rockliff government, all being shoved toward extinction,” Jenny Weber said.