Still fighting in East Gippsland
Legal action has been launched in the Supreme Court of Victoria in a bid to save the state’s old growth forests.
Environment East Gippsland (EEG), a longstanding centre of old growth forest activism in Victoria, in late August commenced proceedings against VicForests, the statutory corporation empowered to allocate areas of public forest for commercial logging.
EEG Coordinator Jill Redwood said: “We ask the Court for a permanent injunction to stop VicForests from logging Brown Mountain. We also ask the Court to declare that the logging of Brown Mountain is unlawful”.
Redwood claims that Brown Mountain is known habitat for at least five species of wildlife listed as vulnerable or threatened under Victoria’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.
The Court has not yet set a date for the hearing, but legal action by NGOs invariably accompanies a heightened level of confrontation between forest campaigners and logging interests.
Just as the approaching summer will see a continuation of the race to log remaining Gippsland old growth not yet bounded within national parks, under-resourced environmentalists are working to exploit any chance for forest protection they can seize.
To that end, EEG’s field research has resulted in the Victorian environmental department (DSE) visiting Brown Mountain to confirm the presence of long-footed potoroos. The presence of an endangered species creates conditions for mandatory protection, prohibiting logging activity within a regulated area determined large enough to support life.
For more information, see eastgippsland.net.au
– By Roger Hanney
