Ive taken a stand for our forests by stripping off and baring my backside and my soul to highlight the destruction of our watershed forests. Im calling on all Victorians to take a stand for our watershed forests. All permies know how important forests are for the water cycle, local climate, rainfall, condensing the clouds into our drinking water! Plus it is home to the once-declared-extinct Leadbeaters Possum. It is on the very edge of extinction and we are logging its habitat to make wood chips to make Reflex Paper. Photograph by Karena Goldfinch Naked for the Mother. My naked backside for the Mother, on the left. Naken to show the fragility and the vulnerability of our ecosystems. Naked to highlight the destruction of Rusty Coupe, an ANU research site for 30 years and scientifically recorded home of many Leadbeaters Possum. Naked because we want a Great Forest National Park. #saverusty #GFNP Heres what you can do to stop logging Leadbeaters Possum habitat Help us #SaveRusty Call Ryan Smith-(03) 9870 7396 And Demand that Rusty Coupe (297-547-0007) in Toolangi not be logged due to the following reasons. -This coupe contains over many hollow bearing habitat trees. Tree hollows take up to 80-100 years to develop and are pivotal to many of the rare species of the Central Highlands. -This is the face of Mt St.Leonard, and will degrade the aesthetics of the area for many years to come impacting on local tourism, a major job creator for the region. People want to see the tallest flowering trees on Earth, not burnt out logging coupes. -Dont log what didnt burn. Its time to call for a moratorium on area’s not burnt in the 2009 fires. -This is an Australian National University study site for over 30 years, any impact on it will degrade many years of good science and date collection. -This site is known for having Leadbeaters Possum present. -The site is a valuable water spring for a local agricultural research station that needs fresh, clean water. -Clearfell logging is an unsustainable and old logging technique not used in most areas around the world. -The FSC have once again found that Vic Forest is a unsustainable enterprise in its management of our forests. We also know it is not just ecologically unsustainable but also economically unsustainable. Its time to let Vic Forest stand on its on two feet and to stop wasting tax payers money. A letter by a campaigner Dear Minister Smith, Thank you for your further response, through James Todd, of 24 June to my email of 23 May 2014. In that email, on behalf of Friends of Leadbeaters Possum, I repeated our previous call on you to announce an immediate moratorium on any new logging starts in LMU 1 and LMU 15. This was to provide an opportunity for those units to be reassessed and suitable areas set aside to achieve the target established by LPAG Recommendation 7, which you have accepted, that 30% of the ash forest within each LMU be protected so that it can mature into old growth forest in the future. In Mr Todds response it is claimed that, there is sufficient scope within both these LMUs to reach this target without a moratorium on harvesting. Figures derived from initial analysis are provided in support of this contention. These figures, by themselves, do not provide adequate assurance. Please provide further details on the locations, preferably including the most recent available mapping, of these 1,415 hectares available for future old growth in LMU 1 and 1,745 hectares in LMU 15. Meanwhile logging is continuing in Rusty coupe (297-547-0007) on Sylvia Creek Road, Toolangi (first photo). This coupe contains an historical record of the presence of Leadbeaters Possum and an Australian National University long-term research site (176 - second photo). It has been surveyed in great detail and found to contain over 100 hollow-bearing habitat trees (see attached map), mostly situated within the area scheduled for clearfelling. The density of these is such that the coupe ought to be protected as Zone 1A habitat under Leadbeaters Possum Advisory Group recommendation 6. Except that many of the individual trees in question are not considered to be Ash, although the Predominant Forest Stand Description is given in the Timber Release Plan 2011-2016 as Ash. This should not be a relevant consideration. As noted by three senior biodiversity officers of the DSE in draft Survey Standards (Brown Smith & Lumsden, January 2012), this qualification does not appear in the current Leadbeaters Possum Action Statement. The standards continue, While these three tree species [Mountain Ash, Alpine Ash and Shining Gum] dominate the montane ash forests of the Central Highlands, other species of eucalypts such as Mountain Grey Gum E cypellocarpa, Mountain Gum E dalrympleana and Messmate E obliqua also occur within ash stands in the region. For example, in a study of 2,315 hollow-bearing, living and dead trees in the montane ash forests of the Central Highlands, 5.4% were Mountain Grey Gum (mostly live trees) and 3.5% were Messmate (Lindenmayer et al. 1993a). Mountain Grey Gum typically supported more obvious holes than the other tree species (Lindenmayer et al. 1993a). These two tree species may be used as nesting sites by Leadbeaters Possum, or they may be used as nesting sites by other species of arboreal mammals, thereby reducing competition for hollows with Leadbeaters Possum. Accordingly, all eucalypt tree species in the montane ash forests should be included in the calculation of the number of hollow-bearing trees. (My emphasis) All the hollow-bearing trees in Rusty that are not Mountain Ash are of these two species, that may be used as nesting sites by Leadbeaters Possum. Both Greater Gliders and Yellow-bellied Gliders have recently been recorded in Rusty coupe. These species are considered of High priority in the Central HIghlands (A New Strategic Approach to Biodiversity Management - ARI 2011). Friends of Leadbeaters Possum remains concerned that allowing the continuation of logging in Rusty and the commencement of logging in new coupes is destroying and will risk destroying critical habitat. Accordingly, we again repeat our previous call on you, as the responsible Minister, to stop ongoing logging in Rusty and to announce an immediate moratorium on any new logging starts in LMU 1 and LMU 15 until those units have been reassessed and suitable areas have been set aside to achieve your 30% target. Failing this the public needs to see conclusive evidence of how the requirements of LPAG rec. 7 will be met. Please give this request your most urgent and serious attention. Yours sincerely, Steve Meacher Friends of Leadbeaters Possum representative on the LbP Recovery Team, P O Box 250, Healesville, Victoria 3777
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 00:45:30 +0000
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