Critical Leadbeater's Possum habitat is being logged in the Blue Range
Take action to stop the logging today.
Two weeks ago our surveyors identified Zone 1B Leadbeater’s Possum [1] habitat in a coupe about to be logged on Tom Burns Creek in the Blue Range region near Taggerty. We notified the environment department, urging them to stop the logging and conduct a comprehensive survey. But despite providing them with compelling and clear evidence that the forest meets legal protection requirements, the environment department refused to investigate and instead made up excuses as to why logging should continue.
Ironically, this comes at the same time as the environment department is under review for how it conducts its timber harvesting [2]. The Review has come about as a result of the department’s consistent failure to step in and hold VicForests to account for failing to conduct pre-harvest surveys, logging known threatened wildlife habitat or breaching the code of practice that dictates how they are to operate.
The survival of the possum depends on protecting its habitat. That’s why we’re calling on the environment minister to instruct her department to immediately stop logging and conduct their own pre-harvest surveys.
A hollow-bearing tree in the Sutcliffe Coupe in the Blue Range, near Taggerty in Victoria’s Central Highlands.
[1] Zone 1B Leadbeater’s Possum Habitat is a very specific kind of habitat characterised by the presence of hollow-bearing trees that provide habitat and shelter and a thick wattle understorey that provides food. Our surveyors conducted an assessment of the area over 12-hectares and found over 50 habitat trees in the area, with a density of four trees per hectare.
[3] The government committed to undertaking their own pre-harvest surveys in March this year, rather than relying on surveys conducted by VicForests (who have a reputation for either not surveying or surveying inadequately). https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/certainty-for-workers-and-the-future-of-our-forests/