Protect Tasmania’s Old growth Forests

*Sum­mer Cam­paign Update and Events 2008*
*South­ern Tas­ma­nia *

Hi all -

Its going to be a great sum­mer to come to Tas­ma­nia and be involved in the cam­paign to pro­tect Tas­ma­ni­a’s old growth forests!

It has been a huge year for the forests of Tas­ma­nia, par­tic­u­lar­ly with the nation­al empha­sis on the pro­posed Bell Bay pulp mill. Despite huge com­mu­ni­ty oppo­si­tion to this pro­pos­al, it has been approved by both Fed­er­al and State Gov­ern­ments and build­ing of the facil­i­ty is sched­uled to start in Jan­u­ary 2008. How­ev­er the com­mu­ni­ty cam­paign against this envi­ron­men­tal­ly pol­lut­ing mill which will have a huge appetite for native forests con­tin­ues.

So too does the unprece­dent­ed lev­el of destruc­tion of our south­ern Tas­man­ian old growth and high con­ser­va­tion lev­el forests. The cam­paigns to pro­tect the south­ern forests of the Weld Val­ley, the Styx Val­ley, and the Flo­ren­tine Val­ley con­tin­ue on and 2007 has seen more com­mu­ni­ty based cam­paign­ing and direct action than ever.

Since the destruc­tion of Camp Weld — the Pirate Ship Block­ade — in Novem­ber 2006, the whole of the val­ley has been declared an exclu­sion zone, shut­ting out the gen­er­al pub­lic, how­ev­er activists have not been deterred and have con­tin­ued to keep the spot­light on the destruc­tion. This year saw clear-felling on the World Her­itage bor­der in the Weld Val­ley, and forestry plan to build a road and bridge over the Weld Riv­er to open up 2000 hectares of untouched ancient for­est for log­ging. This is the largest piece of rain­for­est in South­ern Tas­ma­nia. This is planned to start in the next few months.

A road is also planned to be pushed 3km into the Pic­ton open­ing up 2000 hectares to log­ging which used to be nation­al park. Old growth log­ging is also con­tin­u­ing on in the Arve, Esper­ence and Lit­tle Deni­son Regions. The mora­to­ri­um on the Flo­ren­tine Val­ley ends at the time of the Fed­er­al elec­tion in Novem­ber, mean­ing once again this majes­tic for­est will be under attack. With the recent glob­al focus on cli­mate change, now more than ever we must pro­tect our ancient forests as they play an inte­gral role in cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion through their role of stor­ing car­bon.

We are all work­ing incred­i­bly hard in Tas­ma­nia to pro­tect these ancient forests, how­ev­er we need your help. Please con­sid­er com­ing to Tas­ma­nia this sum­mer and sup­port­ing our cam­paign. Walk in the bush, wit­ness the majesty of these forests before they are gone. Learn new skills, get informed about the issues and how you can help. Below is a list of sum­mer events that you can take part in.

Can’t come to tassie but still want to help?? Then con­sid­er hold­ing a film night or fundrais­er. Dis­trib­ute infor­ma­tion and raise aware­ness in your own area. Become a mem­ber of the Huon Val­ley Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre and be updat­ed reg­u­lar­ly. Make a dona­tion. Check out the web­sites. Be part of what is an incred­i­ble com­mu­ni­ty cam­paign! Email: centre@huon.org or campflorentine@gmail.com for more infor­ma­tion.

*South­ern Forests Con­ver­gence
Jan­u­ary 18th — 20th
For­est Skill­share.*
Learn about the south­ern for­est cam­paigns, forests and cli­mate change and how you can help.
Speak­ers, work­shops, films, music.
Camp­ing. No Dogs.

*Gun­n’s n Doz­ers
Lose Your Exclu­sion Tour
Jan­u­ary 21st — 28th
Com­mu­ni­ty Action Week*
Address­ing Tas­ma­ni­a’s South­ern Forests Exclu­sion Zones.
Includ­ing an RTS and Music Event.

*TAZ
D.I.Y Gath­er­ing
Feb­ru­ary 8th — 10th*
Elec­tron­ic music, live per­for­mances, cabaret, films, work­shops and more.
Kids wel­come. Camp­ing. No dogs.

*For more infor­ma­tion:*
www.huon.org
www.myspace.com/stillwildstillthreatened
email:centre@huon.org or campflorentine@gmail.com
phone: 03 62641286

Huon Val­ley Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre
www.huon.org

The Huon Val­ley Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre is a grass­roots, not for prof­it, vol­un­teer run char­i­ty based in the Huon Val­ley, South­ern Tas­ma­nia. The cen­tre opened 6 years ago as a result of huge com­mu­ni­ty con­cern over the dev­as­ta­tion of local forests, which form a huge part of the majesty and mag­ic of Tas­ma­ni­a’s unique land­scape. Since then it has been at the fore­front of the cam­paign to pro­tect these ancient forests in South­ern Tas­ma­nia.

The Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre facil­i­tates a com­mu­ni­ty work­ing space, an eco-shop and library, a com­mu­ni­ty aware­ness rais­ing cam­paign, film nights, musi­cal events, fundrais­ing events, fes­ti­vals, direct action, lob­by­ing, infor­ma­tion
stalls, and the Black Sassy Art col­lec­tive.

The Huon Val­ley Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre is one of the Gunns 20 defen­dants, and is cur­rent­ly being sued by the wood­chip­ping giant Gunns Ltd. for over half a mil­lion dol­lars for stand­ing up for Tas­ma­ni­a’s ancient forests.