Tasmanian Forest Defenders ‘Lose Their Exclusion’ in the Styx Valley, Tasmania

It’s been a busy week for Tas­man­ian for­est defend­ers in the Styx Val­ley, set­ting up two block­ades in two days as part of the ‘Gunns and Doz­ers Lose Your Exclu­sion Tour’.

Yes­ter­day’s work halt­ed con­struc­tion on a new log­ging road being pushed into pris­tine for­est near the Tas­man­ian Wilder­ness World Her­itage Area. Today, two dif­fer­ent access points to old growth log­ging coupe SX10F were block­ad­ed, effec­tive­ly stop­ping the destruc­tive log­ging of ancient for­est all day.

See the media releas­es below…
THURSDAY 24th JANUARY 2008

Tas­man­ian Activists High­light Destruc­tive Log­ging in the Styx Val­ley

Com­mu­ni­ty activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened have halt­ed work on the con­struc­tion of a new log­ging road in the Styx Val­ley today as part of the “Gunns and Doz­ers Lose Your Exclu­sion Tour”. The “Gunns and Doz­ers Lose Your Exclu­sion Tour” is an aware­ness rais­ing event high­light­ing the ancient for­est destruc­tion occur­ring behind locked gates in Tasmania’s South­ern Forests. The road­ing oper­a­tion will open up more areas of the inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned Val­ley of the Giants for destruc­tive log­ging.

“Today’s action high­lights the community’s grave con­cerns with the alarm­ing rate at which Tasmania’s old growth and high con­ser­va­tion val­ue forests are being destroyed behind locked gates all over the state. The ancient forests of the Styx, Weld and Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­leys have been inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised as being of World Her­itage Val­ue and yet indus­tri­al activ­i­ty like log­ging and road­ing con­tin­ues every­day” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened Spokesper­son Jess Wright.

“Our ancient forests also play an essen­tial role in the mit­i­ga­tion of dan­ger­ous cli­mate change, soak­ing up and stor­ing car­bon diox­ide from the atmos­phere. At this crit­i­cal time in the inter­na­tion­al debate about the mas­sive con­tri­bu­tion of for­est degra­da­tion to cli­mate change, more road­ing into and log­ging of our car­bon stor­ing forests is the last thing our plan­et needs” said Jess Wright.

“How much longer will our lead­ers stay silent and let these cli­mate crimes con­tin­ue? We are call­ing on Sen­a­tor Pen­ny Wong, the Min­is­ter for Cli­mate Change and Water to show strong lead­er­ship on this issue and act imme­di­ate­ly to pro­tect Tasmania’s car­bon dense ancient forests” Jess Wright said.

FRIDAY 25th JANUARY

Tas­man­ian For­est Defend­ers ‘Lose Their Exclu­sion’ in the Styx Val­ley, Tas­ma­nia

Com­mu­ni­ty activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened have returned to the Styx Val­ley today, pre­vent­ing the destruc­tion of ancient for­est in old growth log­ging coupe SX10F as part of the ‘Gunns and Doz­ers Lose Your Exclu­sion Tour’. The ‘Gunns and Doz­ers Lose Your Exclu­sion Tour’ is an aware­ness rais­ing event high­light­ing the ancient for­est destruc­tion occur­ring behind locked gates in South­ern Tasmania’s threat­ened forests. Today’s action comes after for­est defend­ers halt­ed con­struc­tion on a new log­ging road into pris­tine for­est near the Tas­man­ian Wilder­ness World Her­itage Area yes­ter­day.

“While the chain­saws and bull­doz­ers have been tear­ing apart this pris­tine tract of old growth for­est, the pub­lic has been denied access to one of the Styx Valley’s most pop­u­lar tourist attrac­tions, the ancient for­est walk known as ‘The Tolkien Track’. It is com­plete­ly unac­cept­able that not only is our unique nat­ur­al her­itage being lost for­ev­er but the pub­lic is miss­ing out on the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence ancient for­est that isn’t being logged” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Jess Wright.

“In this era of dan­ger­ous cli­mate change the destruc­tive log­ging of old growth for­est in the Styx Val­ley is tru­ly a glob­al issue. Stud­ies show that Euca­lyp­tus reg­nans forests, like those typ­i­cal of the Styx Val­ley can store up to 1200 tonnes of car­bon per hectare when ful­ly mature*. The log­ging of these ancient car­bon stores releas­es mas­sive amounts of green­house gas­es into the atmos­phere great­ly con­tribut­ing to cli­mate change.” said Jess Wright.

“Sen­a­tor Pen­ny Wong has to step up to her respon­si­bil­i­ty as the Min­is­ter for Cli­mate Change and act imme­di­ate­ly to pro­tect Tasmania’s car­bon stor­ing old forests. Pro­tect­ing Tasmania’s old growth and high con­ser­va­tion val­ue forests is an essen­tial step in the glob­al chal­lenge to mit­i­gate the effects of dan­ger­ous cli­mate change” Jess Wright said.

Two for­est defend­ers are perched high in tree sits attached to struc­tures block­ing both access points to the old growth log­ging coupe SX10F.

Tas­ma­ni­a’s South­ern Forests…Still Wild Still Threat­ened
The Huon Val­ley Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre
Cool Forests…Conservation cools the plan­et