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12.10.09 S.W.S.T CALL FOR CABLE LOGGING BAN – CLEARFELL LARGER THAN HOBART CBD

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Cable logging operations in old growth forest in the Styx valley have come to a halt this morning. A conservationist has climbed 20m to the top of a cable logging machine and is positioned on a platform supported by ropes connected to other logging machinery. This is preventing operation of the cable logger.

Today’s Styx Valley protest will be supported in Hobart by conservationists marking and walking the boundary of cable logging coupe TN045B. The coupe boundary, taken from Forestry Tasmania’s maps, has been over layered on a map of Hobart and covers most of the CBD area. 

Today’s Styx Valley protest will be supported in Hobart by conservationists marking and walking the boundary of cable logging coupe TN045B. The coupe boundary, taken from Forestry Tasmania’s maps, has been over layered on a map of Hobart and covers most of the CBD area. 

The superimposed logging coupe includes Hobart waterfront at the beginning of Davey St, the top end of Salamanca Place, stretches past St David’s Park and up to the Mercure Hotel on Bathurst St. Myer and Elizabeth St Mall fall in the center of the superimposed clearfell area. CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VIEW THE HOBART CLEARFELL.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104810591614740617850.000475536382bbb370da0&t=h&z=16

“The archaic practice of cable logging in the Styx valley allows for mass destruction of huge swathes of old growth forest on very steep slopes bordering the World Heritage Area.” Said spokesperson Ed Hill.  The contentious cable logging coupe was surveyed by conservationists and included in a report prepared for the World Heritage committee visit to Tasmania in March 2008. The World Heritage committee requested that the State party consider an “extension of the property to include appropriate areas of tall Eucalypt forest.” 

“This massive coupe, 73 ha in size, on slopes up to 38 degrees represents just one of nearly 300 logging coupes on public land that Premier Bartlett wants logged this financial year.” 

“Federal and State Governments must ban cable logging if the integrity of the WHA border is to be kept intact. Massive greenhouse gas emissions cuts could be made possible from a cable logging ban. Old growth Eucalyptus regnans forest, which this coupe is comprised of, has been proven by scientists from the ANU, to store more carbon than any other forest type.”  

 

“Logging sites like this don’t look much different to illegal logging sites in Indonesia. The difference being that clear felling of old growth rainforest in Tasmania is legal.”

“It is blatant hypocrisy for the Federal Government to condemn logging of rainforest in Indonesia and at the same time sanction rainforest destruction in Tasmania. Australia should be a world leader in sustainable forestry instead we are cable logging huge clear felled areas bordering the WHA.” 

“As the logging industry faces major cut backs and stagnant markets it is obvious there is necessity for re-invention. Cable logging is out dated, highly destructive, and clearly not the sustainable direction the industry needs to be heading.”