After the closure of VicForests, The Healthy Forests Foundation is reborn - the new face of logging in Victoria

"VicForests' June 30 closure followed allegations of widespread and illegal logging, referrals to corruption watchdogs and revelations the organisation had spied on conservationists."

The Healthy Forests Foundation
""The aim is just to work out ways to keep cutting the forest. It's a front — it's just a way of keeping the [logging] industry going. It's kind of like the 'healthy smoking foundation'..Professor Lindenmayer, who spent decades studying the impacts of logging on forests, described the Healthy Forests Foundation as "greenwashing on steroids".

"The Healthy Forests Foundation says its purpose is to promote First Nations forest management, which proponents admit will also supply timber. One Indigenous leader said the Healthy Forests Foundation looked like "black cladding" — a way for largely non-Indigenous industries to gain access to resources by taking advantage of Indigenous peoples' access...It is not self-determination. It is tokenism."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-08/vicforests-closure-healthy-forests-foundation-logging/104194836
#LoggingIndustry #VicForests #ImpressionManagement #GeenWashing #BlackCladding #extractivism #EndNativeForestLogging #FirstNationsPeoples #NativeForests #conservation #biodiversity #ClimateCrisis

One of the greatest achievements of 2023 was the end to logging of Mountain Ash forests in #VIC

A huge thank you for the tireless efforts and to the people that contributed to this 🙏 You will be remembered.

To quote @sarahrees these forests "will no longer be sites of battle, they’ll become places of sanctuary"
#trees #vicforests

"After an area has met the legal requirement for #regeneration, it is handed back to the state — and is no longer the responsibility of #VicForests to look after.

“Many of these coupes that have failed regeneration have actually been ticked off and handed back to the Victorian government some years back in a failed state,” said Mr Patton."

#logging #ClearCutting #Australia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/ai-analysis-finds-failed-forest-regrowth-after-logging-/103153614

Environmental group accuses VicForests of more threatened species breaches

"A court orders VicForests to cease timber harvesting in Wombat State Forest as a community group alleges further breaches against threatened species in other parts of the state.The endangered mountain skink has been found in Wombat State Forest."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/supreme-court-case-halts-vicforests-logging/103175294
#VicForests #LoggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #wildlife #reptiles #surveys #breaches #BreachWatch #biodiversityCrisis

For decades, chainsaws have ripped through the #nativeforests of south-east #Australia. Across Australia, Victoria’s #forests have been logged more than any other mainland state over the past two decades.
Now the state is shutting its native #logging industry in a matter of weeks, and the forests that were once given to Victoria’s state-run logging agency, #VicForests, are being returned to the public.
#deforestation

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/ai-analysis-finds-failed-forest-regrowth-after-logging-/103153614

Logging practices:
"It's basically dead" AI reveals the legacy of decades of logging in Victoria

"An AI-based analysis of 20 years of VicForests’ logging, researchers say, shows the scale of failed regeneration in Victoria’s state forests.The data, which has been shared exclusively with the ABC, suggests that 20 per cent of Victoria’s state forests have not regenerated after logging.... That’s almost 13,000 hectares of state forest the analysis found to be standing in a state of ruin."

"Now the state is shutting its native logging industry in a matter of weeks, and the forests that were once given to Victoria’s state-run logging agency, VicForests, are being returned to the public."

"By law, the logging agency is required to regenerate the areas it has logged and hand them back to the public in a healthy state. But until now, how much that has actually happened has largely been a mystery."

“VicForests is definitely doing a dodgy job, pretty much as they’ve done for the best part of the last 20 years.... We have a biodiversity problem, we have a carbon problem, we have a water problem, we have a fire risk problem,” Professor Lindenmayer
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/ai-analysis-finds-failed-forest-regrowth-after-logging-/103153614
#logging #NativeForests #LoggingIndustry #VicForests #failure #destruction #compaction #machinery #TimberMining #regeneration #PublicOwnership #liability #StopLogging #NSWLogging #SaveTuckersNob #Bushfires #ClimateEmergency #biodiversityCrisis #extinctions

#vicForests #Vicpol #Auspol #ExtinctionRebellion #Owls #Skinks #quolls #WombatForestCare

A temporary win.

‘[The Supreme Court Justice] said Wombat Forestcare had established "serious questions to be tried" that planned timber harvesting in the coupe would not comply with VicForests' code, in relation to surveying for endangered mountain skink and three species of forest owls….

‘Wombat Forestcare provided written expert evidence to the court last week, which said the removal of wind-thrown trees was highly likely to cause irreparable damage to native animal habitat.  

“Logs are valuable habitat components to threatened species,” the expert statement said.  

“They should not be disturbed if serious and environmental damage to these species and their environments are to be avoided.” 

When the matter returns to court on October 31, VicForests is expected to provide further evidence on why it determined it unnecessary to complete any surveys for reptiles.

Wombat Forestcare will likely provide more evidence as to why it says VicForests should survey for spotted-tail quolls. 

The 200-member community group will raise money to fund its court case, in particular to cover the cost of expert opinions, while the legal team is working pro bono.
The group has been surveying the forest since it was established in 2006.
In 2021, the Victorian government announced plans for much of the Wombat Forest to become part of a new national park, joining with Lerderderg State Park.

From: @jhaue
https://aus.social/@jhaue/111129024716634561

Victorian government to provide hundreds of millions in support for workers leaving embattled logging industry
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-23/victoria-native-timber-logging-industry-budget/102379388
- The government will provide more than $200 million that will help transition workers out of the native timber industry
- Workers will be given opportunities to retrain for other sectors
- VicForests stopped harvesting in November last year after the Supreme Court ruled it had broken the law

I think timber is a great natural and renewable resource, but we should have changed over to 100% plantation timber many, many years ago. Why were they logging old growth forests? Mountain Ash is a great hardwood and grows extremely well in plantations. But, successive state governments have been propping-up this environmental vandalism. Enough is enough!

It's a good move to offer assistance to workers to retrain — preferably in related areas such as environmental management, bushfire management, habitat restoration, and programmes to help endangered species that have been threatened by the destruction of native forests.

#AusPol #VicPol #SpringSt #Logging #Environment #EndangeredSpecies #VicForests

With the shut-down of paper mills it feels like there is a real chance of ending native forest logging in Victoria.

I've just called the Premier's office and left a message asking for a halt to native forest logging and a just transition for workers. You can call on 03 9651 5000.

#NativeForestLogging #VicForests #DanielAndrews #VictorianForests #VictorianForestAlliance #VFA