Forests

"There is just no way the clearfelling of a National Biological Site of Significance, rainforest, Mixed Forest, a rich arboreal mammal site, a wildlife corridor and the core area of a Powerful Owl's habitat can be lawful!" claims defendant Tony Quoll, whose defence of "obstructing a lawful forest operation" is to show the operation unlawful.

"I hope that we can prove that the NRE are legally obliged to implement prescriptions for such conservation values," he continued. "The NRE's Forest Management is based on the myths that; 1/ the forest has been comprehensively assessed; 2/ there is an comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system and 3/ that there was public consultation.
With that premise, they then think anything not protected in reserves can therefore be annihilated. I disagree."

A species not matching any known record was seen at Dingo Creek earlier this year. The exact site was clearelled, but it may be found in adjacent forest - which is still scheduled for destruction.

"Rat sized, with a long tail that had a tuft on the end of it." describes Tony Quoll. "It scampered quickly along the upper branches of a Silver Wattle, with its tail flowing behind it, steering it as it jumped from branch to branch."

The closest match to any known species is a "Conilurus", which is believed extinct.

"The finding proves a lie NRE's claim the forest has been comprehensively assessed," states Mr Quoll. "Dingo Creek has undisturbed old-growth that has never seen fire, logging and in some areas, never even seen humans before."

"There's got to be some sort of inquiry into the NRE's wastage," said codefendant Greg Tantram. "Millions of dollars worth of not only timber, but tree-ferns, orchids and many species laid to waste. Why are taxpayers subsidising that? Clearfelling is not only massacring wildlife, it's uneconomic."

The Appeal is scheduled to be heard in the County Court in Bairnsdale, in a 4 day hearing, starting October 28th.

Donations to help pay for the field trip, photographic and other case preparation expenses gratefully received;
Tony Hastings, Commonwealth Bank Savings acc # 3860 10099934

A tour of Dingo Creek coupe 843/501/10:

Click for enlarged picture	The photo at left is an aerial photo of the eastern end of the coupe, taken long before the coupe was scheduled to be clearfelled. You can see the dark green areas of rainforest. Note the stand in the center of the picture, which extends to about halfway between the two gullies. This stand was clearfelled. Notes: The light green trees are Silver Wattles, the brownish ones eucalypts. Some of the trees shown are towering forest giants, whose canopy measures 40 to 50m across; such as the isolated trees at lower center of picture.
Click for enlarged picture	Taken after clearfelling, and from the right hand end of the coupe as seen above. Note the stand of dark green, rainforest trees at lower center of the picture. The stand of rainforest used to extend further, but has been bulldozed through. I measured the stand inside the coupe as being 80m x 50m, and noted it as having no eucalypts in it.
Click for enlarged picture	This photo shows the rainforest stand about 70m inside the coupe, before it was clearfelled. The forest was mostly Sassafras trees, with the occasional Banyalla. There were tree-ferns as an occasional understorey species. Lying across the foreground is a 60 year old eucalypt, which was bulldozed. At right is the same place, after clearfelling. In the background you can see the exposed rainforest.
Click for enlarged picture	This photo shows the exposed rainforest mentioned above. The distinctive colouring of the trunk & leaves, the branch shapes and the leaf shapes all show that these are Sassafras trees. Looking into the forest behind, you can see there are no other types of trees here. The creek is about 25m from the edge of the clearfell at this point.  Whaddaya reckon? Did they log rainforest?
Click for enlarged picture	The above photo looked at the rainforest seen here at about 1/3 across and 1/4 down from the top-left of this picture. At lower right you can see the major stand of rainforest. The gully which runs from bottom right of this picture and up the right-hand side, was marked as a "filter strip", with no buffer. Note how close the clearfell is to the major stand of rainforest. Note as well, that the canopy of the line of eucalypts is much wider than the single line of tree trunks at ground level.
Click for enlarged picture	Seen here at ground level, the lack of buffer is more obvious. You can see the stand of Sassafras trees at center right of the picture. According to the NRE, this is NOT rainforest, as although it has the right species and density of trees to make it one, it is not of sufficient area. They consider it to be separate from the major stand seen above, as there are two tree ferns which "break the character" of the rainforest.
Click for enlarged picture	Here are the tree-ferns which are that "break" in the rainforest. See how there's a gap? You can see right through to the browner coloured trees on the other side of the gully. But, if you go back to this aerial picture and look at the middle right of the pic, where this "break" is, you may be able to notice that the Sassafras trees occur amongst the eucalypts & wattles on the other side of the gully. When Sassafras form an understorey like that, it's called Mixed Forest and is considered equal to rainforest.
Click for enlarged picture	Mixed Forest also occurred in two patches inside the coupe boundary. One was identified by the Coupe Planner, Amy Ware, but who was over-ruled by the Flora and Fauna Manager, Dr. Steve Henry. He didn't reckon it was big enough to qualify, so ordered it to be bulldozed. Never mind about the "Special Management Zone PLan", which had the guideline "special planning required to protect rainforest values", or even the NRE promise to "Protect all the biodiversity". Shown at left is a Mixed Forest stand the NRE didn't find, but clearfelled. Note the Sassafras & tree-fern understorey.
Click for enlarged picture	Oops, bulldozed it. Seen at rear is a few remaining Sassafras trees which made up the Mixed Forest stand. They too are now gone. This part of the coupe was also a rich arboreal mammal site. It was home to Greater Gliders, Yellow-Bellied Gliders, Sugar Gliders, Brushtail Possums, Ringtail Possums and even an unknown species.
	The markings on this tree-trunk are where the Gliders gnawed at it, to make the sap run. As the sap takes a while to ooze out, they return to the same spot the next day for a better feed. Eventually, the sap congeals and they start a new bite. These "feed trees" were in a line, and the Gliders had a circuit they toured, feeding along the way. This is what I'd call a "wildlife corridor", which is supposed to be protected. Now that there's a bloody great clearfell there instead, the surviving Gliders get to the edge, looking for their next tree, but its gone. How will they adapt? They wont. The remaining forest is scheduled to be clearfelled too, so if they don't starve first, they'll be flattened. Like the former Yellow-Belly we found in the wrecked trees, seen above.
Click for enlarged picture	How well is threatened species habitat protected? Check out this Powerful Owl habitat. The Dingo Creek coupe is partly visible at top right. The massive clearfell - about 70 ha - at top center was done earlier this year. All of the other clearfells (seen as the dense, lighter green areas) have been done in the last 8 years.  The strip of forest running through the middle was saved because I helped find an "Orbost Spiny Crayfish" there in 1995, which won us a 100m buffer. The forest at top-left, top and right..... scheduled for clearfelling.  yes, the NRE do acknowledge this is known Powerful Owl habitat, but refused to leave even a 50m wide strip for the gliders to use as a corridor, retain any of the required hollow-bearing trees.
Click for enlarged picture	The greatest ecological asset of Dingo Creek for me was that it had undisturbed old-growth. Forest that had never seen fire, logging or even humans before. Forest like this does not exist anywhere in NSW, or much of Victoria. Each tree shown is a forest giant, over 2m diameter and about 60m tall. I counted the rings on one that was felled and found it to be 400 years old.  You don't want to see what it looks like now, well, Click here if you do

You can make a difference; send the DNRE chain of command an email, calling for an immediate stop to all old-growth forest logging, especially at Dingo Creek;
Senior Forester Wayne Long
Regional Manager Peter McHugh
Executive Director Ken King
Ministerial Advisor, Phil Martin