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Logging Goongerah's Water Catchment

GECO instigated a blockade to protect this forest, principally to protect Goongerah's water catchment.
After a successful action, the contractors agreed to leave and the blockaders left.
Of course the loggers went back in a day later, so the blockade crew also went back and blockaded again.
The forest was quite unique. At 1000m, it bore similar characteristics to that of the Errinundra Plateau, including Errinundra Shining Gums, but lacked the Mountain Pepper understorey.
Damp Forest was at the ridge, with Cut-tail Ash and was quite open at ground level. As one descended the hill, Musk Daisy Bush, Silver Wattle and Soft Tree-fern appeared.
The Tree-ferns coincided with the Shining Gums, effectively marking the change to Wet Forest.
Further down, Blanket Leaf dominated the understorey.
The difference between Plateau vegetation & here seems to be the soil; Plateau is volcanic while here was sedimetary. Soil sampling may be conducted inthe near future to explore this.
Yellow-Bellied Gliders were heard at night and giant, over-mature trees were spaced throughout the coupe. The indicators were that this was old-growth forest, disturbed naturally by fires. There was no evidence of previous logging.

While the purpose of the blockade was to protect the forest and draw attention to the importance of old-growth forest in maintaining hydrological water cycles, it soon degenerated into the us vs them antics.
Meanwhile, lighting sparked a bushfire over a hundred kms to the west, which quickly grew and got out of control.
As the days went by, the fire became bigger, threatening towns and heading east. The blockade was disbanded for a few reasons:
- blockading logging equipment could be portrayed as blockading "Fire Fighting Equipment"
- several key people were CFA volunteers who left to go and fight the fire
- I suggested our time was more productively spent surveying for threatened species; this can actually save the forest, not just piss people off.

The next day, we went to Survey Rd.

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