Save the Tarkine has joined the community in a show of support for the Tarkine by community members in Deloriane today (Tuesday). The protest, organised by Meander Valley local Carol Beaumont, has called on the Minister to cease logging of the Tarkine rainforests.
Community member and organiser Carol Beaumont said “In recent years it has become evident that under the Liberal governments management through Minister Guy Barnett, diverse, wild and fragile old growth forests in the Tarkine are being logged for woodchips and speciality timber contracts, destroying whole eco systems and threatening endangered species”.
“Mr Barnett is mismanaging the fiscal responsibilities of our forest business enterprise with millions of dollars in loss every year while saying jobs are sustainable when clearly they are not. It is extremely unethical practice and thousands of citizens have had enough of Tasmania’s wilderness being put last”.
“So we will continue to join together to let Mr Barnett know loud and clear that we want the Tarkine protected and this gathering at his Deloraine office is a small part of a much bigger statewide and national citizens campaign”.
“The Tarkine is an outstandingly beautiful natural area that has touched the hearts of people across the nation”, said Save the Tarkine Campaign Coordinator, Scott Jordan.
“It’s ancient rainforests bring visitors from across the world, and yet to drive down the Government’s Tarkine Drive tourist road leaves visitors witness to logging of the very forests they came to experience. They are logging right to the roads in what can only be seen as contempt for tourism operators and workers reliant on Tarkine trade”.
“And yet the tragedy deepens as even more of the Tarkine’s forests are being destroyed behind the government’s locked gates, invisible to the public”.
“The logging of the Tarkine must stop, and this Minister has the power to make that happen”.
Scott Jordan, Campaign Coordinator, Save The Tarkine
