Media release – Forestry Watch, 22 March 2021

Breaches in the Florentine Valley As Giant Trees Felled

A volunteer citizen science group has discovered several giant trees which have been logged in the Florentine Valley in what appears could amount to breaches of the relevant Forest Practices Plan. Forestry Watch, a citizen science group which has been surveying native forest logging coupes across lutruwita/Tasmania, discovered the alleged breaches in a coupe in the Styx Valley, globally famous for its tall trees, and are calling for the Forest Practices Authority to investigate.

“Volunteers are routinely coming across scenes like this in native forests right across the island. What makes this case particularly frustrating is that the logging plan for this coupe makes clear that trees of this size ought to be spared from harvesting. Anything over 2.5 meters in diameter was supposed to be retained, yet we’ve found that several trees over this, and up to 3.5 meters, have been felled. Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) needs to explain how this happened” said Danny Carney, a spokesperson for the group.

The coupe in question is TN004C which is across the road from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and Mt Field National Park. It is also adjacent to coupe TN005D, in which a giant tree known as Home Tree is found, which was scheduled for clearfelling last year.

“This coupe is one a series of coupes in which STT is supposedly protecting giant trees as a measure to retain habitat within logging coupes. These stumps show that it’s clearly not working and we’re concerned that it’s simply an unscientific front to try and attain critical Forest Stewardship Council accreditation – which they’ve failed to get twice, partly due to their reluctance to take habitat loss seriously.” he said.

The group, which was initially inspired to action by the plight of the swift parrot, has concerns about biodiversity loss and pressures on threatened species as native forests in the Styx Valley continue to be clearfelled and burned, particularly in light of the recent 200 hectare fire that escaped from a controversial Sustainable Timber Tasmania post-clearfell burn. TN004C is scheduled to be burned this year.

“The road to extinction for many of the species we share this island with will happen one tree at a time. The scheduled burning of this coupe needs to be halted so an investigation into how these trees were logged seemingly against the recommendations of the plan can occur, with the findings made public for the community and consumers of timber to see,” he said.