Statement – Bob Brown Foundation, 14 March 2021
We are running out of time in this climate emergency, extinction crisis and loss of intact native forests.
Meanwhile in Tasmania after flattening native forests in Tasmania, the area is incinerated.
This is a deliberately lit fire by Tasmania’s logging agency – burning out of control since Tuesday in gusty winds.
The Bob Brown Foundation exposed the problem and has reached national audiences about this tragedy.
Just one of 175 logging burns planned this Autumn.
Our Foundation will be taking action to call for these logging burns to end.
Tasmania’s native forest logging and burning needs to end immediately.
Important note: Any drone shots you see in our work are from Tuesday morning way before any machines were in the air and photographs are from the top of the mountain opposite. Drones were never in the air when emergency aircraft were in the area.
Premier’s Irresponsible Logging Burn Spin
On the Saturday of the Labour Day long weekend, Forestry Tasmania set fire to a logged coupe in the Styx. It subsequently escaped containment and threatened the Styx Tall Trees Reserve, the World Heritage Area, a mountain bike event at Maydena and the wine and hops’ harvests.
What began on a logged coupe as a fire covering about 30 hectares has now scorched 200 hectares.
When we asked the Premier and Minister for Tourism in Question Time today about Forestry Tasmania’s reckless burn just six days after the end of summer and with a high fuel load on the ground, he was dismissive.
These are not just the concerns of the Greens’, but those of Derwent Valley residents, tourism operators and primary producers. The smoke that billowed from Forestry Tasmania’s runaway fire put the grape and hop harvests at risk, and caused local tourist businesses to cancel bookings.
Last week, those locals were following Tasmania Fire Service advice as the deliberately lit fire at the Styx grew rapidly – fearing for their properties, the wilderness and their businesses. Today, the Premier was talking it down as a small burn.
There is an MOU between Forestry Tasmania and the agriculture and tourism industries that commits the GBE to, ‘Avoiding conducting planned burns where there is a significant risk of adversely affecting the experience of visitors attending events.’ As we understand, the TICT’s Luke Martin only found out the logging burn in the Styx when he smelled smoke in the air.
When we asked the Premier, as Minister for Tourism, about the breached MOU, he refused to answer. In doing so, he dismissed operators and producers in the Derwent Valley – and, as more logging fires are lit by Forestry Tasmania, their colleagues around the state.
By dismissing the out of control Styx bushfire, which sat at an ‘Advice’ level on the TFS website, as a small fire he is blurring the clear communication of emergency responders.
Having just led Tasmania through a global pandemic, the Premier knows all too well how misinformation and distrust in emergency communication can put lives at risk.
The Premier and Tourism Minister’s response today not only let down tourism operators and primary producers, it made a mockery of his own, ‘Come Down for Air’ tourism campaign. It also risked compromising public safety into the future.
His answer to a serious question from the Greens was irresponsible on every measure.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 16 March 2021
Forest Protest highlights Tasmania’s Logging Incendiary
Forest defenders have ignited flares across four locations in Hobart’s CBD this morning, protesting the flattening and incineration of native forests, calling for an immediate ban on the Tasmanian government’s practice of post-logging burns.
“Forty of us are demonstrating today to raise the alarm for Tasmania that we are losing vast tracts of native forests while disastrous logging burns pollute the world’s cleanest air, kill wildlife and dumps massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.
“A ban on this damaging burning after logging is urgent. Tasmania’s native forest logging industry needs a rapid transformation from the economically damaging, wildlife killing, environmental destroying and climate bombing that is shamefully entrenched,” Jenny Weber said.
The sites of this morning’s protest were Hobart’s Parliament House and near Hobart’s GPO on Macquarie street, a busy inner-city street.
