Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 27 June 2023
Wilderness photographer arrested defending swift parrot habitat
One of Tasmania’s most renowned wilderness photographers, Rob Blakers, has been arrested by police after refusing to leave an area of critically endangered swift parrot habitat being destroyed in Tasmania’s Eastern Tiers.
The Snow Hill coupe SH050B logging has seen continued protests into its second week as members of the community have been standing up to prevent the extinction of the world’s fastest parrot. Today is the third stop work action in the same forests.
“For the last three summers, I have photographed the swift parrot in southern Tasmania and the Eastern Tiers, climbing trees to photograph them in the canopy and at the nest. I first went to the forest at SH050B in late November 2022. It was extraordinary. From then until early January there were consistent aggregations of swift parrots in numbers not seen anywhere else. This was by far the most important swift parrot site in Tasmania in the 2022/2023 summer,” said Rob Blakers.
“Flocks of up to 30 birds were observed on several occasions, with 12 parrots photographed in a single tree on Christmas Eve. On many mornings and evenings, their calls were the dominant sound of the forest. At least one nesting site was confirmed, but there were almost certainly more. Parrots were flocking and feeding in both the canopy and at ground level. This was prime swift parrot habitat and an extraordinary natural phenomenon.”
“Two weeks ago logging began in this forest. I spent two full days last week urgently attempting to contact Forestry Tasmania. There was no response to my calls. This echoed the experience in December and January when successive emails to Forestry Tasmania requesting information regarding logging plans for the Eastern Tiers went unanswered. In the last few days I have returned to this forest to document the damage.
The southeast portion of the coupe, which was alive with swift parrots through the summer, has been substantially logged. In spite of the protection that should have been afforded by its SPIBA designation, virtually all of the large trees here have been felled. The few older trees that remain are isolated and exposed to wind-throw.
Trees have been felled as close as 35 metres from the identified nest tree. The inadequacy of the protection is breathtaking – a blatant disregard for the habitat requirements of this critically-endangered species The logging at SH050B pushes the swift parrot closer to extinction. All swift parrot habitat should be immediately protected in secure reserves,” concluded Rob Blakers.
“Forestry Tasmania has completely ignored correspondence regarding the scientific data from this coupe we have provided to allow the FPA to give informed advice about the essential values of this coupe. It is time environment Minister Tanya Plibersek stepped in and stopped forestry destroying our forests and made some serious and real conservation outcomes happen to prevent extinctions and climate chaos,” said Erik Hayward, Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner.
Letter – Felicity Holmes, 27 June 2023
Rob Blakers swift parrot saviour
Today world renowned photographer Rob Blakers was arrested in the Eastern Tiers, Tasmania, defending the precious habitat of swift parrots. Rob has identified the area he was arrested in as having had an exceptional swift parrot breeding season last summer. It is insane that Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) still logs native forests when most of the mainland states have either ceased native forest logging entirely, or are in the process of ending the climate-destructive industry completely.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has promised to end species extinctions in Australia, but this target cannot be achieved unless she intervenes in Tasmania’s outdated practice of native forest logging. Shame on the Tasmanian forestry industry for continued logging of swift parrot habitat. With years of conservation experience, Suzette Weeding of STT is aware that clearing of high quality breeding and foraging habitat has been a key driver of swift parrot population declines over the last 150 years, and that leaving a handful of trees in a forestry coupe will do nothing to support the critically endangered parrot. Get with the times and end native forest logging for swift parrots.
